By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
One of the early statements of PDu30 when he won the presidency was to revive the defunct ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) supposedly for nationalism or patriotism.
Nationalism is OK but the ROTC? I did not learn any brand of nationalism or patriotism with the four ROTC courses we took in order to graduate from college. Neither did friends, acquaintances and all and sundry I ever talked to regarding the matter.
Here is a relevant reaction of a Japanese regarding the acts of a Filipino public infrastructure contractor who has some Japanese blood running in his veins. The contractor won the bid to construct some government buildings financed by the JICA. After the project was done, the accounting report of JICA must coincide with that of the Filipino contractor, whom I shall refer to as Juan.
The reason I got this story is because the accountant of Juan is a relative. With the many difficulties, it was a part of his job to convince the Japanese boss of JICA involved in the project to agree to some accounting hanky panky to be pulled off by Juan’s firm so that he will not have to pay a huge amount of taxes. After listening to all the things needed to be done as explained by Juan’s accountant, the Japanese was surprised. He said in astonishment, “You mean to say Juan will go through all such trouble in order to cheat his own government?”
That statement was loaded. It meant Juan did not care at all about his government. He only cared about the money he will save.
The Japanese was so shocked about a citizen who was devoid of any patriotism at all.
What the Japanese did not understand was that almost all Filipinos were like Juan. And still are. More so the rich and famous.
This story comes to mind whenever I see the ad of General Motors in an effort to sell their sports car Corvette. The car in the ad would be a blazing red positioned in such a way that any playboy would be dying to buy one. Then there’s the banner—THE HEARTBEAT OF AMERICA.
Such a simple phrase but it is filled with nationalism. Appealing to American nationalism might be a strong selling point. Which only means that Americans, by and large, are nationalistic or patriotic.
Then there is also the ads of Weathertech Floor Mats for all sorts of cars. It is of the same breed—MADE IN AMERICA, BY AMERICANS.
I still have to see an ad for a Philippine product strongly appealing to the nationalism of Filipinos. Do we have any?
Worse, I don’t see nationalism among our political leaders. Running for public office to them is not for patriotic purposes. It is big business where cheating is normal, or cheating the Filipino people.
As related by one foreigner client who used to work for big projects in this country like airports, he was offered bribes many times for him to look the other way with respect to the quality of projects he was working on. Sometimes it was government officials who approached him. In all of those times, he refused. He punctuate this by saying, “I pity the Filipinos.”
Is it any different this time? We, our politicians, and the big business people around are still the same.**
