First of all, we apologize for reposting this WITHOUT permission. But we believe in Mr Suretsky's strong and enlightening message. Thank you for your eloquence in addressing the Filipino people without sounding condenscending. And thank you for your love for the Philippines. Sadly to admit, it sounds like you love the Philippines more than most Filipinos especially the politicians. But you reached us with your message and we'll try to spread your sentiments. Again, salamat po.
BE PROUD TO BE A FILIPINO
By Barth Suretsky
Undated
My decision to move to Manila was not a precipitous one. I used to work in New York as an outside agent for PAL, and I have been coming to the Philippines since August, 1982. I was so impressed with the country, and with the interesting people I met, some of which have become very close friends to this day, that I asked for and was granted a year's sabbatical from my teaching job in order to live in the Philippines.
I arrived here on August 21, 1983, several hours after Ninoy Aquino was shot, and remained here until June of 1984. During that year I visited many parts of the country, from as far north as Laoag to as far south as Zamboanga, and including Palawan. I became deeply immersed in the history and culture of the archipelago, and an avid collector of tribal antiquities from both northern Luzon, and Mindanao.
In subsequent years I visited the Philippines in 1985, 1987, and 1991, before deciding to move here permanently in 1998. I love this country, but not uncritically, and that is the purpose of this article. First, however, I will say that I would not consider living anywhere else in Asia, no matter how attractive certain aspects of other neighboring countries may be.
To begin with, and this is most important, with all its faults, the Philippines is still a democracy, more so than any other nation in Southeast Asia. Despite gross corruption, the legal system generally works, and if ever confronted with having to employ it, I would feel much more safe trusting the courts here than in any other place in the surrounding area.
The press here is unquestionably the most unfettered and freewheeling in Asia, and I do not believe that is hyperbole in any way! And if any one thing can be used as a yardstick to measure the extent of the democratic process in any given country in the world, it is the extent to which the press is free.
But the Philippines is a flawed democracy nevertheless, and the flaws are deeply rooted in the Philippine psyche. I will elaborate... The basic problem seems to me, after many years of observation, to be a national inferiority complex, a disturbing lack of pride in being Filipino.
Toward the end of April I spent eight days in Vietnam, visiting Hanoi, Hue, and Ho Chi Minh City. I am certainly no expert on Vietnam, but what I saw could not be denied: I saw a country ravaged as no other country has been in this century by thirty years of continuous and incredibly barbaric warfare. When the Vietnam War ended in April, 1975, the country was totally devastated. Yet in the past twenty-five years the nation has healed and rebuilt itself almost miraculously! The countryside has been replanted and reforested. Hanoi and HCMC have been beautifully restored.
The opera house in Hanoi is a splendid restoration of the original, modeled after the Opera in Paris, and the gorgeous Second Empire theater, on the main square of HCMC is as it was when built by the French a century ago. The streets are tree-lined, clean, and conducive for strolling. Cafes in the French style proliferate on the wide boulevards of HCMC. I am not praising the government of Vietnam, which still has a long way to travel on the road to democracy, but I do praise, and praise unstintingly, the pride of the Vietnamese people.
It is due to this pride in being Vietnamese that has enabled its citizenry to undertake the miracle of restoration that I have described above. When I returned to Manila I became so depressed that I was actually physically ill for days thereafter.
Why? Well, let's go back to a period when the Philippines resembled the Vietnam of 1975. It was 1945, the end of World War II, and Manila, as well as many other cities, lay in ruins. (As a matter of fact, it may not be generally known, but Manila was the second most destroyed city in the entire war; only Warsaw was more demolished!).
But to compare Manila in 1970, twenty-five years after the end of the war, with HCMC, twenty-five years after the end of its war, is a sad exercise indeed. Far from restoring the city to its former glory, by 1970 Manila was well on its way to being the most tawdry city in Southeast Asia. And since that time the situation has deteriorated alarmingly. We have a city full of street people, beggars, and squatters. We have a city that floods sections whenever there is a rainstorm, and that loses electricity with every clap of thunder. We have a city full of potholes, and on these unrepaired roads we have a traffic situation second to none in the world for sheer unmanageability.
