Saturday, March 17, 2007 Roperos: Challenge to Pinoys By Godofredo M. Roperos Politics Also
“THE way our politics is unraveling, I foresee great trouble ahead,” said an octogenarian friend who has retired from elementary school in our hometown. He was already a teacher when I was just finishing my secondary school in UP Lahug.
“There seems to be no definite direction being taken by our candidates regarding the current politics,” he continued. “ It has come to a point that I cannot seem to trust anymore our political leaders. During the last elections, I already felt a degree of disquiet.”
Truth is, those whom we credited with enough fealty to the country have proffered nothing but additional confusion regarding the issues that are being raised. We are confronted with many aspirants to government elective posts whose only qualification is having a name popular with the masses.
Recall how the candidates of the various political factions and parties were handpicked. Not for their brilliance, but for “name-recall.”
Today, everything appears to have changed, according to the retiree. “I know someone who is also retired like me, but as a clerk in a government office. Like me, he retired poor, of course. But unlike me, he was taunted and ridiculed by friends and neighbors for not having made money while he was still in the service. He was clerk in the internal revenue office.”
The way this republic is considered the most corrupt economy in Asia, I cannot help looking at the octogenarian with a measure of pride and respect. And I hold the same feeling for the retired BIR clerk.
There is something similar in the old man’s tale with that of my late father.
He once told me that had he wanted to, he would have worked with the Bureau of Customs (BOC) after passing the civil service exams for clerks in 1918. He received a letter asking him to work in the BOC in the city.
But my father decided to teach, even if he finished only Grade VII. That time, those who finished Grade VII and had passed the civil service examination, where immediately asked to work. He was a clerk in Balamban before becoming a classroom teacher.
Truth is, at no other time in recent Philippine history has our government been challenged with all sorts of problems. But perhaps the worst is the culture of graft and corruption in public office. It is said that at the moment, some ten billion pesos in government revenues is lost annually to uncontrolled graft and corruption.
Place in between these morally debasing issues the reality of politics undermining national unity, and what have you? Our nation has placed itself under siege by problems that it has self-generated.
