Are Filipinos that forgiving or are we simply
forgetful?
In our Social Studies (in the 50s in my case), we
were taught about the destructive habits or attitudes of the Filipinos—the
Manana Habit, Talangka Mentality, Filipino Time, Ningas-kugon, Colonial
Mentality, etc. I was too young to care,
but being a conscientious pupil, I retained what I learned. Especially the very graphic explanations of
the teacher about the “talangka” (crabs) pulling one another down to clamber to
the top of the bucket, and of dried cogon grass bursting into flames and just
as quickly dying out.
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| Ningas-kugon short-lived enthusiasm, as flames from a grass fire. |
Over the years, many disappointing experiences with
fellow Filipinos would convince me that those bad habits we heard about in
elementary school somehow do have basis in fact. In our country’s current socio-political
situation, for instance, the Ningas-kugon mentality reigns supreme. Scandalous incidents of national importance would
hog the headlines for days or weeks, and then fizzle out even before anything
conclusive is reached. Or is it the
public’s interest that wanes through time?
Remember the so-called Mamasapano Massacre, when on
January 25,2015, 44 SAF police commandos were slain in the botched anti-terror
raid in Maguindanao? The nation was shocked
over the tragedy, and felt betrayed by the government officials who planned the
raid. The public indignation soared when
the 44 coffins arrived at the Manila airport and there was no Noynoy to pay
respects to them—he was busy attending a car manufacturing event. Headlines and social media comments burned
with righteous anger in sympathy for the bereaved—such a cold-hearted
president! The bloody incident came to
be tagged as “SAF 44.”
On July 14, 2017, it was reported that former
president Benigno Aquino III would face criminal trial over Mamasapano
tragedy. A statement from the
investigating body said Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales had ordered Aquino
charged with usurpation of authority and violation of the anti-graft and
corrupt practices act.
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| The remains of the fallen SAF 44 arrive in Manila. |
January 25, 2019, on the fourth anniversary of SAF
44, families of the fallen troopers called on the Supreme Court on Padre Faura
in Manila to seek justice. They called
on the authorities to act on the case:
“Please notice our pleading because we have been seeking justice for
four years now.” Are they joined in
their plea by the public? It doesn’t
seem so. No sustained reporting from
mainstream media; no angry outbursts from netizens. Why?
The grass has burned out.
Ningas-kugon.
Who remembers the bank cyber-heist that happened in
February 2016? It involved Bangladesh
Bank, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Rizal Commercial Banking
Corporation (RCBC) in the Philippines. Reactions
to the news smacked of warnings, and not a few bank clients feared for their
money. There followed televised hearings
(in aid of legislation?), which the man on the street found upsetting if not
incredible—for how can something that big happen when Philippine banks are so
strict? Even opening an ordinary savings
account with one-thousand pesos would require the client to fill up so many
papers with personal information. How
much more if the new accounts involved millions of US dollars? After the initial furor, the case was
forgotten.
Until January 10, 2019, when the RCBC branch ex-manager
Maia Santos-Deguito was reported guilty in the $81-million Bangladesh Bank
heist. The news said Makati Regional
Trial court Branch 149 Presiding Judge Cesar Untalan found Deguito guilty
beyond reasonable doubt of violating the Anti-Money Laundering Act. Again it raised eyebrows, even in banking
circles, where “everybody knows a mere branch manager cannot do such things on
her own.” Some believe there’s a cover
up somewhere, and that Deguito was persuaded to be tied to the whipping post
for a huge consolation sum. Whatever,
the fire seems to have gone out—the people who were alarmed before continue to use
banks to safekeep their money. And those
with money to burn go on burning it away in our casinos.
Another half-forgotten scandal: the alleged role of
the Bureau of Customs in the shipment from China on May 17, 1017 of illegal drugs worth over
six billion pesos. On record as
containing “kitchenware”, the container with methamphetamine was reportedly
passed through the green lane, escaping the xray scanning—a violation of BoC protocol. The Senate and House hearings invited so many
“persons of interest” and disclosed names of companies and individuals
(including the president’s son Paolo Duterte) implicated in the shipment, some
of them Chinese. Again, the public
reaction was one of outrage.
On September 5, 2018, the news said “The government
has lost its drug transportation case over the 6.4 billion pesos shabu shipment
from China that ended up at a warehouse in Valenzuela City, due to double
jeopardy… While Taguba and Tan are detained at the Camp Bagong Diwa jail,
Richard Tan, whose Hongfei Logistics company leased the warehouse where the
shabu was found, and his other Chinese or Taiwanese co-accused remain at large
since the Manila RTC ordered their arrest for the drug importation case.”
Now the case seems buried beneath an avalanche of
sensational news items. Should we not be
looking deeper into the court decision?
Or at least, gather concerned agencies and citizens to ask, for
instance, where the confiscated shabu has gone?
Are the accused still in the country, or have they forever escaped
prosecution through the help of Immigration?
We do not want to think ill of our government agencies but circumstances
like this make us doubt their sincerity in serving the public.
Ningas-kugon destroys more than grass—it keeps us in
a stupor. We are quick to say the country
is a mess, but are we doing our part to right the wrong being done? These are but a few of the scandalous things
that caused us to burst into flames of anger in the recent past. If you will peep into history you will see
that there have been many more that aroused our ire in the distant past,
hindering our growth as a nation, but which we soon forgot—or forgave. Where is our ningas-kugon mentality leading
us to?
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| China's illegal militarization in Philippine territory. |
One day, about two years ago, we just woke up to
find our waters invaded, with artificial islands containing military
installations by a bully nation. We were
furious—but didn’t stay so for long.
Last weekend of March we were told that for the first quarter of 2019
alone, more than 600 “Chinese fishing vessels have been recorded surrounding the
sandbars of Pag-asa Island.” That
many? We would be naïve to think these
vessels are only after our galunggong—mackerel
scad, which, incidentally, they export back to us. More than just cursing China over its
bullying tactics, we should do our homework and intelligently plan to preserve
our sovereignty and save our people. We
can’t afford to treat serious matters with our ningas-kugon attitude. We
must keep the fire burning. Otherwise,
Pilipinas might one day wake up to find it is already a province of China. And that’s the truth.
