gut feel by: leny manalo Eye of the Storm Imagine yourself standing in the calm of the open field just after the 240-km per hour wind ripped away your neighborhood’s roofs. You look up and you see sun rays piercing the thinner clouds. You are in the eye of the storm, the lull before nature’s rage returns with the same intensity but in the opposite direction. In a typhoon, that brief tranquility lasts for less than hour or two. In the eye of the pork barrel storm now hovering above the country the unsettling peace is being given 100 days. The strong gusts of pork barrel scandal and the resultant people’s anger that culminated in the August 26 Million People March just unroofed havens of corruption in government. Dirty linens and skeletons have been strewn all over the place and ordinary tax payers are picking them up for their own scrutiny faster than the government investigators can appreciate them. Blogs and other internet postings have been disseminating mounting records of incriminating leads and documenting the simmering people’s fury for all to see. The lull has not given the government a cozy respite. It only bought time for those in power to come up with a strong case against official corruption that could withstand the next surge of people’s explosive wrath. Another EDSA in the making? But even veterans of the three known EDSAs are now having serious doubts and reservations on the appropriateness of using EDSA symbolism, its counterpart or its derivatives. Too many personalities associated with those images are now being linked to the pork scam. People’s allegiance to political parties and personalities are being eroded each passing day. Loyalists are shedding off loyalty. Absence of color is now highly preferred identity. But the energy is there pulling everyone into the swirling eyewall of the current socio-political storm, from erstwhile apolitical morning bikers to the more evident militant activists that could nevertheless hit like a bomb any moment. In the aftermath of the initial salvo of people’s rage against the pork barrel lie shattered faith in government institutions and broken promises for a clean government. In the present calm before the storm, it might be good to reflect on what the incoming President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, Archbishop Socrates Villegas, said in a recent letter to the clergy. He said, “The core problem is not just the shameless corruption of a growing number of greedy corrupt officials in a system that has become corruption-friendly. The issue is the breakdown of our moral fiber as a Christian nation.” The good Archbishop urged the clergy, “Let the national news of the recent weeks about extensive corruption in governance make us more humble as moral guides and more zealous as lighthouses of morality in the midst of the storms besetting our boat. We have our own ‘pork’ to abolish so that we can be better.” Corruption is there because society allowed it. We have Janet Napoles because society nurtured her. We can jail her for years but the corrupt system will produce more clones of her. We cannot forever be doing EDSAs and Million People Marches in repeating cycles. That would do more harm to peace-loving Filipinos who simply want to make fair living in a democratic and just society. But there are historical opportunities that come few in a lifetime that Filipinos from all walks of life must grab in order to set a new direction for the country and bring the nation’s wealth back to the service of the country and its people and far from the pockets of the corrupt and opportunists. I have the gut feeling that this may be one of those golden opportunities to reassert honor and dignity not only in public service but in social transactions as well. In view of the coming barangay elections, the message of Archbishop Villegas becomes more timely and relevant when you think of official corruption extending its tentacles down to the barangay level where money of dubious sources transfers from one hand to another to influence the supposed-to-be non-partisan exercise. This happens because people let it happen. Strengthening the moral fiber of the nation should start from the family and the community where it belongs. Our religious leaders can provide the moral and spiritual leadership that Archbishop Villegas was advocating. In the calm before the current storm one can just dream even on a wishful thinking that citizens of this country unite as one and deal a fatal blow to official corruption in their own little ways. The lull is defining a renewed role for volunteerism in the country. The storm has already sparked a move towards volunteerism among qualified and committed professionals like accountants and lawyers who would be willing to contribute toward successful prosecution of those involved in the pork scam. Already, there is talk that accountants of top accounting firms of the country will form a panel to work alongside COA. However, people need to push government to allow them access to all relevant documents. Getting rid of the corrupt system may be very complicated to accomplish but we can definitely start with simpler acts that can deliver the desired impact – abolish the pork barrel system and punish the proven guilty of corruption. The lull before the storm is not forever and the deadly wind going the opposite direction may be more unforgiving.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Sep 2013 09:03:45 +0000
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