FIRST OF A SERIES
(Starting with this issue well-known business executive Oscar P. Señar is coming up with a series of articles diagnosing the ills plaguing the country and subsequently offering his own solutions. Aa key personality in the petroleum industry in the country today, he had been president of the Hyatt Terminal and Industrial Corporation, vice president and director of Liquigaz Philippines Corporation and held various supervisory and managerial positions at Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation. He copped the second place in the 1967 board examinations for civil engineers. native of Caramoan, Camarines Sur, he now resides in Metro Manila but is frequently on business trips outside of the country. – Editor)
One very quiet evening, I was alone and the question - “Why do so many Filipinos suffer?” dawned on me.
That same evening, I had a dream that transported me back in time thousand of years ago. Below is my vivid recollection of the dialogue between the Lord and an angel when God created the entire universe:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God said, “Let there be light”. God separated the light from darkness. And there was evening and morning, the first day.
On the second day, God created the heavens and the universe.
On the third day, God said’ “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place and let dry land appear.” And so, the various continents appeared and the group of small islands near the huge land mass also emerged.
Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth vegetation and all kinds of fruit bearing trees.
However, the angel observed that a denser vegetation surfaced in the group of small islands than in the rest of the world.
God said, “Let the waters abound with life and let winged creatures fly above these lands. The fourth day.
The angel beside the Lord noticed that more fish and of the best variety abound in these small islands than in the rest of the world, but the angel just kept quiet.
God said, “Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures, all kinds of cattle and crawling creatures on the ground. God filled the earth with all kinds of mineral resources.” The fifth day.
But again the angel noticed that God inhabited these small islands with more and of the best variety and filled the land with the best of mineral resources.
The angel could no longer keep his peace and so he asked the Lord. “Are you not being unfair to the rest of the world? How come you are creating a Paradise in these small islands?
The Lord replied, “NO! Wait until I create the PEOPLE!!!
Indeed, the Filipinos in those small islands were so blessed with bountiful sea creatures and mountains filled with a dipterocarp forest, the hard wood variety that command better prices in the international market. The Lord even gifted Filipinos by filling the earth below the surface with One Trillion Dollars ( P 50 trillion pesos ) worth of mineral resources. This amount is more than enough to liquidate our local and external debt of Php 5.0 trillion. This staggering amount of debt has been brought for every Filipino to bear, as a consequence of corruption and funds misuse and abuse!!! God endowed us with one big contiguous and fertile land mass with an excellent weather condition – a place ideal for agricultural development.
What have we done with all these blessings?
But then, I suddenly woke up because my bladder was full and it was morning. I said to myself, “Lord, now I fully understand why so many Filipinos suffer when we are your favored people.”
How can a nation and a people so blessed by the Lord suffer so much?
Why do we have to fish now in the more fertile but distant international waters? Simple – because we have blasted with dynamite the bountiful resources that God has endowed us near our very shores.
How come so many people had to die in floods and landslides every year? Does God love Filipinos less than the Americans and the Europeans? Simple – we have destroyed by slash and burn all our forests, aggravated further by unscrupulous illegal loggers. Only 5% of the original forest cover remain. Do you remember your Science or Physics? For every action, there is an equal opposite and sometimes disastrous reaction!
What has happened to the bountiful mineral resources? They are still substantially intact. Let us not surrender them to the foreigners to exploit. They will just leave us with trashes thereafter - a tragic consequence that bring natural disasters. This is our last remaining gift from God. Let us manage them well for future generations to come.
The instruction of the Lord was very clear. “You shall be the steward of my creation with dominion over all the animals of the earth. Consume your resources in a sustainable manner.”
What is the current State of our People?
Why do Filipinos have to pay double the rate that Americans pay for electricity - $ 0.24 per kilowatt hour for us versus $ 0.12 per kwhr to the Americans? Aren’t we blessed with plenty of rain, water, wind and volcanic energy? We should be paying only one third (1/3) that amount had the contracts been free from “extra legal burdens”.
Why do Filipinos have to pay double the price for the rice we eat compared to our neighboring countries? This is the food that Filipinos love to eat. Each one of us consume two sacks of rice a year. Come to think of it, we just taught our neighbors how to plant and cultivate rice in Los Banos 40 years ago!
Why do Filipinos have to pay more for meat, fish and vegetable compared to our neighboring countries?
How come we never heard any explanation from the government? How come no Filipino has dared to asked why?
Marcos launched the Masagana 99 Program, a yield of 99 cavans per hectare and succeeded. Now, our production is dismally below 60 cavans. Is it because fertilizer funds are diverted for something else?
Why do Filipino OFW’s have to be separated from their families just to earn a bit more? Some even have to endure sub-human conditions in foreign lands, just like the Israelites during the time of Moses.
Is this a Biblical curse? . . . “because you have squandered the BOUNTIFUL RESOURCES I have entrusted to you, … on your belly you shall crawl and dust you shall eat”! I will send you drought, earthquake, floods, landslides, famine and twenty (20) typhoons every year until you change and repent! Has this ever entered your mind out of frustration or despair?
Think about it, Vietnam was at war for so many decades and more bombs were dropped on it than in WWI and WWII combined. Today, we are behind Vietnam in economic growth. Although we have rapidly overtaken all our neighbors in corruption, because we are now a proud No.1 in the whole world. Shameless sinful people!
Remember the punishment for Sodom and Gomorrah in Biblical times?
In a country created and designed by God to be agricultural in nature, how come GDP contribution to the economy from agriculture had gone down to a mere 15%? How come nobody complains? – because OFW remittances cushion the big vacuum. Our modern day heroes.
We seem to squander every opportunity given to us by the Lord. We squandered the gains in EDSA. We had the opportunity then to redefine our national character and set our collective directions right, swayed by a natural push coming from the euphoria generated by that miraculous event.
Is Constitutional Change the answer? Or is this just a ploy to position a few chosen people?
What are your own views? What are we doing in our own little way? Collectively, we can move mountains. Where do we start and how?
To be continued . . . . Abangan !
If you have your own views or answers or just want to react, please share them and send them to: oscar.senar@gmail.com
