In a juxtaposition this week, local politicians faced consequences for abuse of authority and were found to not have abused authority alike. In a single week, in a single mountainous region, in the same issue of a weekly paper.
The circumstances of the charges and the scale of the penalties, whether levied or not, are wildly different, but both stem from the same allegation of an abuse of authority. In the case of the Abreña, it was found by the higher powers to be true, and in the case of Baguio, the case was dropped.
Fundamentally, both were tests on the conduct of public service. The courts have judged whether they were acting in the interest of the public they serve, or for their own interest, and the judgements have been handed out.
Notably, the Abreñan who was hit with a year-and-a-half-long suspension continues to claim no wrongdoing, and that the charges were politically motivated smear attacks.
Regardless, the fundamental concept of public service is that, well, one must act in service to the public. This is the core of representative democracy. The people have a will, but not necessarily the collective capacity to enact it in the fields where it matters. Collectively, the body politic is not competent in legislation or economic strategy or the fields of policy, which is why we select an individual who is, to then use their expertise to implement our will.
It is all too easy to lose track of this basic fact, especially when politicians paint themselves as larger-than-life, and when the easy course of action to take is laissez-faire, to give them full authority and let them figure things out.
But the right and the responsibility to participate in the political process is fundamental to participation in society. Without active participation, without active scrutiny, it is all too easy for the system to be abused—there are checks and balances in play, but they only function when wielded by a critical populace.
If the question is not what the country can do for us but what we can do for the country, then that is the answer—what you, what we, what everyone can do is to subject leaders to the same level of rigor that they do everything else that sustains them—nitpick them as you would your favorite book, your favorite show.
Such are the fundamentals of political participation.
