E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
Of heroes and victims
Sunday, 08 15, 2004
Angelo de la Cruz, according to the latest bulletin, has just been given a motorcycle with a sidecar which he will be driving down the dusty streets of Mexico, Pampanga rather than in the tortuous terrain of battle-scarred Iraq. So in the carport of his new house is now stored this sidecar.
I believe this is the correct name, instead of “tricycle,” which is a pedal-driven vehicle designed for children. Tricycle, schmidecar, sidecar - whatever. “Same difference,” as the burnoosed denizens of the Middle East would say whenever they want to gloss over an inaccuracy or a contradiction.
This “same-difference” attitude, it seems, is the hallmark of the government, when it lionized one man and yet endangered the thousands of other Filipinos in the Middle East. More disturbing still, government outdid itself in hypocritical doublespeak when it hailed Angelo as a hero, rather than a victim.
Yes, Angelo, as much as the countless members of the Filipino diaspora collectively known as Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW), is a victim of a government that has neglected to deliver Filipinos from the shameful poverty that the nation withstands with infuriating stoicism. Our troops in Iraq were pulled out not because the government held Angelo’s life "more dearly than international acclaim," but because it wanted to score popularity ratings and present itself as a compassionate "partner of the people." Victim…hero - same difference as long as the government gets good press and insures its survival. A badge of honor has been pinned to a victim of its own neglect!
There is everything wrong in the handling of Angelo, where P300,000 in public funds were spent for a fiesta, to the outpouring of donations: a house and lot, a two-hectare farm, scholarships and medical care for his family, five-star hotel accommodations, an all-expense paid pleasure trip, and lately, a motorcycle with a sidecar, fortunately instead of the cellphone-bandied message that it was going to be a sports utility vehicle for marketing the produce of his farm.
It makes all OFWs wish they would be abducted like Angelo, flashed on CNN, be the bone of contention in a breach of agreement between allies, then released, thereafter to return as a hero and laze, farm and count the donations as they pour in.
Priorities appear to be misplaced. It was good enough that Angelo returned in one piece very much alive, not dead in two separate pieces, but it is nauseatingly appalling to make Angelo the centerpiece of every politician’s and businessman’s grandstanding.
Angelo was sui generis: he was the only Filipino in the wrong place at the wrong time, and is now the object of overweening generosity; whereas many of our countrymen who continue to stick it out in the country, who are at the right place at the wrong time, do not find themselves any nearer to being recipients of the same kind of generosity.
Overemphasis on the need to deter Angelo from going abroad (again!), by inveigling him with donations galore, only makes the job generation program of the government look unattainable. Here is a government lavishing its attention on one man, and yet finding no time to address the misery of the multitude storming the doors of recruiters. It makes no sense gifting Angelo with more than he can chew, and yet sparing not even a centavo for Nando, Pekto and Joey who, in wanting to escape from their dreary, unproductive existence, take their chances in some foreign land.
Let them stay here? But where is the work? The government might as well allocate two hectares each to every Filipino wishing to be an OFW, as what it did to Angelo. That way, we solve the unemployment problem and keep them from harm’s way. But then, when a government assumes total responsibility for the people, the people no longer feel responsible. Thus the OFW debacle has become another squatter condition: OFW, whether prospective or active, invite political pandering to the disadvantage of the entire nation.
Twelve years ago we were regaled with another hero: Mang Pandoy. Every conceivable gesture of generosity was heaped on him, that I’m sure the poor man thought he had died and gone to a heaven populated by compassionate Filipinos. For a time, he was the symbol of the government’s self-proclaimed caring policy to uplift the poor. A consultancy was given to him. A house and lot, with a piggery even. And a store to boot. Today Mang Pandoy is no better off than when he was flaunted. Hero…victim - same difference in government doublespeak.
In recent memory, Jason, et al. wished upon a star and inscribed that wish in their bangkang papel. The bangka is still mired in the murky waters of the Pasig River, not an inch farther from where they were chucked by a government fascinated by the wrong assumption that it can make citizens dodge poverty with a flood of relief goods and generosity.
No program appears to accompany this seasonal act of generosity. True, it makes people aware for a moment that theirs is a government that cares. But after the euphoria, it is back to grim reality. Pure cosmetic after all. The absence of a program to support and make this enterprise viable makes everything a failure, a waste. It makes the many Mang Pandoys, Angelos and Jasons among us squirm at a government that cares no more than to give itself a good makeover, however fleeting, at our own expense.
Angelo will soon be forgotten. We wish him well, nonetheless, and may he not suffer the same fate of those that preceded him as exhibits of grandstanding. But we warn him: he’d better make a lot of good out of what had been given him, because there will be no more of it sooner than the next Mang Pandoy is trotted around for entertainment - and disinformation.
By the same measure, Angelo is expendable, once his name is no longer significant and necessary to give Government a good press for its continued survival.
My son Miko asked me where Mang Pandoy now lives, and I told him that it is in the same hovel Mang Pandoy was discovered years ago. Miko then said that Angelo is much better off, with his concrete house in a gated village. I wish I could tell Miko that his conclusion is a bit premature. Let us see how Angelo will make do with a government that will soon abandon him.
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