The Homeless Filipino  page 3
(by Jose N. Avelino III)

The Blueprint for Hope

The support from the first generation will be a reallocation of resources, not to eliminate acts of charity but prioritized for nation building. Usually a country evolves into a nation by the action of its masses. The Philippines is a unique country. The masses are poor and disenfranchised by the select few who have abducted the government for their own proprietary use for many decades. That is why War Damage reparations, U.S. aid and the like have not and do not work because these are paid to the Philippine Government, which is not of the people but for the few. To alleviate the masses, the government must be rescued and returned to them. The first generation must focus in breaking the power structure. It can be done through a democratic, aggressive grassroots organization that works for justice and peace through political action.

To initiate a grassroots organization the first generation must seek and develop a deep and committed relationship with individuals and organizations based in the Philippines. The search will not be difficult. There are many such organizations and individuals who share the same vision and mission.

Politics is a noble pursuit. In its purest sense, it is public service. It is to be a public servant. Unfortunately, there are not too many who enter the Philippine political arena with a noble goal.  Most of the wealthy and powerful run for political office to protect their enterprises and property. To them politics is a form of defense: to make certain no laws are passed or executed that threaten their interests. This group is well represented by the Roxas’ Osmeñas, Laurels, Enriles, Marcoses, Cojuangcos. Additionally, it is a ploy for succession and circumvention of term limitations. More often than we would want we find wives, daughters and sons run for the same office their husband or father had stepped down from.

Some enter politics to re-invent and rehabilitate their names. Imee Marcos applying her Father’s patented false patriotism raised an alarm that the Philippines had lost 200,000 square meters of its territory to Indonesia. She coyly did not disclose the location of the territory but tantalizingly indicated that it consisted of vast marine resources, deposits of various substances. Accordingly “she filed House Resolution 1129 urging the Department of Foreign Affairs and other agencies to give priority to the determination of the country's territory, including the archipelagic baselines before we lose the entire country to Malaysia, China or Indonesia." (Source: E-Balita).

Interesting, but not new or original. The territorial issues had been going on since the days of My Guy Magsaysay! The Mini-Marcos Resolution 1129 wants the government to give priority to territorial determination. Priority? Will Filipinos have a better life if we regained the 200,000 square meters or will that only benefit the influential and powerful elite? Could it be that the "big resources and depositories of various substances and elements" be oil? If yes, would the ploy be to have the Philippine Government use its scarce resources to claim or reclaim the territories, then should success be realized (meaning, regaining the territory AND striking oil) would the powerful then have the government lease these territories to them on the cheap?

Mini-Marcos urged that we act before we lose the “entire country to Malaysia, China or Indonesia. Yes, with heightened patriotic fervor we can declare war on these countries and have them experience the Shock and Awe of our blow darts and arrows!

If the 200,000 square meters are of great interest to Mini-Marcos, she could with her loose change easily purchase these from Indonesia and donate it to the Philippines.

Many others enter politics to grab a piece of the pie. None have aimed at increasing the size of the pie that many others may partake. None have ever evoked nation building as their driver. Painfully, political campaigns are a cacophony of promises from all candidates from all parties. Cynically, the Philippines is a land of many promises.

Instead, deaf to promises the first generation will seek to support those who have proven performance, intellectual capital and physical capability to do more.

Here is a skeletal platform upon which we can build our strategies and tactics to bring the government back to the people.

• We will recruit and mobilize support for strong individuals early in their political careers, with the full understanding that a candidate may have to run more than once to win.

• We will endorse and support individuals regardless of political affiliation who have an unequivocal stand on the issues and values we uphold among which include: civil rights for all people regardless of ethnicity, affirmative action for equal opportunity for women and all Filipinos regardless of religious beliefs and establishment of welfare policies that raise people out of poverty, especially women and children, evaluate and strengthen our educational system, especially in the Elementary and High School levels.

Because of our short timeframe and urgent situation, let us focus our search and support on the qualified individual or individuals to run for political office in a province whose election will create a sudden impact nationally.

1)       I suggest the political office be that of governor. Our legislative body has deteriorated into a showroom of posturing senators and assemblymen. We need an executive of action and effective governance.

