‘If Noynoy leads by the power of good example, and manages his people sternly and decisively, the bureaucracy will deliver.’
THE weekend became an occasion to meet old friends from school days. Maybe that comes with age. Reunions come more often, informal get-togethers over wine or beer and "pulutan." It was a gathering of strictly "middle-class" guys. And even that is hard to describe, or to define.
What income level qualifies one to be better off than the poor? Similarly, what income ceiling do you need to breach to qualify as rich? It is not just a matter of statistics, the standards of which may be awfully distant from micro-economic reality. Suffice it to say that the guys I sat with classify themselves as "middle-class". As I do myself.
In the province where I spent my early childhood, we were comfortably well-off, but when my parents moved to the big city, we became truly middle-class. Paying the tuition was a quarterly problem until after a few years when income levels adjusted happily upwards. There was hardly a day when a meal was skipped, except when some children in their teens thought dieting was a bigger priority than a good meal on the table. In my case, meals got skipped after a heavy hang-over the night before when I was in my early twenties, time when good beer and good pulutan was the end of most every day’s hard work.
In our time, provided you studied well enough in college, a job awaited you right after graduation. You even had the luxury of choice. These days college graduates can choose between being a coffee shop "barista" here or there, and a call center operator there or here. Unless you finish with good grades from three or four universities, except that kids from "better" schools prefer to work abroad, having enjoyed the short episodes when upwardly mobile parents afforded them a US or Canadian trip.
But enough of that useless intro into my definition, or attempt to define, what comes with the "middle-class". Let’s get back to that meeting with guys my age who have, more or less, the same living standards I enjoy. The difference between me and the small group was/is, that I write for a paper, and two, I have hobnobbed with the powerful. They all went through middle-class status, grew their kids, have become happy grand-dads, all in public anonymity. Some went the corporate ladder route, others the professional route, and others became successful medium-scale businessmen.
Talk drifted to the changing of the leadership unfolding soon. Most everyone thought the people made a good choice, not that they really had much choice to begin with. But for one who went Gibo, they all voted for Noynoy not necessarily because of himself, but because he was the only one who could bring about some "change". Nine years of Gloria was an excruciating "pain in the neck", or whatever part of the anatomy, as someone called it. There simply had to be change.
Then I asked them, what kind of "change"? Someone came up with the phrase, "small things lang naman … small change." He was a Chinoy businessman, but rather than getting amused at the dual meaning of his phrase, most everybody chimed in.
Now what the hell is "small change" for someone who has been concerned about, and writing for years about the bigger things, "the big picture" as Ricky Carandang says it?
Getting the "trains" to run on time, that Mussolini promise, seems to be the more accurate descriptive. Do something about the traffic. Why are there so many colorum buses, taxis, FX’s, jeepneys messing up the traffic because of obstinate disregard for rules, and government looks the other way around? Why is traffic management left to dolts and dorks called traffic aides, who are more interested in fleecing the motorist than getting his brains stuffed with enough common sense?
Why is the airport such a big mess, with toilets that stink, systems that do not work? Even, as one put it very simply, even at the airport, there’s "air" traffic, so sometimes you stew inside the plane to Boracay for an hour. Or your plane to Palawan is two hours late, because first, the aircraft arrived late, and then, when finally inside the plane, the pilot tells you that because of heavy traffic (so many arrivals and departures using but one runway), please bear with the reality. And why in heaven’s name can’t government open the NAIA-3 to international air traffic after ten years. What kind of governance is that, they exclaim? I remarked that they are probably the guys who were enthralled by Gilbert Teodoro’s "take-off" ad, where he was the pilot. They were not enticed, they said, because they expected Gloria and her Mike to be his passengers. He he he.
Try getting on the road to Baguio, someone said. It’s beautiful from Balintawak to Tarlac City, then you get bogged down in the MacArthur Highway where motorized tricycles chug-chug in the middle of the road, and devil-may-care bus drivers act like they owned both sides of the road. Why can’t DPWH, or whatever, he asks, ban tricycles in such busy and high-speed thoroughfares? I’ve been asking that myself each time I pass Tarlac and Pangasinan for the past four decades. Then again I thought, these guys are certainly not "poor". The poor hardly ever ride airplanes or use the NAIA comfort rooms, or drive to Baguio. And because the plaints and condition of the "poor" constitute the "bigger picture", then indeed these middle-class plaints are "small change".
