ITIM (black) is the word that pervades the reelection campaign of Sen. Imee Marcos following the launch of her advertisement featuring her and Vice President Sara Duterte talking about itim (black) being the color of the country because of hunger, crime and injustice, purportedly under the administration of her brother.
But itim is wrongly used to describe the nation’s state of affairs.
Itim more aptly describes the kind of politics that the two families—and all other political families and their allies inflict upon us.
I had written about this in a Facebook post in the heat of the campaign during the 2022 national elections.
Permit me to quote portions of the post in Filipino, and expound a little more: “Sa atin sari-sari ang kulay ng politika na namamayagpag tuwing panahon ng halalan. May asul, may pula, may berde, may rosas, may orange, may dilaw, at kung anu-ano pang kumbinasyon. Mga kulay na hindi lang simbolo ng pagkakahati ng bansa kundi siya mismong naghahati sa bansa.”
These colors not only represent the varying political persuasions and election campaigns to capture the voters’ imagination and win their votes. They symbolize our political divide.
“Ang mga kulay ding ito ang kulay ng away sa politika—hindi away ng taong-bayan kundi away ng mga pamilya ng politiko na isinasama ang taong-bayan.”
These clan wars happen both at the local and national levels. And they have witnessed our politics, at every election, from even before the founding of Asia’s first Republic. They continue to characterize our politics and elections today. And the Marcos vs. Duterte war is by far the most intense, the most divisive, the most destructive political war we have had, worse than the Marcos vs. Aquino that ran for almost a century.
“Pero sa totoo, ang bunga ng lahat ng kulay na ‘yan ay itim na politika. Dahil pag lahat ng kulay na ‘yan ay naghalo-halo ang resulta ay itim.”
In art, we know that when we mix or combine all these colors, the result is black.
But in science, black is described as the absence of color.
So, you see, when these colors of candidates and so-called political parties mix during elections, notably when they enter into coalitions and alliances or when politicians switch political parties, they lose their individual colors and all turn black. Because, in reality, they have only one true color, if you get my drift.
In physics, black is also defined as the absence of light, a state where no light is reflected.
So, when we mix multiple colors, the process removes the light that would have been reflected by individual colors.
Which is why we hardly see light in what these politicians and candidates say or propose to do if they are voted into office.
Indeed, black is the color of our politics—and dark is the future our country and people face.
“Hindi kaya dapat magluksa tayo sa panahon ng halalang hangal?”
