By Edwin A. Sumcad, PAR Columnist
Valentinus was an
extraordinary human being. He was full
of love, so to speak, so that to the Roman Empire, his only fatal mistake in
life was his love in performing marriages to couples in love who were in the
military, which in Rome was then a criminal offense punishable by death.
And
because of what he was doing, this saintly person was persecuted by the Roman
authorities under Emperor Claudius II,
arrested, imprisoned and finally executed on
February 14, 269 AD.
From then on, the
Christian world observes Valentine’s Day on February 14 to commemorate
Valentinus’ death. The Romans reasoned out to the spying authorities that the
purpose in celebrating this event was not subversive but only to “‘Christianize’ the pagan celebration of
Lupercalia . . . a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of
agriculture”. [1]
The idea of love and fertility is symbolic of procreation from
the union of man and woman in love that produces and nurtures life on earth; in
Literature, its appeal was a legendary epic of enormous proportion. Novelists and fiction writers are attracted
to it, but to my spouse and I who are both journalists and novelette-short
story writers of the roaring 70s and early 80s, it is too fabled and
mythological at least for me to write about as my idea of a bestseller.
My better-half
Esperanza Lazatin-Sumcad -- whose published short stories have been nominated
for Palanca Awards -- had her own different interpretation of Valentine’s Day.
But to me the reason for this universal February 14 Cupid celebration,
especially among the love-struck young at heart is that if you read the life of
Valentinus, what his martyrdom represents is a popular irony of our human
feelings of love and hate -- of pure and eternal love that binds two people together,
a bond that becomes larger than life itself, and of hate that swears and kills
life either in the physical sense or in terms of affectionate relationship of a
couple that simply fades away like an early morning mist when the rising sun
caught up with it.
It was because of
love that Valentinus is remembered and celebrated to this day, while as if it
was only yesterday that also because of love, he was hated by the rulers of a corrupt
society, condemned and sentenced to death.
Like the amorous and
affectionate Valentinus, the Filipinos are generally known to be a loving people.
They are light-hearted people, always grinning with warm friendship and
affection when they talk to strangers. They are such a happy and apologetic
smiling people that they stand out in comparison to their Asian neighbors if
not the rest of the world. They smile even if their foot is caught in the doorway
when someone slams the door to close it either accidentally or intentionally.
You don’t have to
apologize If you happen to be that somebody who slammed the door close, because
maybe you were pissed off and want to hurt someone or maybe you were just drunk
after a round of Budweiser or San Miguel beer . . . but for whatever reason
would that be which made you act like a rascal, it wouldn’t matter anyway. The
Filipino in pain because of what you did will say, excuse me sir … sorry sir,
my foot was on the way when you closed the door . . . it will never happen
again, sir, I promise . . .
Don’t be
surprise. Generally, that’s how the
ordinary Filipino personality distinguishes itself from the rest of the world,
that is if a paragon of humility is what you are looking for from a friend you
want to keep the rest of your life.
You may also
encounter the opposite of this personality trait in a Filipino relationship
particularly in the affairs of the heart, especially if you are a woman of
marriageable age.
You might have
probably read in some exotic [not necessarily erotic] magazines, newspapers,
tabloids, and all sorts of published literatures about the exploits of dashing,
handsome young Filipino men who were written the world over as the “Rudolph
Valentinos” of the Far East or the daring “Buccaneers” of the Orient Seas women
couldn’t resist of being pirated to become their wife, otherwise those Filipino
Romeos are simply known as the swashbuckling Latin Lovers of Asia.
But again in
general, like Valentinus of Rome, Filipinos are always known to be a loving
people.
The only
difference is, hiding behind that endearing smile of Filipinos you met is their
own martyrdom under the exploitative regimes of venalities and corruption they
have to live with every day in their homeland. That misery continues to this day under the
regime of President Benigno Aquino III -- “Noynoy” for short -- who critics
believe rules the country as bad as Emperor Claudius II ruled Rome in 269 AD.
I will tell you
why critics might have thought that Noynoy is the reincarnation of Claudius
Gothicus, Roman Emperor [Claudius II, 268-270 AD] who gave St. Valentine a hard
time like what Noynoy is doing to Filipinos in the Philippines today.
When Noynoy
delivered his latest State of the Nation Address [SONA ] in July 2013, he was
singing a different song while the Filipino people – still smiling -- are
suffering in abject poverty as a result of widespread corruption, exactly like
Nero who was singing and playing the harp while Rome was burning.
In his SONA, Noynoy
mesmerized the suffering Filipino people with his grandiose plans and litany of
promises to free them from POVERTY, and deceptively hypnotized the innocent and
the ignorant of his audience with his fighting words to once and for all stop CORRUPTION
under his much publicized “Daang Matuwid” [Straight Path] policy – a good stage
material for telling jokes when contestants vie for the Season’s Grand Trophy for
The Last Comic Standing, one of NBC TV’s popular shows.
Unemployment and the Bubble
of Noynoy’s
success story in reducing
poverty in the Philippines
Noynoy’s Administration is too upbeat if not too pathetically
myopic of Philippine reality. Under his so-called Public-Private Partnership Projects, he
cited reduction of unemployment in a supposedly robust economy. But under the result of the Social Weather
Stations [SWS] survey, what is shown is far from what is real – it was totally
different from what Noynoy was talking about.
