Dear Gemma: A Rejoinder by Herman Tiu Laurel

Below is a rejoinder/reply to an open letter circulated on the internet attributed to a Ms Gemma S. Dimaculangan. Daily Tribune columnist, Herman Tiu Laurel, wrote the following on his March 28, 2008 Die Hard III column. He offered a more deeper and somewhat detailed analysis to what ails this country of almost 90 million people, more than half of which lives in poverty while a great percentage of its middle class are overseas workers.

"Dear Gemma,

Your heartbreak letter pouring your disgust over corruption in the Philippines has circulated all over the Internet and returned to Manila as a piece in one of the mainstream newspapers. You rail as a “taxpayer” against the “criminals in ‘barong’” stealing the 30 percent from your income you pay as a citizen, expressing disgust over the senators associated with crooks (referring to Gloria’s gang).

I especially liked your snide remark on Joker Arroyo for “making a joke of his own ‘pag bad ka, lagot ka!” You missed the mark somewhat when you allowed Gloria leeway in saying “PGMA time and again turns a blind eye to her husband’s financial deals” — as if Gloria weren’t the mastermind of the entire caboodle of corruption.

You correctly lamented the attitude by some expat Filipinos: “They say the few stupid ones like me who remain in the Philippines are no longer capable of showing disgust.” It’s good you said you “…don’t agree” and “Many like me feel anger at the brazenness of men we call our leaders, embarrassment to share the same nationality with them… But I am writing this because I need to do something concrete… I want to make it known that there are also Filipinos who dream of something better … I want them to know that my country is not filled with scalawags and crooks in every corner, and that there are citizens left who believe in decency, fairness…” You called for Filipinos to summon the power of good and implored “mothers out there to raise your children the best way you can…”

Ms. Dimaculangan, your letter struck a powerful chord among Filipinos abroad that they circulated it until your plaintive cry came all the way back to your home country. It rang a powerful bell in the hearts of your countrymen to your call not to be cynical but to let “… your voices be heard” to do “what you can for this land of your ancestors and your heritage.” But the question you have not provided an answer to is “what to do?” Before I proceed to give my response to your cries, Gemma, let me say this country — along with its government — is really replete with good, self-sacrificing and honest citizens — the vast majority of its soldiers and policemen are honest and faithful to their service despite living in pitiful hovels in squatter areas while the elite they protect wall themselves off in Forbes or Dasmariñas Village, or in Makati condos aeries.

There are over half-a-milion Filipino public school teachers and many, like Teacher Julie of Patubig Elementary School in Bulacan and Teacher Deo of Krus na Ligas High School in Quezon City, who work in oversized classes of up to 70 students. Underpaid and they often foot the bill for what the schools lack — such as a busted fluorescent light tube or even electricity payment the provincial and education funds can not cover because 60 percent of the National Budget goes to payment of external debt. Which really brings us to the international dimension of our crisis and the corruption of the country’s top government echelons: we are country endowed with natural bounties other countries covet and exploit while we grow poorer, but we never elected the most corrupt leaders like Arroyo who was installed by foreign powers with their local collaborators.

Take Edsa II which deposed a national leader elected by 11 million Filipinos in only two-and-a-half years in office; Estrada was not even given a chance to fail; he was never given the opportunity to prove the viability programs. Who did him in? This is what most people now know: A combination of local oligarchs in the power, water utility and telecommunications businesses aided by local church potentates like Cardinal Sin, trapos par excellence like FVR with the most corrupt police and military generals and proclaimed by a Supreme Court unfaithful to the Constitution. What few Filipinos realize is that Bush and corporate America were behind it too, to push the “War on Terror” and privatize and plunder the national wealth.

Like many Filipinos, you do not see the methods of the foreign predatory powers that have plagued the country from Lapu-Lapu through Gabriela Silang, to Jose Rizal and Bonifacio down to this day: the foreign powers use their economic and political clout to put in their “gobernador-general”. The foreign powers were appointed to her “Council of Foreign Economic Advisers” Gloria. The foreign powers love corrupt leaders like Mrs. Arroyo because they are “buyable”, and if the financial price becomes too high like Gloria’s (the Chinese are bidding higher) then they are “blackmail-able” like in ZTE-NBN. Worse comes to worse, the foreign power can oust a leader by Filipino generals trained in Fort Bragg staging a “coup” disguised as “people power.” It was in the hope of ousting the foreign powers that Rizal, Bonifacio, Mabini et al dedicated their lives to national revolution.