2)       I suggest that our gubernatorial candidate run in a province of Mindanao, preferably in a hotbed area. Carpetbaggers from other regions have exploited Mindanao Island and its region for decades. It is urgent that we stem that exploitation. Our candidate will encourage religious tolerance. An individual or group will not be identified as Christians or Muslims or by any other religion. And, our candidate will encourage minimizing government role in private business other than to ensure free markets and open competition.

Whatever initiatives undertaken must be executed with full disclosure and media attention. We want the attention of those who have taken government away from the people.

Winning in Mindanao will attract national attention. It will be a calling card to the powerful select of the seriousness of our purpose. Therefore, they either turn themselves and their enterprises to good citizens or we expand our reach.

Should we engage in political action, we must recognize beforehand that the battle to change the face of government will be difficult. The dynasty of the powerful being challenged will hurl their formidable resources at us. They are entrenched and have the money and the machinery. They also have the support of the Military and the Church. Since these dynasties are the government they hold the Treasury’s purse strings to handsomely allocate the Military budget. Since they are the wealthy they contribute to the Church as a superstitious means to purchase heaven! Applying nationalism as a ploy, we will be charged with meddling in Philippine politics and accuse our candidates as our puppets. Those attacks will have a few of us fall away yet those attacks are the least of our challenges.

Filipino Islands in America

The strongest challenge for us will not be from the dynasties in the Philippines. Rather the challenge will be from within. Filipinos in general have a peculiar behavior. Assuming the vast majority of the first generation agrees that political action is the proper course; many will not participate merely because they were not the first to verbalize the course of action. Or they would join others to form a separate political action group. Within groups there will be further splinters, as many individuals believe their ideas and agendas are better than others. Every one wants to be Indian chief. Unlike the Japanese who move upon consensus, Filipinos have difficulty arriving at consensus –when among themselves! The many splintered Filipino associations within a city, state or region of the U.S. attests to this behavior. It is baggage we brought when we migrated to the U.S. While cognizant of this tragic flaw, strong is my hope that the first generation will rise well above the bar. The time is urgent, the cause is good and the battle will be won.

Political Action provides benefits to both the candidates and the causes we support. Just as importantly political action offers benefits to the people who contribute to them. The benefits that accrue to the contributor will spur the first generation to engage in changing the face of the Philippine Government.

Our edge is that we reside in the only Superpower and where the globe’s most powerful media are housed. We successfully leveraged these factors when we demonstrated against Marcos. It is a proven formula that can work again. Our tasks are fund raising and establishing relationships with the U.S. media. In the course of executing these tasks, we all benefit. When we engage in political action and attract and interact with the US media, we gain visibility not just for the Philippines but for ourselves as well. The majority of U.S. Filipinos have admirably assimilated into mainstream America. However, the same majority have become faceless and voiceless politically. Our political activism could encourage all U.S. Filipinos to participate and express issues of import to our interests, i.e. U.S. Immigrations policies. And, to our U.S. born and raised children our political activism will help raise their awareness of Philippine issues and Filipinos-in-the-U.S. issues. It would serve as a model of good citizenship for them. Also to our Philippine alliances it would be a strong indicator of our support and firm and serious commitment.

Gross National Pain

Most countries measure their economic development by the Gross National Product (GNP); the total dollar value of all final goods and services produced for consumption in society during a particular time period. It measures economic activity based on the labor and production output within a country. The Philippines wants its GNP to rise to a level of the Asian Tiger Economies. Econometrics however does not comprehensively measure a country’s political and social well being. And, in the Fourth World the economic, political and social landscape is so dire that the creative measurement should be the Gross National Pain! In a sense we are in a negative zero rating with a long way up to zero. The pain level is so high and Filipinos have a high threshold for pain. History –even those written or provided by foreigners, bears that out. We have withstood imperialists, a World War, and even Acts of God as typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, flooding. We are reasonable enough to understand national and global economic slumps and we bear that pain. We should be proud of that. However the question is this: must we tolerate pain that is self-inflicted? Pain caused deliberately and constantly by our own. Should we be proud of that?

