Rodel J. Ramos
We can’t solve a lot of problems in the Philippines because of many wrong assumptions. Most people believe that if we elect an honest president, that all our problems will vanish. We are used to believing and waiting for a messiah who will come to take away all our problems and bring us heaven without doing anything or what is worse, doing all the wrong things to ourselves and blaming it on God or others.
We are living in illusions and fantasies. No one being can solve the problems of almost 100 million people no matter how brilliant, honest and good intentioned he is. Even superman of Jesus Christ can’t.
Present situation
We elected an honest president but we also elected a lot of corrupt officials who put roadblocks in his path. And he is not perfect like all of us. While he now has many partners in Congress, it is a volatile marriage of convenience. He does not control the Senate. We see the Justice Department are appointees of former president Gloria Arroyo and so with the people in the Ombudsman even if Mercy Gutierrez has resigned to escape impeachment, still many in those department are corrupt. Corruption is still everywhere, in the Customs, BIR, DENR, Public Works, DOTC, the military, police, local governments from governors, mayors and even the Barangay officials.
And we have a people who vote for the most popular or sell them. Not only that, we do not patronize our products and would rather buy stateside, Japan or made in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Korea and Taiwan or the smuggled ones. Then we wonder why there are not jobs and we all have to go abroad to work and earn. A people who do not have faith in their own people and does not support them will always perish.
We also know that our president is not perfect and so are we. He did not wish to be president, we pushed him to it because we saw no better candidate than Pnoy. Did you want Erap, Cojuangco or the other candidates to win?
We have a broken system. Marcos made corruption an art, a science and an institution that has become a tradition and accepted as normal. Corrupt officials do not see it as a crime anymore and the people are indifferent to it.
While Cory Aquino was able to drive away Marcos, his cronies, partners in crime and those who perpetuated his evil regime were not removed from office. Their money, power are influence are still there to haunt the people and continue their corrupt practices. Juan Enrile, Fidel Ramos, Honasan and many most of their followers are still in control and so with Lucio Tan, Danding Cojuangco, the Benedictos and all their networks who cornered and manipulated businesses like sugar, coconut trucking, San Miguel Corp., banking, and others. Nothing much has changed with the power structure and our culture and traditions.
Injustice system?
The justice system takes too long, too expensive and judges and lawyers can be bought. Some people are taking the laws into their hands. The lower court takes from 15 to 20 years for a case to be settled. Then, it goes to the Court of Appeals for another 15 years and another 15 years in the Supreme Court. In 45 years, people will have already forgotten the details of the case and only the rich and powerful can last that long with their money and power. Many of the criminals are already old or dead. Imelda and their children were never punished and are in office again. The looted money was never recovered. I am pessimistic that Joseph Estrada, Gloria Arroyo and many of their partners in crime will ever be punished with this kind of system.
When people are not punished for their crimes, and in fact profit from it, they get bolder and continue their punitive ways. They have nothing to fear and can buy the best lawyers, judges and government people.
And there is the civil war of the Communists and the Muslims in the south which is draining our resources, lives and efforts.
And when the masses no longer are interested to punish the criminals or accept their faith as normal, who else will care to change the system?
Our problems are deep rooted with our mixed cultures and traditions. We were an enslaved people and many still have the mindset of slaves and servants or like our colonial masters. Many times, we are our worst enemies. We have negative attitudes and character from the past – too sensitive but insensitive to the feeling of others, the pakikisama, padrino system, tengge mentality, manana habit, palakasan.
We have made some of our people lazy with the remittance we are sending and idle mind is a devil’s workshop. They think that we shovel dollars in the streets overseas and rob us of what we work for even when we go home.
Who will change the system?
We should perhaps ask ourselves if we are part of the broken system or part of the solution. We will be surprised that even those with good intentions are in fact the cause of our sufferings.
Who will start the change? The politicians and government officials benefit from corruption and so with the judges, policemen, military, Ombudsman and all their cronies. The business people who corrupt these people to get contracts will never reveal their part of their crimes being beneficiaries of it. The people are afraid of being witnesses.
Most of the people are indifferent and powerless. The different groups who are concerned and want to do something are very much divided. Most just want to talk, share their opinions and statements. Even if they do not know much about the issue, they want to express their ideas and impose it on government people as if they are the experts. “Dapat ganito, dapat ganuon,” they would say. But talk is cheap, anyone can do it.
