LIVING A LIFE OF LIES

By RG San Luis

Nova is in a state of shock. This is what normally accompanies a sudden change in a person's life. You lose your bearings and start thinking where you went wrong even if you were conscious of it from the beginning. It's called living a life of lies.
How much wealth does one actually need? How much power? The best explanation, or rationalization by far is best typified by those who built America, the robberies barons and the refugees and migrants from Europe.

The old world was ruled by monarchy whose powers were believed to have originated from God. The Catholic Church reinforced this belief and supported it with religion. This was how the Romans were able to establish control when Constantine formed the Holy Roman Empire. Ironically, the rituals and beliefs of the Catholic Church are mostly derived from the pagan rites of earlier times. The monarchy and religion kept the people mostly poor.

America was built on the principle of one man, one vote, but only for the white man. The blacks were treated as slaves. The robber barons accumulated immense wealth such that they controlled the economy of the country. But they also had a vision which is why the bulk of their fortune was also spent on building cities and infrastructure.

The railroads were largely responsible for the early economic progress of the young nation. The transport of goods and people became faster and more efficient. There were also massive investments in technology which gave birth to the industrial revolution.

Food security was an unheard phrase of then but farmers played an integral role in the growth of the nation by feeding the citizens with their agricultural commodities and livestock. Food was cheap. Even up to now with adjustments for inflation, you get more value for money for food in the US.

This hasn't been the case with the Philippines even after the American colonial period. The Filipinos couldn't shake off the 300 years of Spanish rule. It had been ingrained in their DNA. This is why our country continues to be in a rut.
The Spanish Mestizos may have been almost wiped out in every field but they have been replaced with Filipino oligarchs. This has been the case since 1946. With the passing of time, the political dynasties are just replaced by another generation or an entirely new power bloc.

These politicos can't be described as robber barons because only a few of them would qualify based on the size of their businesses in the areas they control. But if they have a vision, they can easily make life better for their constituents. The problem is vision is always overcome by greed. Rapacious greed.

The plantation style economy is the basic economic model. The available labor is exploited and the structure is feudal. This is what shocked me when I first ventured out of Manila to Negros Occidental. Traveling around Visayas and Mindanao, I saw that this was still the norm. The Spaniards and the Americans may have left but they were replaced by Filipino oligarchs.

The Chinese where plenty, evolved out of starting out as laborers into becoming compradors, establishing small trading houses which bought and sold goods. The Filipino is always left behind because of his fiesta, one day millionaire mindset. This is also why he is exploited no end.

In the last twenty years or so, the lure of easy money from illegal drugs has been hard to resist. Get them hooked and you have a captive market for most of their natural lives. The malaise has reached epidemic proportions but the powers that be turned a blind eye to it because their pockets were well-lined. It was better than any Ponzi scheme as far as get rich quick ideas go.

The Philippines continues to fail at maximizing its economic potential because it hasn't undergone a ritual of catharsis, a purging of the bad on a scale which would make the maximum impact. Marcos tried it before with martial law but failed because he was consumed by his hubris.

F. Sionil Jose probably won't admit it, but his and OD Corpuz's analysis that anarchy and chaos after Marcos fell had come true and it did so because of the rapacious greed of the oligarchs who came to power again on the promise that they would make a new and better country where freedom and democracy reigned after its experiment with dictatorship.

Filipinos have had enough of freedom and democracy where they continue to remain poor. They are tired of the anarchy and chaos which have brought rampant criminality where even law enforcers are part of the criminal syndicates they're supposed to stop. They are done with politicians who continue to raid public coffers to line their pockets with and are in partnership with the oligarchs who continue to control the economic lifeblood of the country.

The next five years will be make or break for the Philippines. This is the great burden which rests on the shoulders of Rodrigo Duterte. Only time will tell if he succeeds or fails but at least, he is doing something about it with his use of the full powers given him by the Constitution.

Date: 6 August 2017