Advocate's Views

Most of us took so narrowly the issues today on corruption in the national dailies, even dragging the names of the good Bishops on the mess the previous administration had done to this country.

We even have narrow views on allegations of corruption on GMA and his cohorts.

Evidence to this is our Philippine history which is composed of narrow details, the repetitive news of today and now the social networking with messages endlessly threading have made our world becoming smaller and our views becoming very particular and narrower. I’m not saying that with daily doses of facebook we’re becoming narrow minded, and on the other hand with narrow views we are making things clearer, up close, and yes personal.

But by being too narrow and fixated to it will disregard the bigger picture, the big fish and the main culprit of all this mess.

Many from our masses are telling us why is it that our law enforcers are targeting slum squatters, the vendors, drivers, ordinary drug users and the likes are caught leaving the “schools of big fishes ,” as usual, are absolutely free and in control, as they say, with big grins.

Because we forgot to see the big ones and they grow bigger.

In times of crises and in determining the causes of our nation’s maladies, we are faced with a dilemma of facing to go after the big ones for they are already in power, we voted them since time immemorial and they are fully armed or have just landed in Forbes’ list of billionaires.

These things with the Bishops and GMA are already big but there is bigger than this that controls Philippine political landscape, and this is patronage.

Patronage which is a remnant of Spanish policy more than a century ago, the favored elites of the Americans, the collaborators during the Japanese times, the oligarchs and the cronies from the past up to the present administration. What’s sad about this is that the Spaniards, the Americans and the Japanese have long gone in controlling our governance and yet we remain captives of their colonial policies.

The names of the conquistadores are lording some of the main streets in Metro Manila, the elites are still controlling the political and economic organizations in the country from the national up to the local levels, and the collaborators’ families remain powerful despite the fact that they turned their backs against this nation during the worst time of our history, the second world war.

Worst, when we were children and even our children today are reading books filled with clear patronage, the books are showing the hypocrite goodness they have done to our country but very irrelevant to the present state of our nation. Its irrelevancy is the result why it cannot be understood or at least appreciated by everyone because you cannot see a single person in our history that we can source our inspiration with, for they fought for a failed nation and a non-functioning democracy that we are having now.

This is because of patronage, an attitude that successfully ingrained into our system, and have survived the people in power and sustained the powerless to live like dogs, squatters in their own lands. Until now, I’ve not seen an organization, in public or in private, which ultimately closed their doors against patronage.

Very worst form of patronage is in the government and this makes us one of the most corrupt countries in the world and it is even present in our religious organizations for despite our being faith-base nation we remain to be one of the poorest in Asia.

Great leaders of the world did not fight for narrow reasons or the detailed effects but they go after the bigger causes of all of these.

For a President to go after the crooks during the previous administrations, he will not only be looking after the Bishops, there may be NGOs, corporations, businessmen, local warlords, families, bureaucrats, personalities, legislators including Senators who may have benefited from dancing with the Arroyos during their heydays as their music leisurely played in the palace.

It may look like a never-ending fight but the President must continue this for he made a good start where no other Presidents have done so far.

What I want him to be remembered together with his unforgettable parents, is for him to rise above where his father never attained and his mother never dwelt upon, and that is to obliterate Patronage in his own Palace.

The opportunity to do that is now since the President has an army of millions of ordinary Filipinos in his side totally supporting his cause against corruption hoping that he can put this nation in the right track. His actions cannot be downplayed by an inciting Bishop, the dishonored Generals, a publicly beaten GMA or anyone whose vested interests to continually plunder this nation is discontinued because of this noble fight of the President.

The President must stop his family recommending names for government positions or to fund some of their projects. Presumption of patronage should always be with family members asking for any support from Malacañang. This must be stop.

He must appoint and inspire the best and the brightest people in the country to lead this nation and never to listen to the noises in the Congress for it is where publicity seekers reside.

Appointing OICs in ARMM will be a test for this administration in fighting patronage and corruption in that region. I hope he will not accede to patronage for if he will, the worth he made against corruption will be eroded to nothing. It needs a strong principled President bringing to a national cause in ridding ARM with grisly corruption and mismanagement ever since it was created almost two decades ago.

In ARMM, appoint people in the academe or from among the Muslim religious groups because of their unifying leadership and credibility to match the good heart of the President. To me these are also people with no vices or possibilities of patronage.

In closing, patronage is like a dragon pillaging this nation since we formed this nation more than a century ago, and it is high time for our Prince descended from noble parents to kill this dragon once and for all.

It would be a very heroic act if he will start with his own family and close friends who are with him in the palace and are now doing things in front of him like that dragon, or let me say crocodiles.