INSPIRED CHIKKA

Time and again, I am struck by how incredibly blessed I am to be surrounded by the people around me who make me better.

Tonight after sharing a post on Facebook about human rights, I was messaged by my tito and he asked me what the post meant by “double standards in the Philippine justice system”. I explained to him my opinions on the matter, and he said he disagrees with me. We had a whole conversation about the topic and that’s a discussion for another notes app entry entirely, this one’s to type out my realizations during that brief interaction that ended with the screenshot I included in the tweet.

Basically, since the time I got the notification of his message to all his subsequent replies, I couldn’t help but feel that I was being reprimanded for something. I wasn’t. But that’s how I felt and I’m guessing I’m not alone in this feeling. It’s becoming second nature to be on the defensive and looking for every opportunity for offense when talking about politics nowadays. It took a conscious effort on my part to remind myself what the conversation was about - he wasn’t attacking me for my opinions, he was trying to tell me his. He was trying to let me understand his views the same way I was trying to make him see mine.

I’m a big fan of taking the time to reflect - on my thoughts, my actions, especially my words (sometimes maybe too much time hehe) but by stepping back and looking at myself from a different perspective, it’s there that I realize I may be taking things the wrong way, or I may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting something. This, in my opinion, clouds most of our conversations these days. We comment and we speak and we reply and we react but we rarely reflect.

I’m writing this because while I may be vocal towards my criticism on politicians and this administration (which I do strongly stand by), I’m aware that concerns by family members and other adults towards indoctrination and extremism aren’t baseless. I acknowledge their worries and their constant reminders keep me in check.

So I’d like to pass on this little realization to my fellow young ones (yay talking to u fellow gen z), our passion is the strongest weapon we have; but with it must come education, character, experience, skill, caution and wisdom. We can’t only have passion. We have to better ourselves if we want to take a shot at creating a better society. The institutions that compose our country today are made through the decisions and actions of previous generations, if we want to improve them, we have to grow.

We grow by having conversations, especially the difficult ones. Weeks ago, I cried in front of my family because I was so undeniably frustrated that we disagreed about Pduts. That conversation was difficult but it’s a start. I realize not everyone may be in the same situation where they can talk to their families about these kinds of things, and I can only imagine how frustrated you may feel and I empathize. You can vent to me anytime or send me news articles you want me to react to like my one friend does, or talk to your other friends, or you can have a conversation with someone you don’t know. The bottomline is do something about it. If you get overwhelmed or feel helpless/hopeless, read an essay about what you’re feeling, write about it like this, talk about it on your IG stories or your fleets or whatever, do something. I’m not telling you to make noise on social media, that’s mentally draining, I’m asking you to meaningfully take part in this effort towards a better future for us.

Your opinion matters. Respect what others have to say, there is wisdom in it even if we don’t see it, but your respect requires that they respect you right back. Engage in healthy discussions with people who are willing to learn and listen. Be willing to learn and listen. But by all means if they’re toxic and disrespectful and troll-y, block and forget, ladies & gents. However, if you find someone you disagree with and you are both willing to talk about it, if you are ready to have your opinions questioned and your beliefs doubted, start the conversation.

Tonight, at the dinner table, my younger brother suddenly asked me, “Was it right, legal, what they did?” As I realized he was talking about the denial of ABSCBN’s franchise, he continued, “There was no abuse of power, right? They did what they had to do.” I was silent for a moment, contemplating how best to reply. I tend to get emotional and a tad bit defensive every time he asks me these kinds of questions. So, I answered him truthfully. I said, “I don’t know”, and I didn’t. I could not explain to him the legal basis of the Committee’s decision nor do I understand it myself.

That’s how it has been for me recently. I am constantly at a loss when it comes to having to explain the legality behind most of our government’s decisions. This has always been one of the biggest reasons why I’ve kept relatively quiet, online and in person, when it comes to talking about issues because everything I know about anything always seemed inadequate.

Behind my brother’s question, I’m sure, is a curiosity and eagerness to understand where I’m coming from when I took a stand against the franchise denial. Was it legal what they did? I replied, maybe. The underlying question, if it was all legal and they did what they were mandated to do, why are you against it? Are you against the law?

I’d wholeheartedly accept my naivete and lack of knowledge in this area compared to others. My stands have always been based on my principles and values, after careful consideration and reflection. Now I’m not claiming to be a paragon of virtue but aren’t compassion, honesty, and empathy values we all should intrinsically possess as humans? Why is it so easy for other people to shrug off the fact that thousands of Filipinos, with families to support, lost their means to livelihood today? Why do we so casually throw around the phrase the law is the law, without stopping to internalize how the law should work to favor equality and justice? If millions of ordinary Filipino people are unfairly bearing the harsh consequences of the law being enforced, what exactly are laws for? Are they to maintain order in a State or to wield as weapons by those in power against those without it?

As I told my brother, Congress may as well have been right. I wouldn’t know. But what bothers me the most and what I believe should infuriate you as well, is the question of why. More specifically, why now. I’ve never been more sick of anything in my life than of this pandemic but it central to what we are dealing with right now. COVID 19 unfortunately defines our actions and decisions, it dictates our plans and our future, it (supposedly) sets our goals and our priorities as a country.

So far, we haven’t been prioritizing it as much as we should. Five months in and cases are still rising and spreading to provinces when it should have been contained, schools and students scrambling and not knowing how to safely proceed with the new academic year because no clear policies were deliberated and laid out, commuters forced to risk their health every single day because of lack of preparedness and planning, thousands forced to unemployment, more added by choosing to shut down one of the country’s largest employers, warrantless arrests made all over the country by policemen so used to getting away with abuses of power, politicians repetitively belittling medical practitioners and seeing precautions and suggestions as politicking and personal attacks, and so much more. So. Much. More.

I regretfully admit that in the first few months of this crisis, I was in denial of how bad our government was at handling it. I took to days of researching and comparing how the Philippines was dealing with the virus to how other countries all over the world were. I made excuses and justified the mishaps and shortcomings as they’re working hard and trying their best, just wait, it will all get better. But it didn’t. So, I stopped actively reading about headlines covering how much debt the country is in, how many cases we have, how we’re testing less than we should, how many arrests have been made and why. I distracted myself and took care of my headspace. As I was doing that, I realized just how incredibly lucky I am to even have that choice. That freedom to disconnect. We might be living in the same country with all its problems, but we are dealt with different circumstances. I’m far from living in luxury, but I’m living in comfort. Which is so much more than what majority of Filipinos can say. That is why I owe it to them to better myself and those around me in the ways that I can, to hold on to my values and the belief that human rights shouldn’t be a privilege granted to a few but experienced by all.

It sucks. It absolutely sucks that we can’t just pluck out useless politicians from their high-paying positions and put the good ones in their stead. It sucks how unbelievably numb public officials are from the suffering of the people they supposedly serve, how detached they are from their mandates as public servants. It sucks how highly they think of themselves.

I could go on forever in the many ways that politicians suck, but it’s midnight and no one should go to bed furious. So, tabling that discussion for another day.

I’d like to finish this one off by calling out those who, to this day, refuse to see error on the side of the administration. Please remind yourself that you are a Filipino, not a paid cheerleader. You are the one doing the paying so, please naman, demand your worth. Loyalty to the country means loyalty to its people, not those in power.