Eye Opener
By Rodolfo Gumabong

Delicadeza

Gone were the days when delicadeza was an honored cultural Filipino value. When one's name was mentioned even in an informal conversation like gossip, a government official would immediately resign and vanish into thin air.

During the days of Manuel A. Roxas, Manuel L. Quezon, Sergio Osmena Sr., and Claro M. Recto, no government official or even private individual would stay in his or her job one more minute once their names were maligned in the grapevine, much more in radio and newspaper. Many politicians today are still babes in our traditional culture. We are unconscious of how Filipino culture affects our Christian faith. We still cling to power despite the mud thrown at us; the ugly word spoken by many in rallies and the dirty language hurled at us despite the malfeasance we have committed in lapses of judgement and the sorry state of governance. Yes, we cling to power no matter what, unmindful that history will judge our perverted actuation and leave a bad legacy to our generation to come. What if you have been president? Will the historians write something good about your tarnished image?

Honorable are the men and women who occupied high positions in government but are quick to leave their post once they smell something fishy and cannot stomach the wrongdoing that their leader has reportedly committed. To those who are holding on to power and position, money is the focal point in their social relationships, thus it becomes their god. “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:26. Man is selfish in nature. Once he is given the absolute power, especially as head of the nation, he starts stealing the people's money and committing other anomalies just to store wealth for his future while the people suffer. Our corrupt leaders today cling to power and become shameless and arrogant since too much power makes them seemingly blind of what is actually happening to our beloved country-economically, politically and socially.

Let us not lose hope however that our nation will go down the drain. There is a Supreme Being in the universe and fervent prayers of thousands of honest Christians will eventually be answered by God, as He said: “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.”