It is December 2024, the birth month of the Lord of Truth and Justice, Jesus Christ. Most especially for the Philippines, the seat of Christianity in Asia, Christmas is THE season of joyous celebration by Filipinos, acknowledging the birth of the Savior of mankind, Jesus Christ. It is the time of the year when families get together and show their love for one another, praying and worshiping the God of Love, and sharing gifts, celebrating each other’s company with a special food feast. This love-sharing can extend to neighbors, to the community and to those who have least in life, the marginalized in society.
But sadly, in the Philippines, such celebratory mood envelops only half or more accurately perhaps, the societal upper quarter of the population, the A B C social classes. That is, as compared to the lower D E classes, who comprise those classified as poor, being unemployed or employed but earning not enough for decent living.
In other words, Philippine society is currently plagued with myriad problems of bad governance, as more than half of the 116 million Filipinos are struggling to meet their basic needs of decent jobs, shelter that fits as a comfortable home, land of their own, daily food needs, and able to support a family’s need for healthcare and children’s education. How, indeed, given their dire situation, are they able to celebrate with a festive spirit during this season of merry-making?
The Constituents
These Filipinos, considered as "poor" are found in "laylayan" communities, or the homeless who somehow call "home" a space under a concrete bridge, or their small wooden cart, or even under a building’s side roof, or in an isolated spot in the fringes of towns and cities. These are the constituents of public officials who are short-sighted or ignorant about public service or simply self-serving or dynastic in orientation, such that they deliberately neglect complying with their mandate of serving the people.
The attention of these dynastic officials, who happen to compose about 80 percent of all public officials, have essentially been their personal vested interests, thus, failing to see their poor constituents’ basic needs.
During this December month of sharing love, not only among families, but also to fellow Filipinos-in-need, the dynastic officials have long been expected by people of goodwill to reflect and realize that their mandate and official duty is to promote good governance.
These public officials, primarily with the top leadership of President Bongbong Marcos and VP Sara Duterte, along with their cabinet secretaries and allies in Congress, have yet to revive and improve the economy, fight disinformation nationwide and to give justice to every Filipino.
Guilty!
For too long, since the installation of their administration, and that of VP Sara Duterte’s father in 2016, more than half of their fellow Filipinos have been suffering high prices of food items, like the missing P20/kg of rice and affordable meat, fish and vegetables, among other food items.
Worse, the problems of drug proliferation, the crime-laden POGOs, China’s continuing encroachments into our sovereign territory, among other pestering problems, have not abated.
And as the Quad committee hearings have concluded, former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte has been found to be guilty of “crimes against humanity!” So, how indeed can Filipinos fully celebrate with a clear conscience the birthday of the God of Truth, Justice, Peace and Progress?
#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #OpinYonColumn #PoliticsisLife