The Philippines: promise on the brink Posted by The Society of Honor on February 6, 2015 · 204 Comments

History is scattered with incidents that explode to change the world. An assassination here, a boat sunk there, a sneak attack in the brilliant Hawaiian sun.

The incidents themselves are not always huge. People die all the time. Boats sink all the time. It is what they inspire that changes the world, the rising up of a people. The Philippines knows these moments. The day an American soldier shot a Filipino citizen in 1898. The day a dictator ordered the execution of a political rival at the airport. And quite possibly the day that man’s son failed to attend to 44 dead heroes.

People die all the time in the Philippines. Journalists are executed, buses with bad brakes roll down the mountainside, ferries go bottom-side up in a storm, poor people living on dangerous river banks get washed by the thousands out to sea. Clan and election rivals murder each other. People without money go to hospitals without expertise, making it the morgue of choice.

The Philippines knows dying.

The Philippines also knows dying in domestic conflicts with gangs of malcontents who may claim a political ideology or a religious belief, but in truth are nothing more than thieves, murderers and extortionist racketeers. It’s a business for them, a livelihood.

The 44 heroes died during an operation aimed at killing or capturing two international terrorists who make bombs. Who have killed before, who would kill again. Who were behind an assassination plot on Pope Francis in the crowded streets of Manila. Hundreds could have died if security – the work of those now under attack – were not well done.

The 44 succeeded, but at huge cost. They got one of the bomb makers.

The 44 were not the first to die, of course. Every few weeks we read of ambushes, of soldiers killed and rebels killed. It is relentless. One can only handle so much of this. We read the headline, skip the story, and finish our donut and coffee.

One of the worst modern terrorist-inspired death tolls was 116 civilians in the bombing of a Superferry in 2004. A total of 220 were killed during the 2013 siege of Zamboanga led by Vice President Binay’s classmate, Nur Misuari, but 183 were Muslim rebels, so what do we in Manila care? We don’t have to greet those coffins. The armed forces and police lost 25 and 12 civilians died over the course of several very tense days. President Aquino was on scene. He claimed accountability that day. He would not deal for hostages and the siege cracked.

And, of course the 44 were not all who died in the cornfields on the day of the hunt for the two terrorist bombers. Also dead were 18 MILF or BIFF fighters, including bomb boy Marwan, and four civilians. There were no ceremonies for them, at least not reported in banner headlines on the front page of Manila’s notorious tabloids.

The President made a big mistake by not attending the arrival of the caskets. But he didn’t know that at the time. He thought he was doing good by the Philippines to inspire the Japanese to build plants here and provide a lot of new jobs for Filipinos. But, in the comfort of hindsight, we can see he had no foresight.

He could not see the emotion attached to those 44 soldiers. Then he compounded the problem by appearing rigid, unapologetic and unsympathetic.

“Insensitive!”

That is likely to be his legacy now.

That well-known stoic posture, the candid speech, the calm and steady tearless eyes . . . they didn’t work for him. Oh, they are what got him and the Philippines through several other crisis situations, Hong Kong’s three-year rage at a botched bus massacre, a Sultan’s invasion of Sabah, the siege of Zamboanga, and the Taiwanese president’s outsized tantrum over the murder of a Taiwanese fisherman by a Filipino coast guard crew. The president was a rock of calm presence.

Filipinos do not forgive, but they seem to forget. They seem to forget that this calm, tearless stoicism, a weakness at funerals, is also their President’s strength.

Filipinos also seem to lose all perspective. This is a president with a bullet in his body and a dead father on the tarmac of the Manila airport and Filipinos want him to cry for them.

Well, it seems to me that this unrestrained emotionalism is a bed of fertilizer for dissent and disruption driven by crooks, political opponents, leftists and malcontents. There is no barrier stopping them now because the good people are shouting their grief and anger, and inviting disaster to step right in.

Lost to the emotional is the vision of a Philippines on the rise in Asia and the world, of strong economic fundamentals and the kind of growth that could assure better care for the poor IF IT WERE MAINTAINED. Of a peaceful, law-based approach to conflict that seeks to avoid the tears of war. ITLOS, a courageous act, for peace. BBL, an inspired thrust for peace. All led by this same hard-hearted, honest president with his calm, determined eye on a better way to do things.

But you will not read of that in the tabloids. The tabloids will not point out that this man wants peace and stability and better care and fewer dead. No, in the tabloids, the crooks, political opponents, leftists and malcontents are actually JOINED by the emotional to raise the pitch of discontent to a fevered wail.

And in the noise of that wail, all the good things don’t matter. The President’s honesty does not matter. His desire and work for peace and a better life for the living don’t matter. Keeping the economy running smoothly does not matter.

What matters is this guttural cry of a wounded nation seeking to put their entire burden on one man.

Frankly, I am at the edge of losing hope because, to me, this is a nation that seems to seek some kind of thoughtless vengeance. That is irrational. It is a nation that tosses babies out with the bathwater and peace and well-being out with the President.

It is a nation on the brink of promise and can’t figure out which way to step.

This is a nation that is so emotionally needy that it is determined to break the President. And thereby break the nation.

Why?

Because people can’t deal with their emotions privately, and carry those painful personal burdens alone, like President Aquino must.

“Grief is natural. Anger is natural. Making decisions when you’re angry is probably natural too, but it’s not smart.” [Society contributor Steve]

The Philippines is standing at the brink of losing its promise.

It is at the brink of not being smart.