Francis finds the time to personally read the letters he receives, and one reads: “I am Padre Damaso; I fathered a daughter out-of-wedlock and her name is Maria Clara. I wish her to be baptized.” And then Francis calls Padre Damaso: "Maria Clara is God's gift; you should be able to find a pastor to celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism and if not, you know, there is always me." Obviously I made that up. The real story went something like, and I am paraphrasing from memory: “I am a divorcee; I am bearing a child out-of-wedlock from my fiancé who I then learned was married and with children. And I wish her to be baptized.” How did Francis respond? He called the woman on her cellphone: "Your child is God's gift; you should be able to find a pastor to celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism and if not, you know, there is always me." [Francis wasn’t there when we Pinoys defined morality – i.e., divorcees are out, oligopoly is in?]
Padre Damaso did not receive such love and compassion from Rizal: "The Filipino culture was backward, anti-progress, anti-intellectual, and not conducive to the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment." And to drive home his points, Rizal created the character of Padre Damaso (in Noli Me Tangere.) After 126 years or so, has Juan de la Cruz proven Rizal wrong? Or was Rizal prescient to foresee our collective failure as a nation – i.e., from the family to the community to the school to the church to the public and private sectors . . . and beyond? “If corruption exists in homes up to the higher level of government, it must be cultural. So how can we provide a cultural response?” said Cardinal Tagle, who earlier denounced the massive corruption of the pork barrel system by lawmakers.” [Philippine Daily Inquirer, 9th Sept 2013] Such a response won’t happen so long as we in the elite class are having a ball – we even hold the keys to heaven?
For example, we have embraced oligopoly reflective of our inward-looking, parochial, insular and hierarchical culture? Translation: "backward, anti-progress, anti-intellectual, and not conducive to the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment”? Do they represent our value that is grounded on a cacique system and structure, which we justify because they generate investments that fuel our economy? And yet we remain economic laggards precisely because this source of national pride is feeble when arrayed against the rest of the world – and says the World Bank, we can’t even create jobs? Who is in bed with oligarchy? Our families (like mine for 8 years; my father, all his working life), the community, the school, the church, and the public and private sectors? Not surprisingly, we're in the "kangkungan" – the pits? But Lee Kwan Yew is autocratic; Thailand and Malaysia and Indonesia are corrupt. Yet we are worse off than all of them? Are we Padre Damaso personified – holier-than-thou – and that is a big part of our collective failure as a nation?
Who is in bed with oligarchy? Our community – because of crab mentality we created the perfect ecosystem for tyranny and subservience, e.g., from a bloated government bureaucracy to the pork scam . . . and beyond? Have we heard about Greece where a bloated government bureaucracy took its toll on the economy? Even friends from ex-socialist Bulgaria couldn’t figure out why a country with such a long history of democracy could be the poster boy of political patronage – and what about us in PHL? And so in their case they have already gone 3 months in their daily protest!
We may tap technocrats for public service yet for the longest time our bloated government bureaucracy has undermined transparency in public service – and nurtured corruption? Because of crab mentality we expect politicians to intercede in the hiring of our own friends and relatives? Who cares if we can’t prioritize and erect the foundation of an economy – as in adequate power and competitive electricity rates, basic infrastructure and a strategic and vibrant industrial base? Have we heard of India? “[India’s] economic decline has laid bare chronic problems, little remarked upon during the recent boom. An antiquated infrastructure, a sclerotic job market, exorbitant real estate costs and bloated state-owned enterprises never allowed manufacturing, especially manufacturing for export, to grow strong . . . The root of the problem is India’s failure to create a vibrant industrial base with the strength to export.”
Who is in bed with oligarchy? It is our school – and the church and the public and private sectors . . . and beyond? The bottom line: Because of our backwardness, our economy is in the pits and thus our school is as well . . . and everything else besides? It should not only be the church that must be offended when it is made the personification of Padre Damaso – we all must – but what are we doing about it? There are the courts where we could seek redress – in PHL where there is no rule of law . . . as in justice delayed is justice denied?
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