Still Concerned With the Philippines

The election is coming. The term of the current president is coming to an end. A new administration will be emerging. Will it bring hope? Will it bring prosperity and end the poverty in the Philippines?

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Yes, it may bring hope but hope is futile if not fulfilled. Hope is just a potential that is useless until realized.
Prosperity is a result and result will just take place if there is an action. Will the next administration do the right action? I personally believe that the country’s prosperity is a system issue. You cannot just blame it to the government. The government is but the reflection of the people. If you see corruption in the government, then you are actually seeing the people. Government officials were in fact one of the people.

We are a democratic country. We choose people among us and empower them to lead us. We call them president, mayors, senators etc. If the government is corrupt, it means that the people are corrupt. If we are angry to the government then we are angry to ourselves. I’m not talking here of persons as individuals. I’m referring to the majority. The majority or the dominating spirit among the Filipino people is corrupt.

I think the issue of corruption is deeply rooted to our cultural orientation. And it will not change in six years even though we elected a good leader. It should be a cultural upheaval. It should be a change of mind to the majority of people. It may not necessarily start with the person of the government. I admit though that the country’s influential people like our elected leaders can be of strong influence. The Philippines future is in the hands of the Filipinos ourselves.

Are we proud to be a Filipino? Are we proud of being unable to accept defeat? Are we proud of thinking for ourselves only and not for our country men? Are we proud to be bias to our family members even though doing so will violate fairness and justice? Are we proud to be always looking for the government to take care of our needs? Are we proud of our principles? Are we proud of our values?

I believe that the Filipino culture has its good qualities but I also believe that we have cultural thinking and practices that keep us from progressing. It’s like a weight tied to our knees that slows us down. Admit it, WE ARE STUCK! And it’s our fault. We have to realize that or we will still believe that we are great and Filipinos were the best in the world. We must not keep a blind eye on the defective spots of our culture.

Are we proud to be Filipinos? Is this what we want the Filipinos to be? Is this what we want the Philippines to be?

I’m not proud to be a Filipino. I want to change the current Filipino thinking. I am still concerned with the Philippines and this is not the Philippines that I wanted to be.