Former Philippine president Fidel Ramos said, in a speech delivered at an activity organized by the office of and attended by current Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, that greed, apathy, and corruption are once again making themselves felt, and constituted problems that the nation needs to address.

“Around the world,” said he, “there are new tyrannies in the form of self-serving leaders, immoderately greedy autocrats and cliques of corrupt officials that we must still confront.”

Ganns to self: Must refrain from pot-calling-kettle-black cheap shot. Oops.

Cathy and I were discussing this yesterday morning - you know you’re not even remotely close to young anymore when your conversations focus more on politics and the economy than the latest songs on the radio - when she joked, if we remove the corrupt from public service, there will be no one left. I myself kidded that this would raise unemployment to dangerous levels.Snide comments aside, I think the single greatest problem facing the Philippines today is not poverty. It’s not even corruption. The single greatest problem facing the Philippines today is that we don’t care for each other as a people.

The greatest problem facing us today is we don’t love our country. Period.

If public servants loved the country, they wouldn’t even have to think twice about adding on a little extra to their projects just for money in their pockets; they simply wouldn’t. If our leaders loved the country, they would not build an economic plan on sending their countrymen to work abroad, thereby making our own economy dangerously reliant on the economies of other nations, and tearing families apart because father and mother are not working together to raise the next generation.

If we loved our country, we would not run red lights. We would not try to use our connections just because we do not want to stand in line. We would not try to bribe our way out of dilemmas we got ourselves into because we did not do the right thing in the first place. We would not try to replace our leaders just because.

The system is not the problem. We are the problem. Our own qualities as a people - the ningas cogon, the padrino system, the bahala na attitude, the pwede na iyan mentality - doom us to failure. Each and every time.

Before we can change the government, we need to look at ourselves in a spiritual mirror and ask ourselves the more important question: how can I be part of the solution?

More on that in my next blog post, because I need to formulate my thoughts. What I definitely want to underline is that these blog entries are not unrealistic mumblings of a Filipino pollyanna. I don’t offer a solution, but I want to underscore that we as a people, if we are genuinely concerned about the future of our nation, need to be in a certain mindset when we undertake the process of change and rehabilitation.

Ramos says “history might yet call us to come together again–to offer our lives and fortunes on the altar of our civic ideals.” I hope he’s willing to put his money where his mouth is, because my next post intends to start with him.

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