A Third World Hero

What a bummer! I have been taught in school, and it has been ingrained in me all these years, that Jose Rizal was the great Malayan. He is supposed to be the pride not just of the Filipinos but of the Malays. They even had this international conference on Rizal in Kuala Lumpur led by then Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Now Anwar is in jail and in disgrace for allegedly indulging in sodomy and corruption. And Rizal, according to the Mike de Leon film, is as devalued as the one peso coin that bears his likeness.

Bayaning Third World. Third Class. Or worse, fake. Puede na sa mga gaya nating taga third world. But not good enough to be a world-class hero. And how did all these happen? Because Rizal, like a typical Pinoy living in today's `Pinas, is all ningas cogon. We start out with all the enthusiasm we can muster but stop short of carrying on to the logical conclusion. We love the wooing, but not the wedding. The election campaign, not the governance. After everything Rizal wrote about the injustices of Spanish rule, he stopped short of revolution.

And one more thing. Rizal, like the typical Pinoy macho, has his brains in his testicles. The retraction of Rizal figured prominently in the Mike de Leon film, not that anyone cares if Rizal retracted or not, but that Rizal even considered it so he can marry Josephine Bracken. As one friar remarked, babae lang pala... all these years they racked their brains on how to get to Rizal and in the end, babae lang pala.

Mike de Leon and company probably didn't have much better to do and in their boredom, indulged in this cinematic version of mental masturbation. In so doing, they have come out with an indictment, not just of a reluctant national hero who they say isn't quite that, but of a people -- you and me -- who seem quite unable to go beyond third world standards. Pero, puede na.

Being shot at dawn at the Luneta isn't quite enough to be a world-class hero, according to De Leon and company. Never mind that it launched a revolution that dislodged the Spaniards. It was not enough to inspire a nation towards nationhood. So, is there an authentic world-class Pinoy hero?

For a while, it seemed that Ninoy Aquino, shot at the tarmac of the international airport may be a greater hero than Rizal. His being shot at NAIA, unlike Rizal being shot at Luneta, was a voluntary act. Put another way, Rizal didn't have the free will to decide his fate; Ninoy knew he could be shot but he decided to come anyway. Ninoy inspired not just the overthrow of a corrupt dictatorship, but inspired freedom movements that changed the course of history worldwide.

But the impact of Ninoy's heroism on the Filipino was momentary. Ninoy is as third world as Rizal, using the logic of De Leon's film. His act of heroism has been devalued in the heat of Pinoy politics. We have focused on Ninoy's feet of clay, his humanity, and in typical Pinoy crab mentality, minimized his final act of heroic sacrifice. Losing one's life to galvanize the Filipino people against unjust rulers, something Rizal and Ninoy suffered, isn't enough to make them world-class heroes. It seems this ungrateful nation is not worth dying for. Is the problem inherent with Rizal and Ninoy? Or is it with us?

What does it take to be a world-class hero? Che Guevara perhaps? Mao Tse Tung? Or, Fidel Castro? If self-sacrifice and a long difficult struggle are the criteria, the left will produce a pantheon of heroes. But once they assumed political power, Mao and Fidel seem to have lost the hero's aura. There is something about dirtying your hands with the day-to-day business of government that diminishes past heroic sacrifices. Che Guevara was right in declining political power and instead, exported himself and his revolution wherever he thought people needed liberation.

Or maybe, a world-class hero is one who lives his ideals for a just world, gets shot for it but continues to live after his death in the hearts of his people. Maybe, someone like Martin Luther King Jr. or Mahatma Gandhi.

Mike de Leon and company, in hauling down Rizal from his pedestal, failed to offer us their idea of what a national hero should be. Luis Taruc? Lorenzo Tanada? Edgar Jopson? Or maybe having a national hero is as ridiculous as having a national flower, a national animal, a national house, etc. So much for our feeble efforts at national identity.

Mike de Leon and company are probably saying that this third world country deserves third world, third class hero like Rizal. After all, this is the country that elected Erap president and would vote Fernando Poe Jr. to replace Rizal if a plebiscite is held now.

Maybe, having Rizal up there speaks volumes about us. And if that is the point of Mike de Leon's film, there lies the root of our problems as a people, and our tragedy. That is also probably why this country, least affected by the Asian economic crisis, is now showing the most disappointing rebound on the road to economic growth.

It is an interesting, smart alecky film that should be shown in all barbershops nationwide. But I can't understand all the praises and citations the local film literati is giving it. My guess is, it is just the eccentric reputation of Mike de Leon carrying the ball, much further than it would otherwise go. Mike's a hero too, in local tinseltown, and God knows they need heroes badly in that part of town. Right now they are making do with Armida.

Another evidence that Ninoy's heroism had been severely devalued is the condition of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. In a word, NAIA is a shame, a national shame. According to Washington SyCip, this is a major reason why we are unable to attract foreign companies to use Manila as their regional headquarters. Indeed, those who are here are leaving.

"We are the only East Asian country without a decent international airport and an express highway from the airport to Metro Manila," Mr. SyCip complained during his talk before a meeting of foreign correspondents, which was also attended by President Estrada. He lamented that "we want regional headquarters located here but we cannot even tell how long it will take from the business districts to the airport!"

That airport project is something we have talked about for so long now, panahon pa ni Cory. Will the government under Erap continue to be indecisive about this? I know the President ceremonially broke ground the other day. They have done that too a couple of times under Ramos. In the meantime, can they make the current one more friendly by getting rid of the unsavory characters preying on arrivals? Is that so difficult to do?

Here are some millennium survival tips from Noah.

1. Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.

2. Stay fit. When you're 600 years old, someone might ask you to do something REALLY big.

3. Don't listen to critics-do what has to be done.

4. Build on high ground.

5. Travel in pairs.

6. Take care of your animals as if they were the last ones on earth.

7. Remember that the woodpeckers INSIDE are often a bigger threat than the storm outside.

8. Don't forget that we're all in the same boat.

9. Stay below deck during the storm.

10. Remember that the ark was built by amateurs and the Titanic was built by professionals.

11. Don't miss the boat.

12. No matter how bleak it looks, there's always a rainbow on the other side.

(Boo Chanco's e-mail address is [email protected])