Dear Nani,
My attitude towards this recent incident is far from apathy and indifference. Just because I refused to be dragged into this chaos, does not necessarily mean that I am visually challenged. As a matter of fact, it is the other way around. Looking into the mess from above, one can see a different picture.
A picture that is inept of credibility and substance while having truckloads of ambition and selfishness. In summary, it is a case of wagging the dog. Like you, and most of the recipients of this mail, I am a student of political economy and history. And in both, one can arrive into conclusion that there are no shortcuts to reform. As a matter of fact, reform is not an end to itself but a continuous process that can only be fueled by perseverance and resolve. And this where I am coming from. I had been in two EDSAs. The first one, I did not know why I was there. The second one, I proudly vented my rage, from the first human chain to the following days, and proudly telling an American visitor that this is how Philippine democracy works. Never regretted that moment, yet looking back, very naive. Naive not because it was wrong. Naive because I was only half informed. This is why.
The Philippine political landscape had been like this ever since. Patronage politics is not new. As a matter of fact, we partly inherited it from the Americans. The difference was that, while the US was teaching the Indios how to govern the American way, our social and political structure is based on a feudal system of master and slave. It was a case of us being taught on how to use the tool but not the function (Doods, remember TRIZ?). Neither corruption is new. Even in the US, the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned about, looms in their political landscape, 50 years after his term ended. In Germany, the current news is the scandal about how the Lichtenstein officials were bribed to get information on bank deposits. In that case, people are agog about the bribery, but few asked why there is a cache of money, unreachable and nontaxable, therefore highly suspect for laundering or ill-gotten. Funny , but doesn't that remind us of our own country? In a system of checks and balances, it is ideal that whoever does the check is not related, by blood, affinity, or class, to the one who is being checked. This is not happening in our country. Ever since the time of the commonwealth, it was the landed rich who does the checking and who are being checked. What happened was a tool not used for its ideal function, but used as a way to preserve the status quo. The Spanish were partly correct not to let the reins of government transfered to the natives for that matter. The Americans gave it to us but we, through the oligarchs, mangled it terribly. This is still prevalent in our times. Dont take my word for it. Go check the family lines of the rooted rich of our country and you will find a traitor to the revolution and change that Rizal and Bonifacio died for. Geez, Bonifacio was even killed because the landed wanted to maintain the status quo. One, even doesnt have to go that far. Just look at the traitors of EDSA 1 and 2.
At this point, you may ask, where I am getting at? I wish I can say it is simple but it is not. The current affairs of the state is rooted in the sins of the past. The players are different but the characters are the same. That's why I was throwing the question of credibility and whose benefit are we playing our lives with. Look closely at the players who are agitating us to act. Why cant they charge those involved in the courts? Its obvious. It doesnt play well in their timelines and benefit. A senate hearing is televised but the courts hardly allows live coverage. One might argue that the courts are also corrupted. Oh c'mon, its stupidity to generalize. Besides, one congressman earns 60 Millon pesos as pork barrel every year. A senator maintains 200 Million. Cant they hire the best lawyers to get those people involved and send them to jail? They wont for a simple reason. It will go against the game plan and it wont serve the ambitions of the few. It takes great logistics to organize rallies and logistics require money. Where do you think the money is coming from? In contrast, that was the miracle and tragedy of EDSA 1. The miraculous unselfish love of the majority and the tragic exploitation and triumph of the selfish few. This is the reason that I refused to be dragged. Of course, this government is corrupt. So was the governments that preceded it. Invite me to a cup of coffee and I will tell how you can get rich by being corrupt even in just the barangay level. Why do you think they are willing to die just to get elected? But I'm not playing their game. By not playing their game, I think I'm honoring the activist tradition. I wont be dragged in demolishing the very institutions that we are bound as citizens to preserve. If we continue doing this, be ready and forewarned. We will be going to a place wherein none of our generation had ever encountered. When that happens, be ready to pick up a weapon because the fight wont happen in the mountains anymore. It will happen in the streets where our children play. That sounds exaggerated but history is telling us it will happen.
True, this is the time to be angry. I had been angry since time memorial and I'm pretty sure, my heart will give up anytime soon. However, are we angry to what is happening or are we falling into the terrible clutches of hate? It is easy to be misled that both are the same. However, the former begets virtue, while the latter begets only malice, the greatest evil ever described. Dont get me wrong. Im proud that Kris made his stand. Im prouder because he lit the fire of the pen. However, I still quote Bono and say Fuck the Revolution. There is no glory in a revolution that engulfs the very essence that it wants to save. Instead, Im praying for a revolution of the heart.
