It’s the holy week and what better time to slow down, relax, and reflect-about God, our life as Filipinos, and about our country as a whole- but at this point?
Since I launched the gloriaresign petition and blog a lot of people, friends and strangers, have intimated they have also forwarded my petition to their friends and colleagues. But they swear they couldn’t believe the indifference and pessimism they got from most of them. My knee-jerk reaction was well, this is a democratic country everybody is entitled to their own opinion.
But when I reflected about this particular state of our political life, I just shake my head in sadness. This has not only become a political issue for me, but an emotional one as well. It’s a sad thing to witness and realize that most of my countrymen have so much apathy and pessimism in their hearts. Mainly, they worry about who to replace Gloria when she resigns or ousted, but they are NOT worried about the fact that Gloria is a cheat, a liar, and a thief. They’d rather have those qualities for a president that be faced with a task of demanding accountability and choosing another (hopefully) rightful leader.
To realize that most of my countrymen do not see the blatant insult of this administration to their intelligence is trite. Every single time the administration assert their supposed ascendancy to anyone else, they step on our person-hood as citizens of this country. And every time this happens, and most of us accept it with no reaction whatsoever, this country is degenerating every goddamn second!
Why can’t they understand that in order to move on properly, sins should be accounted for, punished, atoned and forgiven but not necessarily, forgotten? Why can’t they realize it is the duty and responsibility of every Filipino to demand for truth and account for the lies of our leaders, elected and appointed? What does it take for Juan dela Cruz to stand up to his calling and prove to the rest of the world that we are indeed, worth dying for? Where is the pride of the citizenry? Why have we stooped so low as to accept a cheat, a liar and a thief to lead our beloved country?
Most Filipinos today also say it’s a useless exercise to demand Gloria’s resignation since she will only be replaced by a leader who will just rival, if not surpass, her thievery. My view on this has always been this: our leaders, past and present, who sinned against us should not be forgotten. They should not be forgotten because they are our collective lesson, our learning, and our reminder that we can do better next time in choosing our future leaders. It’s our collective spirit as Filipinos that will lead this country to where we want it to be, fifty or one hundred years from now. To where, I can only say that the future is bleak.
I may already be dead by then, but here’s hoping my actions today will redound to the benefit of future citizens of this country. I can only wish the same for the rest of us.
