The March For Change

GLIMPSES
Jose Ma. Montelibano

I have been traveling to several cities in the United States, seven this
trip and seven two months ago, giving priority to where Fil-Ams either were
bunched in great numbers or were of strategic influence. I had seen the
beginning of the US primaries, witnessed the great contest between Obama and
McCain, felt the shock of an economic downtrend that turned to a meltdown,
and now waiting eagerly as my Fil-Am hosts the new presidency launched on
the message of change.

In the same year, I saw the crisis of rice supply and outrageous price
increases, the removal of Joe de Venecia as Speaker of the House, the return
of Joc Joc Bolante from US detention and a continuing fertilizer
controversy, the removal of Manny Villar as Senate President, another failed
impeachment bid, and Danny Lim’s message of change.

Indeed, change is now inevitable, change that is not usual, change that
offers to be dramatic if not radical. Change does not target the Philippines
especially but the whole world; however, the Philippines is very vulnerable
to change. That is the fate of a people whose capacity for assimilation has
been intensified by a history of dependence. Ours is truly a fate that is
sensitive and often adaptive to the fate of other nations, particularly the
United States.

And it is the United States that is going through a process that almost all
of its population have little or no experience of. Many compare the present
crisis to the great crash depression 80 years ago, but the crisis is not
only economic, it is also deeply social, political, and global. As a
continuing vassal of the United States, the Philippines cannot but shudder
as America itself cringes in fear. Its own struggle to overcome poverty, to
dismantle corruption, and to stave off violence in Moroland and
NPA-influenced areas make the Philippines weak from internal pressure and
helpless before external challenges.

A reader asked me if I could also write about solutions as I have been quite
articulate about the ills that choke our people and country. In a
complicated situation, the answers are usually simplicity itself. When a
country is corrupt and judged by its peers to be so following a process of
measure applied evenly to other counties, it simply says that governance
should be good and clean. When the country is massively afflicted with
poverty, it simply says that greed and avarice have won over caring and
sharing. And when a people become victims of violence from war, rebellion
and summary executions, it simply means that personal or narrow agenda is
stronger than respect for life.

In my mind, as I am sure is also present in the minds of many, the answers
are simple, available, do-able and replicable. It is not that the answers
are missing or baffling, it is simply that we do not want them badly enough,
or not yet suffering enough. When those who govern are corrupt, people can
take them down from their lofty posts if the courts will not. When the
majority of Filipinos are poor, they can use their numbers to force change
and equitable treatment. Revolutions do not honor constitutions but creates
new ones. The problems that confront us have not hurt us to a point when we
simply move to eliminate them in the most direct and expeditious manner.

Because most of us are spiritually guided to give the other cheek, then we
do. Because that same guidance tells us that we must not confront wrong with
another wrong, we have no choice but to believe that the principle of good
being more powerful than evil will eventually cause a divine way out for
suffering victims. The Filipino’s obedience to teachings and resiliency in
the face of adversity have unfortunately combined to make him tolerant and
hopeful.

But even tolerance and hope cannot stop the march of change. Change is part
of a universal formula, a force that evens the odds and ultimately shows the
most effective pathway for progress or for justice. And change has begun in
America which had the most power to resist it. How can the Philippines then
avoid it?

The agents of change have not been silent or lazy in the Philippines. They
have simply misread the psyche of victims, or they have offered themselves
to be the answer when they do not carry the anointment of life. And in their
frustration, they presumed a ripeness that was not yet there but knocking
more loudly today. Poverty is a curse, corruption is a curse, and all curses
lead surely to violence and great pain.

Filipino-Americans are acutely sensitive to the dynamics of poverty and
corruption in the Philippines and decry not only the ugliness of social
cancers but the shame all Filipinos have to bear because of these. From
across oceans, Fil-Am advocates for change send clear messages that they,
too, will use the mood of change in America to trigger the changes they seek
in the motherland. There is no doubt that leaders in Fil-Am communities will
seek to be heard by an Obama presidency and Hillary possibly being the next
Secretary of State.

The demand for good governance will be better served if a corresponding
invitation for responsible citizenship will be presented to both government
and people. People powered revolutions had caused initial change in
governance which could not be sustained because citizens did not understand
that they, too, had to show the change they demanded from others.

Power need not always be the object of change; it can also be empowerment.
People forget that change in the form of empowered Filipinos dislodged power
twice in recent history. It is true that power can trigger change, but just
as true that the empowered can change the powerful. When a current situation
is not good, the powerful can lead others to change. If not, then they must
risk being changed.

What is clear is that more than usual change is the prognosis of the times.
As America and the rest of the developed world reel from the change that
buffets them, Filipinos everywhere must understand they are next.

Responses may be sent to jlmglimpses@gmail.com

–
“In bayanihan, we will be our brother’s keeper and forever shut the door to
hunger among ourselves.”