There is pain when many regions in the Philippines desperately vie for the title of Most Impoverished Region just to get funding. There is pain when we receive consolation, comfort and exhortation from well meaning Filipinos who provide us with a list of successful Filipinos whose accomplishments make us proud to be Filipinos. The list includes Pulitzer Prize awardees, international beauty queens, inventors, supermodels and entertainment stars. Certainly many were omitted inadvertently. Certainly most earned their accomplishments through diligent and tenacious hard work. Most came from families with limited means. They deserve our accolade. They can serve as role models. We could even install them on pedestals should they pass this qualifier: other than achieving such a personal accomplishment what have they done or contributed to the Philippines and Filipino community? If they have done nothing then they are no better than the islands we all are! They just paddled their own canoes better than others.

We also receive the Hallmark Greeting Card approach where we are implored to paint a better picture of the Philippines. We can do that but it will not hide the sad, shameful events such as bombings, coup attempts, abductions, kidnappings that are reported by CNN and other credible US media.

Finally there are those who blame God for our misfortunes while others not wanting to blame God for fear of God’s wrath just claim bad luck. Still others encourage us lo have positive thoughts.  None of these placebos work. Let us face reality and the truth. Let us point out to the media and foreigners that the dirty unkempt young children who daily risk life and limb dodging traffic or hanging on to buses and Jitneys as they hawk cigarettes, chewing gum, and bottled water are real heroes. While they may not paint a good picture of the Philippines for the Board of Tourism they help provide for their parents and siblings. These are the Filipinos that deserve our utmost respect.

We whitewash the environs of the airport whenever important foreign dignitaries are scheduled to arrive. Sadly we have done the same to the poor and disenfranchised masses. They have become faceless and invisible. We do not see these children, the squatters, the congested streets, the shanties along the railroad tracks and the pollution. We do not see that many hospitals in provincial towns have no beds, no medicines, no Blood banks and some with just one ambulance for an entire province. We do not see that so many public schools have no libraries, no desks (some children have to bring their own chairs). When we do see, we call this poverty as a catchall and blame the economy. We do nothing. Some of us go to church or temple or mosque to pray, light a candle and donate a Peso. Is our donation to help the poor or to bribe God to spare us from poverty?

If we are to be proud to be Filipinos, then it should be with the strongest sense of pride and self esteem. It should be a pride that will transcend our uncertain feelings and insecurities that our country was named by Spain, our national hero was designated by America and that our flag was made in HongKong!

Harsh Light of Truth

Stand naked under the intense harsh light of objectivity, and we discover what we truly are – warts and all: The Philippines is a country not a nation just as a house is not a home. Three hundred years of Spain and one hundred years of America did not change us. Spain had influenced our religious beliefs and America tried to teach us governmental structure and process under the Commonwealth. Yet to this day we have not moved an iota from a country run by feudal lords and warlords. The tribal culture dominates beneath the shell of a democratic form of government. This tribal culture is evidenced by the land grabbing, coup attempts, circumvention of term limits, abductions and kidnappings, NPAs, wanton depletion of natural resources, the envelopmental journalists and the decades-long chokehold on the economy by the very rich and powerful (feudal chiefs and warlords). The wild pendulum swings that have occurred over several decades also reflect the dynamics of the millions of homeless Filipinos. A few of the homeless express their homelessness in that they are “strangers in our own land because we the Filipinos are really servants in their own countries...to the Chinese, the multinational corporations, etc.  Events are never controlled by a Filipino.  We are told what religion to observe and we do; who our heroes are and we okay it; when I wanted to rent an office space in Calbayog, the owner a Chinese said they only rent to Chinese; friends of mine (Filipinas) who went out with Chinese (Filipino-Chinese) guys had the relationship ended by the Chinese families as a big no-no.” To some extent I agree with the sentiment. There is a palpable frustration in living in a house that you cannot seem to turn into a home. Your home. Thus, we remain homeless.

God, Allah,or the Fates had given us a house of seven thousand beautiful islands straddling the Pacific Ocean and the China Sea. Unless we build ourselves a nation, the house will never be our home. Unless we turn this country into a nation it will be at risk of being absorbed or controlled by other nations.

