Dr. Abay's Letter

High Ground : A Filipino Tragedy: Lament of a Balikbayan

William Esposo wmesposo@hotmail.com
INQ7.net

MANY times, it pays to look at the view from the outside in order to have a better appreciation of how things really are inside. It is often good to see ourselves from the eyes and perspective of someone who has the advantage of more detachment and distance from our problems. One of the major reasons why we Filipinos were left behind by our ASEAN neighbors is because we were too focused on our political intramurals that we lost sight of the great opportunities that abound outside our national boundaries.

With his permission, I am reproducing an emailed letter that was sent by Eustaquio "Boy" Abay II, MD, MS, who is a member of our Ateneo de Manila University Alumni egroup. Being someone who has seen the country during better times, Boy's perspectives allow us to take a fresh look at ourselves as a people and as a nation.

(Dr. Boy Abay's letter)

I have just come back from a visit to the Philippines. I landed in Manila, stayed a while in Sampaloc, flew to Bacolod, took a ferry to Iloilo, then back to Bacolod for 4 days. I went back to Manila, went straight to Cavite for a couple of days then returned to Manila for 2 more days, before returning to the US.

I went home to attend my high school reunion in Bacolod. About two-thirds of my classmates could not afford to pay for the nominal registration fees, much less contribute to the alma mater's many needed projects. Many opted to just stay away.

One of the evenings was dedicated to a family get-together that included close family members and friends. It is sad to note that much of the conversations dealt with how tight money was, how was one to connect with this or that persona in position so that they might get some project approved and somehow share in the booty.

Yes, the graft and corruption, the kurakot system, has gone beyond the government agencies. It has permeated into the private sector; in fact it is ingrained in the Filipino way of life. Even more sad to think that children grow up to see this as the way of life.

In Bacolod, as it was in Iloilo, driving was as much a nightmare as driving in Manila. The road rule was: Ako muna. Bahala ka na sa buhay mo (Me first. Fend for yourself)! In fact that was the rule of life in the entire country.

I met with old and new friends from Ateneo on an evening at Mezze, Greenbelt II, in Makati. That was refreshing.

I was in the company of Ateneans; many of course are exceptions to the rule. Jun Alvendia brought me to a beautiful facility that housed "chosen children", with Down's syndrome, cerebral palsy and other handicaps, from a few months to 18 years of age. I was awed by their discipline and courtesy, towards me and to each other. More so, if one realizes these are children mostly 6 to 12 years of age and are mentally/physically handicapped.

I visited a Gawad Kalinga village in Murcia, a municipality in Negros Occidental, about 30 miles northeast of Bacolod. I had the opportunity to visit with some of the GK village residents, some CFC volunteers, and the town mayor.

In transit to the airport, I asked the taxi driver, a clean cut, neatly dressed gentleman in his late 50's, "Ano po ang palagay mo sa nangyayari sa Pilipinas? (What do you think of what's happening in the Philippines?)" He replied: "Kung hindi mapa-alis si GMA sa paraan ng impeachment, assassination na lang. (If Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will not be ousted by impeachment, then only assassination will do it.)", and he was dead serious.

I had dreamt of perhaps starting a graduate school of medicine in the Philippines, maybe a world-class medical care and medical training center. But unless the economic situation and the fundamental moral fiber of the Filipino improve, anything we undertake is futile and empty.

I boarded PAL flight 102 to LA on September 8. As soon as I settled in my seat aboard the Boeing 747, I wept.

Where is the Filipino's love of country? (End of the Letter)

To let you know where he is coming from, allow me to give you a brief background on Dr. Boy Abay. Dr. Abay attained his medical degree at the Ateneo de Manila University and the University of Santo Tomas. He went to the US for further studies and completed residency in neurosurgery at the famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota with a Master of Science degree in Neurosurgery from the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Abay then founded and headed the Abay Neuroscience Center as its president. The Center's exemplary pool of six neurosurgeons gave it the recognition as the largest private neurosurgical group in Kansas. He also founded the Kansas Spine Hospital – a 40-bed hospital equipped with state of the art, fully computerized and digital equipment and facilities – and is its current CEO. Try searching Google for the Abay Neuroscience Center and the Kansas Spine Hospital and you will be impressed by what this fellow-Filipino has accomplished. Dr. Abay is another living proof that we are a great nation that is badly led.

