Delayed Makabayan Blues

Excerpts from my reflection points which I'll email my boss regarding our Study on Spirituality of Integrity. I can't email the entire article, it's too long, it might bore you.

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I was once asked to write for Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan’s newsletter, SILBI, on good and bad governance. It was linked to the video I was working on for Ehem! I come to realize though that even if it was written more to promote the video that we are about to release to aid Ehem! seminars, it was still very much influenced by my other work as a researcher and project coordinator for Spirituality of Integrity. I begin to ponder more on the following paragraphs I wrote for the said article:

“It has to start with a bit of care for the country, with a little love for our respective communities.
With the current state of the country, there should be no room for apathy in every Filipino. It is our responsibility to be informed and to do something good about the information that we get and we know. It is our responsibility to be non-complacent – to demand for a government which we know is just and is working for the common good. However, along with demanding and keeping a tight watch to secure transparency in our leaders, we are equally demanded to work with our leaders toward that progress which we want.
Mediocrity, as well, should neither be tolerated nor encouraged in the various sectors in society. “Pwede na yan” attitude should be barred in the quality of education given to and demanded from our students; should be prohibited in the services offered in the city hall and other government agencies; should be banned in the manufacturing of products, whether local or not, for trade and industry; and should never be allowed in the field of medicine. Innovation and excellence is to be demanded in every Filipino.”

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Love of family is one the main dimensions of integrity that was mentioned by our participants and key informants. Some, most of them parents, even went to the extent of taking note that children play an important role in trying to influence the older generation to live a life of integrity. For how would a parent react if his/her child questions the origin of their wealth despite the fact that they know he is only earning little from his work as councilor or police officer?

I do place a lot of belief in the noted points of all our participants and key informants with regard to Integrity. I agree with the various dimensions that came out in the FGRs and individual consultations. Some of my personal views regarding integrity and public service were resonated by life and work experiences of participants who were and are public servants.

In a way however, it feels like there’s something missing, or that there is something more that ought to be there, in the results of the FGR. I wonder where our love of country is in all of these?

The love for family is a given. As Filipinos our close family ties has always been present in most of our choices. Blood, almost always, is thicker than water and sometimes the consequences are unpleasant. We stick with our relatives even when we know they are wrong or they did something bad. Without questions, we side with our parents and children because we believe we know them best since we live and grew up with them. We try to cover up for the mistakes they did so they’d escape possibility of jail or death.

But how does love of family correlate with love of country? When our kin has committed an offense against a greater majority, against our nation for example, which side do we choose? When we know that our relative’s action created so much injustice, do we still let him go and help him escape the consequences of his actions simply because s/he is family? When we know for a fact that the money spent for the food on our table is the taxpayer’s money, do we genuinely get full and nourished?

We seem to have lost our capacity to truly be nationalistic and show our love for our country. Our life choices seem to have been influenced so much by our personal needs and wants without a tinge of effort to think about the needs of our nation and people in general. “Common Good” is like alien jargon to some of us when we choose to throw garbage on the streets, drive a smoke belching car, cut off trees irresponsibly, choose to buy only imported products and never the ones locally made, and worst when we choose to steal the money that is intended for projects for our schools or baranggays or our whole district.