Let us assess what we have. We have a beautiful house, a beautiful country. To inspire us in nation building, let us reflect on our great flag. The three stars reflect our recognition and respect for the diversity of our three main regions and all three stars are contained within a triangle (equality) of white to symbolize our mutual loyalty and trust under the same sun in war (red) and peace (blue) all contained in the same cloth. We are all of the same cloth. Let us be true to our flag for it eloquently defines who we truly are and what we aspire to be. It reflects the values we extol and uphold. We also have a sound structure of government the framework of which was developed during the halcyon days of the Commonwealth by great Filipino statesmen. Having house, flag and government structure we can now begin the process of building ourselves a home, a nation.

We have a sound political structure, a democratic form of government. However the barnacles of political faces that have sucked the life out of the Filipino masses weigh it down. Our challenge is not to change the structure, but to scrape these barnacles of many decades off the structure. We are made to believe that the economy is to blame for our plight. To a small degree that is true. However the question I pose is, who controls our economy? If the economy booms, who gains the most? The same dynasties that continue to remain in power. As long as these political barnacles of feudal chiefs and warlords control our house we will remain homeless in a place where the rich get richer and the poor multiplies.

In light of the foregoing, we realize that charitable donations or organizations will not salvage the political structure or the plight of the masses. Economic investments do not work as it is controlled. It is not an open economy. As an example, there is an island province with a population of 45,000 with one dilapidated ice plant. The island province is in dire need for cold storage to preserve its produce and fish.  For us to open up a new ice plant and cold storage, congressional approval is required!  Therefore the solution is not economic action but political action to change the face of the political structure.

We excuse ourselves by saying that responsibilities for political action are for the masses to determine. However the masses are voiceless, faceless and disenfranchised. Many sell their votes to have a good meal for a day. Many sell their votes because they are under threat for their lives and livelihood. Many sell their votes out of sheer hopelessness that their votes do not count since the same barnacles prevail in the end.  While the masses have the power, they do not have the wherewithal.

We of the first generation of Filipino immigrants (as defined earlier) are in a far better and formidable position to initiate an effective formation of a Political Action Group. We have experienced what economic opportunities and political freedom are like. We have gained from that experience. Let us share those gains. Furthermore, we are at a distinct advantage because we are distanced (in miles) from the Philippines. Otherwise our objectivity would be challenged and tainted by the daily spins of the local envelopmental media. Because we are U.S. based, we can develop access to the powerful U.S. media with its global reach. Thus, we can raise noise levels as needed to direct focus and consciousness on Philippine issues and fund raising endeavors.

Why should we engage? Because the country called the Philippines is our house. It is our responsibility with the help of fellow Filipinos worldwide to turn that house into a home and thus into a nation. Home is not a geographic location. It is not a physical place or space but that epicenter of the heart that is of something spiritual, of belonging, of a refuge, a safe haven and, being secure. Absent that place, we are all homeless Filipinos.

We should engage because the advantages cited earlier provide us the wherewithal to effect change. We should engage because our early initiatives would create the momentum, that spark of hope so long sought by so many. For it is not about the economy that is controlled by the few or charity whose benefits are short lived. Rather it is the Cry of Balintawak, which now seems so faint, long ago and far away. It was a cry for independence and nationhood. The homeless Filipinos cry for hope for a nation that will be home to all. Absent hope, there is despair and consequently desperate actions and events as currently manifested. Where there is helplessness, let us be the help. Where there is hopelessness, let us be the hope.

The country does not ask for a lifetime commitment from the first generation of Filipino immigrants. It merely asks for an initiative. Will we cease being islands and close ranks as we did in People Power 1? Was it not euphoric to realize that we had such power? We have that power still. Joined with all homeless Filipinos worldwide, we should ask ourselves, what are we in power for? Our country not having become a nation, its history is yet to be written. Let us participate in the writing of it. Let us make certain that the Tribal culture perpetuated by the few is eradicated.

The power of the waterfall begins with the first drop just as the power of People Power I began with the first Filipino who showed up at EDSA.

Let us prove that Filipinos are islands no more.

The sunset is upon us. Let us leave a light for the next generation.

“Adios Patria Adorada.”

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