A friend of mine sent this to me thru e-mail from a friend of his back there in the Phil. Since this topic is regarding the Phil. political thread I might just as well share this with you guys & see how you react to this.
Shattered Hope
By Silverio F. Aquino
I AM now 75. I have a wife and six children and two truckloads ofgrandchildren, but my family has been breaking up because of the failures of our government. All this makes my blood pressure shoot up. I think many senior citizens are in the same situation. I know whereof I speak because I have lived throughthe administrations of Quezon, Osmena, Roxas, Quirino, Magsaysay, Garcia and Macapagal, and life under them was good. I was a boy during Quezon's time and I know little of Osme?a's rule, but I know they were good and dedicated leaders. During the administrations of Roxas through Macapagal, I got an education, got married, had educated them in turn. The government under them was good. Then came Marcos. At first the people responded well to his exhortation: "Sa ikauunlad ng bayan, disiplina ang
kailangan (For the nation to progress, discipline is needed)." But he turned out to be a dictator. He killed or imprisoned his political enemies, stole money in the billions of pesos, and repressed the people's freedoms. One day my youngest daughter, who had just finished her course at the University of the Philippines announced, "My future has been ruined by Marcos. I want to leave." I was dumbfounded, but I knew she was right. She went abroad. Then my eldest son, an electrical engineer, followed her. I terribly missed them, and I blamed the government for taking away their hope for a bright future in their own country. Upon the petition of my eldest son, now a citizen of another
country, my wife and I were granted immigrant visas so we could live in that country. I did not go, but my wife went to live with my children there, so now we only visit each other. She, too, was disillusioned with our leaders. Her leaving was to me the unkindest cut of all. Marcos was thrown out of power, and was succeeded by the widow of his foremost victim and later by a former army general. But my four children remained skeptical about the future. Tragedy struck when a movie actor was elected president. Then he was charged with plunder and detained without bail. I watched what my four remaining children would do. True enough, two of them soon gave up and left. I could not believe they would go, since they had studied in good universities, they had decent houses, drove cars and lived in relative comfort. But they left because they saw no hope here especially for their own children. Now I have only two children left with me. They are also jumping ship because they do not see any good reason for staying. Sadly I know they are just waiting for me to go to my final destination, and they may have only a few years to wait. A recent survey found that about 20 percent of Filipinos want to leave the country. Many families really want to go abroad for good. One Inquirer columnist said it all for them when he wrote, "For the first time in my life last week, I really felt that this country has become hopeless. "Like my four children who have gone, many people are convinced this country is hopeless and wish they had the opportunity to move elsewhere with their families. Countless Filipinos have chosen another way to leave, which is by finding work abroad. If they could, they would uproot their families. But they are forced to leave behind their spouses, children and parents in order to take foreign jobs, mostly menial and below their level of education, and they and their loved ones must suffer the pains of separation and loneliness. While the government is happy for the millions of dollars that they send home to prop up the economy, it does nothing to address the reason why, like the emigrants, these overseas Filipino workers have to go abroad in the first place. There is also the big brain drain that the government does not seem to care about. Educated and talented Filipinos go to live abroad and apply their expertise and knowledge to their foreign jobs. The exodus of doctors, nurses, engineer. and technicians goes unabated, but the government is not bothered by this waste of talent. Why do Filipinos go away? First of all, there is so much corruption everywhere in the government. A world opinion survey has revealed that our country is the third most corrupt in Asia and the 11th most corrupt in the world. There is also too much politics. The finance secretary has said that politics is the cause of our dire economic problems. But who is engaged in too much politics? Why, the politicians, of course. There are too many of them in and outside Congress. They are concerned only about their personal ambitions and their expensive junkets and their abuse of their pork barrel and other perks. Gone are the days of Recto, Laurel, Diokno, Osias and House Speakers Cornelio Villareal and Eugenio Perez, of Ramon Magsaysay, and of justices like Concepcion, Moran, and Avancena. Many politicians give speeches about poverty, joblessness, crime and other ills, but do very little, if at all, to address these problems. Instead, they resort to what is expedient or good for themselves. Look at the shameless speed with which congressmen have railroaded the impeachment charges against the Chief Justice and how some senators are thirsting for the publicity they will get as judges during the impeachment. Look also at how fast many politicians have risen to defend the Chief Justice without ascertaining that he is really innocent in his handling of the Judiciary Development Fund amounting to billions of pesos. The people are now cynical of this government. Even Filipinos abroad share this cynicism, as shown by the fact that only one out of every 100 of them has bothered to register under the new Absentee Voting Law. Like my wife and children abroad, they do not trust the government enough to participate by voting. The common lament is, who vote when the same kind of so-called leaders will get elected anyway, by hook or by crook? Now, I am horrified to learn that another movie actor, who has reportedly not finished high school, will be elected president in 2004. When my last two remaining children leave because this country is hopeless, my family would be completely shattered and, if I would still be alive, my hope in the government will also be completely lost. This would be tragic for me. I have seen better governance from the likes of Laurel, Recto, and Magsaysay, and I will never see the light of hope in this hopeless country.
Silverio F. Aquino, 75, is a lawyer.
)... all this contribute to the continued "stupidification" of the Filipino. How do you solve this problem, this "menace to society"? I dunno really. Perhaps remove Media's speech outside the sphere of free speech? Our Media has become so damn spoiled, it's ruining our country. They need to be hit with some sense. Ideas? I have one, actually, but it needs to hurdle some legalities. It's basically a watchdog group that'll oversee Media's abuses. Find a radio commentator who says something libelous or near it - hit him with a law suit! I had this in mind whilst listening Egotist Mike Enriquez on the radio just after the Awkward Incident (Oakwood Incident), where he lambasted the Oakwood management for refusing him entry into the premises after the failed rebellion. Logic would dictate that you keep a potentially booby-trapped place that just so happens to be a crime scene free from outsiders for both their safety and to ensure that evidence be preserved. And here comes Mike Enriquez, on the radio, complaining that he wasn't allowed entry, and he started ranting, accusing Oakwood of being elitist, started repeating on air the going rates of the rooms there obviously to show that it was a place for the rich, etc. etc. I wonder, I told meself, did Oakwood here this? If not, should they know that Ego Enriquez was abusing his freedom of speech by making baseless accusations at Oakwood? That's when the idea of Media WatchDog began. Seriously, I'd like to explore this - perhaps when - if? - I become a lawyer, I'll make this as my "specialization."
