Friday, July 04, 2008 Speak out: Moral regeneration By Ernesto A. Elizondo Former Cebu City Councilor
AS the Philippines celebrate the 110th anniversary of its so-called independence, it is reeling from the effects of high oil prices, high prices of prime commodities, high cost of education, high cost of living, high incidence of poverty and crime and unabated graft and corruption in government.
We shudder at the thought and realization that all these nasty things have to happen in a country which is the cradle of Christianity in the Far East.
It would seem that we have lost or abandoned the values of God, country and countrymen.
It appears that we no longer know the distinction between things material and ephemeral and things spiritual.
Thus, we have conveniently forgotten the Biblical injunction: “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and suffers the loss of his own soul?”
As we wade through a maze of questions looking for appropriate answers to the ills that plague this nation, we come face to face with one answer which is the common denominator to all our national problems: greed.
And in a nation long stuck in the quagmire of privation and poverty, of disease and ignorance, greed has unabashedly assumed two faces: greed of politicians and greed of capitalists.
Thus, we see the spectacle of unlocked graft and corruption and plunder of the treasury of the people by politicians who
enter politics in order to retire rich!
Thus we also see the spectacle of high prices ranged against the low income of our workers, simply because of capitalists and filthy rich who refuse to share with workers the fruits of industrial and commercial pursuits, by opposing a miniscule of a wage increase!
The call for government officials and for capitalists, who hold the reins of commerce and industry in this country, is moral regeneration, for them to see in the faces of their countrymen the faces of their brothers and sisters living in one nation with one common destiny because sharing one common history.
This nation can still be saved from rallies and revolution. It can still go forward with dignity and honor.
This nation can still sing with pride the Philippines National Anthem.
What we all need is political will on the part of politicians and moral renewal on the part of the leaders of commerce and industry.
For all we know, to borrow a hackneyed and old cliche: This nation can be great again!
