Implosion

GLIMPSES
Jose Ma. Montelibano

Having a very unpopular president does not only mean a person who is not liked and a performance with a low approval, it also is an indictment of governance as a whole. With shameful corruption and poverty conditions, and sporadic violence and terrorism which earn for the Philippines adverse travel advisories from some countries, Filipinos seem to be going around in circles searching for a dream for a future full of hope. It is a wonder how an impoverished people have been so tentative about rising against their exploiters, how extended suffering has not resulted in classical bloody revolutions as had occurred in Europe, Central and South America, Africa and Asia.

Many social scientists have pointed to a deeply spiritual culture where life on earth is extended by a life in heaven. While religion had been seen as opium by a revolutionary, Catholicism is certainly not the first experience of spirituality by natives of the Philippines. Millennia have witnessed tribes or regions evolve their own belief systems, embellished with rituals for practically everything. The propensity for rituals is not an introduction by Catholicism, but has influenced it despite objections of many of its more conservative religious hierarchy. Truly, Filipinos possess an inner spirit so prayerful and celebratory that it allows them to endure suffering and even find openings for festivities.

I was also curious why the revolution of the Left could not find enough support from the majority of Filipinos who not only consider themselves poor but look at the political, economic and justice system as unfair. I cannot find any answer beyond an embedded spiritual and celebratory spirit, and perhaps, an offered ideology that the Filipino cannot seem to understand. Most Filipinos, though claimed to be Catholics by the dominant religion, have little knowledge about the intricacies of the Christian faith. With less than half of students finishing high school in the public school system and a third of the population merely existing in survival mode, the sophistication of philosophy and theology must be as alien as the life of extra-terrestrials.

In Catholicism, though, are specific components of a belief system that Filipinos can strongly resonate with, most especially the imagery of a family and the promise of bliss in an afterlife. Father, mother and son, not separately but together, are entities of a family that Catholicism put on a pedestal - and which draw Filipinos like water to fish. Religious feasts, saints and eternity in joyous heaven are simply too attractive to be dismissed, hewing closely to what had been valued by ancestral belief systems. If there has been a steady decline in the membership of the Catholic Church, it has less to do with its religious beliefs than with its management attitude and performance. In other words, bishops, priests and nuns convert, but they can also lose or even drive away believers.

Due to a four century history where Church and State combined to govern a conquered people, the performance of one automatically affects the other. A beloved Church can mitigate an unpopular State, or vice-versa. Among Filipinos, Church and State have an umbilical relationship where divorce is not yet an option. At rare moments, Church and State go at each other, but rarely. When Cardinal Sin came out against Marcos and Estrada, both presidents had established the causes for their own removal. While the two presidents had their loyalists, the intense antagonism their opponents had for them was enough equity for Cardinal Sin to partner with and trigger two people-powered revolutions. Today, there is no Cardinal Sin. Today, the unpopularity of one, unopposed by the other, deeply frustrates flock and citizenry.

The law unevenly applied has the same impact as the sermon inconsistently practiced. When laws and commandments can be disregarded, or distorted, by the hierarchy of the State and the Church, the Filipino Christian is skewered both ways. As citizens, Filipinos can more quickly get rid of governments than, as Catholics, Filipinos can get rid of Church leaders. But enough pressure at certain moments of history had proven that officials of both State and Church can be removed. Elections have made changes more possible in the State, but sustained complaints by the laity have also managed to have priests and bishops replaced.

The present conditions are building up to major changes due to serious criticisms at how life in the Philippines is today. Taking off from religion as opium, or the great promise of a life that is opposite the actual conditions of an impoverished and exploited people, the State has made lottery as its secular translation of the same principle. What cannot be offered through economic opportunities is offered through jackpots in sweepstakes and lotto, even jeuteng. Definitely, the State has been more creative than the Church in mounting counter moves to placate a frustrated people, from subsidies to gambling. The Church only has the more dedicated among the religious to offset the negativity of any unpopular hierarchy. Indeed, many of these overworked front liners consistently sustain fidelity to teachings.

Meanwhile, disillusionment continue to grow in the hearts of Filipinos. Fortunately, there are many who are committed to reform, not yet enough to achieve it but enough to grow the spirit. Surveys have already pointed out that the efforts of NGOs and some local government units have somehow mitigated the unpopularity of the State and the timidity of the Church in the face of corruption and a deepening poverty. Truly, the goodness of a few can go a long way to stoking hope among the many.

There is an implosion building up in Philippine society. A dark reality inherits a deep urge for its opposite. As failing leaderships desperately attempt to improve some of their performance and disguise the shame of their wrongdoings, Filipinos feel the despair and anger well up in their souls. Their inaction is simply because they do not know as yet what exactly to do. The officials of Church and State, though, cannot take comfort in that temporary hiatus as tension continues to build up in their hearts. That is precisely the nature of an imploding situation - deceptive quiet before a sudden eruption.
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“In bayanihan, we will be our brother’s keeper and forever shut the door to hunger among ourselves.”