There is no doubt about Dr. Boy Abay's capability to realize his vision of spearheading the establishment of a graduate school for medicine as well as a world-class medical care and medical training center in the Philippines. But having had a first-hand glimpse of evidences that reveal our pathetic culture of corruption and decadence, I can understand why Dr. Abay has decided to backtrack.

Like a world-class doctor, Boy Abay realizes that there can be no relief for the Filipino unless the most serious ailment of Philippine society is first addressed – the corruption that has already permeated the private sector and is now ingrained in the Filipino way of life, as he himself put it. Noble as his plan was to establish the medical facility that he hoped would address one of the biggest problems of Filipinos today – he knew that it would be no better than a pain killer which cannot cure the real problem of our society, the cancer of corruption and moral decadence.

Our situation cries for heroes. The rot has gotten to such an extent that no less than a heroic effort will deliver us from the hell where Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her ilk brought us. But, alas, the problem has mutated to such a degree – like a computer virus that neutralizes an anti-virus program – that even heroism is now prevented. One wonders where all our heroes and would-be heroes have all gone even as the virus of a Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration is proving to be more widespread and debilitating.

It must be extremely frustrating and devastating for someone as accomplished and so obviously nationalistic as Dr. Boy Abay to find himself in a situation where all he can do is ask: "Where is the Filipino's love of country?" Why don't the leaders who brought us into this abyss ask themselves this question? Why don't the entrenched elite who have lived off the blood and sweat of exploited Filipino labor for too long ask themselves this question?

Why don't the Filipino bishops of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) ask themselves this question? Love of country – more so if over 40 million Filipinos count among what Jesus Christ referred to as the 'least of our brethren' – is among the highest expression of love of God. Yet the CBCP continues to shirk from its duty to inspire Filipinos to actively fight the evil in our society and lead the struggle to ensure that truth prevails.

Why don't we ask it ourselves? It will take nothing less than our collective heroism to reverse our miserable situation. It is our country. It is the future of our children that is on the line. If we will not take the initiative to secure it, who will?

We, not Dr. Abay, should be the ones weeping.

You may email William M. Esposo at: w_esposo@yahoo.com

SSS Notice

Medical check-up to be done by SSS doctors

Inquirer News Service

THIS is in reference to the letter OF Maximino Balabbo complaining about the purported SSS policy that requires pensioners to undergo medical checkup. (Inquirer, 9/01/05)

The letter asked who would shoulder the expenses for this annual medical checkup. Under the Annual Confirmation of Pensioners (Acop) program, the medical checkup will be administered by a doctor of the Social Security System (SSS). Pensioners will not spend anything on this.

The Acop program, which was started early last year, is part of the reforms intended to ensure that pensioners get the right benefits; it is also meant to enable SSS to recover the money erroneously sent to those who have died, remarried or recovered from their disabilities.

If a pensioner is unable to go to an SSS branch for checkup, he or she can request for a home visit by an SSS representative. A pensioner can also communicate with the SSS by responding to its letters, or by sending a certification that he or she is alive and eligible to receive pension. The certification may be issued by a regular SSS employee who has been working with the SSS for at least five years, or by a teller in the bank where he or she has an account, or even by the postman or barangay chair.

We wish to point out that SSS employees do not receive dividends from the fund as Balabbo alleged.

JOEL P. PALACIOS, assistant vice president, Media Affairs Department, Social Security System, East Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City

When Will We Learn?

At Large : An endless debate

Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service

THIRTY-THREE years after the declaration of martial law and 19 years after its final vestiges -- namely the Marcoses, their cronies and the whole criminal gang -- were supposed to have been swept away by history, we look around us and discover that not only are the Marcoses still very much around, but that we're still debating the same issues.

The legacy of Ferdinand Marcos is once more under scrutiny, what with the revived issue of his possible burial in Libingan ng mga Bayani [Heroes' Cemetery]. As a "war hero" and guerrilla leader, say his friends and family, Marcos deserves to be interred in the heroes' burial grounds. This, even if historians and critics say he faked his wartime record on which his medals were based, and may even have in fact collaborated with the Japanese. As a former president, add his boosters, he more than deserves a place alongside former presidents, dead soldiers and even national artists. But, counters the other camp, the human rights abuses and wholesale plunder that he presided over and even masterminded cancel out whatever honors the country owes him.

