PamagCUSA Blog

Let The People Act

GLIMPSES

Jose Ma. Montelibano

When I began writing for the Inquirer, I remembered so many opinion
pieces from other writers who wrote as early as two decades ahead of me.
These essays and commentaries, though, carried much of the same - the
angst, the disappointments, the weakness of Philippine democracy, the
massiveness of poverty, the ugliness of corruption. I myself carried the
tradition of speaking about the same issues even though I try to be
creative in my presentation.

There seems little reason for writing about brighter prospects. Since
twenty years ago, the growing number of Filipinos who left to seek
employment in other countries speaks loudly of the dearth of
opportunities in our country.
Bad news, though, is presented as good news, and the lack of jobs here
hidden under reports of huge inward remittances from abroad.

Poverty is not about a lack of money. It only seems so. Poverty is a
lack of caring, a triumph of exploitation, a victim of greed. One of its
most manifest consequences is a lack of money but is not the cause.
Dismantling poverty is not about giving money to the poor, it is about
returning dignity, it is about opportunity, it is about land tenure,
decent homes and the constancy of food supply. It is about a deep sense
of justice, the struggle to attain equality, and regarding the poor as
brothers and sisters of one nation, of one God.

We have dishonored ourselves. When we followed the bad examples of many
of our political and moral leaders rather than the honorable behavior of
a few of them, when we severed our relationships with one another rather
than hold our ground as a people of honor, we shamed ourselves and have
inherited a curse that we can exorcise only by a path of nobility and
sacrifice.

Does it really matter if presidents are corrupt and public sinners, if
cardinals and bishops choose pomp and form over integrity and substance,
if lawmakers become lawbreakers, if justices mete out injustice? Will
their wrongdoing be valid excuse for our own cowardice, for our
tolerance of evil, for our lack of resolve to stay honest, to stay pure,
to stay faithful to the revered values of our forefathers? What then is
the purpose of conscience and a personal relationship with God if we
exchange it for personal convenience, or if we follow the hypocrisy of
leaders simply because they are the chain of command?

It is not only the well-being of our nation that is threatened, it is
our very national soul, it is the spirit of our race. Corruption is
evil, poverty is evil, hunger is evil. There are no excuses for
committing these evils, and no excuses either for tolerating them. Most
of us have not committed them but most of us have learned to live in
peace with them. That is no less a sin. And the sins of our pastors and
politicians will not mitigate our accountability to be the best we can
be.

It has been said many times, in many ways, that our destiny is in our
hands.
There has never been a greater truth no matter which way this reality
has been described. Even at the point of a barrel of a gun, a person can
choose honor over death. That is how the Creator ensured that our
destiny is in our own hands.

Poverty demeans humanity not only in the flesh, but more so in spirit
and purpose. Poverty narrows the capacity of the flesh and constricts
the option of the mind. Yet, even the victims of poverty are not exempt
from the responsibility of their humanity; even the poor are not exempt
from choosing good over evil, from choosing honor over shame. But when
the poor fail to choose the right way, those who enslaved them to
poverty will share in their failure and the consequences of their
failure. Truly, those who lead others to perdition have a special place
in hell, and hopefully, in Bilibid Prison, too.

So much anger, hate and scorn have been heaped on all types of leaders
of our society, but our lives have not improved simply because of our
disappointment and disdain. And the suffering of people, whether from
corruption, poverty or violence have not eased either. No matter the
resentment citizens carry, no matter the dismay the flock feel, our
country and our religions have not prospered. It is utter stupidity on
our part to continue wallowing in self-pity even if it is easier to do
so than do the unusual. We have no more choice, though, but to do what
we have seldom done as a people.

We must act as a people. Only a people's act can confront and neutralize
the constant weakness and failure of leadership. Only a people's act can
build the platform of change and trigger the process of transformation.
When leaders fail and fall, only people acting as one can lift a nation
from shame to glory.

But leadership will not disappear. As a people act, leaders among them
will rise and show the way, leaders who were not elected, leaders who
were not appointed, leaders who were not ordained. In no instance in
human history have people acted without leaders yet avoided the chasm of
chaos. Leaders from our midst will take their rightful place not by
their ambition but by the power of their good deeds and their brave
hearts. But these leaders will not be in fancy uniforms with fancy
titles and working out of fancy offices; they will be ordinary people
with extraordinary integrity and love for their God and motherland.

People must act and be the example of righteousness. People must act and
reclaim their birthright, as children of God and as children of Inang
Bayan.
People must act and show the way to reform, be the change they seek, and
rise as guardians of a nation's hope. Only by a people's act. ***