Jose Ma. Montelibano
When I began writing for the Inquirer, I remembered so many opinion pieces
from other writers who wrote as early as two decades ahead of me. These
essays and commentaries, though, carried much of the same – the angst, the
disappointments, the weakness of Philippine democracy, the massiveness of
poverty, the ugliness of corruption. I myself carried the tradition of
speaking about the same issues even though I try to be creative in my
presentation.
There seems little reason for writing about brighter prospects. Since twenty
years ago, the growing number of Filipinos who left to seek employment in
other countries speaks loudly of the dearth of opportunities in our country.
Bad news, though, is presented as good news, and the lack of jobs here
hidden under reports of huge inward remittances from abroad.
Poverty is not about a lack of money. It only seems so. Poverty is a lack of
caring, a triumph of exploitation, a victim of greed. One of its most
manifest consequences is a lack of money but is not the cause. Dismantling
poverty is not about giving money to the poor, it is about returning
dignity, it is about opportunity, it is about land tenure, decent homes and
the constancy of food supply. It is about a deep sense of justice, the
struggle to attain equality, and regarding the poor as brothers and sisters
of one nation, of one God.
We have dishonored ourselves. When we followed the bad examples of many of
our political and moral leaders rather than the honorable behavior of a few
of them, when we severed our relationships with one another rather than hold
our ground as a people of honor, we shamed ourselves and have inherited a
curse that we can exorcise only by a path of nobility and sacrifice.
Does it really matter if presidents are corrupt and public sinners, if
cardinals and bishops choose pomp and form over integrity and substance, if
lawmakers become lawbreakers, if justices mete out injustice? Will their
wrongdoing be valid excuse for our own cowardice, for our tolerance of evil,
for our lack of resolve to stay honest, to stay pure, to stay faithful to
the revered values of our forefathers? What then is the purpose of
conscience and a personal relationship with God if we exchange it for
personal convenience, or if we follow the hypocrisy of leaders simply
because they are the chain of command?
It is not only the well-being of our nation that is threatened, it is our
very national soul, it is the spirit of our race. Corruption is evil,
poverty is evil, hunger is evil. There are no excuses for committing these
evils, and no excuses either for tolerating them. Most of us have not
committed them but most of us have learned to live in peace with them. That
is no less a sin. And the sins of our pastors and politicians will not
mitigate our accountability to be the best we can be.
It has been said many times, in many ways, that our destiny is in our hands.
There has never been a greater truth no matter which way this reality has
been described. Even at the point of a barrel of a gun, a person can choose
honor over death. That is how the Creator ensured that our destiny is in our
own hands.
Poverty demeans humanity not only in the flesh, but more so in spirit and
purpose. Poverty narrows the capacity of the flesh and constricts the option
of the mind. Yet, even the victims of poverty are not exempt from the
responsibility of their humanity; even the poor are not exempt from choosing
good over evil, from choosing honor over shame. But when the poor fail to
choose the right way, those who enslaved them to poverty will share in their
failure and the consequences of their failure. Truly, those who lead others
to perdition have a special place in hell, and hopefully, in Bilibid Prison,
too.
So much anger, hate and scorn have been heaped on all types of leaders of
our society, but our lives have not improved simply because of our
disappointment and disdain. And the suffering of people, whether from
corruption, poverty or violence have not eased either. No matter the
resentment citizens carry, no matter the dismay the flock feel, our country
and our religions have not prospered. It is utter stupidity on our part to
continue wallowing in self-pity even if it is easier to do so than do the
unusual. We have no more choice, though, but to do what we have seldom done
as a people.
We must act as a people. Only a people's act can confront and neutralize the
constant weakness and failure of leadership. Only a people's act can build
the platform of change and trigger the process of transformation. When
leaders fail and fall, only people acting as one can lift a nation from
shame to glory.
But leadership will not disappear. As a people act, leaders among them will
rise and show the way, leaders who were not elected, leaders who were not
appointed, leaders who were not ordained. In no instance in human history
have people acted without leaders yet avoided the chasm of chaos. Leaders
from our midst will take their rightful place not by their ambition but by
the power of their good deeds and their brave hearts. But these leaders will
not be in fancy uniforms with fancy titles and working out of fancy offices;
they will be ordinary people with extraordinary integrity and love for their
God and motherland.
People must act and be the example of righteousness. People must act and
reclaim their birthright, as children of God and as children of Inang Bayan.
People must act and show the way to reform, be the change they seek, and
rise as guardians of a nation's hope. Only by a people's act. ***
--
Confucius: "Cowardice is seeing what is right, and failing to do it."
--
"In bayanihan, we will be our brother's keeper and forever shut the door to
hunger among ourselves."
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