Why I choose to stay in the Philippines
In some of my travels, I’m asked, “Which country did you find the most interesting?” My home country Philippines, I replied.
Obviously, I choose this place with an eye not only for the scenic views, but also for my love for life, which can be elaborate or spartan. It’s a display case for choice possessions, whether to get rich or poor. But that’s getting ahead of the story.
As I sit under a tree enjoying the breeze and the quiet, the morning sun begins skipping down, pushing its light behind the dark clouds. So quietly does it come that only the wind and I feel a brewing rush of storm, flash floods down the hollow. To duck out from the biting lash of wind and the dread of overflowing floods, I head homeward to the hills while others meander to a much safer place.
Over the decades, smart people have survived several raging storms and floods and often thrived by their own guile and wit against the higher-ups’ promises to keep better order, but who instead heap up their sinful money-making pursuits. For such is the tale of the greedy politicians wallowing in luxuries while housing flood evacuees in makeshift basic-survival-kit shelters.
Converting schools into convenient evacuation centers may be, at the inconvenience of the teachers and learners, also deprive flood victims of the very thing they value most—the right to own a solid home that can withstand the grim consequences of climate change.
The notion that—if fear is little known, unease is not—sinks in and moves me to join the fray of righteous mortals today who break free to hit the wall of political tradition of hostility and greed. When former president Rodrigo Duterte disowned his promise to rebuild houses after waging war in Marawi, it was the former incorruptible vice president Leni Robredo who clustered the homeless together in low-cost housing where they’ve drawn strength over the dark memory of the past.
Being a little out of duty is forgivable, but being slow is not. When President Marcos moves too slow in addressing the flood problems and dressing down the rags-to-filthy-rich Discaya couple courtesy of alleged ghost flood control perks from the Department of Public Works and Highways, here comes the heroic Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto working his way out in bringing to light the colossal flood control scam and scores of corruption scandals.
Elsewhere fighting for the noble survival are the farmers who, despite being hapless victims of harsh typhoons that made their farms barren and the scorching summer sun that bakes their skin and dries up their crops, continue to break their backs in the fields to allow us to have plenty of food on our plates. The greatest persons, for me, are the most impoverished and hungriest in this country.
And then there are the students who grapple with globally assessed substandard learning, condoned by accustomed devilish and corrupt practices of the top elected officials, touted to be the guardians and bellwethers of the youth’s social behavior. Hey, the young must not be subjected to conform to the filth and squalor of an adulterated way of living, mechanized by the evil-minded, dishonorable leaders—the wild outcasts in society, as poet William Wordsworth called them.
Against all these odds, I choose to live simply but bravely in this country to fight against today’s stubborn mutilators of our political-economic-moral-psychological-social fabric.
How is it so? I’m an inveterate teacher in the bleachers who cheers how my college students manage to always overcome the bumps, potholes, and injustices cutting through our senses day in and day out. When misled, I walk with them until they’re politically and socially aware of the facts.
Even now that the road is open and the heath is free, I really don’t hate enough to harm those criminals who get rich. Just like you, I love to see them rot in jail for life!
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Pit M. Maliksi, 72, took Library Science from the University of Santo Tomas and M.A. from The International University; taught US Navy personnel at Central Texas College for seven years; and was named most outstanding professor for 14 years at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Sto. Tomas City, Batangas.
