Individual exploits,not national accomplishments, give us pride

There is no doubt that the feat of Filipino mountain climbers Leo Oracion, Pastor Emata and Romeo Garduce in conquering Mount Everest, thus becoming the very first Filipinos to do so, has made this country immensely proud.

The achievement of the three gutsy and hardy Filipino adventurers has added their names to the short list of individual accomplishments by our compatriots that every now and then help to buoy up our generally sagging national spirit.

Prior to the remarkable climb of Oracion, Emata and Garduce to the national consciousness and global prominence, there had been the stirring string of victories racked up by Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao.

The exploits of Pacquiao unified the entire Filipino nation even if only briefly, lasting only for the duration that he is in the ring. But each punch he threw seemed to redeem a whole lifetime of frustrations suffered by a nation half of whose population is younger than the boxer.

Before Pacquiao, there was Cristeta Comerford who, late last year, crashed the corridors of power in the world's most powerful nation by getting herself personally handpicked by the US First Lady Laura Bush to become the executive chef at the White House, the first woman to be so.

Again, the list is not very long, but what it contains is sufficient enough to repair to whenever our national spirit begins to sag again. The accomplishments of these few individual Filipinos serve as sort of touchstones for massaging and reassuring our constantly bruised egos.

We do not know if it will always be this way. But it seems that what is giving this country the strength and the will to go on are the accomplishments of individual Filipinos. Our track record as a nation does not seem to even match these exploits.

What a sad commentary of our times that the national political leadership, both with the administration and the opposition, and who are largely to blame for our country's woes, are among the quickest to bask in the glory of these individual heroes.

Indeed, one can almost puke just recalling how, right after one of Pacquiao's devastating victories, the voice of the president was patched in to the live television coverage to congratulate the Filipino boxer.

Of course, the president had as much right as everybody else to congratulate Pacquiao. But she could have waited for a better time to do it, not right then and there when the boxer was still in the ring and the entire Filipino nation was still exulting over the victory.

Never was there at that particular moment in the jubilant national consciousness any room for tolerance for the president's nasal monotone. It was an imposition that was universally resented far more than anyone could resent taxes.

Filipinos have long learned to separate their sources of joy and inspiration. They know that the Filipino can excel in almost any endeavor in an individual capacity, not as a national initiative, at least not under the kind of national political leadership that we have.

It would be wise of our national political leaders, therefore, to tread gently on matters that give Filipinos immense national pride. They should not let their soiled fingers dip into the pristine accomplishments of individual Filipino heroes.

For it is good that Filipinos do not get deprived of some source of national pride and inspiration even if they do not get these from the national political leadership but from the individual exploits of their fellows.