‘Where goest thou?’

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‘Where goest thou?’
By Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz

Living is hard and employment is scarce. Prices are high and take-home pays are low. Human dignity is also low and criminality is likewise high. There are less and less educated Filipinos and wherefore more and more ignorant ones. The multi-national corporations are raking in the money and the consumers are shelling out the little cash they have. The murderers, crooks and law breakers are becoming more daring while the police authorities are becoming less able to accomplish their task – if emerging as law offenders themselves. Human life has become cheap, human dignity is low and basic human rights are held but by a selected few.

The Executive Department is merely looking and talking much but in fact doing nothing much, if any. Most of the local public officials from the provincial to the municipal levels are indifferent to the miserable plight of their constituents – unless their own self-interests are being undermined by fed-up people in their jurisdictions. The relatively few wealthy individuals are well secured in both their lives and livelihood while millions of poor and miserable families are fast becoming not only more and more angry but also progressively feeling desperate. Meantime, the administration merrily continues taxing them from birth to death, charging them the infamous VAT.

“You are my boss!” When the over-all chief of government shouted such a surprising and promising declaration upon his assumption of office, the people thought they were really sovereign after all. They were actually then made to believe that government was of their making, by their own choosing and for their own well-being. Thus it was that they cheered long, loud and clear. They then thought that at last, their liberator has come and their liberation wherefore was at last on hand. But after less than three or so years, the on-the-ground reality came to fore and the “cat is out of the bag!” The previous administration was bad but the present one is not really that great either.

Question: What will the present government do? Will it simply show someone signing papers, holding folders and other futile advertisement of industry and dedication?

Question: What will the present generation do? Will it be contented by merely holding strikes, by simply making rallies and doing protest actions? Would people merely go to the streets and stage their “Noynoying” spectacle?

Question: Where goest thou, Philippines? You are anywhere but in possessing of truth, in experiencing justice, in enjoyment of peace, in foreseeing development.

(Reprinted with permission of Archbishop Emeritus Oscar V. Cruz, from www.ovc.blogspot.com)