The more things change, the more they stay the same

The more things change, the more they stay the same, said Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr in French. This is perhaps really true in life. Seemingly, nothing really changes. I was a child, now I am a man. I now look old because of my age but I am still the same in my heart and mind. Mao gyud ka gihapon. Imong linihokan ug imong sinultihan wala nausab. That was what my classmates told me when we met again last year after fifty years in our beloved alma mater in Maasin City. Except perhaps that I am now a little bit slower in my moves and my hair is gray.

In politics, once we had Marcos. He saw that sa kaunlaran ng bayan, disiplina ang kailangan. Soon, he put the whole country under martial law. He also saw that power and wealth in the country were in the hands of the few oligarchs. He soon destroyed or took away their business but only if they were not his friends and fanned them out to his crony oligarchs. The result was history, the disciplined throw away their disciplinarians and put into power the widow of the man who fought so hard against Marcos unsuccessfully. He was murdered at the time when his victory seemed certain.

For one reason or another, many believed that Cory only undid what Marcos was doing in his time to the economy. When she took over the fight against Marcos for her husband, the previous oligarch-losers naturally rallied behind her. Naturally, when victory came in the end after the EDSA revolution, they were also aptly rewarded. Most of them became very rich and powerful again. For many people then, things really did not change.

Ramos came blazing and he went away fading in the end though not from his own folly. His Philippine 2000 was no match against the fury of the Asian Crisis. A man of action in the movies took over when the economy was already in the downswing. He took the hardest blows of the Asian contagion. Like in the movies, he too was made to suffer in prison in due time because of his excesses. Again like in the movies, he became free again to do more acting.

As if from the stroke of the wand, one little mermaid came to the throne. As a delicate being, very few ever thought that she was capable of doing anything atrocious. We were wrong. She ruled rather more stealthily than her predecessors to amass more power and wealth for her family and friends. So the more things change, the more they look the same.

A limping man arrived in the scene. Forced by circumstances after the death of her mother to seek the highest position of the land, he won easily over the mermaid’s anointed. This limping man was disparaged to no end. He was bashed for the seemingly light way he played his role. Much have been said of his inability to act immediately and decisively in times of crisis or decide only poorly when he did. However, much have been said too now of the changes that happened to the economy under his watch and the way people from outside the country regard the Philippines. With their untainted eyes, they see that the Philippines is no longer the basket case in Asia. It is now an emerging economy. Inside the country, many people with their tainted eyes do not agree.

We just had another presidential election with the most vicious of the election campaign in Philippine history. All kinds of tricks were used in the social media, not to inform but to deceive. Thousands of trolls post and repost lies that are made to look like the truth by a mere change of word or two in the news headlines or by the stroke of the brush in the pictures. Overwhelmed, the readers either simply refused or too dull to verify their authenticity. When the lies were unmasked, and many were indeed unmasked, the damages were already done. The master trolls won the propaganda war.

Election is just like war. One must win at the expense of the others. Like in the war, rules also abound to guide the action of opposing parties. You can’t do this and that, but in the battlefield, who cares for the rules when the alternative is losing one’s life? All schemes, no matter how unfair, apply. Only one’s conscience can stop one to do worse. But hate and anger created by the frenzy of the war tend to dull one’s conscience.

But if things stay the same this time after this election, I would so much welcome it. Why not just continue what so far we have done successfully that attract the eyes of the world in the way we succeed in growing the economy and lowering the degree of corruption by most indicators of change applied over time and across all nations?

Such is my hope also in the way we manage the financial sector. We are now in the most stable of times already in our inflation rate and exchange rate. Our gross international reserves is filing up which allowed us to become a lender to those in need through the IMF.

Crimes must be stopped if we must by killing the perpetuators. But know that in doing this, it is only the perpetuators that we eliminate. Crimes will remain engrave in time. For as long as people exist, there are always the wicked among us. We are not created perfect. Change we must, but perhaps the first and the most important thing to change is ourselves. For it is from within us, the way we think and look at things, that defines our actions, not seeing people killed.