We have rude drivers, taxis that routinely refuse to take passengers because of "many trappic!" The roads are also cursed with pollution-spewing buses in disreputable states of repair, and that ultimate anachronism, the jeepney! We have an educational system that allows children to attend schools without desks or books to accommodate them. Teachers, even college professors, are paid salaries so disgracefully low that it's a wonder that anyone would want to go into the teaching profession in the first place. We have a war in Mindanao that nobody seems to have a clue how to settle. The only policy to deal with the war seems to be to react to what happens daily, with no long range plan whatever. I could go on and on, but it is an endeavor so filled with futility that it hurts me to go on. It hurts me because, in spite of everything, I love the Philippines.
Maybe it will sound simplistic, but to go back to what I said above, it is my unshakable belief that the fundamental thing wrong with this country is a lack of pride in being Filipino. A friend once remarked to me, laconically: "All Filipinos want to be something else. The poor ones want to be American, and the rich ones all want to be Spaniards. Nobody wants to be Filipino."
That statement would appear to be a rather simplistic one, and perhaps it is. However, I know one Filipino who refuses to enter a theater until the national anthem has stopped being played because he doesn't want to honor his own country, and I know another one who thinks that history stopped dead in 1898 when the Spaniards departed!
While it is certainly true that these represent extreme examples of national denial, the truth is not a pretty picture. Filipinos tend to worship, almost slavishly, everything foreign. If it comes from Italy or France it has to be better than anything made here.
If the idea is American or German it has to be superior to anything that Filipinos can think up for themselves. Foreigners are looked up to and idolized. Foreigners can go anywhere without question. In my own personal experience I remember attending recently an affair at a major museum here. I had forgotten to bring my invitation. But while Filipinos entering the museum were checked for invitations, I was simply waived through. This sort of thing happens so often here that it just accepted routine.
All of these things, the illogical respect given to foreigners simply because they are not Filipinos, the distrust and even disrespect shown to any homegrown merchandise, the neglect of anything Philippine, the rudeness of taxi drivers, the ill-manners shown by many Filipinos are all symptomatic of a lack of self-love, of respect for and love of the country in which they were born, and worst of all, a static mind-set in regard to finding ways to improve the situation.
Most Filipinos, when confronted with evidence of governmental corruption, political chicanery, or gross exploitation on the part of the business community, simply shrug their shoulders, mutter "bahala na," and let it go at that. It is an oversimplification to say this, but it is not without a grain of truth to say that Filipinos feel downtrodden because they allow themselves to feel downtrodden. No pride.
One of the most egregious examples of this lack of pride, this uncaring attitude to their own past or past culture, is the wretched state of surviving architectural landmarks in Manila and elsewhere. During the American period many beautiful and imposing buildings were built, in what we now call the "art deco" style (although, incidentally, that was not a contemporary term; it was coined only in the 1960s). These were beautiful edifices, mostly erected during, or just before, the Commonwealth period.
Three, which are still standing, are the Jai Alai Building, the Metropolitan Theater, and the Rizal Stadium. Fortunately, due to the truly noble efforts of my friend John Silva, the Jai Alai Building will now be saved. But unless something is done to the most beautiful and original of these three masterpieces of pre-war Philippine architecture, the Metropolitan Theater, it will disintegrate. The Rizal Stadium is in equally wretched shape.
When the wreckers' ball destroyed Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, and New York City's most magnificent building, Pennsylvania Station, both in 1963, Ada Louise Huxtable, then the architectural critic of The New York Times, wrote: "A disposable culture loses the right to call itself a civilization at all!" How right she was! (Fortunately, the destruction of Pennsylvania Station proved to be the sacrificial catalyst that resulted in the creation of New York's Landmark Commission. Would that such a commission be created for Manila...)
