By Teresa R. Tunay, OCDS A nagging question hereabouts is: what causes poverty in the Philippines: corruption or overpopulation? To justify corruption it is easy to quash “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” with “Kung walang mahirap, walang corrupt.” And if you tell the “baby factories” that their “overproduction” is keeping the Philippines poor, they may squelch your arguments with “But our children are our wealth!”
We know that the
greed of the corrupt is never satisfied, and that the supposed “wealth” of the
poor are exploited as beggars, thieves and white slaves. Lest we think that the
only cause of poverty in our country is either corruption or overpopulation, I
dare say it is neither. The real culprit
is lack of love. We do not really love
ourselves and our country.
Notice that hardly
anyone sings the national anthem at the movie theaters? People stand up when it is played but they
don’t sing; some continue to chat, giggle, or eat. Mine may be an unscientific observation but I
think it indicates an indifference of some kind.
We are gung-ho about
selling the Philippines as a prime tourist destination without realizing that
we have a responsibility to present a respectable country, culture and people
to visitors by employing well-trained tour guides. Like ambassadors, tour guides are a country’s
call cards; what they say creates the first impression visitors have of us.
On those times I’ve
accompanied international conference delegates on day tours, I’d cringe to see official
tour guides at a loss when asked about something outside of their memorized
spiels. At a calesa tour of Intramuros I was appalled to hear the rig driver mention
an underground tunnel that “in the Spanish time” connected a nunnery and a
monastery “where the priests and the nuns would meet at night”. A friend of mine who showed her Balikbayan
relatives around Intramuros, too, said their tour guide was an articulate and
engaging performer but he seemed to have a hidden agenda as he made comments to
take digs at respected persons in our society.
In telling the world
“It’s more fun in the Philippines”—without addressing the age old problem of
uncollected trash, urban street dwellers, bus terminal toilets, ill-maintained resort
facilities, and the peace and order situation, etc.—what kind of “fun” exactly
are we trying to sell?
One big sore that
continues to fester in our consciousness is the presumption that Manila is the
Philippines, and that what matters most for the country is what the Manila
media’s headlines reveal. As divisive as
that viewpoint is that which presupposes that the worthiest Filipinos are those
who make decisions and pass laws. Our
preoccupation with the affairs of those headliners, in fact, could dull our
sensitivity to the needs of our fellow countrymen in the shadows—those in
remote barangays and far flung islands—they are Filipinos, too, and they are
too poor to care about oil price hikes, politicians’ popularity surveys, the
impeachment trial, even the blazing issue of the RH Bill.
Who really cares? Politicians own islands big enough for their
whole clan to live in while the island residents do not even have electricity
and proper toilets. It is no wonder then
that their constituents would rather migrate to Manila to squat and sleep like
sardines in hovels.
And in the Big City,
are we really expressing “solidarity with the poor” when we give them old toys
and used clothes during Christmas? What
concept of charity would children of the rich have when from a tender age they
are shown that discarded toys are good enough for the poor while they always have
new ones? What kind of love do the rich
show when they invite orphans to their homes in exclusive villages to partake
of their Christmas feast? They feel nice
about “doing good” but have they ever wondered how these orphans feel or think
once they are back to their bowl of lugaw
at the orphanage? May not love move
“charitable people” to want less, to be voluntarily poor, to say “enough” to
themselves, in order to create more opportunities to spread the nation’s wealth
more evenly?
The nation’s wealth in
natural resources is more than enough to free every Filipino from want but who
are benefitting from them? Not our small
kababayans. When our miners who risk their lives for a
measly pay are killed in collapsing mining pits, media cameras focus on the
victims and the “charity” people extend to their grieving families—again
another opportunity for do-gooders to shine—but where are the capitalists who
should have invested more in the workers’ safety in the first place? Why won’t the media expose them? Does the public even get to know who they
are?
Recently, a Vietnamese
boat was caught off Palawan smuggling 39 (!) marine turtles (four of them
dead). We have laws protecting our Green
Sea Turtle, a critically-endangered species.
The incident reached the local authorities’ ear but apparently not the
media. So, were the smugglers detained
or fined, the boat confiscated, the turtles returned to the sea? If anyone knew the answers, no one is saying
anything. Where is love of country
here? Whether it’s about a Taiwanese
boat illegally fishing off Batanes or Japanese tropical fish traders behind
dynamite fishing in Mindanao, the stories reflect a pattern of neglect on the
part of our authorities to protect our territory and resources. Are we simply being tolerant or are we
selling our country cheap?
What happened to the
Chinese nationals caught manufacturing shabu in Ayala Alabang? How come nothing was heard about them anymore
after the discovery? Didn’t our media
think it was newsworthy, as they did about the Filipino drug mules executed in
China? And speaking of drug mules, why
is it that no one runs after their “connections” in China? Do they want us to believe that our kababayans will peddle the smuggled
drugs by themselves in Tiananmen Square?
“Foreign aid” is
another item that goes unexamined in the Filipino’s vocabulary. Such aid never comes without strings attached; whether
it is cash, goods, medicines or military support given in exchange for our
natural resources and our cherished values as a people, we stand exploited,
believing we are helped when in fact we are being used. Sad to say, our leaders do not seem to know
any better, and in fact, would even tend to take advantage of our people’s
ignorance in entertaining “foreign aid”.
When those “Greeks bearing gifts” visit, along with “foreign investors”,
we wine and dine them, put up “cultural shows” for them and with our
world-famous smiles we persuade them to try Tinikling. Shouldn’t we, instead of boasting we’re “more
fun”, just call our beloved country “User-friendly Philippines”?
How many of those we
elect to public office truly love our country and our people? When they are bent on polishing their image,
cosmeticizing history to make heroes of themselves and eternal villains of
political enemies; when they substitute shallow slogans and publicists’ yarns
for solid leadership; when their pursuit of truth is propelled only by vested
interests; how can they unite us Filipinos to deliver ourselves from poverty
and march on to genuine progress?
We need to unshackle
ourselves from superficial thought habits in order to understand the true
meaning of freedom, heroism, democracy, service, human life—and be humble
enough to admit that we are our own oppressors.
Our national anthem ends with “Aming
ligaya na pag may mang-aapi, ang mamatay nang dahil sa iyo.” We claim to love the Philippines when our
athletes and beauty queens win and hit the headlines, but we do not love our
country enough to believe in it, fight for it, suffer for it, die for it. And that’s the truth.
(This article first appeared in And
that’s the truth, my column in the CBCP Monitor, the official newspaper of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines.--Teresa R. Tunay, OCDS)
