As I travel the islands of the Philippines and talk to many people about the culture and history, I realize that the revolution of EDSA, the first of the nonviolent people’s movements, has been aborted due to motherhood and family values.
Twenty five years after the people ousted a dictator, Marcos, in a peaceful people’s uprising, there are more poor people in the Philippines than ever. This is due to motherhood, family values and dependency, in my now educated opinion. They combine in a toxic way for the Philippines.
Motherhood tops the list as public enemy No. 1. I don’t blame the mothers but the attitudes of the culture regarding motherhood. Farmers and social services professionals have done a fine job. They produce more food and minister services to more people than ever, but they can’t keep pace with the population growth. In this country, there should be real family planning and an attitude of intolerance toward pregnancy. The fathers who abandon their children should face real consequences, imprisonment and forced labor, and the mothers who continue to have babies should also face consequences.
Public enemy No. 2 is the focus on the family. It is the basis for the corruption in the government we have seen. The generals and politicians who have recently been identified in the press all did it for their families. One even killed himself for the family when he was caught. It worked! Now his family, who stole more of the taxpayers’ money than he did, will not be prosecuted because of the sympathy for his suicide.
This corruption, dependency and lying is endemic to the rich and powerful, like the generals in the news recently, and to many of the average families as well. All over the Philippines, especially in such places as Cebu City and Angeles, Philippine families trade the future of their lovely daughters for the flat-screen TV and laptop. This is the ongoing culture of dependency.
The girls are expected to extract money from their foreign companions in exchange for their young and beautiful bodies. They routinely mislead the older foreign men into thinking they are paying for a better education for their beloved beauties, but the money is usually spent on entertainment systems, laptops and at the mall and restaurants for rich foods that are a luxury for them. When the parents and family get fat from the food, more money is extracted from the men for hospital bills and medication.
As an example, I visited one family in northern Bohol where the lovely daughters were companions to older men from the United States. The mother and grandmother of the lovely sisters were obese and eating junk food. The home in the humble village had an expensive entertainment system and new motorcycle. When I noticed that the kids in the schoolyard nearby didn’t have a basketball net, I took one to them. They were shocked because they said the house that I came from never gave anyone anything, only were selfish and liked to show what they had.
So in summation, the Philippines will finally experience the benefits of its revolution when it throws off the shackles of motherhood and family values and gets serious about the national good and self-sufficiency.
Lane Anderson
Santa Barbara