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Post-election
Postcript:
'Death
of Democracy'
Less
than a month after the submission of the above term paper,
specifically on Nov. 24, 1969, The Manila Times carried
in its "We the People" section of letters to
the editor, this anguished letter from the same high school
senior of the previous item (the term paper on "Political
Values of the Filipino Voter."). .
Dear
Editor,
I
would like to make it clear, first of all, that I, together with
people who share my opinion, am grieving not merely for the
questionable victory of any candidate but really for the DEATH
of democracy itself.
Newspaper
reporters, radio commentators and others who "know"
may boastfully claim that last Nov. 11, the Filipino people made
their own decision known. However, those who maintain that this
year’s "elections" were peaceful and normal are
unfortunately mistaken.
Apparently,
at the time of the "elections," they were blind –
they didn’t notice the mysterious blackouts that occurred at
the precincts at the time of the counting. They were blind –
they missed the headlines reporting the high toll of election
day murders; they were blind – they didn’t see the hired
goons clad in PC uniforms armed to the teeth,
"persuading" the voters to "vote for the
boss." They were deaf too – they didn’t hear the
gunshots, they didn’t hear the radio reports about ambushing,
kidnaping, mauling and killing incidents. They were, perhaps,
even unconscious – they didn’t feel the tension, the
fear-for-life of the electorate, the exasperation of the voters
whose names were unreasonably removed from the lists, the
frustration of poll clerks being mauled, ballots being tampered
with, result numbers being "rounded to convenience,"
and ballot boxes being "kidnaped" right before their
eyes but all under the mighty cover of ever-ready armalites.
They
were either blind and deaf or altogether unconscious but still
they can boast with amplified voices, "The Philippines is
the show window of democracy in Asia." I find this rather
ironic. Many are not aware of this soul-tearing fact, Brother
Filipinos, but there’s no sense in trying to hide the painful
truth: democracy in our country is dead!
– EDUARDO CORPUS REYES, Quezon City
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