But the worse thing is that we do not trust each other especially when it comes to money. Even those with money will not let go their resources unless they are the leaders or victims. We have to work on this trust because without it nothing will happen. And you know that only when we open our wallets can things start to move. Even if we pray every day to high heavens if we don’t work our dreams out it will not happen.
Our Strength
Not all Filipinos are corrupt. Even if all the government people are, that won’t be more than 1 million people. And like when we were colonized by a few thousand Spaniards, Americans and Japanese, we are now controlled and exploited by a few hundred thousand politicians, wealthy and powerful elites. And we let them.
Filipinos are easy to frighten. During Marcos time, when martial law was declared, most of the people did not resist. Filipinos when abroad see that they can’t get away with their crimes and mischief, they become law abiding. It means that they can be disciplined. But the rich and the poor must be treated equally before the law and the laws must be imposed. Most of our people are honest but anybody will try to break the law if they can get away with it. This is human nature.
We do not need everybody. Observe that Marcos was dethroned by less than 1% of the population. The corrupt in the country are probably only 1%, just as 5% of us own 85% of the wealth of the nation.
We are not short of talents, experience and knowledge. We have all the expertise and honest people we need. Filipinos manage many of the multinational corporations in the world and making their stockholders rich and powerful. We are trusted by other countries and people.
We are hard working and excel when we are given the incentives and rewards for doing good. Many times, flattery is enough for our big egos.
The OFWs and expatriates can be the heroes of the hour if they want to leave a legacy to future generation but they are like eagles hatched with the chicken and are afraid to fly.
We have the money and resources to change the situation. The 11 million Filipinos overseas can raise billions of dollars to start the change if we can only trust the right people to create that change and see a good plan to implement. We have seen how justice is implemented overseas and how corruption is minimized and can duplicate this in the country we love.
Focus on major problems and solutions
Not too many of us are in the fight with corruption and injustice. Just look at all the community organizations having parties and celebrations without significance to the country. Some send money for town projects but not even a handful is focused on injustice and corruption. Most of the money they raise goes to food, entertainment and rentals and they call it fund raising instead of fund wasting. If our organizations focus of these two major problems, our nation will be better.
Look outside the box
Stop studying our past. There is so little we can learn from our past because we have never been great as a nation. We have to look at what America, Germany, Japan, Korea, Singapore and other great nations have done to prosper and be rulers of the world. Stop being the servant and dream of becoming the master of our destinies. The only difference between us and other races is that we were taught that we are inferior to them and we believed. You are sons and daughters of a great and powerful God who have given us all the things we need to be prosperous, happy and live in peace. But we have to make our dreams come true.
What can be done?
We have to do this together. No one person or a small group can solve the problems.
If in each province, there are 1,000 OFWs and expatriates from that province who will be willing to contribute $1,000 each to a fund; this is $1 million dollars or P42 million pesos. With this money, we can reward whistle blowers and witnesses who will tell us who are corrupt in the government, hire investigators for cases, accountants to examine books, lawyers to bring them to court and defend the innocent. We can buy and install new technologies like surveillance cameras, spy equipment etc. in government offices to watch officials and get evidence.
It is not hard to get evidence because a lot of people know what is happening. They believe that it is not being corrupt when clients give them money and they are not asking. It is only when they ask that it becomes corruption. Just look at their assets and income.
We can focus in each major office where corruption is rampant like the customs, BIR, Public Works, Land Transportation and Communication, etc. Concentrate on the big fishes, not the small fries.
We can work for the Jury System to be installed in the country to make justice work faster, cheaper and more equal.
We can partner with honest politicians, the business community in the Philippines, the media, labor unions, the drivers, farmers, fishermen, students, professionals and the common masses to bring about the change we want. We can even partner with foreign governments and the U.N. to unearth hidden wealth and persecute these criminals in foreign countries.
Let us all be partners in this fight. As Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
Other lessons we can learn from
Briggette DePape, a Canadian activist said: “Politics should not be left to the politicians, and that democracy is not just about marking a ballot every few years. It is about ensuring, with daily engagement and resistance, that the vision we have for our society is reflected in the decision-making of our government.
We need a reminder that there are alternatives. We need a reminder that we have both the capacity to create change, and an obligation to.
The ending of injustices or the winning of human rights are never gifts from rulers but the fruit of struggle.
We can learn from Asmaa Mahfouz, the 26-year-old woman who issued a video calling for Egyptians to join her in Tahrir Square. People did, and they together made the Egyptian revolution. She said “As long as you say there is no hope, then there will be no hope, but if you go and take a stand, then there will be hope.”
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