FROM THE BARREL OF MY PEN
By Gonzalo “Jun” Policarpio


LET’S DO WHATSOEVER IS HONORABLE IN THE COMING ELECTIONS


From the lips of one of the most popular young movie stars from the Philippines, she told reporters while reacting to the devastations brought about by the killer floods that hit MetroManila: All the material possessions I have accumulated from my movie career gone in an instance. She was referring to her luxurious mansion, her cars, and all the material wealth she used to possess gobbled by rain waters and mud that overflowed her village.

While we need all these earthly things that fulfill our dreams and satisfy our luxuries, such can perish in a moment’s time. For they are all corruptible. Truly this is a persistent lesson to be learned by every human being on this earth. It’s not worth to sell your soul, your dignity, and your honor in exchange of things that can decay quickly.

Yet man is so corruptible that he or she will succumb to the devil for a few pieces of silver.

Well, the Philippines is known all over the world to have been ruled by a series of corrupt governments. It hurts me to say that as a Filipino by birth but that’s the truth. Most recent survey shows that the Philippines ranks just a few slots behind Indonesia, the most corrupt country in Asia.

Now we hear of a former Philippine president who served time in jail for plunder that is even worse than graft and corruption declaring his candidacy for president for the 2010 presidential elections. What does that make of the mentality of a Filipino who will vote for him?

The late American senator, Ted Kennedy, never tried to run for president after losing a primary to Jimmy Carter. He knew that the American people cannot vote for a person as their president who saved himself from drowning and let his drunken secretary die while trapped inside his car lying at the bottom of the river. He was not even convicted of any crime.

The late American president, Richard Nixon, resigned from the White House for being charged of a cover-up of the infamous Watergate Scandal. He was not even convicted. But the American people seemed to have branded him as unreliable and irresponsible that caused him to live in the shadows until his death.

Let’s hope and pray that the Philippines, the only Christian nation in Asia, remains faithful to things that “moth cannot corrupt” such as honor, integrity, and righteousness and her people to choose honest leaders for the nation.