January 30, 1986
VERITAS Letters

J. V. Bautista, spokesman of the Bagong Alyasang Makabayan says. "The majority is not always right" (VERITAS, Jan. 29).

Nobody ever said it was.

The democratic principle is: "The majority RULES" which simply means that the policy alternative approved by the majority should be tried first.

But if the majority is not right on the snap polls, who is? Mr. Bautista and Mrs. Etta Rosales presumptuously claim they are.

Mrs. Rosales said it all: " . . . ‘people’s power’ must mean ‘an enlightened citizenry which is aware of the ‘real stakes’ and not those who are merely caught giddy in the tide of ‘emotional sentiment.’ "

Assemblyman Homobono Adaza may angrily accuse them of presuming that they know more than the masses -- in whose name they claim to speak. As for me, I just laugh at the very idea of Mr. Bautista and Mrs. Rosales claiming to be more enlightened than people like:

Senators Jovito Salonga and Lorenzo Tanada, former University of the Philippines Presidents Salvador P. Lopez and Emanuel Soriano, and top executives like Jose Concepcion, Jr. and Jaime Ongpin.

I don’t consider Mr. Bautista and Mrs. Rosales to be presumptuous. I believe they suffer from an advanced case of delusions of grandeur.
 
 

QUIRINO TORRES