Im not alone in this prayer. As a matter of fact, there are a lot who are doing this. Its fruits can be seen in the houses that were built and the hopes that were restored. That revolution of the heart is sending scholars to our institutions and giving them a future worth fighting for. That same revolution is fueling the exodus of Filipino scientists coming home to build enterprises and keep this country moving forward. Its the same revolution that is in the heart of a lowly but brilliant engineer manning his machine, resisting the temptations of going abroad while saying "I can make this work". Its the same revolution thats fueling a teacher with a PhD who is teaching in the barrios of the Visayas. Believe me, my dear Nani, that it is happening.
An anecdote. Once, I was in a date with a friend and was traversing the EDSA flyover towards Pasay(..we were going to the Baywalk...dirty minds!!) when we saw an actual motor accident happened. Wanting to be a hero, I asked my driver to stop the car so that we can help out.(Half consciously, i was trying to impress my date.). Guess what? I wasn't alone who stopped and helped the guy. There were five other cars that stopped all wanting to help one way or another. Two taxi drivers managed the traffic in spite of their need to meet their boundary quotas. Another car, a Nisaan Cefiro, whose high profile driver, stepped out and was frantically calling every emergency station. Another, well to do man, was with me, talking to the fallen driver and keeping him conscious and applying what we know of first aid( or what we thought was first aid). Its a minuscule example, but that is the revolution of the heart. Geez, my previous company, logged a million hours of volunteer work(building, teaching, coaching, etc.) and made the communities better than a midscale subdivision.(Does your subdivision, have a library? Their barrio has one. Its even digital. No money directly donated.) . Now thats revolution. A revolution that wipes out indifference. A revolution without hate.
Charity's meaning is not relative. Its specific meaning is the love of thy neighbor. A lot of us subscribe to this not because we find our political landscape hopeless. We do it because we find the S.O.B.s who are manning the same landscape hopeless. Instead, we'll patiently work for the time when more and more people realize that its not what our country can do for us but what we can do for our country. When that time comes, and it will come, the revolution will be complete. Care to join?
best regards,
Richard
My attitude towards this recent incident is far from apathy and indifference. Just because I refused to be dragged into this chaos, does not necessarily mean that I am visually challenged. As a matter of fact, it is the other way around. Looking into the mess from above, one can see a different picture.
A picture that is inept of credibility and substance while having truckloads of ambition and selfishness. In summary, it is a case of wagging the dog. Like you, and most of the recipients of this mail, I am a student of political economy and history. And in both, one can arrive into conclusion that there are no shortcuts to reform. As a matter of fact, reform is not an end to itself but a continuous process that can only be fueled by perseverance and resolve. And this where I am coming from. I had been in two EDSAs. The first one, I did not know why I was there. The second one, I proudly vented my rage, from the first human chain to the following days, and proudly telling an American visitor that this is how Philippine democracy works. Never regretted that moment, yet looking back, very naive. Naive not because it was wrong. Naive because I was only half informed. This is why.The Philippine political landscape had been like this ever since. Patronage politics is not new. As a matter of fact, we partly inherited it from the Americans. The difference was that, while the US was teaching the Indios how to govern the American way, our social and political structure is based on a feudal system of master and slave. It was a case of us being taught on how to use the tool but not the function (Doods, remember TRIZ?). Neither corruption is new. Even in the US, the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned about, looms in their political landscape, 50 years after his term ended. In Germany, the current news is the scandal about how the Lichtenstein officials were bribed to get information on bank deposits. In that case, people are agog about the bribery, but few asked why there is a cache of money, unreachable and nontaxable, therefore highly suspect for laundering or ill-gotten. Funny , but doesn't that remind us of our own country? In a system of checks and balances, it is ideal that whoever does the check is not related, by blood, affinity, or class, to the one who is being checked. This is not happening in our country. Ever since the time of the commonwealth, it was the landed rich who does the checking and who are being checked. What happened was a tool not used for its ideal function, but used as a way to preserve the status quo. The Spanish were partly correct not to let the reins of government transfered to the natives for that matter. The Americans gave it to us but we, through the oligarchs, mangled it terribly. This is still prevalent in our times. Dont take my word for it. Go check the family lines of the rooted rich of our country and you will find a traitor to the revolution and change that Rizal and Bonifacio died for. Geez, Bonifacio was even killed because the landed wanted to maintain the status quo. One, even doesnt have to go that far. Just look at the traitors of EDSA 1 and 2.
