Two of my esteemed co-bloggers here at Filipino Voices have already expressed their opinion (in Rom’s case, her anguish), and this part from Atty. Butch’s post caught my interest:

I’m certain the RCBC murderers took some cold, cruel comfort, while they were pulling the triggers on their victims, from the knowledge that, however heinous their crimes, they would never be lawfully executed by the State.

But they can be extralegally executed, right? Calling Fred Lim and/or Rod Duterte and/or Jovito Palparan. Kidding aside, what’s forty years if you can survive that long? You can launder the money with ease, and get to enjoy the fruits of their crimes afterwards? Of course, that depends on the judge and the prosecution’s evidence. Heck, if I were to handle this case, my judgment (if ever the suspects were truly guilty) would be simple: reclusion perpetua for each murdered victims without any possibility of parole.

However, these criminals take comfort in the fact that it would take some time for the justice system to get them: for the police to apprehend them, for the prosecution to file cases, for the judge to hear the case, till the time the Supreme Court upholds the guilty verdict. That is assuming on several factors: that the police would get them, that the evidence would be overwhelming, that the suspects would hire great lawyers who could delay the proceedings, bribe the judge, or the prosecuting team could be weak. Money makes the world go round, and it can even buy justice. And of course, these criminals know that even if they are found guilty, they will die of sickness or old age, not murder, unless they survive the jungle called National Bilibid Prisons.

In short, they committed the crime because they knew the odds are stacked against the People of the Philippines. Our justice system works in favor of the suspects. And that is why I perfectly understand the sentiments of Atty. Butch and Rom.

We can always do our part as citizens of this country in making our justice system work. Sometimes we have to forgo our concept of self-preservation (the concept that currently ails this country). When we see a crime, report it immediately. When you know something about a crime, contact the police. We should not hesitate to stand as witness during a trial. If a relative has committed a crime, report it immediately; if possible, turn him/her over to the police. Follow the law. It is not easy, but these things must be done in order for our justice system to work. I do not have to state the otherwise part.

Of course, we should call on the police to do their part. Please bring back the police-on-the-beat. Please, Mr. Policeman, get a buddy and start walking the streets again. If it means going back to the brown uniform, so be it. Please get off your airconditioned precints/police cars, and walk with us.

And if you know something about this horrendous crime, please, mighty please, tell the police. If one of the criminals is a family member, please forget blood ties – report him/her to the police. For what is money tainted with blood? That makes you a criminal, too.

Let us make our justice system work. Let us make criminal’s lives harder. Let us make crimes pay.

—

Dedicated to those who forget what accountability and command responsibility are.

I’m referring to this gem of a comment Chuck (aka “cvj“) made last night:

Jon, i think Benign0 has to qualify the statement The Philippines is a meaningless concept…to Benign0 because it does have meaning to a whole lot of others. I think this is one of those issues that he has to work out on his own. I agree with Nick that the ‘Philippines’ (as is the ‘United States’ or ‘Japan’ or ‘Singapore’) is a complex concept so it cannot be further reduced into a formula. – chuck

My response to the above is this: Dude, instead of going around stomping your feet about how some people need to “qualify” their statements, why don’t you come up with a proposal of your own.

All you can come up with, for example, is this:

The Philippine Flag stands for everything our heroes fought for, all the good that i now see in our people, and the promise of what we Filipinos could become once we overcome the elitists and get our acts together. – chuck

Real quaint. But not quite the kind of insight that moves mountains.

And then you ask me to do the “qualifying”.

Real, classy, dude.

So here is my epiphany:

It’s no wonder we remain the sheep that we are today and have consistently failed to move up the food chain for centuries. We just rely on other people to do our thinking for us.

If some of us have got a beef against their imaginary friends the “Elitists”, then we need to show them we’ve got what it takes to replace them as society’s trendsetters. This can only be achieved by exhibiting the same cool factor they currently monopolise which enables them to keep the masses dancing the ocho-ocho to their goldmine record labels and Bandila and Wowowee franchises.

The reality is simple:

Elite is cool, populism (read: maka-masa crap) is uncool.

The challenge is to come up with the spin to turn the above equation around.

Che Guevarra’s iconic face emblazoned on T-shirts is an example of how populist sentiment was made cool using clever marketing.

The swastika turned the darkest of evils into a seductive brand that hypnotised a generation of German youngsters.

The power of symbols had, in their own times, turned two of humanity’s great evils — Nazism and Communism into GLOBAL BRANDS the same way Nokia and Starbucks are turning an entire generation of Pinoys into a bunch of vacuous fashionistas.

Mr. Chuck, do come up with something original for a change instead of those tired platitudes you’ve made a career out of dishing out.

Maybe this is what the mission of Filipino Voices should be:

(1) to come up with the symbol
(2) build the substance around it
(3) and market both the symbol and its substance to the Pinoy community

One thing that the Pinoy undisputably is is a consumer. We are world class at consuming but don’t have the production muscle to back it up (which is why we are progressively impoverishing ourselves). But guess what, consumerists are easily marketed to. And the tool of choice of marketers is the Brand.

