EDITORIAL - Finger pointing

There is a particular act that is emerging to be one of the best things that the Filipino can do. The recent turn of events in the country has shown that most, if not all of us, are becoming experts in this act - finger-pointing or the act of making explicit and oftentimes unfair accusations of blame. Let us take the case of the Guinsaugon, Southern Leyte landslide for example. Different sectors started pointing an accusing finger on each other just hours after the tragedy. The residents blamed the government for not being able to protect them, the government blamed the residents for not heeding the warnings and calls for them to vacate the area. Environmentalists blamed the alleged illegal logging activities in the area and anti-Arroyo groups blamed the president for not prioritizing the geo-hazard mapping project of some government agency.

Still, another incident, the Wowowee stampede at the Philsports Arena, also shows the Filipino talent of finger-pointing. The Pasig local government, the police and the government blame the organizers of the show for the stampede. The organizers, albeit saying they will take full responsibility of what happened, also pointed to the Philsports management, the police and even the local government to be among those responsible for the tragedy. Even President Arroyo did not escape the accusing finger as groups that are against her blamed her for the tragedy because, according to them, her administration caused the number of poor people in the country to multiply, thus the popularity of game shows that provide instant money. The two incidents show that it has become very convenient for us Filipinos to point an accusing finger at someone. Almost always there has to be someone else to blame for something. There has never been an incident, whether of national, local or even personal proportions that someone took the blame for something that went wrong.

Although there are quite a number who have escaped liability by just pointing a finger at someone else, this act, which Filipinos are getting very good at, projects a bad image to the people around us, most especially the international community. We end up looking funny to other countries because we no longer look at things objectively and just point at someone else to blame for an incident. This early, we must stop this practice. We must all realize that before putting the blame on someone else, we should look at our own selves first. We will never develop as a country unless all of us take some responsibility for the things that happen here.