Everybody hated the "wang-wang" and had their own horror stories about encountering the convoy of cabinet member this or senator this, or mayor that. "Pwede ba ipagbawal na ni P-Noy ang lahat ng wang-wang, p’wera lang pulis at ambulansya"? "P…inang mga ‘yan, sinuswelduhan ng bayan, tapos kala mo mga hari", and the mildly profane guy identified a senator who loves to parade himself with motorcycle escorts and siren-blaring back-ups, even when he has been one of the do-nothings in that chamber. And the Chinoy observed, "Si Ping Lacson nga naging PNP chief pa, tapos senador, hindi ko narinig na may wang-wang", and I smiled.
"Simpleng bagay, like jaywalking, jeepneys and cabs stopping in the middle of the road, and closing the whole road to traffic while waiting for passengers," a doctor added. And when I said, "trabaho ng LGU ‘yan", he shot back, "kung kaya ni Binay disiplinahin yung mga mayors, siya na!" To which someone said, "E si Bayani Fernando nga, nag-try na mag-kamay na bakal, wala ring nangyari". But the exasperated doctor remarked, "E paano nga, ‘yung presidente niya walang pakialam kundi magnakaw". (While I write this, her American citizen-spokesperson Gary Olivar was presenting Anthony Taberna on TV with a book he edited, entitled "Beat the Odds" sub-titled, "Another Stone for the Edifice". Wondering which, will GMA ever gift this writer with a copy?)
"You wrote once (these guys are fans) about simple living, even cabinet members and officials dressing up simply…polo barongs or short-sleeved shirts instead of Armani suits and Hermes ties", said a former bank executive who took early retirement and does nothing but play golf these days. "That makes sense…delivers the right message", he claimed.
"Peace and order, pare…grabe na, parang manok na lang kung patayin ang tao, and recounted the TV story of a seaman who was killed in broad daylight in a busy street just to snatch his gold necklace ". Everybody chimed in with their children’s own encounters with street crime. Someone who comes from a Northern province but lives here in Manila talked about the state of perpetual crime and terror there.
"Rule of law…ipatupad lang", said a lawyer. "Justice system, napaka-corrupt…buti na lang nag-retire na ako from practice, but truth is, even I had to close my eyes to the reality, or else I’d lose all my clients. To be truthful, it was better in the time of Marcos…may takot pa ang judges and fiscals, but now…lantad na lantad".
Wait, I said, that probably is part of the "big picture". "Hindi kaya ng "small change" ‘yan. Mukhang complete overhaul ang kailangan diyan…systemic even".
"But Noynoy has to begin," he pleaded, the sadness in his face all too apparent, and admitted, "sa totoo lang…nakakahiya nang maging abogado ngayon…more areglo than legal skills".
Then I posed a question: "How come you never joined the judiciary? Your dad was a respected justice." And he answered, "Buti na lang tatlo lang kaming magkakapatid. Otherwise, baka si daddy naging corrupt din". But my lawyer-friend insisted, there is need for big steps to cleanse the legal system, beginning with the judiciary and prosecutorial service. I wholeheartedly agree. Nobody except the absolutely corrupt can possibly disagree.
"Small changes", as they said, while concrete steps are being done to address the bigger, more complex problems of peace in Mindanao, or food security, or overhauling the bureaucracy, or cleansing the judiciary, or even providing jobs.
"When confidence in government and the system returns, investors will invest. Hindi naman pwedeng mabulok sa bangko ang bilyones nila…even the foreign investors who need to show their stockholders bigger returns", the retired bank executive wisely said. "Then the jobs will be created, more by the private sector than government…it is a long process, but confidence is what matters".
In the end, we agreed by consensus, "small changes" could infuse the citizenry with a feel-good confidence that at last, things will start to get better. It will take us years to solve the "big picture", or at least alleviate the problems. Everybody agreed that if Noynoy leads by the power of good example, and manages his people sternly and decisively, the bureaucracy will deliver results. Meanwhile, the hope for change must go on, and must be re-energized by small confidence-building actions, "small changes" as we coined that afternoon.
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Colum for Tuesday, 22 June 2010
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