Marie Bernadette C. Apayor is a graduate of BS Human Ecology major in Social Technology at the College of Human Ecology, UP Los Baños.
There Can Be No Real Unity
As development practitioners, it is inevitable to use the terms “collective action” or “people’s participation” in our conversations on development and social progress. However, we are also warned about how these terms have the inclination to be distorted by anyone who uses them. As Kara David remarked, it is easy for these terms to lose their actual meaning when they are decontextualized and made as populist concepts, and in the process, people could lose confidence or feel duped by these much-abused words.1
And just like these development terms, another word has been receiving quite overwhelming attention and use especially in the political space as the country prepares for the national elections. So, what is this word being patronized recently? It’s the word “unity”.
In a general sense, unity is defined as the state of being one, or that it gives the condition of harmony and accord. In Filipino, we can translate this as “pagkakaisa”, and social scientists would most often link or express unity or pagkakaisa to “bayanihan”, a Filipino custom of cooperation and communal unity.
When we trace the context of how we use the word, we see why and how unity is significant to us historically and culturally. It is through unity in the spirit of bayanihan that our ancestors were able to respond to community needs by organizing collectively and pooling resources together.2 It is also through unity and shared courage that Filipinos were able to take the streets to oust a dictator and overthrow a corrupt regime in 1986, a powerful movement that we now all know as the EDSA People Power.
However, we can also see the irony when a particular candidate running for the national elections is part of the very regime which the People Power Revolution resisted and is now using “unity” as a campaign and titular advocacy. And so, no matter how strong and compelling this word evokes, we cannot let powers that be appropriate the meaning of unity for their own personal gain.
While it is true that no one can just simply own or monopolize the use of “unity”, let alone any word, it would still be a disservice to the people – the activists and dissenters who risked their lives despite being disenfranchised all for the sake of securing our freedom and democracy back – who truly knew the essence of “unity” if we let the term be trivialized into a political agenda just because it sounds catchy and it fits their campaign. There can be no real unity under his term when justice isn’t served for the lives lost and sacrificed from numerous human rights violations during martial law. There can be no real unity under his term when indigenous people continue to face rampant militarization even in their own lands as instructed by powerful elites and mining concessionaires that were enabled and tolerated by a State that puts money above its own people. There can be no real unity under his term when Php 125 billion of ill-gotten wealth and unpaid taxes will not be returned to benefit the Filipino people.3 Yes, we should unite and work across our differences, but in doing so, we still must hold these people accountable for their transgressions.
Dr. Jayeel Cornelio describes a different approach in contrast to unity.4 He argued that there is a more authentic collective organization among us, ordinary citizens, when we demand accountability and challenge the status quo that only favors a select few. This is when we are in solidarity with one another. Dr. Cornelio explained the transformative impact of people in
solidarity because it “challenges people to bridge class and other social divides.”
Similarly, Lola Olufemi offers an appreciation and feminist definition of solidarity, “a strategic coalition of individuals who are invested in a collective vision for the future. At the core of solidarity is mutual aid: the idea that we give our platforms, resources, legitimacy, voices, skills to one another to try and defeat oppressive conditions.”5
And this is what we should carry and keep in mind as we vote for the future of our Motherland.
Ang bawat boto natin ay pakikiisa at pakikisama sa laban ng ating kapwa Pilipino – para sa ating mga magsasaka, manggagawa, kababaihan, kabataan, at mga ordinaryong mamamayang umaasa na tayo’y makabubuo ng mas magandang kinabukasan para sa bansa.
-Marie Bernadette C. Apayor is a graduate of BS Human Ecology major in Social Technology at the College of Human Ecology, UP Los Baños.
[1] David, K. C. (1985). Community Organization and People's Participation: The Philippine Experience. Kasarinlan Philippine Journal of Third World Studies. Retrieved April 22, 2022, from https://journals.upd.edu.ph/index.php/kasarinlan/article/view/503
[2] Ang, G. R. (1979). THE BAYANIHAN SPIRIT: DEAD OR ALIVE? Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society, 7(1/2), 91–93. http://www.jstor.org/stable/29791626
[3] Buan, L. (2021, September 29). Breakdown: P174B recovered from Marcos loot, P125B more to get. RAPPLER. Retrieved April 23, 2022, from https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/breakdown-billions-recovered-marcos-ill-gotten-wealth-by -pcgg-more-to-get/
[4] Cornelio, J. (2022, April 20). [Opinion] Solidarity, not unity. RAPPLER. Retrieved April 23,
2022, from https://www.rappler.com/voices/thought-leaders/opinion-solidarity-not-unity/
[5] Olufemi, L. (2020). Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power. Pluto Press.
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvxrpzvs