Thursday, March 22, 2007 Cena: Name tag By Rolo Cena Pulp Bits
IN THE late eighties up to early nineties, Lea Salonga made her international debut via the West Side Theater in London. When she retires the West for the Broadway, Monique Wilson followed her. It was Monique's version of Miss Saigon that I managed to watch in London, when I was spending my training on Risk Management then.
Onyok Velasco made it in the Australian Olympics for Boxing. Then came another name for the Philippines and for the Filipinos - Bata Reyes brought home several honors for his billiards prowess.
The twenty-first century honors for, again, the honor-bound Republic, was accorded to us by the boxing hero Manny Pacquiao. Honors and honors came along the way so much so that the Philippines is now known to many as the land of the "honorables".
Yes, honorables!
We have honorable members of the Congress, honorable men of the Senate - these all are making honors in their own little ways: the honors of philandering, money laundering, vote buying, smuggling, and drug trafficking - name it, they all have these honors.
Lately, the Hong-Kong based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) revealed it's rating for most corrupt countries in Asia. PERC said the survey was conducted in the first two months of this year covering almost a-thousand-and-a-half expats from thirteen countries and territories. What a number to behold, though!
Surveys are actually self-serving. In this I mean, whoever financed this, he or she gets the results favorably. If I want to discredit the person I hated most, I could pay survey institution for the feedback I need for this person. See what I mean?
Anyway, granting for the sake of argument that the survey was made impartially, then, I believe we Filipinos must begin to think about this new name tag for us. Being tagged as the "most corrupt" in Asia is a slap on the face of us all, a slap on the face of the people behind EDSA 1.
Which is why, to date the administration still does not resolve the "Hello Garci" Tape Scandal, the truth about the extrajudicial killings, the nursing board examination cheatings, etc., etc., etc.
Which is why, I felt so much shame and pain when, in one of my travels abroad I had to submit to the rules of the grocery store to fall in the line reserved for us Filipinos.
