Ang Problema Natin

This has been said before, and said better. But I feel that in the midst of rallies and calls for political renewal, this piece of crucial information has been grossly overlooked. We shout our throats sore in demanding Gloria to resign. We give eloquent speeches and write insightful articles denouncing corruption and aspiring for change. But what "change"? At what cost?

Loosely, when we say change, we mean food on the table, homes for everyone, more affordable commodities, a sustainable wage, fulfilling jobs, high-quality pulic school education, and a low crime rate, among other things. Did you notice that these factors of favorable change are fundamentally related to economic conditions? If the government has more money to fund them then we would be one step nearer to achieving the change we want. Therefore, less or no corruption means more money. More money channeled into pro-people projects means positive change. Everybody happy.

However, being in the position to make everybody "happy" does not translate to having the intention to make everybody happy. Thus we have corruption in the government, which is deeply ingrained in the Filipino culture. Civil positions in the Spanish colonial period were for sale—only the richest indios can buy them. Only the educated (or rich, since only rich Filipinos at that time were the only ones who had the financial means to study) made up the civil service when we were an American colony. The Japanese adopted the same elite in the puppet government hoping to make the transition easier during World War II.

In all of almost 400 years, we were ruled by the local oligarchy under foreign control. There was no loyalty between them. Doing some clever transmutation, we derive: foreigners equals to greedy sons of bitches equals to government equals to evil. The local oligarchs stole as much as possible from the unloved government, especially during the Japanese occupation. Sadly, this mindset has survied the colonial era, spawning the likes of Marcos and Gloria.

Bear in mind that Gloria is not the source of all this awesome corruption, rather, she is just another oligarch simply reflecting the Filipino cultural inclination to steal from the government. Common civil servants stealing paper clips and coupon bonds abide by the same principle, albeit in a smaller "more acceptable" scale. So tell me. If we remove Gloria from power, will the corruption in our government come to a screeching, inspiring, much-awaited halt?

I don’t think so.

continuation next Friday