Exodus

If we don’t watch out, those clashes between anti-government protesters and anti-riot cops will be a microcosm of the Philippines: both sides bloodied and going nowhere.

From totalitarian rule during the Marcos regime, we will swing to the opposite end. We will turn into a state with a twisted concept of freedom, where anything goes, where there is a complete breakdown of discipline in everything from governance and fiscal management to vehicular traffic.

The Philippines will become a failed state, and all of us will be to blame.

Experts point out that the nation is rapidly losing its middle class as despairing Filipinos leave their own country for saner places overseas. The experts say that this time, it’s not just maids who are leaving but professionals. We are losing our best minds to the world.

Other countries are working to attract investors and create jobs. We are driving away investors and sending our workers overseas because we cannot give them decent employment in their own land.

It is a measure of the deep dysfunction in our society that the exodus of the middle class is seen as a major revenue-generating activity rather than a national tragedy.

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Recent developments can persuade anyone to leave. People are so disgusted with politicians, both pro- and anti-administration, that I doubt if ordinary Filipinos really care who occupies Malacañang, as long as any regime change is done with minimal disruption to everyday life.

The daily toil in this country is dreary enough without endless rallies staged mostly by unthinking punks, without constant nagging by political has-beens for yet another show of people power. There are no earth-shaking revelations in those rallies, except perhaps for Sen. Jamby Madrigal, who now has the honor of being the new "Brenda," queen of the brain damaged.

There has to be a better, more productive way of keeping people busy and gainfully employed, ideally at no cost to taxpayers.

For once we welcome religious meddling in politics. It will be interesting to see how politicians react to the appeal issued jointly last week by Eraño Manalo of the Iglesia ni Cristo and Mike Velarde of El Shaddai. Stop bickering, they told politicians, and focus on the economy. No, "stupid" was not included in the joint statement.

Stop bickering? How is that possible for Philippine politicians? But they will have to do their best to comply — those planning to seek re-election, anyway — because they know those two groups are going to keep track of those who ignore the appeal, and remind their followers come election time. Heeding the joint appeal has nothing to do with religious beliefs or love of country but self-preservation.

Malacañang, which naturally will benefit from a political ceasefire, announced yesterday that the administration will henceforth turn the other cheek in the face of criticism.

Deposed President Joseph Estrada found in the appeal an opportunity to take a dig at his successor, but chickened out and fell short of directly naming her in his official statement. Those in positions of power are the ones who must make personal sacrifices for the nation, he said, the way he left Malacañang "on official leave" in January 2001. As usual, there was no mention of what comes next if ever national leaders do make those "personal sacrifices." Does Erap want to return to Malacañang? It’s certainly better than his rest house in Tanay.

Why didn’t he name President Arroyo in his official statement? That, Erap said, would be "un-statesmanlike."

We can see more politicians issuing similar statements that insult the intelligence in the coming days. Soon enough everyone will forget exactly what the INC and El Shaddai were asking for.

How the two groups’ leaders will react is anyone’s guess. There was a note of desperation in that unprecedented joint statement. If the economy does not improve and dirty politics continues to consume the nation, the two groups could see more of their followers joining the exodus of workers. There is no problem if the members remain with the group even when they have moved overseas, as many INC members do. But what if they leave the group for good? That joint statement is also about self-preservation.

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I have relatives and friends in the Philippine diaspora. I know people my age who are saving up to send their children to college overseas, not just because the quality of Philippine education has deteriorated so much, but also in hopes that the kids will find a new life outside their own country. One day the parents themselves might leave for good.

Just thinking of what’s in store for your children 20 years from now is enough encouragement for joining the exodus.

Our legislature will be full of people bearing the surnames of retired lawmakers as political dynasties are preserved, and they will still be stabbing each other in the back and conducting endless investigations in aid of publicity.

The occupant of Malacañang will still be embroiled in a corruption scandal because none of his or her predecessors has been punished for graft.

Election results will continue to be tainted with cheating, lying and stealing, and we will still be counting votes manually.

Justice can still be bought, bribes will still grease the bureaucracy, and we will still be debating whether or not to construct a new railway system and open the NAIA Terminal 3.

The number of Filipinos overseas would have ballooned from eight million to 40 million, but the actual number left behind would approach 100 million because politicians do not have the guts to confront the Catholic Church on birth control.

Except for the handful of families that will maintain their stranglehold on power and wealth, Filipinos will be poorer, hungrier and deeper in despair.

And marchers and anti-riot cops will still be smashing each other’s heads around Mendiola.

A foreigner once told me that perhaps what we need is a civil war where death and destruction will finally shock us into seeing the folly of our ways.

For many Filipinos, however, there isn’t enough energy left even for that. They either die a slow death, or else pack up and leave.