We have to educate Filipinos...

Dear Patriots:

I feel your tears and anguish over the endemic poverty and misery of our dear Filipinas. We all writhe in the seeming ceaseless travail of our people. Yes, there is corruption, ignorance, and dare I say idiocy of our people. We keep on electing incompetent and corrupt politicians. We cannot seem to punch our way out of a paper bag. We continue to elect celebrities, warlords, oligarchs, hereditary monarchical families and their idiotic breed. Corruption is retailed in all regions, provinces, cities and towns. There is a dearth of truly idealistic and principled men. After we throw the corruptocrats out of office, the prevailing cry will then be, “Yay, it’s our turn! Happy days are here again” Pray Lord, will this end?

After EDSA, how come we still have the Marcos’ and their malignant offspring in power. We really plunged into the deepest sludge of venality during this kleptocratic regime. We are still suffering from the metastatic cancer of that evil empire. However we do it, they and their progeny have to be excised and expunged from our land. They are well entrenched with their billions. They still buy power and we still accept their lies and deceit.

To recapitulate, after Marcos he was followed by an idealistic and hopeful but unprepared Corazon Aquino, whose term was bedraggled by natural disasters and calamities and further exacerbated by rightwing and leftwing schemers. Aquino was then followed by another idealistic West Point graduate, General Fidel Ramos who for some injudicious reason paired himself with an idiotic celebrity and movie star Joseph Estrada. To our eternal ruin our bakya crowd elevated him to the presidency. Ramos had a supporting cast of goons with the likes of Juan Ponce Enrile, a Marcos confederate and his trailing troupe of crooked actors. As they say, if you sleep with dogs, you are going to get fleas. We then elected a brilliant daughter of a former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, classmate of Bill Clinton, with a doctorates in economics. She brought some of the greatest economic growth in the Philippine economy with our GDP exceeding 7%. She was married by a spouse accused of corruption and she too was accused of election fraud. We just cannot keep it clean. I was not present to know if the accusations were true, but the tune was still the same. Then the merry-go-round followed. Now, we have an idealistic President Noynoy Aquino, scion of an illustrious couple. Still we have the continuing counterbalance of sleaze and fraud in all areas of power and government. Much as I love Manny Pacquiao, we may yet elect a punch drunk and stuttering ignoramus to the presidency.

What is wrong? I am afraid to suggest that we may need a Lee Kuan Yew. We need a man of great intelligence and unblemished integrity with a compulsive urge to smite and crush corrupt officials and their ilk; a man with the backbone to withstand the barrage of a hostile press and the fearlessness to face even death. When he has done his job, he should have the intestinal courage, fortitude and statesmanship of George Washington and Cincinnatus to step away from power. Will that day come?

When I was a young man, we had Ramon Magsaysay. To me those were the golden years of the Philippines. He may not have been the smartest but he had the idealism and the fearlessness to do what was right in accordance with his God-given conscience. The Philippines has since precipitously slipped into the abyss of ruin.

We have to educate Filipinos to reject celebrities, hereditary monarchical families, terroristic warlords and unscrupulous officials. Today, we even have on trial the highest magistrate of the land - arbitrator and dispenser of fairness and justice, of immorality and deficiency in his integrity. Who, why and how do we elevate these fools to power? Must we accept that this is congenital and that it is in our DNA? I hope not.

Lord help us! God bless our dear Filipinas.

Sam Buot