I AM now 75. I
have a wife and six children and two truckloads of grandchildren, but
my family has been breaking up because of the failures of our
government. All this makes my blood pressure shoot up. I think many
senior citizens are in the same situation.
I know whereof I speak because I have lived through the
administrations of Quezon, Osmeña, Roxas, Quirino, Magsaysay, Garcia
and Macapagal, and life under them was good. I was a boy during
Quezon’s time and I know little of Osmeña’s rule, but I know they were
good and dedicated leaders. During the administrations of Roxas through
Macapagal, I got an education, got married, had children and educated
them in turn. The government under them was also good.
Then came Marcos. At first the people responded well to his
exhortation: "Sa ikauunlad ng bayan, disiplina ang kailangan (For the
nation to progress, discipline is needed)." But he turned out to be a
dictator. He killed or imprisoned his political enemies, stole money in
the billions of pesos, and repressed the people’s freedoms.
One day my youngest daughter, who had just finished her course at
the University of the Philippines announced, "My future has been ruined
by Marcos. I want to leave."
I was dumbfounded, but I knew she was right. She went abroad.
Then my eldest son, an electrical engineer, followed her. I
terribly missed them, and I blamed the government for taking away their
hope for a bright future in their own country.
Upon the petition of my eldest son, now a citizen of another
country, my wife and I were granted immigrant visas so we could live in
that country. I did not go, but my wife went to live with my children
there, so now we only visit each other. She, too, was disillusioned
with our leaders. Her leaving was to me the unkindest cut of all.
Marcos was thrown out of power, and was succeeded by the widow of
his foremost victim and later by a former army general. But my four
children remained skeptical about the future.
Tragedy struck when a movie actor was elected president. Then he was charged with plunder and detained without bail.
I watched what my four remaining children would do. True enough,
two of them soon gave up and left. I could not believe they would go,
since they had studied in good universities, they had decent houses,
drove cars and lived in relative comfort. But they left because they
saw no hope here especially for their own children.
Now I have only two children left with me. They are also jumping
ship because they do not see any good reason for staying. Sadly I know
they are just waiting for me to go to my final destination, and they
may have only a few years to wait.
A recent survey found that about 20 percent of Filipinos want to
leave the country. Many families really want to go abroad for good. One
Inquirer columnist said it all for them when he wrote, "For the first
time in my life last week, I really felt that this country has become
hopeless."
Like my four children who have gone, many people are convinced this
country is hopeless and wish they had the opportunity to move elsewhere
with their families.
Countless Filipinos have chosen another way to leave, which is by
finding work abroad. If they could, they would uproot their families.
But they are forced to leave behind their spouses, children and parents
in order to take foreign jobs, mostly menial and below their level of
education, and they and their loved ones must suffer the pains of
separation and loneliness. While the government is happy for the
millions of dollars that they send home to prop up the economy, it does
nothing to address the reason why, like the emigrants, these overseas
Filipino workers have to go abroad in the first place.
There is also the big brain drain that the government does not seem
to care about. Educated and talented Filipinos go to live abroad and
apply their expertise and knowledge to their foreign jobs. The exodus
of doctors, nurses, engineers and technicians goes unabated, but the
government is not bothered by this waste of talent.
Why do Filipinos go away? First of all, there is so much corruption
everywhere in the government. A world opinion survey has revealed that
our country is the third most corrupt in Asia and the 11th most corrupt
in the world.
There is also too much politics. The finance secretary has said that politics is the cause of our dire economic problems.
But who is engaged in too much politics? Why, the politicians, of
course. There are too many of them in and outside Congress. They are
concerned only about their personal ambitions and their expensive
junkets and their abuse of their pork barrel and other perks. Gone are
the days of Recto, Laurel, Diokno, Osias and House Speakers Cornelio
Villareal and Eugenio Perez, of Ramon Magsaysay, and of justices like
Concepcion, Moran, and Avanceña.
Many politicians give speeches about poverty, joblessness, crime
and other ills, but do very little, if at all, to address these
problems. Instead, they resort to what is expedient or good for
themselves. Look at the shameless speed with which congressmen have
railroaded the impeachment charges against the Chief Justice and how
some senators are thirsting for the publicity they will get as judges
during the impeachment. Look also at how fast many politicians have
risen to defend the Chief Justice without ascertaining that he is
really innocent in his handling of the Judiciary Development Fund
amounting to billions of pesos.
The people are now cynical of this government. Even Filipinos
abroad share this cynicism, as shown by the fact that only one out of
every 100 of them has bothered to register under the new Absentee
Voting Law. Like my wife and children abroad, they do not trust the
government enough to participate by voting. The common lament is, why
vote when the same kind of so-called leaders will get elected anyway,
by hook or by crook?
Now, I am horrified to learn that another movie actor, who has
reportedly not finished high school, will be elected president in 2004.
When my last two remaining children leave because this country is
hopeless, my family would be completely shattered and, if I would still
be alive, my hope in the government will also be completely lost. This
would be tragic for me. I have seen better governance from the likes of
Laurel, Recto, and Magsaysay, and I will never see the light of hope in
this hopeless country.
——————-
Silverio F. Aquino, 75, is a lawyer.
(Issued from Philippine Daily Inquirer)
