Code of the Mountain

NOW THAT the elections are over and done with, methinks it’s time also to cry “Enough already!” to recrimination, mudslinging, character assassination, and similar antics that will not move our country forward one bit or add any measure to our dignity as a people.

What we should focus our attention on at this time, I think, is how we can all help our new leaders achieve the noble objectives they vowed during the election campaign to accomplish for the country. No more throwing tantrums for coming in second in the electoral race. No more delaying tactics for ego’s sake to deter election winners from starting on their new jobs. The best way to begin this healing process is to bring to mind and reestablish in our daily lives the core values handed down to us by our forebears, which have sustained us through many difficulties as a nation.

I was born and raised in the Cordilleras. “In them thar hills” was where I inherited a set of values and precepts from our elders which, indicative of their origin, the family collectively calls “Code of the Mountain.”

The precepts in the Code are a study in simplicity, and reflective of the austerity and innocence of the mountain people that developed them.

Yet they ring so true, their relevance so eternal. Today as I watch from the sidelines the shenanigans and tomfoolery happening all around, the idiocy, the fall from grace of personalities who were once icons of competence and rectitude, I can’t help thinking that perhaps the better option to get us back on track, restore decency and give direction and purpose to national effort, is to live by the precepts in our good, old Code of the Mountain.

Just what are these precepts that I think will be useful to us today, at the onset of the new administration that vows to bring sweeping change in our society? Let me cite some:

• Dip not your hands in the grain supplies communally owned by the tribe. Neither utter untruth nor act with deceit to acquire more and bigger dwellings and to store more grains in your barn.

Now, doesn’t this admonition from the Code instantly bring to mind the case of the general who is now under court-martial for lying about his assets and liabilities, and who is also accused of stealing millions of pesos from the public funds to buy swanky houses and plush condo units and fatten his bank accounts?

• Walk not with your right foot going forward and your left foot going south. Doing so, you’ll be like a tree permanently rooted in the ground, unable to move to another location where the soil is fertile and water is abundant.

This is all about unity, which we sorely lack. We are ever busy feuding that we simply have little time left to work out a strategy on how we can gainfully move on. President after president has called for a united effort to better address the gargantuan and urgent problems plaguing the nation—poverty, joblessness, hunger, peace and order, fiscal crisis, name it, we have it. Sadly, to those calls, more divisive diatribes and nonchalant shrugs are the response.

The incoming President looks earnest and determined in his resolve to lick the country’s chronic problems. Let’s hope he gets all the help he needs, which can come only from a people united in interest and purpose.

• In a battle or in a hunt, there’s only one spear you should trust—your own. Do not be sparing or shy to use it to save your neck, or to bring food to the family table.

Self-reliance is the first life rule of the mountain tribes. They live at great distances from one another, and so thatching a leaking roof yourself is a better option than walking some kilometers or fording a river or climbing a hill to get a neighbor to help out.

This is not to say seeking help is a no-no out there in the hills. What is verboten is to be lazy, to leave to the generosity and kindness of others the performance of certain tasks and responsibilities which you can do yourself.

Think of how much we’ll improve our standing on the planet if we work really hard to create the wealth we need instead of going out to the world all the time, begging bowl in hand.

• Eat not to the last granule the grains you store in your barn. Save some for when the rains do not come, or the springs run dry, and no crop can be grown in the field.

The precept hits squarely the there’s-no-tomorrow spending culture of our people. This character flaw is what basically accounts for our debt problem. We spend all that we earn; worse, we spend MORE than what we earn. To cover the deficit, we borrow and continue to borrow because we continue to burn more money than we generate.

• Move! Grass won’t grow if you continually stand on it. Keep flinging your spear until something drops.

This has something to do with work, to which we seem to have an aversion. Think of how much progress we’ll make if in all areas of national concern we’ll only be half as industrious as the Japanese or the Koreans. The Japanese and the Koreans think nothing of spending long hours in the workplace for no higher reason or nobler purpose than to break a productivity record. Here, work in the factory visibly slows down 30 minutes before quitting time, with workers stretching and relaxing and engaging in small talk. What about the unfinished job? “Bukas na yan.” There’s still tomorrow.

It’s worse in government offices: One hour before quitting time, most employees have left their work places. They are in a huddle in some corner, exchanging jokes, gossip, and racing tips. The few who are still at their tables have put away their work materials and are doing something else—clipping their fingernails, doing a crossword puzzle, whatever.

And holidays! How many holidays do we have? We are a poor country and should be working doubly hard to pull ourselves from the quagmire of poverty.

But we aren’t. Instead, we are enjoying a plethora of holidays spent in unproductive activities, such as malling, gambling, drinking, and just plain horsing around.

Too many holidays, that’s what we have. Why not cut them down to five—New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Independence Day, All Saints Day and Christmas Day.

You may have found the precepts from the Code of the Mountain I have cited rather quaint. Wait until I tell you about what the Code prescribes to be done to violators of the precepts.

Gualberto B. Lumauig ([email protected]) is past president of the UST Philosophy and Letters Foundation and former governor/congressman of Ifugao.