Something to believe in

Is there an institution left in this country that commands unqualified public trust?

People view with suspicion all three branches of government. Even the Supreme Court, supposedly the tribunal of last resort, has not escaped controversy. Cops used to command respect, until a national police force was created and integrated with the Philippine Constabulary, which used to be part of the military. It’s been downhill since then for the police. Now the Roman Catholic Church is reeling from sex scandals across the globe. And of course everyone blames us, the press, for the nation’s mess.

What happens to a nation that has no respect for its institutions, for persons in authority? People don’t trust cops, soldiers, public officials, prosecutors, judges, justices, and now priests and bishops. How can there be rule of law when laws both temporal and spiritual are being broken by those entrusted to protect and enforce them?

It’s a prescription for anarchy. Unless we pull ourselves together, and unless people can find something or someone to believe in, acute malaise will set in and this nation will be lost.

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Once upon a time, in the not too distant past, Filipinos trusted soldiers and, believe it or not, even cops. I am writing this based on recorded history and the recollections of older generations. Being a so-called martial law baby, I grew up seeing soldiers as objects of fear and even hatred.

I did get a glimpse of the soldiers of old, in the person of Rafael Ileto. To this day the Army Scout Ranger Regiment, which he founded, has retained its reputation as the elite unit of the Armed Forces. His opposition to the declaration of martial law is well known.

Apart from inculcating in his soldiers courage, honor and love of country, Rocky Ileto dispensed practical advice. They had to start small businesses to augment the soldier’s meager income, he told his aides, so they would not have to resort to corruption. With help from his first wife Olga and children, Ileto bought four pigs. By 1993, when he was Corazon Aquino’s defense chief, he had 8,000 hogs, with his own feed-making and pork processing facilities.

Rocky was someone you could believe in, but the soldier and gentleman hog-raiser is gone. Eight years ago I wrote about his wedding to his second wife Yrna. He was 74, she 41, and her daughter was flower girl. On Friday night I went to his wake at Camp Aguinaldo. Yrna was red-eyed but put on a bubbly front. Her daughter is now 21 and a London-trained designer for Fila. If she were to rate Rocky as a stepfather and husband, Yrna volunteered, she would give him 101 percent.

Yesterday, amid a shower of petals and the mournful sound of Taps, Rocky was laid to rest at the heroes’ cemetery. He was buried with his dignity and honor intact. How many of our present crop of soldiers will deserve that epitaph at their burial?

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For that matter, how many of our public servants will deserve that epitaph? Even the current campaign against drug trafficking, which should be eliciting widespread public support, is viewed with mistrust and is getting bogged down by politics even before it can take off.

Yesterday the texters were again hard at work, disparaging Sen. Robert Barbers, the newly appointed "anti-drug czar (why are we fixated on Russian royalty?)" and reminding the nation about the alleged Philippine links of suspected Hong Kong drug baron Lawrence Wang.

You can’t trust cops, soldiers, senators. Congressmen? You must be joking. And who can trust a President who reserves the right to change her mind about her political plans? As for the Chief Justice, the best that his detractors can say about him is that he consults the Bible.

Now even bishops are losing their moral authority over their flock.

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We should count our blessings. In Thailand, Buddhist monks, once revered by the predominantly Buddhist population, have been implicated not just in sex scandals but also in drug dealing and other crimes. After taking vows of poverty, some monks have been found to be running commercial enterprises.

Here we don’t have a problem with the Roman Catholic Church engaging in business and turning a profit; this has been going on for centuries, tax-free. But we do get disturbed when princes of the Church people who are supposed to have the moral ascendancy to pass judgment on which movies are fit for public viewing, people who think they have the right to tell women what to do with their own bodies are implicated in sex scandals.

Judging from reactions to the scandal that led to the fall of Bishop Teodoro Bacani, some of the faithful seem to be raring to just forget that the scandal ever happened. The worst response to this scandal, however, is to sweep it under the rug. Developing amnesia about a traumatic event a la Private Jessica Lynch isn’t going to work if the Church wants to strengthen a badly shaken faith.

The Church has to confront the sins of its shepherds, just as we have to confront the ills afflicting our society. It’s the only way we can implement meaningful reforms and restore public trust in our tattered institutions.

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NOW WHAT? Now that Myanmar’s military junta has ignored an uncharacteristic appeal from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus a warning from Washington to free Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, what’s the next step? Constructive engagement worked with China; it doesn’t seem to be making headway in Myanmar.

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WAITING FOR A VISA: That was one monstrous traffic jam created by the security drill last Friday at the US embassy. When the drill was over and all the kibitzers had gone home, no one remembered to untangle the traffic. I was stuck in an intersection within spitting distance of the embassy, where I could see uniformed traffic aides and cops just chatting, oblivious of the chaos in the streets. Were they on duty, or were they waiting for their US visas?