Editorial: After the march

More than half a year has passed since Filipinos from all walks of life, from labor unions to government agencies to indigenous groups to college students, marched to Luneta to clamor against the misuse of public discretionary funds. The so-called Million People March was a statement of dismay from the informed public; that day witnessed institutions and non-government organizations pledging to be more vigilant in demanding transparency and accountability from the government.

This is a serious kind of vigilance that cannot stem merely from an emotional outpouring from the many present, without begetting the foundation of it all: awareness, and education. Almost four months since the Supreme Court’s ordering of the criminal prosecution of all persons implicated with the unconstitutional Priority Development Assistance Fund, and still the cogs of justice grapple with media diversions and delays in the trying of parties who have in part denied the appropriation of basic social services.

These abstract call for awareness and involvement may be partly to blame; the efforts to sustain vigilance in the monitoring of public funds has become laughable, at least in terms of demonstrations as in the Million People March, which activist groups have tried to emulate in terms of scale, only to end up becoming the melting pot of the usual anti-administration lobbyists who use the streets for propagandist intentions.

Even at the local level, the institutions which cried for transparency and accountability have been struggling to keep the spirit alive. This may best be concretized in localizing the situation at a relatable level, such as the University.

Seven months after the march for transparency, the Lasallian Justice and Peace Commission pooled together more than 50 representatives from La Salle schools all over the archipelago in an effort to devise a Lasallian policy recommendation for the PDAF. Titled “Life after PDAF”, the forum brought together representatives who had varying interpretations of what a policy recommendation was suppose to achieve, but remained ultimately unsuccessful in providing a comprehensive, unitive position for the Lasallian community. The synthesis of the policy points recommended remained unrealistic in suggesting a truly effective mechanism to check against the abuses that had occurred in the legislative.

What was more deplorable in the forum was that despite the number of students sent by the University to participate in the event, the great majority chose not to attend despite the administrative permission granted to delegates. How will this figure in the national programs that students and their representatives in government and organizations are supposed to be aware of and, more importantly, provide positions on?

Their universities, at the very least, issued a joint statement renewing the call for truth. But the students’ administrators do not for their constituents account: after all, the point of a university would be to educate and empower their students such that they may decide for themselves. Is this happening, at least in DLSU’s student life?

With the General Elections next month, and with many student organizations arranging for the turnover of the next batches of student leaders in the University, it is necessary for the future generations of student leaders to look at a very real concern such as the PDAF and other national issues, a concern which they so echo on social media and other forms of online expression, instead of parochial, inward-looking concerns to “represent” students.

Students deserve to be represented by real leaders who know what is going on – not just those who pretend to know the “issues” while remaining oblivious to the most necessary civic obligations such as public vigilance.