Are there historical reasons for this lack of national pride? We can say that until the arrival of the Spaniards there was no sense of a unified archipelago constituted as one country. True. We can also say that the high cultures of other nations in the region seemed, unfortunately, to have bypassed the Philippines; there are no Angkors, no Ayuttayas, no Borobudurs. True.
Centuries of contact with the high cultures" of the Khmers and the Chinese had, except for the proliferation of Song dynasty pottery found throughout the archipelago, no noticeable effect. True. But all that aside, what was here? To begin with, the ancient rice terraces, now threatened with disintegration, incidentally, was an incredible feat of engineering for so-called "primitive" people. As a matter of fact, when I first saw them in 1984, I was almost as awe-stricken as I was when I first laid eyes on the astonishing Inca city of Machu Picchu, high in the Peruvian Andes.
The degree of artistry exhibited by the various tribes of the Cordillera of Luzon is testimony to a remarkable culture, second to none in the Southeast Asian region. As for Mindanao, at the other end of the archipelago, an equally high degree of artistry has been manifest for centuries in woodcarving, weaving and metalwork.
However, the most shocking aspect of this lack of national pride, even identity, endemic in the average Filipino, is the appalling ignorance of the history of the archipelago since unified by Spain and named Filipinas.
The remarkable stories concerning the Galleon de Manila, the courageous repulsion of Dutch and British invaders from the 16th through the 18th centuries, even the origins of the Independence movement of the late 19th century, are hardly known by the average Filipino in any meaningful way.
And thanks to fifty years of American brainwashing, it is few and far between the number of Filipinos who really know - or even care - about the duplicity employed by the Americans and Spaniards to sell out and make meaningless the very independent state that Aguinaldo declared on June 12, 1898.
A people without a sense of history is a people doomed to be unaware of their own identity. It is sad to say, but true, that the vast majority of Filipinos fall in this category. Without a sense of who you are, how can you possibly take any pride in who you are?
These are not oversimplifications. On the contrary, these are the root problems of the Philippine inferiority complex referred to above. Until the Filipino takes pride in being Filipino these ills of the soul will never be cured.
If what I have written here can help, even in the smallest way, to make the Filipino aware of just who he is, who he was, and who he can be, I will be one happy expat indeed!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Protests – Where are they?
Hello Philippines! Remember Daniel Smith, the US Marine who was found guilty of raping a Filipina? Remember the hundreds of Filipinos that went ballistic and held protests and demonstrations against the US during the trial and when Smith was transferred to the US Embassy? Where are you now? Where are all those signs, placards, and effigies to show your outrage? Sixteen, dalawapu’t anim, fellow Filipinos suffered abuses from the hands of their Lebanese masters and not a single sign of protest against the Lebanese government. Not even a peep. Sixteen were abused including one that survived from being thrown from the 5th floor of an apartment building compared to one who claimed she was raped. The outrage this time should be at least 16 times more compared to the demonstration against the US. But where is it? Why isn’t the Philippine government, the president, making a formal statement to condemn those Lebanese that committed inhumane acts against the citizens of the Philippines? Where is the outrage? This lack of action clearly shows that previous actions especially those directed against the US and Australia are merely ‘for show’, mga palabas lang. There is no genuine concern, just a political ploy by those in power. It is no wonder that the Philippines is never taken seriously by the international community. The Philippines has no influence, just another third world country that can be taken advantage of and easily pacified - paid off - if it tries to complain. And this is evident by the action of the Philippine Embassy in Beirut and the DFA undersecretary. Their action is a slap in the face not just for those Filipinos that were maltreated but also for the entire Filipinos still working in Lebanon and in the whole Middle East. Instead of building a case and bringing criminal charges against those individual abusive Lebanese, the Philippines is taking actions for compensation, most likely monetary compensation. But this is covered by the work contract already. Esteban Conejor Jr’s assurance to “resolve outstanding compensation claims” is not very reassuring. In other words, the Philippine government agencies will fight for the rightfully due compensation for work or services already provided but covered by the work contract already rather than for human rights and the dignity of those Filipinos that were abused. There is either no recourse against foreign employers that commit criminal acts against Filipinos or the Filipino officials that are suppose to be protecting the citizens of the Philippines are downright incompetent. But either way, the OFWs are always the losers because the have no right and no protection and representation at all from their own government. Not until the elected Filipino officials fight for their fellow citizens will Filipinos be respected by other people. In the meantime, OFWs in the Middle East will continue to be treated not as humans but just as another working animal behind the horse and the camel but slightly ahead of the sheep and the goat. Good luck and try not to work for Arabs that live higher than the 5th floor. As Dumia said, “it is indeed miraculous that Pilipinas survived her fall (from the 5th floor)”. Pilipinas had set the record, a fairly high standard, for surviving a fall from a building. It is truly sad that the possibility of getting physically abused by the Arabs including getting thrown out from the 5th floor of an apartment building is still a better alternative than living in the Philippines. Ganyan talaga ang buhay. Or is it?
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Right Idea, Wrong Target
Even before the report of the probe about the political killings comes out, its findings will be anything but new information that the people do not know already. As always, it will be inconclusive, unable to determine the person or persons responsible. At most, the report will imply that the killings might be the work of some rogue members of the military and the usual convenient suspects, the NPA, communists. Of the two suspects, the military is the more plausible perpetrator because they have the means. But if the military is involved, it is not because they were rogue or acting on their own. Someone gave them the order to kill those people in cold-blood. On the other hand, the so-called ‘leftists’ as the perpetrators, though possible, is highly unlikely. They can barely collect their so-called ‘revolutionary tax’ from the common people. The last thing they want to do is become the enemy of the masses by openly killing fellow communists as their way of ‘cleansing their ranks of traitors’ as one senator suggested. This would be a very bad scenario for them. But regardless of who are being accused, the report will not determine the people responsible. The bottom line is the report will be a total sham. Palabas lang. The report will be done just for the Philippines to show that they are taking actions to stop the killings. It is also a way to pacify the UN inspectors or the other international human rights groups especially those that are involved in providing aid. They can challenge the validity of the report but they cannot enforce any kind of action to actually stop the killings. Therefore at the end, nothing will change. The killings will continue.
The obvious people responsible for the killings regardless of the motives are the politicians because they have the power and the means. They are the only ones that will benefit if the opposition, regardless of what they are, is eliminated. The opposition can be communists, as claimed by many politicians, or just members of other political parties. But the most important thing for the politicians in power is for the opposition to be eliminated.
The obvious perpetrators of these heinous crimes are members of the military. They definitely have the freedom and can move unobtrusively anywhere to commit these cold-blooded murders. But as a few politicians hinted in the media (what a surprise!), they are not rogue, operating on their own to get rid the country of ‘communists’. Surprisingly, this old tactic from the Marcos playbook that he often used to manipulate the US to give him more money to stop the ‘red tide’ or the ‘domino effect’ is still being used. They were ordered.
First of all, most Filipinos do not have initiative (as evident in the government), walang kusa na loob and will not do anything without anything in return (bayanihan is a myth – walang utang na loob is evoked if not there is no immediate reciprocation such as abot, lagay, bigay, o pa-inom as yelled by Manny Pacquiao after beating Morales, “Magpapa-inom ako!”). In other words, they cannot formulate to act on their own and if they do, it is in return for something. Nothing is free especially because of the current conditions. Therefore, it is highly unlikely for the military to act on its own without getting ordered and also getting some kind of incentive. For the politicians to suggest that the killings are perpetrated by ‘leftists’ against other ‘leftists’ as a way of cleansing their ranks of traitors is totally absurd. The systematic nature of the way the ‘oppositions’ are being eliminated strongly suggests a collusion between politicians and members of the military. Again, this is not something new. This is an old tactic from the Marcos era, before and during martial law. Naging mga bata at tuta na naman ng mga trapo ang military.
If the military is the actual triggerman, then the politicians are the ones calling the shots. They have tasted the power, and they like it. They want things to remain the same, status quo, for them. They would like to remain in that advantageous position and having access to the national treasury. Also, it would not be surprising if they have a hand on every crooked and corrupt dealings imaginable ranging from jueteng kickbacks or payoffs and other illegal forms of gambling, drug production and supply, land-grabbing, illegal logging and mining, prostitution, money-laundering, etc. If they are not directly involved, they have family members and close friends that they allow to conduct all the illegal activities. Anyone who tries to break the system is either bought off (there is certainly more than enough money to throw around) or killed as in the case of all the so-called leftists and leftist-sympathizers (they think that labeling those people they want killed as ‘leftist’ make the murders justifiable). Illegal and immoral activities continue as the politicians and their cronies efficiently plunder the country under the guise of a democratic state. No one will stop them as they extend the corruption to others that can be bought. And those with no price are killed. Sandiganbayan is a joke. It will never find anyone guilty for graft or corruption, let alone, give a life-in-prison or death sentence (capital punishment should be an option) if they ever find someone guilty. It is another useless bureaucratic institution. Palabas lang.
Because the tactics used are similar to that during the Marcos regime, it appears that the perpetrators are those that had ties with Marcos or least had come from that era. After all the years that had passed, they have managed to remain are in power or have a hand in government. They are the main reason why the Philippines cannot improve. They are the most corrupt, the most ruthless, and the most opportunistic parasites that are sucking the life out of the country. They will be defiant of any proposed changes and they will be strongly opposed to external intervention, sounding nationalistic as if they truly care about the country when all they care about is holding on to power. They might even sound like alarmist, already blaming the international community for the possibility that the conditions in the Philippines will worsen if an external organization like the UN or Amnesty International meddles with the affairs of the Philippines. It is already worse for most of the country. What they mean when they say that conditions will ‘worsen’ is theirs, not the country’s. The only condition they are concerned is theirs not the people of the Philippines or the country. They want to preserve their access to the riches of the country as they live a sheltered life of luxury in their haciendas and gated communities. The high walls and fences and their personal armies and bodyguards keep the suffering and struggling masses outside.
There is an old adage, “If you do what you have always done, then you will get what you have always gotten”. This seems to be the best way to describe the continuing vicious cycle of corruption that is perpetuating the suffering of the Philippines. With the upcoming senatorial election, the people will elect or will be forced to elect incompetent candidates that will not accomplish anything for the country but rob the national treasury instead. At the end, the politicians will always come out winners with fat pockets and the whole country and its people are the losers. But this cycle does not have to continue, and the people of the Philippines have all the ingredients to prevent such cycle from occurring.
Before the Philippines became a colony, apos and datus as heads of families and clans settled disputes with other clans with violent, bloody wars until peace is reached. Offenses within their own clans were settled quickly and even-handedly. Those found guilty of committing truly heinous crimes were beheaded. There was justice. Unlike today, known criminals get to enjoy the loot that they stole from the country as they await trial. They continue to live the life of luxury in the comforts of their multi-million houses. House arrest is a joke! This is another level of injustice. But there is a quick solution to this, a Filipino practice called salvaging. This particular practice unique to the Filipinos should not be limited as a form of reprisal. It should also be used as a form of punishment especially for the known and suspected corrupt government officials for their crimes against the country and its citizens. The Philippines will be better off with one less corrupt politician. The sooner they are eliminated, the sooner the country will get better from that cancer.
Drastic conditions require drastic measures. But the drastic measures that the Filipinos have taken were directed against the wrong targets or not the right course of action. At this point, the initial measures would have to be conducted simultaneously by the military, the leftists (NPAs and/or rebels), and the common citizens. First, the military needs to cleanse their ranks especially the high ranking officials that have become tuta at bata of the trapos. They need to bring back the honor and respect in the military. Most graduates of the PMA did not become officers and pledge allegiance to the Philippines so they can be mga tuta at bata to do all the dirty jobs for the politicians. They need to remember that their role is to defend the country and the Constitution from foreign and domestic enemies including fellow soldiers that have become the instrument of the trapos. Bribery and payoffs have become so common that they have undermined the military chain of command, stripping them of honor and prestige. Money is now ruling the military. But individual military personnel can take actions to stop this. Known and suspected officials must be eliminated quickly and simultaneously. This is the only way. Dissension in the ranks and demanding for change as tried by RAM do not work. It is open for betrayal especially when money rules the military. Many will change sides (as seen with the politicians now) betraying those that are true to the cause. This is exactly what happened with RAM. And at the end nothing happened. But if the corrupt high ranking officers are eliminated simultaneously, there will be immediate fear within the ranks and those remaining high ranking officers will think twice of trying to follow the footsteps of those eliminated. This is the most effective way of cleansing the ranks, from top to bottom. There will be bribes and money offered. Take the money and bribes but eliminate those that offer the bribe. First of all, the act of offering bribes shows that that person is corrupt. Therefore, by eliminating the person that offered the bribe, that corrupt person is eliminated, the person offered the bribe does not have to follow whatever the order that he is being bribed for, and other people that are considering offering bribes will be dissuaded. This will make bribery ineffective and will eventually end the practice.
While the military is cleansing their ranks, the rebels need to eliminate the trapos and the oppressive privileged elite. First of all, if the rebels are asking the common citizens, ang masa, for revolutionary tax, they need to stop that practice. The common citizens are poor. The rebels should be taking from the hacienderos and the extremely wealthy families that do not pay any tax at all. They should be the ones targeted. Second, if the rebels are targeting the local government officials, they need to stop that practice also because they are the wrong targets. Eliminating a barangay captain does not do anything for the Philippines. It has no impact. They need to aim for bigger targets, high-profile. Since the rebels will be blamed by the politicians for every killing anyway, the rebels need to start eliminating those politicians, their accusers. The rebels need to start eliminating all the mayors of big cities, governors, and all congressmen because they serve no purpose. Mga magnanakaw lang lahat sila. Again once the politicians have become not untouchables anymore, fear should spread quickly in the upper echelon of the government. Also, those that will replace them will be forced to do the right thing and be that righteous and honest civil servant for the Philippines. This is the only way to uproot and remove the corruption that is growing and thriving in the government.
The people of the Philippines need to show their elected leaders that there are job-related hazards and consequences for being incompetent and for failing to do their job as a civil servant. It might take some time for surviving government officials to start doing the right things for the country because of the deeply rooted corruption in the culture. But as long as the masses keep eliminating those that are corrupt and incompetent, competent and righteous (by nature or from the fear of getting eliminated) leaders will eventually replace them. They should be made an example for those aspiring to become a government official to dissuade the ones that are incompetent and immoral.
Yes, a revolution will be bloody and gruesome, but only for the privileged elite and/or the corrupt politicians. Do not wait for the other (pretending to care about the people) elected government officials to police their ranks and root out the corruption. The common people of the Philippines must take it upon themselves to root them out and get justice. The politicians and the military have started killing to preserve their corrupt ways. The common people need to start killing those corrupt individuals to kill corruption. The time in now and the place is anywhere.
The obvious people responsible for the killings regardless of the motives are the politicians because they have the power and the means. They are the only ones that will benefit if the opposition, regardless of what they are, is eliminated. The opposition can be communists, as claimed by many politicians, or just members of other political parties. But the most important thing for the politicians in power is for the opposition to be eliminated.
The obvious perpetrators of these heinous crimes are members of the military. They definitely have the freedom and can move unobtrusively anywhere to commit these cold-blooded murders. But as a few politicians hinted in the media (what a surprise!), they are not rogue, operating on their own to get rid the country of ‘communists’. Surprisingly, this old tactic from the Marcos playbook that he often used to manipulate the US to give him more money to stop the ‘red tide’ or the ‘domino effect’ is still being used. They were ordered.