As authorities drew up plans for the celebration of the Centennial of Philippine independence in 1998, observers were astounded when it turned out that historians were still divided between the "Magdalo" and "Magdiwang" factions of the Katipunan, still preoccupied with assigning "blame" for the ultimate failure of the Revolution on Andres Bonifacio or Emilio Aguinaldo. I won't be surprised (if I live that long) if by the time 2072 rolls around, the country will still be debating the merits of martial law, if Marcos did right by suspending civil rights and most legal protections on the excuse of turning back a Communist insurgency and creating a "New Society."

* * *

THAT strikes us -- the generation that lived through martial law -- as funny and even absurd. Our memories, fading as they are, remain sharp about how we felt on the day martial law was announced, the pervasive fear and apprehension that swept through campuses and streets, and the terror spawned by arbitrary arrests and summary executions.

To us, any recollection of martial law is as sharp as a black-and-white photo, the good and the bad outlined with clarity and precision. No wonder we are puzzled and not a little dismayed when later generations, including that of our children, seem to have dimmer and softer recollections, the acuteness blunted by time and second- and even third-hand sourcing.

Unfortunately, it is their generation, the generation of Filipinos who have only vague recollections of those years, who will be making the ultimate decisions regarding the Marcoses and the consequences of the martial law years. This is because our generation, whose legacy it was to fulfill the mandate of the Edsa People Power uprising, took our sweet time resolving the many cases against the Marcoses and the cronies, from stolen wealth to human rights violations, contract murders to wholesale theft of public funds, and even the tacky renovations made on Malacañang.

The Marcos family and the cronies know only too well that time is on their side. The longer they delay resolution of the many lawsuits they face, the better their chances of walking away with the loot and -- it galls me to say this -- even the honor.

* * *

THAT'S why it's important to keep reminding the nation about what martial law was really about and what life was like for Filipinos in that time of absolute power and absolute corruption.

I remember an article on Imee Marcos entitled, "Imee's Endless Apology." And indeed, it does seem as if, no matter what she does, the Ilocos congresswoman could not do enough to let us forget her family history. But it's an endless apology only because she, her siblings and especially her mother, have so far refused to say "sorry" for those events of 33 years ago. They have not only refused to apologize, they have also so far failed to make amends, restitution or accept their proper punishment.

If Imee is tired of being held to account for the "sins" of her parents, then this generation of Filipinos is even wearier of having to keep stoking the bitterness and bile, because coming to a premature peace entails forgetting and forgiving, meaningless without proper penance on the Marcoses' part.

Which brings me to those who say it's time we achieved "closure" on the entire martial law episode. By "closure" they seem to mean capitulation, as if an honorable burial, the settling of stolen wealth lawsuits, the abandonment of human rights victims, would wipe our memories clean.

* * *

AND this is why we cannot now look upon the current scandal in our political life and say the nation's welfare depends on "moving on," cutting our losses and reasoning that there are many shades to truth and it is not important to know who really won in the last elections.

That's what decades of shading the truth about martial law has done to us: blurring the ethical distinctions that make it possible to tell right from wrong, truth from falsehood, honor from high crimes. If we now say that despite the surfacing of evidence of cheating in the polls, it is more important that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo remain as our president for the sake of national stability, then we might as well say that all the lives destroyed by the Marcoses were worth it because Imelda built the Cultural Center, the Heart Center and other examples of her "edifice complex." We might as well bury with full honors the Marcos remains, and hand back Imelda's purloined jewelry.

We are still sifting the issues bequeathed to us by martial law. And we are doomed to an endless revisiting of those issues unless we learn the right lessons -- including truth-finding and truth-telling -- and teach them well to our children.

Glo's Lies

Kris-Crossing Mindanao : Lies and consequences

Noralyn Mustafa
Inquirer News Service

OF the three main charges that sum up the impeachment complaint against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo-lying, cheating and stealing-lying is the easiest to prove. All that we need to do is gather all the video clips and published newspaper articles where Ms Arroyo said or promised one thing but subsequently did the opposite, to our collective dismay.

