We see it every time election season kicks off. Aspiring leaders talk about the nation, each conveying their own perspective. Each with his own “take” on what ails the country, they go about asserting their own solution as the best cure.
Decoy Dilemmas
Some say the problem is a flawed Constitution, and changing it would be the answer. Some believe the problem is the unequal distribution of wealth caused by the ethnocentricity of "Imperial Manila", the remedy to which is a dramatic shift to a federal form of government. Some are convinced that allowing 100% foreign ownership of Philippine real estate will spur a big enough economic boom to sustain a progressive momentum. Some contend that democracy only aggrandizes chaos, laziness and entitlement, for which a stern dictatorship, even Martial Law, would be the answer. Some point to the problem of narco-politics, and the need to eliminate drug dealers and addicts from Philippine streets, even if it requires killing millions of them. Some claim that communist insurgents and Islamic extremists are relentlessly sabotaging Philippine progress and thus must be stopped at all cost. Some maintain that student activists, government critics, the political opposition and free media––all contribute to an incessant cancel culture that conjures up a negative image of the Philippines and repels foreign investors. Others believe the problem is the amalgamation of all the aforementioned, and only a veteran politician with toughness, smarts and savvy can see it through. But the observant and those who truly understand Philippine society know that all these supposed problems are just the misconstrued ramifications of what has long endured as the Philippines' foremost predicament. They are but phantoms made to obscure the awful truth.
