THE GRACE POE PHENOMENON: A LEAP IN POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS? ‘THE FATHER SPOKE IN 2004, OF THE BREAKING DAWN (Bukang Liwayway), NINE (9) YEARS LATER IN 2013, THE DAUGHTER EMERGED TRIUMPHANT IN THE GLARING SUNLIGHT AS A BUDDING POLITICAL ROSE THAT STANDS WAY ABOVE THE THORNY REST’(Igpaw ng Kamalayan sa Liwanag ng Bukas). Is there in truth and in fact a message to be read to the phenomenal rise of Grace Poe? A friend of mine whose politics is much too esoteric for me, defined ‘phenomenology’ as a philosophical outlook that allows things, people, places and events to speak to us without the benefit of conscious perceptual/and/or rational processing. This is akin to the legal maxim of RES IPSA LOQUATOR (the thing speaks for itself) which lawyers invoke as a principle in the law on evidence. Stated differently, a ‘phenomenon’ carries and communicates its own message. By this definition, Grace Poe strikes me as the bearer of the good news of a promising future for Philippine Politics. Firstly, it appears to me that Grace Poe is the materialization and manifestation of an evolving, growing collective political consciousness that seeks to find ‘something new, different and fresh’, ‘someone untainted and unsullied’ who does not have the experience of the ‘old ways’ but who has the intense and passionate desire to learn and explore ‘new solutions’ to ‘old pestering problems’. She is what ‘Maoist Ideologues and Admirers’ in the not too distant past days of Student Activism refer to as a BLANK WHITE SHEET OF PAPER UPON WHICH BEAUTIFUL THINGS CAN BE WRITTEN AND DRAWN. She is all these in the hearts and minds of the 20 million or so voters whose consciousness connected and converged in that sphere where the spirit of the times resided. This is the unseen force that is trying to breakout from the repetitious, insane cycle of old, traditional politics that is trapped in the molded mindset of materialism as the governing, determinant factor of success. This is an elitistic and exclusivistic kind of politics that is designed to keep power and wealth within the family (political dynasty) through either the use of muscle (guns and goons) or money (vote buying, bribing or technology tampering). Against the backdrop of these corrupt practices, the hope that Grace Poe brings is that the contraction of the Political Field into a SELLERS’ MARKET WHEREBY THE PRICE OF COVETED POLITICAL POSITIONS AND OFFICES HAS BECOME TOO PROHIBITIVE IN THE MIDST OF MARKET PENETRATION BY POLITICAL HOI POLOIS’S LIKE HER CAN MAKE TRADITIONAL POLITICIANS REALIZE THAT THE DAYS OF MONEY DRIVEN POLITICAL COMPETITION IS NUMBERED. When billionaires lose not only in ranking but even fail to win, then the tell-tale signs on the wall are much too clear to ignore. Moreover, the buyers are also showing signs of weariness on the same, old stock products that they are presented every political or electoral season. They are therefore looking and shopping for new political materials with innovative ideas and who are packaged differently by a novel vehicle. Additionally the call for righteous and honest governance that is making political ventures less and less profitable as well as a high risk investment devoid of sure yield and recoupment are confluencing to form the internal conditions for the creation of a new kind of political consciousness. This is further enhanced by the imperatives of external challenges that will require national unity and a better understanding of our national interest and security, political stability and social development needs. INDEED, IN THIS LIGHT GRACE POE IS THE FACE OF THE SPIRIT OF HOPE AND CHANGE. Secondly, it seems that the experience of death as the precursor of new life finds meaning and expression in our political transformation. Ninoy’s demise gave birth to Pres Cory; the latter’s passing to President Noynoy; Secretary Jess Robredo’s untimely death to Congresswoman Leni. And now, it is safe perhaps to say that the MEMORY of the king who could