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Part XXXV of the “Back-to-Basics Governance” Series
Yes, no individual Filipino success story — whether achieved overseas or in the Philippines — can compensate for the many failures in their homeland. This author paraphrases a Mormon Church adage that says, “no success can compensate for the failure in the home.”
Many Filipinos, especially those working abroad or becoming citizens of another country, cannot understand why their homeland has some of the world’s largest murders or homicides of often-innocent people, called “extra-judicial killings” (EJK). Yet we, Filipinos, bill our homeland as the largest Catholic country in Asia.
This was why this journalist published in the MabuhayRadio website for Easter Sunday 2008 this op-ed piece, “Why Not All Filipino Catholics Are Christians.”
This writer studied for 12 years in schools run by secular priests, SVD Fathers, Benedictine monks, and Jesuits. His religious mentors inspired him to run a series also on the same website called “Reinventing the Filipino Psyche.” (It was part of a thread called “Reinventing the Philippines.”)
Hopefully, with the help of a fellow columnist, Fernando B. Perfas, Ph.D., a book about the “Filipino Psyche” may eventually be published. Dr. Perfas, who is an expert in treating addiction, may perhaps be able to shed more light on why many Filipinos — and especially some of their leaders — are “addicted” to EJK practices (especially in the murders of crusading journalists and drug addicts), corruption and other social ills.
Perhaps an explanation for the ills and social cancers that torment the Filipino homeland is that many political, business, and religious leaders (and many of their loyal followers) like to cut corners. It seems that many of them apparently do not have the patience and the motivation to take back-to-basic steps in solving the national, provincial, and local problems.
Thus we temporarily end this series. But hopefully, readers may like to contribute their opinions that can be turned into parts or even chapters in the forthcoming book about the “Filipino Psyche.” Perhaps with the input of Dr. Perfas, the project can become an anthology of a book that can even become a textbook for Philippine educational institutions. After all, there is the adage that says, “Hope springs eternal,” with due respect to its author, Alexander Pope.
Starting this Sunday, this column will concentrate on the new series that started last weekend about “Reinventing Mexican-Filipino Relations.”