Hard as it may be to encapsulate meaning, the fact remains that people would rather associate than comprehend. Thus the power of brands. People don’t wanna think? Simple solution. Don’t make them think. Package something up into something that appeals to their vacuous nature.

The old ways of selling change (using tired platitudes dished out by you-know-who types) simply don’t work. You need to manage the pitch using hard-nosed business sense. The same kind of sense that creates the power to divest people of their cash by merely flashing a coloured logo before their faces.

Which calls to light what I once wrote:

Great nations were not built on good intentions. They were built on business sense. Real change in Pinoy society will never be achieved through the “sacrifice” of altruistic “heroes”. True change will be driven by people who find no shame in expecting a buck for their trouble.

(I’m a fan of my own original insight rather than a mere quoter of other people’s)

The sooner we ditch the old sheepish approach of convincing Pinoys to drink Barako instead of Tall Lattes using appeals to emotion and instead get our shit together and compete head-on using wolf-like tactics, the sooner we kick our addiction to Mekong Delta rice and remittance cheques.

The alternative is Mike Hanopol’s timeless advise which some you-know-who’s may be a bit more comfortable with: Magtanim na lang tayo ng kamote — an increasingly viable solution to the food debacle already gripping the islands.

It’s simple, really.

*     *     *

I think nobody will disagree with me when I say that resistance is very, very inconvenient.  Back in my college days, I remember how many of my classmates were ticked off every time a small band of students would rap on the classroom door calling for a walkout.  Rallies and protest actions irritate drivers and commuters.  The group of farmers in front of the Department of Agriculture may be seen as an “eyesore,” especially considering that this was part of Manny Pacquiao’s motorcade route.  Bloggers take up precious time and bandwidth, especially for those teenagers who want to play DoTA. Who cares about resistance, when it is inconvenient to those who do not resist?

Consider that last sentence very, very carefully.

With all due respect to Rom, I have to disagree with her on one thing: yes, we should go out of our way, even in a fine day like this one, to fuel our hatred and our dissatisfaction towards The Government.  I could, if I wanted to, just get the hell out of this computer shop, go to Timezone in TriNoma, and play Tekken 6. I could, if I wanted to, SMS my friends right now for an afternoon at Gateway and forget about the Philippines.  Yes, we should go out of our way to vent out our spleens, our pancreas, and our intestines because of at least one of these:

We can.  We must.  We should.  We have to.

I am sure that Filipinos don’t have to be reminded of things like “Hello Garci,” the pardon of Joseph Estrada, the invoking of executive privilege for Sec. Romulo Neri, the list goes on and on.  I am sure that many Filipinos don’t have to be reminded of The Government’s inaction and ineptitude in handling the present “rice crisis.”  The problem is that some Filipinos would rather have it at this, that this will pass, that dissent and resistance are inconveniences that make life even more inconvenient as it is.

I once got into a really heated argument with “pro-GMA” people who said that “we are upholding the rule of law.”  Now that’s something, isn’t it?  A President who disregards the most basic of our laws – with EO 464 for our right to information and Proclamation 1017 for free speech – is supported by people who, I assume, are very sincere with their support of the rule of law.  The rule of law is not automatically the rule of right.  What was lawful for Sec. Neri was to not answer a single question on the NBN-ZTE deal, but what was right was for him to tell the Filipino people every thing he knew about it.  What was lawful was for GMA to use military force to suppress all unrest in 2006 through Proc. 1017, but what was right was for her to heed the voices of the people.

Yes, The President tarnished (among other descriptions that I am not really inclined to use right now) the very “rule of law” she “stands” for.  Worse, The President does not stand for anything right about this country.

Yes, I agree that The President is not the root of all evil and she is not the cause of all our problems.  There are a lot of things that have caused us to be in the political pickle that we are now.  Yet this doesn’t mean that I agree with another contributor to our problems – Justice Secretary Norberto Gonzalez – that we should all give The President a “pat on the back” and “congratulate” her on a “job well done.”

We all need to speak out and make ourselves heard.  We all need to act on our situations in every way we can.  We need to risk some of the little conveniences in our lives for the inconveniences of fighting The Power and changing The System.  It is inconvenient not to pay kotong to the corrupt cop, it is inconvenient to demand the tax collector where exactly your taxes go, and it is inconvenient to make it a point to pass by Malacañang to honk your horn really loud once or twice a week.  It is inconvenient to pick up after your own litter, it is inconvenient to make a proper queue when boarding the MRT or when buying NFA rice, and it is inconvenient to make your voice heard.

It is inconvenient to disobey, it is inconvenient to stand up for what’s right, and it’s damn sure inconvenient to resist.

It is inconvenient to stand up for change, because it’s just so convenient to remain unchanged.  We must resist.