In this age of Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Space Tourism, UN’s global attempts to unite countries to work together for an environment-friendly Climate, effective disease-control, promotion of Human Rights, and worldwide Peace and Progress, we in the Philippines are scratching our heads with anxiety. Why are we today back in the era of GOMBURZA, Bonifacio and Rizal? Rizal’s depiction of the oppressive and exploitative society under the Spanish regime in his Noli Mi Tangere and El Filibusterismo appears to envelop our lives today.
Our current administration headed by the Marcoses and Dutertes, supported by their fellow self-serving
dynasties (or feudal lords) in the provinces and LGUs hold sway over our lives, as they enjoy the perks of
economic and political power – courtesy of our taxes, for their privileged spending. Moreover, with
monetary contributions from crony big businessmen, these so-called public officials/politicians are able
to ‘help’ many of their constituents, earning their canine loyalty. And these beneficiaries, in a spirit of
‘utang na loob,’ innocently extend their loyalty to the politicians’ family members, thus preserving the
family’s dynastic reign in their own territories.
Thus, we the people are obliged to pay taxes, as did Bonifacio, Jacinto, Rizal and their contemporaries
during the Spanish colonial administration. This was under pain of being labeled as “tribute evaders,”
and penalized, much unlike a former dictator’s son who, despite being a “certified convict” for tax
evasion in the ‘80s, has not been made to pay by BIR or the DOJ of today’s Uniteam Administration.
Today, more than 50 million of our fellow Filipinos are poor. They are unable to eat three meals daily.
The price of a kilo of their staple food, rice, is P60 or higher, way above the promised cost of P20/kg.
Also prohibitive are the prices of sugar, fruits and vegetables. The millions of laborers, farmers, small
vendors, IPs, teachers and nurses have to bear the hardships of budgeting their limited wages. Worse,
just like the Guardia Civil during the Spanish colonial period, the PNP/AFP of today are suspicious of
Filipinos requesting for reforms in governance. Peaceful gatherings or mobilizations of Filipinos voicing
out requests for pro-people programs are met with hundreds or thousands of PNP personnel, instead of
their elected representatives.
Today, these dynastic families remain silent, if not complicit, with the anti-people programs of the past
and current leaderships of President Bongbong Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte, particularly the
current “War on Drugs” with the neglect of providing justice to the families of more than 30,000 victims
of EJKs and red-tagged individuals, and counting. Why haven’t the law enforcement agencies stopped
the smuggling and marketing of prohibited drugs? Haul of millions of prohibited drugs in various cities,
towns and provinces in the country are the main fare almost daily in the news. And to think that this
program of “Tokhang” of former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte and the then Davao City Police Chief,
now Senator Bato de la Rosa, was carried out way back in 2016.
Many other good governance issues have remained unsolved: the China bullying in our West Philippine
Sea, an educational system needing improvements, an inefficient national Health System, the rigging of
the May 9, 2022 elections (as claimed by the TNT IT experts with other groups of IT professionals), and
relatedly, the delayed push for a Hybrid Election System by Congress to guarantee fair, transparent and
credible elections next year and in 2028, and many other gut people issues.
When do we get to be governed by servant-leaders, NOT dynasts like the Spanish colonizers?
#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #OpinYonColumn #ColumnbyBoniMacaranas #PoliticsIsLife