Fiscal Crisis Ignites the Spark of Patriotism and Nationalism, But How Much Longer it can Endure?

The Philippine Government opened the Pandora’s Box which astonished every matured citizen of this country; and even the youths have shown remorse over the misguided principles of economics that had long been employed within the fulcrum of the government’s bureaucracy. “Technocrats”, as they call it among the elite, and “Crocodiles” among the poor people, the government continued to spark a new hope of solutions and resolutions on the problem of poverty.

It is the voice banner of the Arryo Administration who intends to stamp poverty to a threshhold manageable by the contending factors of socio-economic scales of considerations as well as the long-term program of politicized effective infrastructural conduits that will spur a new image of the Philippines in the eyes of the whole world.

The economic managers of the country have introduced a lot of soluble and patch-in solutions to counteract against the avalanche of poverty wave as a result of imbalance estimates and miscalculations done by some laggards of the bureaucracy.

Recently, a good program provides a certain amount of food that will be distributed among the indigent people throughout the Philippines. They termed it as “food coupon”. What an incalculable setback can it be when even the government have taught the people to depend on “dole outs” as a result of their ineptitude and gross negligence.

This is how the people below the threshhold of poverty think about government. When you ask them why they’ve thought about it, they would just say, “This is how I feel about it... my government induced me to commit a suicide within my own foolishness of trying sell out my vote. And now, I can see the negative effect of doing it... we are on our own follies...”

This old man remember the days when real leaders arose from their own ranks. They mention people like Magsaysay, Macapagal and all of the other notable leaders of the nation whom they believed to have contributed much good in government. They even mentioned about the importance of the presence of the US in the Philippines and the contributions that the Japanese have brought to us and many others. He lives by his time and just can’t see no light beyond the tunnel of darkness that he is seeing now.

This poor old man remembers every minute that he enjoyed in earning P1.00 to P2.00 per day of labor with one centavo worth your evening meals. He enjoyed imagining those days of the past and boast about it. It was the golden days of the past that tried to haunt him up to the last of his breath. He wonders what will happen to his posterity when no hopes and only sacrifices are being ask of government from them. Matter of choice as they usually chuckle about it...

Now these people are beginning to realize the impact of their own wrong decisions. But there’s that usual saying in marketing: NO RETURN, NO EXCHANGE.

At any rate, patriotism and nationalism, as of these days are being charted among the very stages of government theatre. Many people symphatized with the dramatic actions that people in the government have manifested. But all these were considered a show by this lowly people. One of the company said, “If I could only see people in the government wear the old-time wear of “kamiseta” and not those barongs and American clothes, I would certainly believe that government really is in crisis. As long as they ride still in their luxurious cars and dined at falacious restaurants and fast foods, I will not believe that these ‘crocodiles’ are really serious in dealing with our very own problems.”

This kind of perceptions really breeds contempt. I cannot blame the man, because I am witness of his own plight. He always went to the sea to catch fish and return home with a meager income from less than a kilo of fishcatch as a result of his overnight work of finding bait for his thousand hooks. (We call it here as “konay”). He just walk silently with shoulders down as he fumbles a stone back home.

Now I ask to myself, “What can I contribute still to government?”. With this question in my mind, I have conducted an inventory for my own; and I found that I am as poorer as my brother fisherman and my brother old man who dreams the past. I am more than a pauper as I look at my children and wonder what will happen to them after tomorrow and days to come. How about my grandchildren’s children of my children’s children. Does my patriotism and nationalism will bring the whole economy up? Or does my little contribution will mean a better future for them?

A big sigh is all I can render.