Hope

THESE ARE truly the times that try the Filipino soul, to paraphrase Thomas Paine. Now more than ever, the circumstances attached to everyday life in these islands have grown more treacherous than ever.

All you need to do is look around. More Filipinos than ever are hungry, as a recent report revealed. The prices of petroleum products have risen to unforeseen levels, leading to a call for higher vehicular fares, something that will burden the average Filipino commuter. Three of our countrymen were executed in China for acting as drug mules, a tragedy that threatens to touch other Filipinos in captivity around the world. Our overseas workers find their lives threatened by natural and nuclear disasters in Japan as well as military conflicts in North Africa and the Middle East. A 6-year-old-boy gyrates while crying on nationwide TV and people actually see nothing wrong with it. Multimillion-peso scandals bedevil the armed forces even as the insurgency still casts its shadow, wasting lives and turning the populations of entire villages into refugees. There is a move to bury a former dictator in the graves meant for our greatest heroes. Prices of basic goods kept going up and the daily wage can’t keep up.

These are the kind of things that we had hoped would be done away with when we came out in amazing numbers to vote Benigno Aquino III as president. We believed that he represented a new brand of leadership and a new kind of governance. We dreamed of a better Philippines.

Now, that hope might be dimming. Filipinos might be brooding over the present and the future. In the Social Weather Stations’ most recent survey, conducted from March 4 to 7, 36 percent said their lives had actually gotten worse during the last 12 months while only 23 percent said it had improved; this was a clear drop from the numbers tallied last November. Respondents said they particularly lost confidence in the economy, as the “net optimism” rating of plus 4 is also an obvious drop from the plus-30 recorded in the November survey.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect was how current events here and abroad may have caused so much uncertainty and are eroding Filipinos’ personal optimism. SWS found that 11 percent, up from 7 percent in November, of respondents don’t expect their lives to get better in the next 12 months, while the percentage of those who see things improving is down to 35 from 45 in November. Proof that across the board, from Luzon to Mindanao, hope is indeed slipping among Filipinos of all creed and circumstance.

The Holy Week just past, during which the Christian world recalled the Passion of Christ, gave us a perfect opportunity for introspection about pain and suffering; some used the occasion to raise social awareness of, and call for a more concrete response to what Fr. Jerry Orbos in his column today described as “the reality … that a lot of people are suffering around us.”

After the solemn week of prayer and penitence comes this day, Easter Sunday, a most joyous time celebrating Jesus’ triumph over sin and death. Easter reminds us that however grim the past may be, the blessing that is a new beginning is within reach of each one of us. Easter carries with it a message of hope telling us that, by God’s grace, man has the power to change things for the better, to rise even from the worst of circumstances.

But we cannot remain passive. As the entire country returns to the business of everyday survival, we can continue believing that the administration we voted into office has what it takes to transform Filipino society into something much better. We have to exercise the courage to stand up for our aspirations. We know that we have always possessed the resilience to do the right thing, having survived various occupations in the past, even finding the common ground to oust not one but two corrupt presidents. Surely we can find it in ourselves to do our part in the big picture.

Let this then be the Easter of our own lives as Filipinos. From every hovel and house, from every street and skyscraper, we pray to whatever divinity we believe in. We continue to hope. We must keep on dreaming of something better. But we must do our part.