On the contrary,
there is a horrendous job scarcity under the Noynoy Administration. “In Aquino’s first three years in power, the number of workers who said
that they were jobless increased by 2.6 million…” based on SWS polls. [2]
Poverty is
getting worse, SWS says, contrary to Noynoy’s claim that the country’s poverty
rate is going down. When Noynoy started
his rule in the middle of 2010, 45.5% of the population was poor; it climbed to
49.3% in 2011, and continued to rise to 51.0% the following year.
SWA said: “There are now around 10.3 million families
who consider themselves poor, up from 9.9 million in 2011 and 8.9 million two
years ago.
“ Thus, in the first half of Aquino’s term,
the number of poor families ballooned by 1.4 million. . . SWS survey report continues.
The Philippine
National Statistical Coordination Board reported that “the income gap between the rich and the poor was wider in the
Philippines than in Indonesia and Thailand, indicating serious inequality in
the distribution of the country’s economic gains” that Noynoy was crowing
about. [3]
Obviously, the
economic gains that Noynoy announced in his SONA are only planned and designed for
the rich. I do not doubt that Noynoy is aware of this flaw in his economic
planning.
But the bigger
problem to think about is that if this blunder is not accidental, then it is
intentional. The Filipino people, especially the poor, are unaware of what
stabs them at the back. They feel the wound, and gee, how that hurts.
Corruption is a
dynastical legacy of Noynoy he cannot afford to get rid of, sad to say …
Noynoy
will speak of corruption as the number one enemy of the people anytime
anywhere, especially when provoked by his political enemies branding him as a
corrupt president. “I am not a thief,” Noynoy fumed mad in a rare TV prime time
appearance, showing his rage when the pork barrel thieves publicly announced
that he was one of them.
In his public bravado
to fight corruption, actually the truth is, he should first get rid of himself as
the head of Political Dynasties that rob the people blind before he could stop
corruption. Is he prepared to do that? No,
I don’t give a second thought that he is.
Maybe this is possible in Japan where a
disgraced political leader would perform hara-kiri, in the tradition of the
honorable Samurai to cleanse the soul before entering the Gate of Heaven. I
guess not in the Philippines whose political culture values life more than
honor. Of course here I am not referring to Filipinos whose admirable cultural values
are known to be impeccably strong and morally upright that the world envies because
these are worthy of emulation not only locally but also globally.
But rather I am
referring to those morally mutated Philippine politicians engaged in the
massive thievery of public fund as a way of life; politicians who are “trapos”
or “maduming trapos” [rags or dirty rags] who were born to families of
Political Dynasties in the past and present that rule the country not only for a
decade or so but for centuries.
Faced with this grim reality, the people are
bedeviled to know why Noynoy cannot and will not get rid of corruption.
For example, the
public noticed that in Noynoy’s SONA, nothing was mentioned about the multibillion-peso
pork barrel “political heist” that scandalized the nation which a president who
is not himself corrupt or a part of of the “robbery” is expected to address in
his SONA. This oblique omission
mortified Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago who twitted Noynoy’s SONA as no better
than a college student’s school paper that did not make the grade.
Malacanang’s lame
excuse was that the SONA shouldn’t include lengthy details, and that Noynoy has
only a limited time to dwell on such important subject as the pork barrel
corruption that black-eyed the nation in the eyes of the world. Not even about in an hour long of Noynoy’s
blah-blah in front of the TV cameras that the pork barrel scandal which shocked
not only the nation but the world, had a chance of getting included.
In other words, to
get rid of corruption is like killing the Political Dynasties that Noynoy heads. Noynoy knows this, and he cannot and will not
do it although he would swear in public that he will, but actually in the back
of his mind he will not. Like the imprisoned Valentinus of Rome, the Filipino
people have no way out. Corruption will stay as part of their life.
The lesson to
learn in Valentine’s Day when we remember Valentinus’ fate in the hand of the
Emperor is that this martyr did not change -- he continued to do what he loved
to do knowing that it would lead to his execution. He persisted to be just a
loving person that he was. For him, there was no way out.
Similarly, the
Filipino people continue to elect Political Dynasties to power in every
presidential election cycle, giving a terrible president they elect like Noynoy
a good reason to poke their nose and kick their butt. With a bloodied nose and a hematoma in their
swelling behind where the boot landed, the Filipinos are still smiling and
apologetic even though the door had slammed on their face and a foot was caught
in between causing such excruciating pain.
Under this
situation where Valentinus once was, there was no way out.
In this dilemma, the only solution I see is
the people or Noynoy has to change. If there is no change, the elimination of
one of the parties or both in a head-on collision is inevitable.
Against the
world, Rome didn’t change, until the end of it. Against Rome Valentinus didn’t
change either up to his execution. The confrontation went on to its final
conclusion. The result was, against the
world, the terror that was once the mighty Roman Empire disappeared; against
Rome, the brave and resilient Valentinus gets eliminated.
In the Philippines,
corruption prevails, and in politics the law of the jungle is the law of the
land. Since there is no change, the end that I am talking about could be the
end of Noynoy and the Political Dynasties he leads or the demise of the people
in a bloody EDSA III revolution reminiscent of the Fall of Bastille in France
in 1789. We could say that in every rule, there is always an exception.
I think it is
just a matter of a little more time for this end to come. For all we know it is
already there. But just the same, how would this problem end is nobody’s
concern at the moment.
There is too much
love around the corner and this feeling I have in Valentine’s Day is magical. I
could hear the bell ringing with joy . . . much too much affection and sensation
that when it touches you it is electrical.
What I am trying to say is, if the end is
just a matter of time, I couldn’t hear the clock ticking.
HAPPY VALENTINE’S
DAY TO EVERYONE!
