OUR CULTURE OF BLAMING AND FINGER POINTING

By: Capt. Alvils

We, Filipinos have a habit of blaming others for our own failures. When something goes wrong we point a finger at somebody; not knowing that every time we make this gesture, 3 of our fingers points back at us, another one pointing to where we’re standing.

There are many theories about the causes of malaise that afflicts our country. One can make all kinds of speculations, but the most logical reason is our damaged culture.

We blame illegal loggings for the denudations of our forest and destruction of our watersheds; believe to be the primary cause of flooding and landslides. But so far nothing has been done about it. The only thing that our lawmakers did was to enact a law imposing life imprisonment for offenders. Whether they can enforce this law and jail the culprits still remains to be seen. What makes them think that imposing stiffer penalties can deter these scoundrels from cutting down trees? Despite the total log ban imposed by Malacanang, several timber firms enjoy immunity from their Autonomous Regions for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) protectors. If they were able to get away in the past by bribing corrupt ARMM officials, how can they be stopped now when the same officials are still around? Some are even directly involved in these illicit activities.

Local leaders of the cities of Iligan and Cagayan De Oro blame PAGASA for lack of weather warning during the pre-Christmas catastrophic flooding. PAGASA disputed their claim, saying it was them who ignored and took for granted the regular weather bulletin issued by the bureau thinking that “Sendong”, a weak tropical storm (it was upgraded from LPA to TS just before making landfall), will pass by Mindanao Island without much incident. PAGASA was right. The storm had an average wind force, not enough to blow rooftops or destroy structures, but they failed to foresee the huge amount of rainfall that it carried. Unlike other advanced nation, our bureau’s weather instruments are not sophisticated enough to forecast the quantity of downpour (inches of rain) that a typhoon brings.

“Let’s face it, unlike the people of Luzon, Mindanao, particularly the residents of the cities of Iligan and Cagayan De Oro, are not used to extreme weather conditions. So, you cannot expect them to be prepared when severe flooding strike their areas”, said one weather analyst.

The Iligay-nons and Cagay-anons blame the local and national government for its disaster unpreparedness and sluggish response to aid the calamity victims. Days after the catastrophe, supply of food, potable water, medicines and other relief goods still came in trickles. As soon as the first truck of supplies arrives, the evacuees scrambled and clawed at its other to get their share. The scene in most evacuation centers were utterly chaotic.

“In difficult times like this, when you cannot feel the presence of your elected officials, you feel sorry for having voted them to office”, said one disgruntled Cagay-anon.

Like us, the Japanese also suffered the same fate when a killer “tsunami”, spawned by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, hit their eastern seaboard. Thousands of people perished, thousands more were made homeless. An entire city was washed away and wiped out from the map. As the roads were impassable, it took awhile before help arrive. But there was no pointing of fingers; none of them complained. Nobody blame the government for the tragedy; much less criticize their officials for late delivery of food and supplies. They all waited, shared whatever food and water they could scavenge from the trash of debris with their neighbors. Instead of weeping for their misfortunes, they helped, consoled and comforted each another. When relief goods finally arrive, they quietly lined up in a queue, waiting patiently for their turn. They grieved for the loss of their loved ones, but at the end of the day they buried their dead, stood up, picked up the pieces and slowly rebuild their devastated borough. Government officials, as an expression of concern and sympathy to their constituents, donated part of their earnings and poured in enough funds to hasten their recovery. I do not wish to be Japanese, but I admired these people and pray that one day we can emulate the kind of culture they have,

We blame the clogged and poor drainage system for the cause of flooding in our cities and places of domicile. Yet, we continue to throw our garbage and refuse along our thoroughfares, esteros, bays and river tributaries. A person throwing a piece of candy wrapper on the street is as guilty as the one indiscriminately dumping tons of garbage in the wrong place. You can never say a small piece of chewing gum will not make a difference to our ecological system. Imagine the effect to our environment if 90,000,000 people will each throw a piece of tiny litter everywhere.

With striking similarity, we blame the former President, now Pampanga representative, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for emptying the government coffers and corrupting almost all branches of our government including the Supreme Court, our last bastion of justice. Yet, we tolerated her for so long and allowed her to remain in power for 9 years. Adding insult to injury, the people in her district- including members of the clergy - who refused to believe that she looted the country but admitted that the nation is on the brink of bankruptcy because of corruption, elected her to congress. What made the line of thinking of Pampanguenos different from that of the Filipino populace boggles my mind.

People accused the former dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, of crimes against humanity, atrocities and plundering the wealth of our nation during the martial law years. In fact, we have had indefinitely kept the slogan "never again give up our democracy", and even played old newsreels to remind us of the horror of his oppressive regime. But look at his namesake, whom people elected to the senate, who will most likely run in the next presidential election. Do we really have short memories or just simply unpatriotic? Was the first EDSA people's power revolution an exercise in futility? No matter what others say that his namesake is a different breed, he will always carry the genes of his father.

It is common in our political system for the accused to point a finger at his accusers when charged with graft and corruption. More often than not, it is the whistle blower that get into trouble. He is the one being investigated and placed on the hot seat for, the accused claim, purportedly lying.

Still fresh in my mind was the statement of one high, former Comelec official involved in the ZTE NBN scandal. He admitted in public saying to Com. Romulo Neri, “may 200 ka dito sec”, but denied it’s all about commission money and if indeed it was, never clarified if it was 200 pesos, 200 thousand or 200 million. My goodness, does he really think Filipinos are that stupid?

One government official that I admire most is this late ex-general who was charged with receiving “pabaon” from the AFP. Instead of pointing a finger at his accusers, he used his pointer finger to pull the trigger of the gun that would end his own life. In Japanese they call it “Hara-kiri”. If our corrupt political leaders will only follow his example, perhaps we can rid the government of scalawags, cleanse our political system and be a great nation again. I will be more than happy to send bouquet of flowers to their wakes.

Looking back to how we downgraded from one of wealthiest nation in Asia after the Second World War to one of the poorest and backward country at present time, some superstitious individuals attributed our miseries to the myth of Manuel Quezon. He preferred a country run like hell by Filipinos to one run like heaven by Americans- Obviously, he got his wish.

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