But, of course, if we take a closer look, lying, cheating and stealing are really almost one and the same.

The oft-recalled and oft-quoted "first lie" was made in 2002, on the death anniversary of our national hero Jose Rizal that year, when she solemnly announced, with a sense of sacrifice and heroism, that she would not run in the 2004 elections because she realized she was dividing the country.

What followed is a history of habitual lying, resulting in the most sordid situation we have ever suffered.

And if like Susan Roces said in her famous "You stole the presidency not once, but twice" speech, stealing is the sibling of lying, then cheating must be its first cousin.

Almost forgotten though was the accompanying promise made on the same occasion: "Instead, as my legacy, I will see to it that we will have the cleanest, most honest and orderly elections." (On hindsight, this was also the most relevant vow.)

But, of course, she started campaigning the very next day and began putting in place anything and everything to ensure the most fraudulent, the most ruthless, the most dishonest and the dirtiest election in memory.

With a distinct taste for the ghoulish, she set in motion this operation to win at all costs. Then national archives department chief Ricardo Manapat used his office and public records under his care to manufacture fraudulent documents for the purpose of dragging from the grave the skeleton of Fernando Poe Sr.; and expose the much-idolized movie star as a bigamist, and his son, Ronnie, who had yet to announce his candidacy, as an illegitimate child and a non-Filipino.

(It is also difficult to forget other images of her fascination with the dead, like her viewing the corpses of slain kidnap-gang leaders, and gleefully announcing that Capt. Panfilo Villaruel had been "neutralized" even as his family was wondering in anguish how to gather the pieces of half of his head that Ms Arroyo's military operatives had blown off. And of course, at the very moment thousands were grieving at the funeral of Fernando Poe Jr., she would triumphantly declare-before the altar at the Palace chapel-that she, after all, won the presidential elections.)

And now she is presiding over the death of a nation.

It is a dying nation where lies are taken as truth for the simple reason that they issue from the head of state; and the truth is murdered by a convoluted interpretation of the very laws that were made to protect it.

It is a dying nation where the governed are alienated from the government which has, almost completely, lost their trust.

It is a dying nation where the people look at policies and programs of government as plots to deceive and delude them, and public officials exist for the sole purpose of making the people's lives more miserable.

And it is a dying nation where the majority of the people don't believe that the head of state has their mandate and is, therefore, a mere impostor squatting on the seat of power.

But worst of all, it is a dead nation that is thwarted at every turn in its every effort to exercise its right to know the truth.

Many people did not want to impeach Ms Arroyo because they believed that only legitimate presidents should face impeachment; and, in any case, an impeachment proceeding would only be an exercise in futility. They have been proven right.

For the same reason, others also objected to the calls for her resignation.

That is why some of the most credible and respected members of society appealed instead to Ms Arroyo's sense of decency, patriotism and honor-even to her sense of shame-and asked her to simply step down. There was nothing to appeal to.

Is Ms Arroyo guilty of lying, cheating and stealing?

From the moment Malacañang manufactured the "genuine" CD of the President's alleged conversation with "Gary" (which to this day no one else has a copy of), in a ridiculous attempt to prove that the Garci-Gloria tapes were fake, through the acts of her functionaries and allies, only the deaf, the blind, the retarded and-yes, the dead-would not see the truth shining through all the duplicity.

It is crucial that our faith in government must be restored. It is very important to our image and prestige in the world community that we have a President who has a clear mandate and is the legitimate representative of our country.

We need to believe again. This is a matter of life and death.

We need to believe, for example, that when the military announces it is on high alert and thousands of policemen are deployed all over the place, it is not for the purpose of suppressing dissent and oppressing and terrorizing unarmed citizens. What if they are really meant to protect us?

We need to believe that when National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales tells us that elements of the Jemaah Islamiyah have entered the country and that we are under serious terrorist threat, it is not a ploy to divert our attention from the present political crisis. What if he is telling the truth?

We, the governed, cannot possibly trust any institution or any official under the administration of a lying President.

The impeachment of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is our last constitutional resort to right what we believe is wrong.

Ms Arroyo's allies in Congress must realize that the stake at hand goes beyond her mere political survival. Or theirs, for that matter.