Punchline
Where did you and I go wrong?
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
As we continue to read accounts of brave witnesses from Mindanao who were used for wholesale and retail cheating in the last elections and came out to tell the truth, one cannot help but wonder why has the culture of cheating become so pervasive in our country?
Why has cheating become the easy logical alternative to any endeavor or contest, be it qualifying exams, sports or elections?
What has become of us as a people? As a nation? Are we now to be known as a nation of cheats, thieves and fixers?
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One cannot easily forget how the Philippines had been so embarrassed before the assembly of nations for having cheated its way by fielding over-aged baseball players in an international competition.
Then, almost like clock-work, we read of reports of massive cheating in government-licensure exams, from nurses to bar exams, year after year.
It has become common to hear of would-be motorists bribing and cheating in their tests to get their driving licenses.
Worse, it’s almost a given practice for every businessman to cheat on his taxes and feel justified doing it every year.
Public officials feel no fear when they raid public coffers, using every trick in the book to cheat and rob their constituents of their hard-earned taxes.
The “Hello Garci” tape scandal did not merely speak of systematic cheating in the 2004 elections but brought out the worst in many public officials who had no qualms participating in the elaborate cover-up.
Where did our culture go wrong? Where did our parents go wrong? Where did our teachers go wrong?
Where did you and I go wrong?
I believe the answer lies squarely in our acquired passivity and inclination not to confront and make people account for their criminal acts. Aggravating our situation, those with criminal minds among us have learned how to fully exploit this particular weakness.
In fact, the biggest lesson one can deduce from these successful cheats is – If you have to steal and cheat, do it bigtime. The bigger and wider the scale, the more intimidating you become, easier to bribe and cheat, and keep would-be whistleblowers out of the way.
Yes, it pays to cheat and steal in our country because not only do we refuse to make our judicial system work, we simply refuse to go out of our way to stand up for what is right until we become the victims of the cheating and stealing culture. (And when it happens, it is too late. Nothing and nobody will stand up for us because we didn’t do anything for the others as well when we had the chance).
Note how the cheating and stealing culture that we have tolerated over the decades has slowly devoured whatever sense of decency is left in our society. As things stand today, the unabated culture of cheating and stealing in our midst has slowly inured us even to the series of disappearances of persons and assassinations taking place across the country.
What’s going to happen finally to you and I?
Waiting to be the next hapless victims, that’s what.
Given the impression today that you and I will cheat and steal if given the opportunity, I can only worry about how my children and yours will be known to the world when they too shall have their own children.
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UNPRINCIPLED. Over the past years, this corner has noted how my favorite Onor-onor Chief and Dagupan Councilor Teofilo Guadiz III has made the city of Dagupan his playground, his constituents his fools.
His most recent antic that should insult every Dagupeño is his not-so-surprising turnaround again in the controversial and obviously graft-laden Magsaysay tourism complex project.
Recall how he put the city off-guard by pretending to pledge to do his all to protect the city’s rights in the project, only to find him weeks later standing in the session hall during another “special session” (when dubious “transactional” projects are being acted on by the city council) defending the controversial project to the detriment of the city. (Was it a coincidence that he stood up to defend it with his ludicrous legal arguments days after talks in the city hall were rife that millions of pesos had changed hands to ensure the passage of the resolution endorsing the project?).
But that was not the end of his “adventures” in his playground. In two weeks time, he again did another one of his familiar transactional somersaults. This time, he refused to affix his signature to the committee report that was served as the basis for ripping off the city. Effectively, that left Metrostate Realty (headed by cousins Mark and Alex Siapno) and my favorite mayor stymied, and left to fend for themselves. They are now proceeding with the construction risking criminal cases, arrests and penalties.
And to the utter disgust of his “partners”, he did what they thought was most unprincipled, indecent and immoral. He labeled the ongoing construction illegal!
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The Metrostate project is turning into one sorry tale of brazen cheating, stealing and treachery in the city, perpetrated by many of those who lost (fortunately) their reelection bid and a number of our re-elected (unfortunately) city officials.
The question that begs to be answered in the light of Onor-onor Guadiz’s recent statements is – Who is cheating who, and for what?
It would appear Mr. Guadiz wants to stand “mighty tall” in the eyes of his constituents but others who are more discerning perceive his latest stunt as another attempt to hoodwink the people in order to serve his own personal interests. It is widely believed that Mr. Guadiz’s latest somersault was intended to serve as an alibi to save himself from being included among those who will be prosecuted in the anti-graft case about to be filed with the Ombudsman.
They said he fears that a case before the Ombudsman could jeopardize his appointment as assistant secretary in the Department of Transportation and Communication.
I am inclined to believe this.
But what happens now to his erstwhile conspirators, partners and patrons? My favorite onor-onor obviously couldn’t give a damn. They can go hang, for all he cares.
Believe you me, there can never be honor among those who cheat and steal from our people. So, here’s a piece of brotherly advice to the new set of elected officials in the city and in the rest of the province – Watch out for those who cheat and steal with you! There can be no honor between and among yourselves.
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/punchline/)
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