First of all, most Filipinos do not have initiative (as evident in the government), walang kusa na loob and will not do anything without anything in return (bayanihan is a myth – walang utang na loob is evoked if not there is no immediate reciprocation such as abot, lagay, bigay, o pa-inom as yelled by Manny Pacquiao after beating Morales, “Magpapa-inom ako!”). In other words, they cannot formulate to act on their own and if they do, it is in return for something. Nothing is free especially because of the current conditions. Therefore, it is highly unlikely for the military to act on its own without getting ordered and also getting some kind of incentive. For the politicians to suggest that the killings are perpetrated by ‘leftists’ against other ‘leftists’ as a way of cleansing their ranks of traitors is totally absurd. The systematic nature of the way the ‘oppositions’ are being eliminated strongly suggests a collusion between politicians and members of the military. Again, this is not something new. This is an old tactic from the Marcos era, before and during martial law. Naging mga bata at tuta na naman ng mga trapo ang military.
If the military is the actual triggerman, then the politicians are the ones calling the shots. They have tasted the power, and they like it. They want things to remain the same, status quo, for them. They would like to remain in that advantageous position and having access to the national treasury. Also, it would not be surprising if they have a hand on every crooked and corrupt dealings imaginable ranging from jueteng kickbacks or payoffs and other illegal forms of gambling, drug production and supply, land-grabbing, illegal logging and mining, prostitution, money-laundering, etc. If they are not directly involved, they have family members and close friends that they allow to conduct all the illegal activities. Anyone who tries to break the system is either bought off (there is certainly more than enough money to throw around) or killed as in the case of all the so-called leftists and leftist-sympathizers (they think that labeling those people they want killed as ‘leftist’ make the murders justifiable). Illegal and immoral activities continue as the politicians and their cronies efficiently plunder the country under the guise of a democratic state. No one will stop them as they extend the corruption to others that can be bought. And those with no price are killed. Sandiganbayan is a joke. It will never find anyone guilty for graft or corruption, let alone, give a life-in-prison or death sentence (capital punishment should be an option) if they ever find someone guilty. It is another useless bureaucratic institution. Palabas lang.
Because the tactics used are similar to that during the Marcos regime, it appears that the perpetrators are those that had ties with Marcos or least had come from that era. After all the years that had passed, they have managed to remain are in power or have a hand in government. They are the main reason why the Philippines cannot improve. They are the most corrupt, the most ruthless, and the most opportunistic parasites that are sucking the life out of the country. They will be defiant of any proposed changes and they will be strongly opposed to external intervention, sounding nationalistic as if they truly care about the country when all they care about is holding on to power. They might even sound like alarmist, already blaming the international community for the possibility that the conditions in the Philippines will worsen if an external organization like the UN or Amnesty International meddles with the affairs of the Philippines. It is already worse for most of the country. What they mean when they say that conditions will ‘worsen’ is theirs, not the country’s. The only condition they are concerned is theirs not the people of the Philippines or the country. They want to preserve their access to the riches of the country as they live a sheltered life of luxury in their haciendas and gated communities. The high walls and fences and their personal armies and bodyguards keep the suffering and struggling masses outside.
There is an old adage, “If you do what you have always done, then you will get what you have always gotten”. This seems to be the best way to describe the continuing vicious cycle of corruption that is perpetuating the suffering of the Philippines. With the upcoming senatorial election, the people will elect or will be forced to elect incompetent candidates that will not accomplish anything for the country but rob the national treasury instead. At the end, the politicians will always come out winners with fat pockets and the whole country and its people are the losers. But this cycle does not have to continue, and the people of the Philippines have all the ingredients to prevent such cycle from occurring.
Before the Philippines became a colony, apos and datus as heads of families and clans settled disputes with other clans with violent, bloody wars until peace is reached. Offenses within their own clans were settled quickly and even-handedly. Those found guilty of committing truly heinous crimes were beheaded. There was justice. Unlike today, known criminals get to enjoy the loot that they stole from the country as they await trial. They continue to live the life of luxury in the comforts of their multi-million houses. House arrest is a joke! This is another level of injustice. But there is a quick solution to this, a Filipino practice called salvaging. This particular practice unique to the Filipinos should not be limited as a form of reprisal. It should also be used as a form of punishment especially for the known and suspected corrupt government officials for their crimes against the country and its citizens. The Philippines will be better off with one less corrupt politician. The sooner they are eliminated, the sooner the country will get better from that cancer.