have been President, FPJ to the phenomenal rise of her daughter as No.1 Senator-Elect of the Republic. Political pundits call this phenomenon as NECRO-POLITICS. More positively, I see this as some kind of ‘political pentecost’ a descent of the spirit of those perceived to have served and sacrificed for the interest of nation and people into the bodies of persons who act as the vessels and inheritors of their legacy. It is the fulfilled promise of continuity wherein the dead inspires the living to move the Nation forward in the direction of their dreams. This is no different from the heroic tradition of the sacrifice of our forefathers in order to establish a free and independent nation. THIS INSPIRATIONAL, SPIRITED POLITICS IS EMBODIED IN THE UNPRECEDENTED OVERWHELMING VICTORY OF GRACE POE WHOM SWS RANKED IN DECEMBER 2012 IN THE LOW NO. 20, WITH BARELY 13% SUPPORT. PANDAY THE HERO MAY HAVE INDEED INSPIRED THE PEOPLE TO SEE A HEROINE IN HIS DAUGHTER AND TO BELIEVE THAT HIS SPIRIT IS WITH HER. SHE IS NOW THE VESSEL AND CHANNEL OF THE PLANS HE HAD FOR OUR NATION AND PEOPLE. THIS REPRESENTS THE EMERGING POLITICS OF LEGACY AND CONTINUITY. THIRDLY, in her post-election interviews, Grace Poe never failed to mention that she prayed in this wise: Lord God should you will it that I should win, I hope it will be in a comfortable placing or ranking because I will get intensely nervous if I am in the 11th or 12th place’. The question thus is whether God answered the prayer of Grace Poe and humoured her with a No. 1 ranking? Regardless, of one’s conviction about prayer, what is clear is that its intercessory spirit IS MORE INTENSELY INVOKED BY A YOUNG BREED OF POLITICIANS NOW LIKE GRACE POE WHO BELIEVES THAT A DIVINE FORCE CAN AND DOES INTERVENE IN THE AFFAIRS OF MEN AND INFLUENCE EVENTS. DEUS EX MACHINA. THIS CAN OCCUR IN THE REALM OF CONSCIOUSNESS WHEREIN ENERGIES CONVERGE TO FORM AND EMIT ELECTRIC CURRENTS THAT ARE TRANSPORTED AND CONNECTED TO UNIFY HEARTS AND MINDS. IN MODERN TECHNOLOGY PARLANCE, PRAYER IS EITHER THE CIRCUIT BOARD OR THE PLATFORM UPON WHICH THE WEB RUNS. INDEED AGAIN, GRACE POE HAS DEMONSTRATED THE POWER AND FORCE OF AN UNSEEN SPIRIT THAT MAY VERY WELL DECIDE THE FATE OF THOSE WHO FOOLISHLY PREPARE FOR TOMORROW IN A PHYSICAL, MATERIAL WAY AS IF ‘TOMORROW IS PROMISED TO ANYONE’. THE POLITICS OF DESTINY IS APPARENT IN THE PHENOMENON THAT IS GRACE POE. So I end just as I began, dragging myself to resist the esoteric propositions and submissions of my friend. Yet, quite honestly, there is a part of me that is pulling me to believe the phenomenological messages of the victory of Grace Poe. It might yet be the case that Grace Poe, without being conscious about it has signalled the irreversible unfolding of a Political Consciousness breaking through the barriers and fetters of a disintegrating, dissolving Political Culture. This is the advocacy of a group that was launched a week before the elections that our Media Network covered. It calls itself as the KAMALAYANG PINOY MOVEMENT – KPM, which without the knowledge of Grace Poe made her the exemplar face and voice of a breakthrough in political consciousness in the orientations it conducted in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Asked what it intends to achieve, KPM leaders, said they want to move the National Consciousness from Nationhood to Nationalism to Nation-Building. Equipped with a Plan and Program, it is arousing, mobilizing and organizing a Force of Amalgamators. This is however another story that I might find to be quijotic, if not esoteric. But then again, I am reminded by the defining lines in the movie FIELD OF DREAMS: ‘IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME’. To say the least, I am surprised at myself. It is as if the spirit of the Grace Poe phenomenon has been embedded in my consciousness and I am making my own Political Leap. The phenomenon of GRACE POE HAS SPOKEN, what else can I say!
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 09:35:13 +0000