Ms. Dimaculangan, this aspect of foreign corruption of our national affairs is what you miss in your otherwise comprehensive review of corruption in our society. Putting the moral of the story in a nutshell, I turn to the current rice supply problem, which is a food supply issue. Arroyo’s regime used the agricultural budget for fertilizers to buy the 2004 elections while letting rice smuggling go unchecked the past seven years; President Estrada put as top priority food security, certified an irrigation expansion bill into law and prioritized other food programs — like milk production. The next food crisis is the global shortage of milk which is already felt everywhere in rising prices. Estrada put into law the Carabao Breeding Program, anticipating this milk crisis by a decade. Gloria has done nothing on this score, and it is the youngest Filipinos who will suffer.

President Marcos prioritized irrigation and food productivity while Cory Aquino canceled almost all major irrigation dams Marcos initiated, yet to this day Marcos is demonized while Cory Aquino is lionized by the Western and local elite-controlled media. The fact is, in many surveys, the pining for the “good old days” of tangible economic development and benefits of the Marcos era is growing in the hearts of many poor Filipinos. It is not easy to sort out the truth after the “demonization” of Marcos and Estrada by international and local media, and even by the educational system directed by those in control today. Over time truth will out and the un-Filipino character of the puppet leaders of the foreign powers are sure to be exposed completely while the pro-Filipino will stand out: deposed Marcos and Estrada had Filipino welfare at heart while Cory, FVR and Gloria who have enjoyed Western support have brought us to the present dire straits.

Corruption is always an issue, but not all corrupt countries get poorer and poorer like the Philippines. China and India are corrupt, higher than the Philippines in many corruption surveys but they are growing as economic dragons. You see, Gemma, the greatest corruption is betrayal of your country’s welfare. I have news reports on the milk crisis now in the US, Britain, India and many other countries. Like the early warning the past years on the growing rice shortage, I am alerting Filipinos to the impending milk crisis for the Philippines — but as usual, few will take heed; while the country rails and flails about ZTE-NBN and corruption the next famine is creeping into every crib in every home: the milk shortage."

Gloria and Cory: A Study in Contrast by Conrado de Quiros

"Corazon Conjuangco Aquino came to power by being the Asian Joan of Arc, the housewife who rose from obscurity and stormed the ramparts of tyranny. When those ramparts fell, others tried to seize the crown, chief of them, Juan Ponce Enrile, who figured that his change of heart at the 11th hour had given him a claim to it. The public did not buy it and gave the mantle to Cory.

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came to power by hiding behind the skirts of Cory and Sin while the battle raged, and emerging when the smoke had cleared to claim the throne. It was the nation’s misfortune that Cory and Sin did not read the signs early on. Cory gave up her office when her time was up, like she said she would. She could have gotten around the constitutional ban on a second term on some pretext or other, but she did not. She believed in giving a good example; she believed that the democracy she helped restore rested on institutions and not on individuals, on the people and not on messiahs.

Her example was lost on her protégé. Gloria said she would not run again because if she did she would bring upon this country “never-ending divisiveness.” She lied about the first, but she told the truth about the second. Cory is held in the highest esteem abroad, having achieved world-class status by birthing the political phenomenon of People Power, which countries like Burma are desperately trying to imitate. When she adds her voice to the universal call for Aung San Suu Kyi to be released from house arrest and for the Burmese junta to hold free elections, the world applauds and Suu Kyi herself is eternally grateful.

Gloria has achieved world-class status by turning the Philippines into the most corrupt country in Asia and the second most dangerous country in the world for journalists.

Cory is loved by her people, and though she is no longer the political force she once was (the loss of Sin has diminished her), she continues to command respect where politics meets morality. She has stepped into that role without trying.

Gloria is loved by, well, her family and pets. As to the rest of the country, Pulse Asia’s latest survey sufficiently shows how Filipinos feel about her: three out of five of them distrust her, the other two probably being deaf and mute. Elsewhere in the world you get ratings like those, whether you are the legitimate leader or not, you slink away in shame and never show your face in public again.

Cory will not hide her plight from the nation, telling it she has colon cancer. Of course, she has also asked the nation to respect her privacy and not inquire too closely about her condition or the medical regimen she means to go through. She is a profile in courage.

Gloria will not tell the nation that it is being ravaged by a cancer of her making. Of course, she keeps asking the nation to give her more time to find the cure, when an instant one can be had by her disappearing from view. She is a profile in outrage."

– Conrado de Quiros, Inquirer

To read the full article, please click main title or here. To read opinion maker Conrado de Quiros' other essays, please click here to go to Philippine Inquirer's column "There's The Rub".