A Bitter Lesson

A BITTER LESSON

by Antonio C. Antonio

July 15, 2014

Philippine society has been rocked by the wanton stealing of public funds in the PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) scandal in recent months.  As a consequence, senators, members of the House of Representatives, heads of government line agencies and private individuals have been charged and will still be charged for plunder and graft.  And, now, the DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program) is sending another tidal wave of controversy which could potentially line a head-on clash between two separate branches of government (the executive and the judiciary).

The culture of corruption seems to have permeated the fibre of Philippine society.  This has developed a commonly accepted thinking that if you want to steal, steal big or everyone will be looking down on you in a very condescending manner.  You even ran the risk of being called “unworthy” of being a finer crook.  This sort of behaviour results from the fact that big-time thieves surely get special treatment.  Better amenities are accorded to those who steal millions of pesos while a lowly pickpocket, who steals the equivalent of one street corner meal, is thrown to an overcrowded jail cell together with murderers, rapists, arsonists, etc.

Why have we become this way?  There seems to be some kind of glory level we achieve in violating the law.  We see this everyday… drivers always wanting to beat traffic lights and signs… pedestrians who dash across the street out of nowhere even when there are crosswalks… people wanting to get in front of a queue… people who throw candy wrappers right in front of a “no littering” sign… people who urinate anywhere… and other little violations that slips my mind right now.  Plunder, committed by the political elite, is just a microcosm of who and what we have become as a race.  Strangely, we oftentimes have fun and even take pride telling our friends how we got away with seemingly insignificant (so we think) little violations.  There is one underlying reason for all these… we want to get away with little unlawful things just for bragging rights.  We think that petty crimes are not harmful in a big sense anyway… but what we don’t realize is that petty criminality often emboldens us to commit bigger crimes.  Again, the bigger the crime, the bigger is the bragging right.

Laws are made by man… they could also be repealed and revised to suit the wants and needs of the ruling and controlling class.  And everyone seems to have an insatiable and relentless craving to be above the law.  However, there are laws wherein the superiority of man accounts for nothing.  The laws of nature, unlike the laws of man, cannot be tweaked and tampered to satisfy the whims and caprice of anyone.  The air and water pollutants we unleash, the unregulated exploitation of our natural resources, the unrestricted land use conversions, and so many other crimes against Mother Nature do not get the same headline and front page treatment as the sensational PDAF scam where billions of pesos were lost.  Environmental abuse doesn’t seem fashionable enough to earn bragging rights.  Problem is: Environmental abuses and crimes cannot be accounted for in pesos and centavos… but in quality of life and the number of lives lost now and in the future. 

I am not saying that we choose between two patent evils nor embrace a wrong set of values.  Mine is just a simple parallelism between two wrongs and their negative consequences and effects on our lives and character as a nation and a race.  Therefore, between the laws of man and the laws of nature, which one should we consider a bitter lesson?

Just my little thoughts…

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