By Joshua Corcuera
We often encounter inspiring stories of our fellow Filipinos who recovered and stood up from their suffering inflicted by the wrath of misfortunes — terrible storms, the chaos of war, and enormous earthquakes to name a few. These stories of pagbangon have long been shared in Philippine society.
For instance, when Super Typhoon Yolanda — the strongest and deadliest storm at the time — hit Tacloban in 2013, thousands of people lost their lives to nature’s wrath. While millions were displaced as their homes were destroyed and their livelihoods were severely affected. Yet some people who are in power merely recognized the resilience of those who survived, instead of acting swiftly for recovery in both the short-term and the long-term.
Furthermore, just recently — in the first week of September this year to be precise — a student from a university in Manila, who is also working as a delivery rider, was praised in social media for taking a break from his job to attend online classes. It is inspiring and admirable to hear such perseverance and willingness to learn, despite the difficult circumstances he finds himself in.
This inspiring story, however, should not be a cause for us to forget those who cause suffering — directly or indirectly — to the Filipino people at the same time. One may ask if why some government officials always share such inspiring stories. There seem to be two probable reasons: first, they want to share such a story to genuinely inspire others as well, or second, they want to share such a story to conceal their incompetence and negligence.
Take Super Typhoon Yolanda for instance, some inspiring stories of hope were shared. And though this is admirable, it may divert attention from the government’s shortcomings in preparation and recovery efforts. And this is not merely exclusive to that catastrophic event in 2013.
In the current situation we are experiencing — the coronavirus pandemic — most people were forced to stay home in an attempt to protect themselves from the highly contagious illness. A government official said he is delighted that not all Filipinos lost their jobs in the pandemic, in response to an SWS survey last July showing 45.5% of Filipinos — equivalent to 27.3 million people — lost their jobs in the pandemic. He seems to imply that we can surmount the crisis for we are a resilient people.
Such a remark, however, seems insulting especially that thousands succumbed to the illness and millions were unemployed, not only because of the coronavirus but also of the lack of urgency and the slow response of those in power. And instead of romanticizing our resiliency, the government must intensify its efforts in effectively flattening the curve and beating the coronavirus.
We tend to overromanticize individual stories of suffering and recovery to the extent that we forget holding into account those who are unresponsive to the plight of such individuals. As a result, the resiliency of the Filipino has been abused. It is important for all of us to call out those in power and force them to do their jobs, and not merely sharing how the people — whom they should serve — are standing up to their suffering. Merely telling such inspiring stories imply that the people are on their own and cannot expect anything from the government.
It’s just about time for us to stop overromanticizing the struggle of the marginalized and those who are struggling. Sure, sharing their stories of hope could be done and would be inspiring. But, this should not blind us from the negligence of those in power as well as the perpetrators of their plight.
