By Dr. Dennis Acop
Public policies, programs, projects, and actions all derive their inspiration from national values. These values are articulated by the people and transmitted through their sacred ballots to the candidates of their choice who are expected to translate them into action once elected as the people’s representatives in governance. The people are the key stakeholders in government. Not the government itself. For the people elected its government. If at all, government is merely a secondary stakeholder but not the center of gravity. Many officials forget this basic principle in public service once they are in office. The powers and privileges of public office begin to attract them more than rendering humble and honest service to the people who elected them. Often, public service becomes a mere front for hypocrisy. Where officials profess honor where there is none. And caretakers of public coffers pretend honesty where there is none. Lawmakers going through the motions of enacting legislation, but neither the kind that is truly needed most by national interest nor that which is truly honest but certainly one that is self-serving. And a chief executive who is the first to ignore the rule of law replicated through the bureaucracy he leads.
At the point I just described, it is what it is because everything started on the wrong foot. Many people believe politics is just a game. If that were true then it surely is the most cruel game. For many lives are at stake in this cruelest of games. And they are mostly those of the least, last, and the lost. But mind you, many of them are relatives and kin of Filipinos everywhere, here and abroad. Those kin are foreign workers who send back trillions that keep the economy afloat and the inflation rate in check. They have helped local relatives survive through this pandemic crisis. And local workers have always kept this country afloat through the taxes they’ve paid even if much of what they give merely line the pockets of corrupt officials and civil servants. The wrong foot we started with is our values.
What kind of values do we have? What values do we need? If we find too much corruption in our body politic, it is exactly the opposite that we need — honesty. If we are seeing too much violence in our streets today, it is certainly its antithesis that we need — peace. If we are witnessing too much fear exhibited before an occupying regional bully, then it is undoubtedly the opposite of fear that we must have —courage. If we are hearing so much vulgarity and disrespect scandalizing the already confused minds of our children, then the opposite value of decency is what we need to rediscover. If incompetence appears commonplace given the appointment of individuals unable to deliver but who mouth off-tangent narratives, then it is the opposite — competence — that we need. If there is just so much chaos and anarchy illustrated by the twin threats of a deadly pandemic and maritime encroachment by a foreign power despite the existence of international law in our favor, then it is most certainly the opposite — order by the rule of law that we need. And finally, if there is disrespect against God Himself inspired by the highest official in a land founded upon God, then it is the opposite of this that all Filipino Christians need to be ordered back to — their true faith in God.
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