Princelings

That poor security guard of BF Homes Parañaque who was beaten up by a congressman’s son shows much of what is wrong in our sad republic.

It was painful to watch Jomar Pajares admitting in tears on national TV that he had become scared of doing his job, that he feared retaliation and worried about his child and his family.

Pajares became scared after his encounter with political power in this country: for doing his job, he was beaten up by a congressman’s son.

As Pajares narrated (and backed by surveillance video), he had stopped a motorist (later identified by the homeowners’ association as Kurt Mathew Teves) from entering BF Homes Parañaque subdivision through the Concha Cruz gate in Las Piñas because the car didn’t have a resident’s sticker.

Teves told the guard he is the son of a congressman and they have a house in the subdivision (true, according to the homeowners). Still, the car didn’t have the requisite sticker and Pajares insisted that the driver leave his ID at the guardhouse. A heated argument ensued, with Teves at one point challenging the guard to a fistfight or shootout.

Angry words did not work with Pajares, and Teves was forced to turn back. But he returned shortly on another vehicle. Video footage showed him confronting Pajares and then punching the hapless guard. When Pajares fell on his knees, Teves kicked him.

You wonder if we will ever see the day when Filipinos of humble background will understand that they are bankrolling the entitlements of princelings like Teves, through the tax-funded fat perks and emoluments of his father, Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr., one of several House deputy speakers. The congressman’s reaction was just as appalling as his son’s behavior.

Think of how this son of a lawmaker would behave if he inherits the Congress seat of his father – a typical development in this country.

Even if the young Teves is indicted for physical injuries and grave threats, he can post bail, and the family will likely try to settle the case. It could cost his daddy dearest, but if it would preserve their political fortunes, they would probably consider it a worthy price to pay.

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The guard’s experience comes to mind as I ponder how much our country has been left behind by many of our neighbors in the decades after World War II.

Japan, devastated by two atomic bombings and humiliated by wartime defeat, rose spectacularly from the ashes, and is currently the world’s third largest economy.

China, which my maternal forebears fled during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, has overtaken Japan to become the second largest economy after the US.

The first time I visited China, crisscrossing from Beijing to Xiamen in the southern province of Fujian as a tourist, Shanghai’s Pudong district and airport were still under construction. I could not find a place that served coffee. The only place I could buy a bar of chocolate was in the bigger hotels. Bicycles dominated the streets of Beijing, which was dotted by buildings in the drab industrial architecture of the Mao era. Except in the big hotels, nearly all the public toilets were filthy.

Look where China is now. OK, it’s an authoritarian state. How about democratic South Korea, whose capital Seoul saw its streets soaked in blood at the height of the war with the North? The armistice was forged only in 1953 and the two Koreas remain technically at war, but look how far South Korea has come.

During my visits to that country, I have been struck by the diligence of the Koreans, the palpable drive to achieve. I get the same impression when I visit Vietnam, which looks set to overtake us in several economic indicators.

When I entered this world many moons ago, our country was second only to Japan in terms of development indicators in this region. Our neighbors came to our country to study a wide range of subjects, to obtain English proficiency, to learn high-yield rice production, and also to have fun.

Today our students languish in international tests including in reading comprehension, a critical aspect of learning. We are a heavy importer of rice.

Singapore, once a pirates’ haven, sprinted past the rest of Southeast Asia. Malaysia followed. After the 1997 Asian financial crisis, badly hit Thailand emerged and left us behind. We’re now neck-and-neck with Indonesia.

We could only look with envy as our neighbors rapidly attained Asian tiger status. The achievers in our region have one thing in common: they have a strong sense of national identity, of a patriotic duty to serve something higher than oneself and one’s family.

Surely leadership also played a role. This is why it is so important to pick the right person in May who can get us out of the worst crisis we have suffered since World War II. Instead we seem poised to jump from the frying pan into the fires of hell.

A comparison of GDP per capita as of 2020 (based on data from the World Bank, in US dollars) is instructive: Brunei, 27,443; Cambodia, 1,543.7; China, 10,434.8; Hong Kong, 46,323.9; Indonesia, 3,869.6; Japan, 40,193.3; South Korea, 31,631.5; Laos, 2,629.7; Malaysia, 10,412.3; Myanmar, 1,467.6; Singapore, 59,797.8; Thailand, 7,186.9; Vietnam, 2,785.7, and the Philippines, 3,298.8.

Worse, the Philippines has one of the highest income disparities in the world. And those at the top have no compunctions about rubbing it in. This we saw in the case of Teves giving Pajares a drubbing because the guard refused to give special treatment to the son of a congressman.

Considering what looms on the horizon, we’re in for more of the same.

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LEADERSHIP: There’s no excuse for Teves’ behavior, but that sticker business in BF Homes also needs to be rationalized. A non-resident sticker costs nearly P3,000 for one year for the use of only three long streets. Two of the long streets are highly commercialized and the third is part of the Las Piñas traffic reduction “friendship route” where vehicle stickers are given by the city government to residents for free.

Parañaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez should exercise leadership and talk to the BF homeowners’ group to open those three streets for free to private vehicles, as part of Parañaque’s own version of a friendship route. The homeowners can still make millions from residents’ stickers throughout the numerous gated sections of the sprawling village.

Any commercialized thoroughfare should be part of the public domain. Several local governments in Metro Manila, notably Makati, have taken private subdivisions to court over similar cases to ease traffic, and won.