BY ROMMEL YNION
ASPHYXIATED by the vice-like grip of the holier-than-thou P-Noy administration, I am just a modern-day Filipino who yearns to be free again. Physically hand-cuffed I am not; but spiritually, my soul has become hostage to a two-fold spirit that imposes upon me the ideal of matuwid na daan while at the same time coerces it to accept the defiance of the fundamental law of the land.
My yearning for freedom is borne out of the dichotomy of my existence: on the one hand, I force myself to follow the straight path in spite of the fact that others whose umbilical cords stretch all the way up to Malacañang defy the laws at will, trivializing in the process the principle of a level playing field; on the other hand, I see our “leader” speechifying about his home-cooked ideology that the Constitution is as changeable as a diaper especially when the spoiled brat cries for “change”.
Isn’t this schizophrenic? How else can we call the state of being somebody one moment, then somebody else the next? A two-fold life, isn’t it? But in the eyes of others, it isn’t just two-fold, but “multi-fold” as grey areas befuddle life-and-death issues like the Bangsamoro pact that has jeopardized the survival of our republic, the image of Mindanao emerging as an independent nation-state looming on the horizon. And this is the multi-faceted malaise from which, like almost every Filipino today, I want to be free.
Hard to pin down a definition of it. But it’s as real as the air we breathe. The closest phrase that can aptly depict it: identity crisis. How can we not suffer from an identity crisis when we live in a culture that propels us into a straight and narrow path while at the same time, aims to widen it by trampling on the Constitution like it was just a piece of toilet paper? As within, so without. As we see and feel it within us, so it will become in our world. Now, that is the crux of the matter.
Straight-jacketed by a brand of morality that has made us feel more like aliens from outer space than humans on this planet, we now long to be “normal” again, free to pursue our dreams as long as we don’t violate any laws of God and man, confident that no matter which side of the political fence we stand, we will not be judged but respected, secure in our justice system that guarantees not only the freedom of those close to Malacañang but also of those who oppose it.
And that is what I like about Jojo Binay from whom one can never hear holier-than-thou clichés: Kung walang kurap, walang mahihirap; Matuwid na daan. At the risk of appearing to second-guess his thinking, I venture to say that Binay is aware of the hollowness of those sound bytes meant only to delude the public into a false sense of hope. A street fighter from the Martial Law era, he can keep his feet firmly even on slippery ground. Jojo is real, simply human like each one of us.
All Binay says matter-of-factly in his campaign sorties before was: “Kay Binay, gaganda ang inyong buhay.” Mind you, he didn’t say: “With me, all of us will become saints and together, we will march to heaven where St. Peter will welcome us with open arms.” It’s like a perfect golf swing, loose but effective; relaxed but relevant, especially to the sweet spot of what is closest to our hearts: The freedom to be just what we want to be without violating the laws of God and man.
Everybody knows that in Iloilo City, I was Binay’s standard-bearer in the last mid-term elections. In several occasions, hobnobbing with him was like rubbing shoulders with a street urchin. We ate with our bare hands, galunggong, itlog na maalat and rice. We never talked about morals but mere pragmatism in the art of survival on this fast-changing and dizzyingly crazy world. Isn’t it then the essence of being human? To strive for excellence without any tinge of self-righteousness?
With Binay, I can sense a resignation to man’s sinfulness and the long drawn-out war between good and evil in which humanity has been torn since time unremembered. As if tacitly, he seems bent on forging an agreement with the populace that in spite of our frailties, we need to fight corruption, strive for excellence and aim for perfection. The constant striving for God’s approbation is man’s destiny and therefore, an end in itself.
Isn’t this a more sensible worldview than that which imposes upon us the ideology that perfection is attainable, with Thomas More’s Utopia now within the grasp of each one of us? For like wooden-hulled ships in the 16th century voyages of discovery, we cannot continue sailing against the currents of man’s evil and corrupt nature and sinfulness without emerging from it all in tatters, unable to venture forth again into the unknown in the hope of discovering new worlds to usher in life-changing dimensions of culture, knowledge and wealth creation./PN
