Palawan and 1Sambayan: there is hope

There is light at the end of the tunnel, reader. Two events this week have convinced me.

The results of the Palawan plebiscite, alone, have actually already made my heart leap for joy.

Just consider: on the one hand, you had most of the political families in Palawan who wanted the province split into three provinces. And you can see why. There would be more governorships, more seats in Congress, more government posts for everyone.

Then there were also the corporations that wanted to get into Palawan’s natural resources, thinking that partitioning would give them three times the chance of getting what they wanted.

And finally, there was China, which would have the same reasoning as the corporations cited above.

That makes a formidable team.

Then on the other side, there was the Save Palawan Movement made up of NGOs, CSOs, academics, grassroots movements, etc., mainly trying to preserve Palawan’s natural resource and environmental integrity. “One Palawan” was his defense. In other words, people.

It looked like an easy victory for the Palawan team of three, with the financial and political resources they had. Furthermore, the Supreme Court had rejected SavePalawan / One Palawan’s request to stop the plebiscite. But this did not discourage the last forces, and they moved on.

And he won, in 19 municipalities out of 23, and 177,000 out of 123,000 votes. That is what I call a defeat. Even the municipalities that would have benefited from the partition voted against it.

It is an inspiring story.

What are my conclusions from this unprecedented victory (David beat Goliath, is the description)?

He has refuted the frequently cited claim that on a simple yes or no question, yes almost always wins.

The not-so-secret weapon of the Save Palawan / One Palawan Movement is its women, specifically Cynthia del Rosario and Gerthie Mayo-Anda.

Do away with the belief that the Filipino voter is stupid, or does not bother to analyze the issues. Just tell them and if it makes sense, they will do the right thing.

One factor that cannot be ruled out is that the amount of time in the campaign period played a role. If you don’t have financial resources, you need more time to reach your audience one-on-one.

The leadership’s behavior was also crucial: Governor José Álvarez should be congratulated for what he did not do – use thugs or guns – and for what he did – concede defeat as soon as possible.

And as if that was not enough to make my week, the news of the 1Sambayan group emerged to unite the opposition. Your reasoning makes sense and is therefore very attractive:

President Duterte was elected by plurality, not by majority. After all, there were six presidential candidates in the 2016 election. Apparently, less than 40 percent of actual voters and less than 30 percent of registered voters voted for him. So if the opposition joins in, the chances of victory are very great (60 percent of the total vote)

Filipinos who reject vile language and manners, human rights violations, the “kill-kill” mentality, the use of the law as a weapon against enemies, a return to authoritarianism, and possibly submission to China, all they may find common cause against him or his chosen candidates.

So all they have to do is come together and choose a common pool of candidates.

And therein lies the problem. The Palawan plebiscite shows that economic and political resources are not up to the will of the people. So unity is an achievable goal.

The tricky part is choosing the common pool of candidates. Of course, politicians are involved here (as potential candidates). What prevents them from ignoring the 1Sambayan election, if they are not the chosen ones?

And how that final decision is made is an even more complicated matter. Assuming all the conveners are acceptable to the applicants, the final choice will be the privilege of the conveners (the 14 or 11, depending on the 1Sambayan document you are viewing), or a subset of them, or is it the result of a numbers game, where individuals and organizations vote during the “consultations” that will take place, apparently all over the Philippines?

All of this will undoubtedly become clear in the near future. And it should be a transparent process. But in the meantime, will it be too much to ask our opposition politicians to commit to supporting common candidates?

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