What Propels Walden Bello’s Candidacy?

Written By Yelena Castañares

“Our candidacy [the election tandem of Bello and Ka Leody de Guzman] is propelled by a great desire to stop the axis of evil,” Professor Walden Bello said in an interview with Fascinating Features.

In the Philippines, change has always been a good promise to make. The anatomy of change relies on the acknowledgment that the struggles of the people are heard; for the longest of decades, the time to resolve them is long overdue. 

But in reality, for most Filipinos, genuine but slow change is too laborious to wait for; change is often met with resistance and tendencies to retreat to the more comforting familiar, which are wishful thoughts on what seems to be out of reach and a splash of settlement for the status quo.

One of the biggest theses on the stagnation of the country’s socio-political dynamics, however, is the maintenance of power through the said “axis of evil” and everything that has been anchored with it – cronyism, corruption, impunity, and abuse, to name a few. These political practices have sadly long been enculturated that tolerating the uncomfortable is the default action. Going beyond that seems like a shot in the dark.

Professor Walden Bello, having been an educator and fellow for sociology and public administration at the University of the Philippines - Diliman and several foreign universities, has been immersed in studying the grand wrongs — the axis, systems, and their remedies. He has been quite a strong personality throughout his life as a brilliant academic, staunch congressman, and a willful Filipino at the very best. 

Now, in the 2022 national elections, Bello is running for vice president and backing Ka Leody de Guzman, who is aiming for the highest post in the country under a platform that marks the possible beginning of change — new politics that deviate from the rules of a corrupted political culture that has encroached on the people for several decades.

Bello speaks with media reports during a protest of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board’s failure to pay the salaries of bus drivers.

In recent years, it has been slowly accepted that the political problems faced by the country are not just because of decisions that the electorate makes once every three years; rather, the issues have become too systemic that even the most integrity-bathed person can never single-handedly fix them.

“We need to have a revolutionary mobilization of the people to put pressure on the gates of Congress and the power structure,” Bello explained. “Politics will not end with electoral victory; it will only mean the beginning of transformative politics.”

De Guzman and Bello’s proposed “Bagong Politika, Bagong Ekonomiya [New Politics, New Economy]” platform does not promise Messiah-like grand gestures and instant magical reforms; instead, the platform acknowledges that there are still repressive systems that we have to unsubscribe to and that everything else that follows shall go through, with, and for the people.

The Axis

The “axis of evil”, as Bello mentioned, is essentially the tandem candidacy of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio – both members of the two most powerful political dynasties in the Philippines today.

“A few months ago, Imee Marcos said that a Marcos and Duterte partnership is a marriage made in heaven — one rules the North and the other rules in the South,” he said. “This sort of Game of Thrones-like mentality – plundering through dynasties and dividing the Philippines for power.”

While there has been a long-standing criticism from the Robredo campaign that running just to defeat the Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte-Carpio tandem is not enough reason to earn ballot shades, the explanation of the cause to halt the schemes of the axis has become too simplistic for the actual gravity of what their partnership holds. It is more than mere ego; it is staying true to ‘never again.’

The axis of evil runs to maintain the status quo of a tainted Philippine political culture that was started and enabled by the late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., and perpetuated by those who followed him, including President Rodrigo Duterte. The axis of evil runs to maintain and protect vested interests for them. And in the acknowledgment that the system is the problem, the axis is the system.

“We felt that we had to step in to prevent these people from taking over the Philippines,” Bello said. “And I’m not exaggerating.”

What shall be lost upon them shall be gained upon us — and that is Bello’s step one.

Let It Be Known

It takes a lot of transformation and acceptance to instill something radical in the minds of Filipinos who have been used to decades of substandard-to-bare minimum-kind of governance. It takes a lot of arousing for a lot of people to even consider stepping on the bridge to cross it. But the next step is to let it be known.

Bello attends the CNN Philippines Presidential Debate in support of his running mate, Ka Leody de Guzman.

A people-driven economy is a center of de Guzman’s and Bello’s politics, citing that while corruption is one of the main reasons why the economy favours the select few, a broader problem has to be admitted — the rise of neoliberalism.

“Our manufacturing and agriculture have been destroyed by neoliberal policies of the total opening of the economy,” Bello commented. “Bringing down tariffs, eliminating quotas of agricultural goods, allowing our economy to be dumped on with very cheap subsidized goods from the outside against our farmers, and our manufacturing cannot compete.”

Neoliberalism has been the cancer of our economy, and symptoms of the system include the fall of one sector after another, increased poverty rates, failing educational frameworks, and even the necessity for people to be channelled into labour export due to low wages, which then creates long-term troubles in the country such as brain drain and impaired local workforces.

“The bigger problem is the way the economy has been deformed by neoliberal policies,” he said. “We just want people to face the reality and show them the alternatives.”

For Bello, the system — and everything that has seeped and reeked from it — has been diagnosed. After containing the system by defeating the axis of evil, the way to cure and resuscitate its failures is by applying policies the de Guzman-Bello tandem has been championing in their campaign: a billionaires’ tax, domestic reorientation for economic direction, workers’ control, independent foreign policy, and institutionalizing direct democracy among the people.

To Act

Electoral politics is the tip of the iceberg. If the fortune is granted to de Guzman’s and Bello’s candidacy, the seats of power will be too small to enact the change that they are lobbying for if others in the same political system do not make room. With this, hope is the match to spark the wildfire. 

Hope to speak, inspire, and — finally — change.

Bello in a DWIZ 882 radio interview to discuss “economic reforms and priorities post-pandemic.”

Some things are easier said than done, and hurdles will inevitably be encountered with the policy changes that they will be implementing. For a single percentage who benefits from the system at the cost of everyone else, there are multiple factors to consider before theory eventually becomes practice. The two highest positions’ powers in the country are not absolute and they will still be subjected – regardless of best intentions – to the same checks and balances afforded by the Constitution. Changing the heads of the system cannot change its entirety and that is where democracy and the will of the people come in.

“That’s why we need to get our politics to be able to appeal beyond the local power elites,” Bello said. “We have to bring in students, we have to bring in the [members of] Generation Z, the millennials, the middle class, the peasants, and the workers to break the local and dynastic opposition.”

At the present moment, resistance and activism are the lifelines of the systemic changes that the country needs, and spreading these concepts beyond complexities and terminologies to the masses is the key. Indeed, when society has nothing to lose, we work with what we have. And with what we have, we grow – there is hope.

“If we break down the labels and show people what exactly we represent, I think we can break down the resistance to the ideas that we represent,” Bello said.

What’s Left?

Power resides in the people’s beliefs. But at the present moment, where is the belief?

The candidacy of both Ka Leody de Guzman and Professor Walden Bello is an introduction to the revolution that has long been raging; only this time, it is at a greater calibre. They are at their loudest and highest to further the interests of the people from the lowest of sectors towards everyone else above – it is history in the making.

And it is only the beginning.

“Kami ni Ka Leody [Ka Leody and I], [we] also say that, ‘Hey, we have nothing to offer except sweat and tears and maybe blood. Now, are you with us?” he asked.

Recommended Song: Do You Hear The People Sing - Cast of the 2012 film Les Misérables

Images from:

Jire Carreon/Rappler (Banner Photo)

Walden Bello’s Facebook Page and Twitter Page