Soul Searching, Not Chest Thumping Needed

Disagreement re Lacson’s ‘The Filipino Today’ Piece

Alex L. Lacson is genuinely one of the really “good people” in the Philippines today. He authored the best seller, “12 Little Things Every Filipino Can Do to Help Our Country.” I first knew of him from a column written by my friend and famous Filipino journalist/commentator, the late Max Soliven.

In the aftermath of the recent bloodbath that resulted in the death of 8 Chinese tourists at the hands of slain hostage taker police inspector Rolando Mendoza, and the accompanying “negative publicity” our country and people were, and still are, subjected to, Mr. Lacson wrote a piece urging Filipinos to not get down on themselves and keep in mind the many good and outstanding accomplishments of our nation and of individual Filipinos in many fields of endeavor..

“We have to protect and defend the Filipino in each one of us”, he avers in his piece. He then goes on to enumerate various accomplishments such as the 2007 award won by Filipino scientist Baldomero Olivera for his work with neurotoxins; or, the sacrifice made by educator Dr. Josette Biyo who opted to teach in the barrios versus a good paying post at De La Salle University; or, the many beauty contests Filipinas have won internationally.

I must regretfully and respectfully disagree with Mr. Lacson. Rather than engage in breast thumping over past “outstanding” deeds to assuage our feelings of shame and embarrassment over the hostage deaths, we ought engage in serious soul searching and identify what truly is at the core of this fiasco.

If we do, then we might yet finally admit that we have major and very deep problems; and unless these are addressed and remedied we shall remain mired in that place that rightfully opens us, as a country and a people, to ridicule and scorn.

We do not need a long drawn out “investigation” to establish culpability and guilt in the Rizal Park massacre. We know our police forces are riddled with incompetence. Massive graft, corruption, political patronage and blatant cronyism are what breed this culture that results in bumbling and bungling sagas such as the one the world saw in full display last August 23rd. The question is: what are we going to do about it?

Will our country’s leadership act in a way that will make us proud, or shall we expect to have to cringe in shame yet again? Why does the world think so badly of us? Well, let’s look at some possible reasons:

• I mentioned corruption earlier and the thing we need to keep in mind is that it is deeply rooted and endemic and it has been perpetrated by whoever is in charge regardless of the political affiliation of the powers that be at the moment. We rejoiced and the world danced with us when “people power” finally got rid of the Marcoses ( or so we thought then – ha, ha, the laugh’s on us isn’t it?). Mrs. Aquino was incorruptible but her family reportedly feasted at the trough. We have not heard much about General Ramos’ vis-à-vis corruption per se yet the whispers are that ex and current military bigwigs are deeply in business in all areas of endeavor. Yes, the world knows of our culture of corruption and so far we have not convinced anyone that they should now stop holding up their noses in ridicule.

• Once upon a time it was a rarity, an exception to be sure, that a movie star gets elected to high public office. In the 1960’s Joseph Estrada was elected mayor of the suburban town of San Juan and most thought that’s as far as he was going. Before you know it he had become a senator, a vice-president and soon enough the presidency itself was in his curriculum vitae. Not reputed to be the brightest candle in the chandelier, if Erap can make it so can we, thought others in show business, and before you know it the easiest route to elective office was movie or tv stardom. Yes, it seems comical yet why does it hurt when we laugh?

• The addiction to things “imported”. It seems that something is only good if it is from abroad. Even our poor domestic helpers who slave it out overseas are expected to bring in Nike’s and other prized items when they come home lest they disappoint their relatives.

• Speaking of overseas workers, the very existence of this very large group of wage earners by and of itself is an eloquent indictment of our system which fails to provide local employment opportunities for even the highly educated among our people. That many of these workers accept domestic helper employment has helped to create the impression in many countries that we are a nation of “maids” and it is thus not surprising that the world looks down on us.

• The seeming inability to effectively address the massive gridlock that our traffic jams create. We are held hostage, it seems, to the “jeepney” system of transportation and no political leader has the guts, the vision nor the innovative thinking required to re revamp this system. Not only are we “choked” by the traffic but by the resulting smog as well. Nothing to be proud of, for sure

We could go on and on and my point is that we are the laughing stock of the civilized world not because we do not appreciate the accomplishments of many Filipinos; it is because we have all kinds of messes which we either brought about deliberately or allowed to grow into various festering menaces.

So, rather than mask the negative image the Rizal Park massacre created we ought to use it as the impetus to once and for all truly face our problems and take serious steps to correct them. How the massacre investigation is conducted and reported can either be a first step in the long and arduous task of redeeming our image, or it can add yet another nail to the crucifixion that our country has been subjected to for over 50 years. Soul searching and principled actions, not hollow gestures, will be our road to redemption, and away from laughability