The Philippine Online Chronicles

One thing that cannot be said of certain Filipinos is that they are narrow minded. With the proliferation of Arroyo's pictures with a neck brace as the starting point, the clamor for her "right” to fly off overseas in order to get medical treatment has again begun. Others have pointed out that the entire proliferation of similar pictures is a result of nothing less than a vindictiveness of the Filipino people, followed implicitly by the assumption that the people are not only vindictive but also ungrateful – after getting “a lot of things done — the deployment of the troops during the Iraq war, avoiding the financial crisis that hit Europe and the US really hard, attending to international conventions, upgrading the country’s infrastructure, and many other things” – how dare the people assume that a single person can still have time for the plethora of charges being launched (or hoped for) against Arroyo?

What these broad-minded people seem to forget, sometimes out of convenience, is that the photos are the springboard for Arroyo's own attempts at saving skin – what is more divisive than an appeal to sympathy in the form of the poor old woman who's hair seems to have grayed out in just a couple of days, riddled with a neck brace, unable to walk, 'languishing at Saint Luke's,' humiliated utterly with with arrest, mugshots, and fingerprints, all such a departure from Arroyo's former regal standing. Propaganda relies much on psychology, and this reliance on psychology can only work if well hidden. The pictures circulating are actually one of the best ways to promote Arroyo no longer as a criminal facing charges, but as a single, individual woman battered by all the forces of the Aquino government with that nasty de Lima behind him. But how true is all this? How much exactly do the pictures demonize Arroyo and how much do they humanize her, and in the process of poking fun at her by Photoshopping her into a Pinoy Henyo caricature or a cartoon hero, actually decenter the issue of the political and criminal offenses for which she should be tried? Indeed, not only are the issues forgotten, but now Arroyo's supporters have begun to reduce her offenses to a list of 'unverified' acts that the lazy people would not think twice to confirm. Strangely enough, Arroyo's proponents can say nothing about the allegations except to point out that she has not been formally charged, as if formality were everything, and as if evading crime and shaking off evidence is supremely difficult for someone who once held the top position and who up to now holds clout as a representative in congress.

Arroyo's transformation into the victim also serves as the opportune moment for battering the enemy – Aquino and de Lima – as well as reminding the people of her achievements. In a nutshell, the Aquino government is apparently circumventing the law and constitutional rights vested in Arroyo by denying her right to travel abroad for 'medical treatment' and by refusing the TRO issued by the supreme court. Legalese, however, is the ever convenient toy for the powerful. Just as journalism survives through the myth of objectivity, the law survives through the assumption that its tenets are beyond reproach – if it is written in the codes and the law books, it must be Just and True. What is conveniently forgotten, however, is that the law is not merely fallible, but has in fact been used many times to forward the interests of the advantaged and powerful. In a country where political poets are imprisoned as political prisoners and where victims of human rights violations find no justice in the legal system, the sudden focus on legal technicalities shows just how malleable laws can be, and how easy it is to exploit them.

The reminders to Arroyo's achievements during her term are, of course, one of the oldest tricks in the book. These reminders, however, only gain some semblance of argumentative value when one conveniently forgets the standards by which to judge just how much or how little Arroyo has actually done. Sure, one can always prattle about deployed troops, supposedly averted financial crisis, international conventions attended, and infrastructure 'upgraded.' But should people just as quickly forget all the violations, scandals, and faults that occurred in during her regime? The long list of charges against Arroyo is now reduced to an non-legal attempt to coerce the people against Arroyo through some sort of shock and awe, but in reality reducing the charges to untriable offenses not covered within the gambit of the law is an equally powerful propaganda in favor of Arroyo. The proliferation of these pictures is interpreted as a lack of empathy on the part of Filipinos, who apparently cannot find it in their heart to feel sorrow for Arroyo's vacillating sickness, when in fact it is wholly possible that the surge of Arroyo-as-victim photos is an attempt to play on the sympathetic nature of the Filipinos some now swayed into thinking that justice must be delayed in order to allow the poor old woman to get treatment overseas. Even worse is the assumption that the proliferation of Arroyo's sickly pictures is an instance of people reveling in another's misery. The logic may seem sound – until stretched to its conclusions: why not reproach people for imprisoning criminals who are probably miserable and suffering in jail? Again it can be argued that Arroyo is no criminal and has not been sentenced, but again, this falls to the trap of blind adherence to legality, which if followed would invalidate even the Wall Street protests and which would legitimize the police brutality in such protests.

Apart from the need to remember that a few measly achievements does not negate all of the crimes that Arroyo has done during her regime, it is important to point out that action is not a zero sum game that rules out the possibility for other action. In other words, it is absolutely capricious verging on ridiculous to assume that just because Arroyo managed to do this and that during her term does not rule out the possibility that she may have had under the table dealings, may have been engaged in corruption, may have in fact committed crime. To think otherwise presumes that the president is not so much the commander and executive but the actual laborer, as if by signing a treaty or law she herself carries out the edict and consequently loses any time for anything else, such as corruption and crime.

In the end, it is important to remember that propaganda and polemics cuts both way. The critique to the critic is born by another critic, and not by an immaculate, objective third party. As such, just as Arroyo's opponents have their political motivations, so too do her supporters. In any argument, one cannot claim to appeal to rationality and objectivity as if only one party monopolizes it – or indeed, as if it exists at all. There is a world of difference between discourse and debate, and in the latter, no party concedes precisely because both will always claim to be true. What is needed, therefore, is for people to inform themselves, decide on their stance, and stick to it. As the reminder goes, be careful when being too broad-minded: the brain tends to fall out.

Stock photo of Blog Watch.