FEATURE
WHAT DEFINE Daniel Alinsonorin and Delbert Yu Illustsration by Kyla Mondejar
Recent human history is defined by the decade. The 1960s is recognized as a time of counterculture and experimentation. The 1970s is remembered as a spiritual successor of the 60s, continuing many of the liberal crusades that the “Flower Decade” birthed, such as the Stonewall riots and the civil and women’s rights’ movement. In the national consciousness, it is the decade that ushered in Marcos’ 20-year regime. The 1980s elicits the memory of diverse events: the EDSA revolution that toppled a dictator, the rise of personal computers and mobile phones, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the devastating AIDS epidemic. The 1990s greeted the end of the Cold War, the invention of the World Wide Web, the Asian Financial Crisis, and the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Finally, the 00s calls to mind the War on Terror, the Obama presidency, the economic recession of 2008, the tumultuous Arroyo administration, and the Maguindanao Massacre. As this year approaches its finish line, today’s Carolinians find themselves in a world significantly changed from ten years prior. What are the events that defined this decade, and how did it shape the Filipino zeitgeist?
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TODAY’S CAROLINIAN | DECEMBER 2019
Crises in the Aquino Administration The Philippines began the decade with the presidency of Benigno Aquino III, whose term began with a hostage crisis taking place in the capital. Known as the Manila Hostage Crisis, the stand-off took the lives of Hong Kong nationals, earning the ire of the Hong Kong government. The poor handling of te crisis by the Philippine National Police (PNP) jeopardized diplomatic relations between the two countries and tarnished public expectations for the then-new administration. This event inadvertently set the tone of public perception toward the Aquino administration. The Pork Barrel scam, arguably the biggest political scandal of the Aquino presidency, involved the alleged misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) among the congressmen of the country. It is estimated that the government was defrauded at least P10 billion, having been diverted to businesswoman Janet Napoles, who was responsible for distributing the money. The widespread nature of the scandal, permeating almost all levels of the executive department, proved to be a disastrous blow to Aquino. His oft-repeated policy, “matuwid na daan” (straight road) a campaign-era slogan calling for better transparency and responsiveness from the government, is now widely seen as just that: a slogan. In the southern part of the country, insurgencies have been ongoing for decades as state-opposed organizations clamored
