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Saturday, September 29, 2012

Manny Pangilinan’s royal pique, Elias and Ibarra

By MARLEN V. RONQUILLO

Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere’s recurring narrative is sense of country. Crisostomo Ibarra, the main character, is someone who loved his country because his country gave him so much—the best in life and Maria Clara.


The Indios of his time and place would be happy with just one, the beauteous Maria Clara. But Ibarra had it all until the fall from grace, the tragic result of his essential and basic decency. He was not even the born hero, predisposed to fight the injustices and inequalities of his time. 



The real hero was Elias, the boatman. He was a dissident on a mission, who loved his country and loved it more as he suffered from his efforts to see the light break through the darkness and hopelessness of his country inflicted by the frailes and the guardia civil at the micro level and the Empire at the macro.



The more Elias got trapped into the vortex of the insurrection, and as his personal perils escalated, his love of country grew deeper and sweeter. Until his last breath, he was still pining for that “dawn of freedom” to break through .



On the 40th anniversary of the declaration of martial law on September 21, the true-to-life stories of latter-day-Eliases, had been inspirational. Many had fallen prey in the darkness of the martial law years and their next of kin had to remind others of their great sacrifices. Others had survived to tell their stories. While scores of young men and women in that generation minded their own business or got their head start in life with the cronyism of martial rule, the modern-day Eliases took the path of dissent and dearly suffered for that choice.



It was in this context of the recollection of the sacrifices and the young lives snuffed out in their prime during the martial law years, that Mr. Manny Pangilinan, the helmsman of a vast business empire, stood out like a drunk in a churchyard with his declaration of pique. That he was thinking of packing his bags and leaving the country for Hong Kong and bringing all his investments with him. The source of his pique: Senator Trillanes’s declaration that Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario was making his decisions on the territorial tension with China partly to help his close friend—Pangilinan.



Just that and Mr. Pangilinan got royally piqued?



Let us go back to the source of the royal pique. His name was mentioned in passing. He was not part of the dramatis personae. If at all, the mention of his name was part of a brief aside.



And yes, he is threatening to leave the country because of that.



What if some senator were brave enough to haul him into a Senate inquiry? Senators, of course, do not do that to a immensely wealthy man, who happens to own a media empire. Mr. Pangilinan should be relieved that the Philippine Senate does not have uncompromising characters such as Bernie Sanders or Russ Feingold .



But what stood out was this, the servility of the Philippine Senate aside. On the day, the country was commemorating those who have fallen during the dark and perilous days of martial rule, an immensely wealthy man reminded us that some had little if not zero sense of country at all. I will pack my bags and leave because I am mightily piqued.



Wow.



And we seem to be trembling over the proposition that this immensely wealthy man would indeed leave the country that is predisposed to give in to his every bidding. Decamp for Hong Kong to leave the miserable country where he has been some sort of Tycoon-King.



Wow.



With the exception of Mr. Pangilinan and the top 10 percent, Filipinos do not have the option of leaving after facing a molehill of an irritant. We know who pack their bags to leave the country in a daily mass exodus—OFWs packing their bags for the various work diasporas to remit dollars back into the home country .



For those who are not OFW, we are here in the country for good— to live the inadequate or miserable lives we have. And taking the blows of life—some benign, some brutal—with some kind of stoicism and patience. Of course, above the ordinary lives are a special kind of people with extra-ordinary stories of greatness and love of country.



A heroic few, do transcend the humdrum of their lives to fight despots and tyrants, corrupt leaders and kleptocrats. The martial law years proved that and the Bantayog ng mga Bayani lists the more prominent ones. Some can live a life that is close to the perfect human being like the late Jesse Robredo.



Some can soar like Elias, who, when confronted by darkness, will lay their lives to etch slivers of light into the dark dead night and torment the power-corrupted rulers.



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