Drastic conditions require drastic measures. But the drastic measures that the Filipinos have taken were directed against the wrong targets or not the right course of action. At this point, the initial measures would have to be conducted simultaneously by the military, the leftists (NPAs and/or rebels), and the common citizens. First, the military needs to cleanse their ranks especially the high ranking officials that have become tuta at bata of the trapos. They need to bring back the honor and respect in the military. Most graduates of the PMA did not become officers and pledge allegiance to the Philippines so they can be mga tuta at bata to do all the dirty jobs for the politicians. They need to remember that their role is to defend the country and the Constitution from foreign and domestic enemies including fellow soldiers that have become the instrument of the trapos. Bribery and payoffs have become so common that they have undermined the military chain of command, stripping them of honor and prestige. Money is now ruling the military. But individual military personnel can take actions to stop this. Known and suspected officials must be eliminated quickly and simultaneously. This is the only way. Dissension in the ranks and demanding for change as tried by RAM do not work. It is open for betrayal especially when money rules the military. Many will change sides (as seen with the politicians now) betraying those that are true to the cause. This is exactly what happened with RAM. And at the end nothing happened. But if the corrupt high ranking officers are eliminated simultaneously, there will be immediate fear within the ranks and those remaining high ranking officers will think twice of trying to follow the footsteps of those eliminated. This is the most effective way of cleansing the ranks, from top to bottom. There will be bribes and money offered. Take the money and bribes but eliminate those that offer the bribe. First of all, the act of offering bribes shows that that person is corrupt. Therefore, by eliminating the person that offered the bribe, that corrupt person is eliminated, the person offered the bribe does not have to follow whatever the order that he is being bribed for, and other people that are considering offering bribes will be dissuaded. This will make bribery ineffective and will eventually end the practice.
While the military is cleansing their ranks, the rebels need to eliminate the trapos and the oppressive privileged elite. First of all, if the rebels are asking the common citizens, ang masa, for revolutionary tax, they need to stop that practice. The common citizens are poor. The rebels should be taking from the hacienderos and the extremely wealthy families that do not pay any tax at all. They should be the ones targeted. Second, if the rebels are targeting the local government officials, they need to stop that practice also because they are the wrong targets. Eliminating a barangay captain does not do anything for the Philippines. It has no impact. They need to aim for bigger targets, high-profile. Since the rebels will be blamed by the politicians for every killing anyway, the rebels need to start eliminating those politicians, their accusers. The rebels need to start eliminating all the mayors of big cities, governors, and all congressmen because they serve no purpose. Mga magnanakaw lang lahat sila. Again once the politicians have become not untouchables anymore, fear should spread quickly in the upper echelon of the government. Also, those that will replace them will be forced to do the right thing and be that righteous and honest civil servant for the Philippines. This is the only way to uproot and remove the corruption that is growing and thriving in the government.
The people of the Philippines need to show their elected leaders that there are job-related hazards and consequences for being incompetent and for failing to do their job as a civil servant. It might take some time for surviving government officials to start doing the right things for the country because of the deeply rooted corruption in the culture. But as long as the masses keep eliminating those that are corrupt and incompetent, competent and righteous (by nature or from the fear of getting eliminated) leaders will eventually replace them. They should be made an example for those aspiring to become a government official to dissuade the ones that are incompetent and immoral.
Yes, a revolution will be bloody and gruesome, but only for the privileged elite and/or the corrupt politicians. Do not wait for the other (pretending to care about the people) elected government officials to police their ranks and root out the corruption. The common people of the Philippines must take it upon themselves to root them out and get justice. The politicians and the military have started killing to preserve their corrupt ways. The common people need to start killing those corrupt individuals to kill corruption. The time in now and the place is anywhere.
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