Updated 02:06am (Mla time) Dec 30, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the December 30, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
View full-size editorial cartoon
COMMEMORATING Rizal's martyrdom always leads to the question: What has happened to Filipino heroism? If every generation since Rizal's has contributed a martyr to our civic culture--Jose Abad Santos and Benigno Aquino Jr. foremost among them--where are our heroes now? Overshadowing everything is a sinking sense of self-worth, the kind of self-doubt that prompted Aquino to make the positive injunction, "The Filipino is worth dying for."
If the country has been fortunate to have heroes die for it, it's equally necessary to appreciate the fact that so many heroes have--and do--live for it. The four recent storms proved the heroic capacity of contemporary Filipinos beyond a shadow of doubt. By this we mean more than the spectacular cases of heroism, such as Fr. Charlito Colendres', which the whole country admired.
We mean the many acts of heroism that remain undocumented and unheralded. There were professional relief workers who went far beyond the call of duty during those grim days. The way many members of corporations volunteered to go to the provinces to do their part was also very inspiring. In Metro Manila, volunteers of the Philippine National Red Cross worked double, even triple, shifts to ensure that relief goods were properly packed and dispatched.
In countless cases, people faced physical danger and experienced hardship out of a senseless sense of concern for their countrymen. Most of all, these people did so while avoiding, or in quite a few cases, refusing any publicity. People stuck to their jobs, they did more than was expected, they did everything required and much more, while asking nothing in return.
Contrast this to the officials who delayed the airlifting of relief goods, because they insisted that the AFP helicopters bring them on "inspections," thus bumping off bags of relief items so they and their staff could see and be seen by the disaster-struck, and the heroism of those who ignored publicity and did their duty is all the more remarkable. There were the teenagers, ordinary office workers, people from humble walks of life who, in the first day of a donate-by-text appeal, flooded the Philippine National Red Cross with over P700,000 in donations. These are people for whom P50, P20 or even P10 is a big deal--and still gave generously.
True heroism is sacrificing for your fellow man without expecting or wanting anything in return. True heroism is rising over narrow-self interest to come together with others to pool talent, time and resources to assist those in need. No one can doubt the capacity for heroism of the Filipino. But we can still wonder why we continue to be plagued with self-doubt as a people.
What is lacking, perhaps, is a national lifestyle that goes beyond extraordinary acts of heroism, and demonstrates a slow, steady, consistent dedication to living a virtuous life. This was, indeed, the obsession of Rizal's life. If he was a man often conscious of his destiny, he was also a man motivated by a desire to instill an ethical sense in his countrymen.
Rizal was profoundly admired, of course, by two other great men who demonstrated in their own way, a deep understanding of both the greatness and limitations of the Filipino people: Andres Bonifacio and Apolinario Mabini. Both took to heart Rizal's injunction that Filipino society be conducted according to the highest, and strictest, principles of compassion and justice.
Rizal wrote about, and was a living example, of the need for sobriety, preparation and hard work. He was concerned with the intellectual development of his countrymen. Bonifacio expressed the fundamental need for independence and equality, the liberation of both the self and the national whole. Mabini saw the dangers inherent in our society and how it was molded and affected by our leaders, and wrote of the need to have leaders of virtue to bring out the virtues in our people.
All of them never doubted the capacity of the Filipino to be heroic. All recognized that heroism was not enough. Or put another way, that heroism flourishes where good, dedicated people live simple, responsible lives.
Since we have heroes aplenty, what our country obviously needs is follow-through. Only then can heroism really bear the fruits noble deeds deserve.
