Where is the Honor?

In his recent Independence Day speech, Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno said:

Let us ask, what is the true condition of the Filipino now? Does he have what we could call honor? Is it true he could hold his head up high? Because our heroes did not fight for an abstract idea, we should be living with honor.

Freedom presupposes honor, that is true. Honor, however, comes with being honorable. To be honorable is to engage in actions that hold fast to high moral principles; it is to put the greater good over selfish preoccupations. How then can we aspire to be an honorable people when we Filipinos, as a nation, put the dishonorable in power and then do nothing to fight their depravities?

A terrible evil stalks our beloved land. It knows no borders, spares not even the most helpless, and cares nothing about God, principles, integrity. or the truth. It is an evil that deceives our people. It tries to convince the masses that the causes of their poverty are such lies like “overpopulation,” or an “unmet demand for contraception,” or a “dogmatic Church”, “meddling priests,” or some other nonsense that will serve as a cheap excuse. It is the evil that tries to hide the real cause of the numbing, crushing poverty that robs our people of dignity, health, their rights, and even their lives every single day.

We are a people terribly oppressed by our very own: by those who steal our votes, waste our tax money buying the political loyalty of community leaders, and use the police to do their dirty work. They sit in high places and make boring, platitudinous speeches extolling their hollow achievements. The trophies of their mindless bad governance and unquenchable greed are the dead Everymen that work and toil only to leave behind grieving families without enough money to bury their departed loved ones.

How can we be honorable when over P200 billion remains with the family of Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator that pillaged our economy and ransacked our nation’s coffers? How can we be honorable when the dictator’s “First Lady” can crow about being given justice because she was acquitted of five counts of tax evasion while she continues living off the wealth stolen from the people?

How can we as a people hold our heads high with honor when a disgraced and ousted Philippine President continues to act as kingmaker, whose “blessing” opposition candidates seek? How can we be honorable when this nation then elects these brown-nosed bootlickers as Congressmen and Senators? What other compromises with honor can we expect from these “legislators”?

Sadly, these monsters are often unwittingly aided by those in media that uncritically broadcasts their messages. Indeed, sometimes the media even believe in their lies and take their deceptions to heart, recycling the disinformation in even more opinion articles, press releases, features, and “studies”. Our nation’s “greatest” criminals seem to have unwitting (or perhaps not so unwitting) accomplices.

Someday, justice will be meted out to the Trapos (traditional politicians) that have destroyed this country.

Until then, Filipinos will continue to toil for mere pennies; they will leave their sad families behind to search for decent work in foreign lands; they will be the uncomplaining, whipped horses who face irate foreign callers who haven’t the brains to fix simple computer problems; they will have their faces and honor ground into the dirt while they pay all sorts of taxes that will be used to line the pockets of the thieves that govern this forlorn, benighted country.

But perhaps, somewhere within that downtrodden multitude, there will be pockets of resistance. There will be those who will say “Enough!” There will be those who, when pushed, will push back. There will be those who will rather accept death before dishonor.

Do not underestimate their contribution. Sometimes it only takes one man to make a difference. After all, only one Son of Man was crucified on Calvary.

Someday, there will be enough of these single men to change this entire country. I dearly want to see that in my lifetime. Dear God, I really do.