“To all of you my fellow Filipinos, let’s keep on building the Filipino as great and respectable in the eyes of our world – one story, two stories, three stories at a time – by your story, by my story, by your child’s story, by your story of excellence at work, by another Filipino’s honesty in dealing with others, by another Pinoy’s example of extreme sacrifice, by the faith in God we Filipinos are known for.”
Alex Lacson
Alex Lacson, understands the Filipino problem very well. There is a need to stem the growing bad reputation of the Filipino by accentuating the positive and the noble about being Filipino starting with our young. Let us not repeat the same mistake that led to a generational moral descent of our youth during the Marcos years...Martial Law babies growing up admiring the wrong kind of heroes in their midst. The corrupt rich, the robber barons, the abusive military, the tainted best and the brightest, all thrived under the munificence of the great Maharlika leader. Most of those who benefited from this largesse are still very much with us, enjoying ill gotten wealth and power, flaunting them with relish not only in the genteel side of media but also in the more sordid affairs of business news and the mockery of our justice system. The pernicious lesson goes on for as long as these are abetted by media. Crime pays.
As Lacson suggests, the work should start from the moulding of our youth’s minds. Let us tell our children and grandchildren about the nobility of the Filipino and how they should lead noble lives. Everyone can play a role in this effort. Let us do away with the attitude of self flagellation, false sense of humility, a complex of being inferior and undeserving which the recent hostage taking further exacerbates. Let us instil pride in the Filipino among our youth by talking positive about ourselves as a nation and as a people in front of our children. It is a long drawn process but it may be the only way to erase the stain in the Filipino psyche which took generations to embed.
Media should be enjoined in this endeavour. They should help out in making this nation great again but not in the context of the ill intentioned New Society.
Paid hacks create false images, kitschy entertainment fare entertains but plants wrong values, bad news sells newspapers and sensational news in broadcast media ensures ratings. While the wheels of the media industry are turned by these it does not elevate them from the insidious commerce, unwittingly or not, they currently engage in. Perhaps the Lopezes, the Gozons, the Lims, the Pangilinans and other owners of influential media houses should take it upon themselves to cooperate and be a part of the rebuilding of this nation. They should realize that it is not all about the selling of advertisements, but that it is also about the selling of an idealized image of the Filipino and the Philippines to our youth, a tandem effort with well meaning heads of every Filipino family.
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