FROM A DISTANCE By Carmen N. Pedrosa (The Philippine Star)
BANGKOK – As in Thailand, so it is in the Philippines. Change is happening however imperceptible it seems. There is a part of history that changes slowly, lingering for a long time, sometimes for generations, before it becomes a reality.
The news that the Supreme Court (SC) upheld the revocation of a 1989 stock distribution plan for Hacienda Luisita’s more than 6,000 farmers is an example of change that would have been inconceivable in the past.
The Supreme Court decision is an idea whose time has come, and the justices merely an instrument of change. It calls for a referendum to determine whether the farmers would opt for land or shares.
By ordering the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to make the farmers choose in a referendum between a piece of land or 18,804.32 HLI shares is a landmark decision in a country where the stacks are in favor of the rich and powerful. If the farmer holds less than 18,804.32 shares, the HLI must issue additional shares to comply within 30 days from finality of the SC decision.
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The Azkals’ 4-0 victory against Sri Lanka in a home game is the version of unexpected change albeit in sports. If there are implications in the shift of the Philippines from basketball to football as its national sport so is there for change in general. The Azkals have made a breakthrough in a country believed to be impervious to change.
Thanks to the Azkals, football has acquired a new cache. It is followed increasingly by thousands of Filipinos and predicted to overshadow basketball to become the national sport. Although it has been building up on its new fame in recent years, the 4-0 victory against Sri Lanka Red Braves last Monday was a watershed. They had crossed the rubicon – Philippine football will never be the same again.
The Azkals and football zoomed into prominence. It was no longer just football aficionados coming to the games but ordinary Filipinos as the game they cheered for and would follow especially when it competed with other countries.
Speaking to the press after the game a player said “We can feel the crowd. They were fantastic. And they were still there after the game because they enjoyed the game. You can see that there is already a growing fan base for football.”
The game last Monday showed the team would not merely win games but it could be counted on to muster the will to play quality football.
“A lot of people were saying today that it was not the score alone, but the way the Azkals played. They said we can now compete with the best in Asia,” added Araneta.
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A Filipino advocate for the parliamentary system has used the shift to football as a metaphor for Filipinos’ change in politics and government.
Orion Dumdum who is a Facebook friend of this column and an advocate of parliamentary form of government, has written a brilliant essay on the topic “Shift in Sports, Shift in Government.” In the essay, he cheers for football because “it is one of the most democratic sports ever – as Time Magazine recently described it.
“Anyone can play and excel in it: Rich or poor, light-skinned or dark-skinned, and most importantly, tall or short. That last one is of utmost importance, considering that we Filipinos, most of whom are not very tall, are crazy about basketball – a sport that obviously favors tall players.”
He points out the “meritocratic nature of soccer which does not care much about being born with the genes for height, the fixation that Filipinos have for basketball creates so many shattered dreams. Millions of young Filipinos are raised to love a sport that does not love them back.”
He writes that the poor in the Philippines have greater chances to be champions in football.
“They can be like millions of impoverished Latin-Americans and Africans who often practice playing soccer just about anywhere, be it on a small field, a dusty road, or even a small backyard. Some of the world’s highest-paid soccer stars come from such an impoverished background and they often cherish their childhood memories of growing up, playing soccer barefoot with plastic bottles or anything they can kick around as their ball, drawing lines on the ground to serve as their “goals.”
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If Filipinos can do it in football they can do the same in politics. Filipinos can overcome the inertia from the status quo if they try hard to and not accept what they have grown used to. Like the Azkals in football, Filipinos should begin to examine what the country could be in a shift to parliament. The real problem is resistance to change.
“We need not look far to see that this problem is not solely confined to the world of sports, in which increasing attention is being placed on the Soccer versus Basketball debate.”
“Former Philippine Ambassador to Greece Rigoberto Tiglao likened the need for Filipinos to carefully consider shifting from basketball to soccer and the difficulty in convincing Filipinos to do so, with the fact that many Filipinos still stubbornly refuse to at least attempt to consider the objective merits of the Parliamentary System as a possible option to replace the current Philippine Presidential System.”
The presidential system being skewed towards popularity and name-recall is one of the main reasons why we are unable to create true and great leaders.
Yet “we continue to clamor for improvements in our lives, our economic livelihood, and the quality of our politics, yet because of a system of government whose electoral procedure (choosing the name of an individual candidate running for President) clearly favors “winnability” (popularity and name-recall) over competence, we end up with incompetent people who become President only because of their celebrity status or famous surnames.
At other times, we also end up with leaders who – though sometimes competent – are forced to pander to the public lest they risk being unable to govern if they fail to play the popularity game.”
How did we get into this rut that made us resistant to change?
He says “both basketball and the presidential system are largely American inventions which they brought along with them during the almost 50 years that they occupied our country and we Filipinos took to both of them as if they were our own.”
Unfortunately, both basketball and the presidential system have pre-requisites that Americans often meet which Filipinos don’t.
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