Generation fissures
You’re a fool,” former Evening News desk editor Carmen Hernandez- snapped over a Palo Alto restaurant dinner. “You’re returning to all that corruption and double-dealing back home?” The wife and I gave up “our U.S. green cards,” we told “Mameng.
To break free of Ferdinand Marcos’ “New Society,” we joined United Nations. But after People Power, we opted to return. There were over 300 in the queue, seeking visas. We were the only ones signing INS from I-407: “Abandonment of Lawful Permanent Residence Status.” That skewed pattern hasn’t changed since.
An average of 3,568 Filipinos leave daily today. They work in over 180 countries. Given half the chance, 19 out of every 100 would go for good, earlier Pulse Asia surveys state. The “backlog” for immigrant visas is huge. Applications filed in the late 1990s are only being processed now.
“In my experience, many first-generation immigrants—homesick elderly or established professionals—tend to return,” the consul said, after processing our request. “All your children are U.S. citizens. Visit them, now and then,” he added. “Pick up your visas tomorrow.”
Did we regret, in the lady editor’s words, “returning to all that”? Yes and no, we told Mameng later at Palo Alto dinners. There were occasions, in the in-between years, we fretted: “Why should anybody want to stay?”
One was when Eduardo Cojuangco’s “Brat Pack” tried to impeach Chief Justice Hilario Davide for leading the Supreme Court to crack down on the notorious coconut levy. The shady accused the unblemished, to cheers of hacks, in Congress and the press.
This was perversion. But does this depravity persist across generations? And do we have a monopoly?
The Arroyo Supreme Court anointed Cojuangco’s pocketing of 16.2-million SMC shares. These were funded by levies, wrung from small farmers. But the tribunal decision steamrollered small holders. It’s the “biggest joke to hit the century,” then Justice, now Ombudsman, Conchita Carpio-Morales wrote.
To reclaim the 27 percent Coconut Industry Investment Fund for small farmers, House Deputy Speaker Erin Tanada filed House Bill 5070. CIIF SMC shares are worth P56 billion. Now, watch today’ predators chomp into yesteryear’s loot.
Dagdag-bawas entered our vocabulary in the mid-’90s. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. saw his votes shaved as Juan Ponce Enrile’s tallies ballooned. Years later, Pimentel’s son Aquilino Martin waged this battle again to claim the remaining 23 months of a Senate term. Nene’s grandchildren watched “Koko” sworn in. They underscore an injustice that spanned almost a full senatorial term.
Imelda and family flew the dictator’s embalmed body from Hawaii straight to Laoag International Airport 18 years ago. President Fidel Ramos approved the return, on condition of a Sept. 10 burial. That pledge was not kept. Instead, construction of a masoluem at the Libingnan ng mga Bayani started. House Bill 1135, bearing the signature of 214 congressmen, surfaced prodding President Benigno Aquino III to authorize the Libingan interment of Marcos. Two families, separated by a generation, are deadlocked on historical revision.
Since his rise from PMA Class ’71 to national police and Senate, in over a generation, charges dogged Panfilo Lacson: Dacer-Corbito murder, Kuratong Baleleng massacre, rub-out of Red Scorpion gang relatives, a 20-year-old woman and an 8-year-old girl dumped from a helicopter off Corregidor, etc. etc. Senator Jinggoy Estrada worked all that into Senate records.
Lacson surfaced after 14 months on the lam. He is now an abrasive Senate prober, not fugitive with a fake passport. He pledges no harm on Mary “Rosebud” Ong, who asked for continued Witness Protection Program sanctuary. She linked Lacson to drug deals. All in a generation.
In a year, six plunder charges were lodged against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and husband. Accusations are still piling up. Will a new record be set for future generations?
Bad governance is just one, albeit a major factor that spurs migration. Poverty and cramped economic space also do. Indigents today exceed 27.6 million, Asian Development Bank estimates. The income of the richest 10 percent of Filipino households was 19 times that of the poorest 10 percent.
“Metro Manila finds itself between Lebanon and Peru,” Philippine Human Development Report adds. “Benguet is roughly equivalent to that of Armenia while Cebu is equal to that of the Palestenian Territories. Davao, Abra and Bohol lie between Nicaragua and Uzbekistan.”
Penury interlocks with ill health and shabby education . “Poverty webs” truncate life spans across generations “asserts a UP School of Economics study. Life expectancy in Tawi-Tawi and Sulu, for example, is short of 55 years—like that of Ethiopia in Africa. In La Union, life spans now exceed 74 years—comparable to Slovakia, but short of Singapore’s 80. For Japanese, it’s almost 82.
Infant mortality rates here dropped from 60 per 100,000 live births in 1970 to about 25 today. But far more can be done. Infant deaths are down to 17 in Sri Lanka. Also, too many women—approximately 162 out of every 100,000 births—still die during labor or shortly thereafter.
“Should I migrate or not?” the young reporter with two kids asked. We replied: “Bloom wherever you’re planted.”
