Gut query

“Why are we so corrupt?” That was the question cultural activist Joy Virata lobbed at Francisco Sionil Jose.  I’m pushing 90, Jose said. Virata must have considered my being ancient, perhaps enhanced by a little knowledge of history.

Jose has authored novels set in the context of Philippine history to essays.  He won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism and Literature in 1980 and shortly thereafter the Pablo Neurda Centennial Award.

Historian William Henry Scott analyzed an inventory, in the 1896 revolution, Jose recalled. It listed   broken pens, battered chairs, “trivia put down by outgoing bureaucrats illustrating their honesty”.

In the 1930s, politicians spent their own money for their elections campaign. Many were impoverished by their aspirations.

Former Secretary of Health Juan Salcedo and, Sen. Juan Flavier used public transport. Cabinet Secretary Conrado Estrella and Sen. Emmanuel Pelaez traveled without any escort. Today, even a small city mayor careens with a fleet of security vehicles.

Look at the composition of the Senate in the 1950s: Recto, Tañada, Pelaez, Manglapus and others. “Yes, there was one movie star—Rogelio dela Rosa but he was circumspect, competent enough to be ambassador, too.

Look at senators today, and weep. After four years, the Ampatuan massacre trial is still ongoing. What rendered us so apathetic?

“There are realities that aggravate the Filipino metastasis: mass poverty; pakikisama, wherein we don’t ostracize the corrupt; our cowardice even—all these basically obstruct the creation of a just society

“Many evils are ‘accruements of a colonial past’. True. Vestiges remain and, as the writer Salvador de Madariaga pointed out, a country can well be a colony of its own elites.” And this is what we have become.”

The past century tested us as a people aspiring to be a nation. After the execution of Jose Rizal, by the Spaniards, in 1986, the revolution broke out. It was sold out, by a weakened leadership, in the Pact of Biak na Bato. That struggle was resuscitated when the Americans came in 1898. We fought them, too. But the ragtag revolutionary Army was beaten and we became an American colony.

Apolinario Mabini’s singular role was a stern moral leadership. But his voice was not heeded even by the president. General Emilio Aguinaldo, was surrounded by rich ilustrados who urged negotiations with the new imperialists to enrich themselves. See in the early Malolos Republic this fatal virus:  collaboration with the enemy for personal gain.

The same virus resurged in the Japanese occupation. So many collaborated with them, some out of belief that they would relieve Asia from Western colonialism but most, simply to preserve their privileged status and profit.

In Europe, the Danes started killing the collaborators even before Nazi Germany collapsed. The French hounded jailed them. Here, many proclaimed themselves patriots. They were granted amnesty.

The virus erupted under martial law. Mass infraction of human rights was of little concern for the masa as long as food was cheap. Again, many worked gladly for Marcos, legitimized his regime. They contributed to the death, imprisonment and torture of thousands.

In our history, the collaborators were never punished. They ended up rich, and many successfully masqueraded as heroes.  Today, we see the Marcoses and their hirelings back in power, sneering at our credulity.

For hosannas evoked by development in the economy, we need to think of the past which impacts on today. There is one great failing of government, from Cory’s to her son’s. This is the resolution of the assassination of Ninoy Aquino.

No one seriously believes that those soldiers imprisoned for the crime were the real perpetrators. Someone upstairs, powerful and well-connected masterminded it all, as well as the cover-up murders of several people who were in the know. Such a crime—without being fully resolved—contributes to the apathy of people, 

The assassination of Ninoy is known all over the world, it is blot on the image of the nation as it illustrates to the rottenness of Filipino justice system. If there is no justice for Ninoy Aquino, how can there be justice for poor, anonymous Juan? If President PNoy knows, he does not say.  That is the most damning because he is the son.

What aggravates our moral decay is our very nature, and hypocrisy. We are familiar with the crimes of our leaders. Yet, we fete them, invite them in social functions, often bonded as they are with us not just by social ties but by gratitude for what these politicians do for us.

Our economic system, which is propelled by consumerism and untrammeled greed, which anchors a question: Is there no hope for Filipinos then?

The answer is with our youth. Our heroes who wrote history with their blood were all in their 20s and 30s. For sure, many of the ilustrados joined the revolution for themselves. But Rizal, Mabini, Bonifacio and so many others did not.

And we are a talented people, as illustrated no less by Rizal. No country in Asia has ever produced a man like him. When we celebrate his birthday just remember, he was a novelist, a sculptor, a medical doctor, a scholar, a teacher and a martyr at 35 when the Spaniards executed him.