At this point, you may ask, where I am getting at? I wish I can say it is simple but it is not. The current affairs of the state is rooted in the sins of the past. The players are different but the characters are the same. That's why I was throwing the question of credibility and whose benefit are we playing our lives with. Look closely at the players who are agitating us to act. Why cant they charge those involved in the courts? Its obvious. It doesnt play well in their timelines and benefit. A senate hearing is televised but the courts hardly allows live coverage. One might argue that the courts are also corrupted. Oh c'mon, its stupidity to generalize. Besides, one congressman earns 60 Millon pesos as pork barrel every year. A senator maintains 200 Million. Cant they hire the best lawyers to get those people involved and send them to jail? They wont for a simple reason. It will go against the game plan and it wont serve the ambitions of the few. It takes great logistics to organize rallies and logistics require money. Where do you think the money is coming from? In contrast, that was the miracle and tragedy of EDSA 1. The miraculous unselfish love of the majority and the tragic exploitation and triumph of the selfish few. This is the reason that I refused to be dragged. Of course, this government is corrupt. So was the governments that preceded it. Invite me to a cup of coffee and I will tell how you can get rich by being corrupt even in just the barangay level. Why do you think they are willing to die just to get elected? But I'm not playing their game. By not playing their game, I think I'm honoring the activist tradition. I wont be dragged in demolishing the very institutions that we are bound as citizens to preserve. If we continue doing this, be ready and forewarned. We will be going to a place wherein none of our generation had ever encountered. When that happens, be ready to pick up a weapon because the fight wont happen in the mountains anymore. It will happen in the streets where our children play. That sounds exaggerated but history is telling us it will happen.
True, this is the time to be angry. I had been angry since time memorial and I'm pretty sure, my heart will give up anytime soon. However, are we angry to what is happening or are we falling into the terrible clutches of hate? It is easy to be misled that both are the same. However, the former begets virtue, while the latter begets only malice, the greatest evil ever described. Dont get me wrong. Im proud that Kris made his stand. Im prouder because he lit the fire of the pen. However, I still quote Bono and say Fuck the Revolution. There is no glory in a revolution that engulfs the very essence that it wants to save. Instead, Im praying for a revolution of the heart.
Im not alone in this prayer. As a matter of fact, there are a lot who are doing this. Its fruits can be seen in the houses that were built and the hopes that were restored. That revolution of the heart is sending scholars to our institutions and giving them a future worth fighting for. That same revolution is fueling the exodus of Filipino scientists coming home to build enterprises and keep this country moving forward. Its the same revolution that is in the heart of a lowly but brilliant engineer manning his machine, resisting the temptations of going abroad while saying "I can make this work". Its the same revolution thats fueling a teacher with a PhD who is teaching in the barrios of the Visayas. Believe me, my dear Nani, that it is happening.An anecdote. Once, I was in a date with a friend and was traversing the EDSA flyover towards Pasay(..we were going to the Baywalk...dirty minds!!) when we saw an actual motor accident happened. Wanting to be a hero, I asked my driver to stop the car so that we can help out.(Half consciously, i was trying to impress my date.). Guess what? I wasn't alone who stopped and helped the guy. There were five other cars that stopped all wanting to help one way or another. Two taxi drivers managed the traffic in spite of their need to meet their boundary quotas. Another car, a Nisaan Cefiro, whose high profile driver, stepped out and was frantically calling every emergency station. Another, well to do man, was with me, talking to the fallen driver and keeping him conscious and applying what we know of first aid( or what we thought was first aid). Its a minuscule example, but that is the revolution of the heart. Geez, my previous company, logged a million hours of volunteer work(building, teaching, coaching, etc.) and made the communities better than a midscale subdivision.(Does your subdivision, have a library? Their barrio has one. Its even digital. No money directly donated.) . Now thats revolution. A revolution that wipes out indifference. A revolution without hate.
Charity's meaning is not relative. Its specific meaning is the love of thy neighbor. A lot of us subscribe to this not because we find our political landscape hopeless. We do it because we find the S.O.B.s who are manning the same landscape hopeless. Instead, we'll patiently work for the time when more and more people realize that its not what our country can do for us but what we can do for our country. When that time comes, and it will come, the revolution will be complete. Care to join?
best regards,
Richard
