Bitterness, hatred and vengeance

When Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972, many people believed it would set a new direction for the country with a vision for a “new society.” However, when it became apparent Marcos was not about to relinquish power, bitterness and hatred started to grow, with many people, including his allies, wanting him to bring back the democratic system in the country. The voices became even louder and clearer when, at a Manila Hotel dinner, former Speaker Jose B. Laurel strongly urged Marcos to bring democracy back into the country with a stinging indictment that “Marcos is not the Philippines.” 

The assassination in 1983 sparked anger and bitterness which led to the 1986 People Power Revolution reverberating all over the world, giving Filipinos a new sense of patriotism. The aftermath brought high expectations, but hatred and vengeance became the order of the day. Vice President Doy Laurel was installed as Prime Minister for one month. The 1973 Constitution was scrapped, giving way to a 1987 Constitution which became “reactive,” doing the opposite to whatever powers Marcos had as president and compounded by a bureaucratic system completely mangled because anything associated with Marcos was considered “evil.” But the root causes of corruption remained. 

Then we had People Power 2 — except this time, we already had a democratic system in place which we undermined by unconstitutionally removing a president. To this day, Joseph Estrada bitterly says he had followed the Constitution to the letter by allowing himself to go through an impeachment — only to have it aborted. Anger and bitterness blinded many people, obsessed with only one thing in mind: to remove a president. It would have been an opening for meaningful reforms that could positively change our way of life, such as the flawed electoral system which has become a bane in this country. Another opportunity lost because we allowed hatred and vengeance to get the better of our judgment.

Today, we see history repeating itself, with anger, bitterness and vengeance once again coming into play, with double dealing and double crossing over government contracts, one ultimately leading to the vengeful removal of Joe de Venecia as Speaker by the First Family. And so we find ourselves once again in a hole. Only this time, the anger is more poisonous because it is primarily motivated by personal vendetta.

Sadly, this anger is often misconstrued as patriotism, with many Filipinos equating “love of country” with “love myself first.” It is easy to claim “love of country” without knowing its true meaning. Real “love of country” transcends all kinds of bitterness and hatred, forsaking thoughts of vengeance. As Confucius once said: “When anger arises, (one must) think of the consequences.” It is that Latin-American streak that sometimes makes us blind to reason, consumed by thoughts of vengeance that lead us to rash action that we end up regretting.

The problem with Filipinos is that oftentimes, we give more loyalty to one person rather than to country. But what is even more dangerous are those people who think they have a monopoly of patriotism, and that they — and only they — know what is right and what direction the country should take. More often than not, these people are more consumed with hatred and vengeance rather than patriotism. For a Christian nation, we seem to have a lot of that anger today.

Nevertheless, we must not allow all this outrage and vengefulness to get the better of us. The call for a revolution should not be taken lightly. A real revolt means a complete turnaround, not one that will drive us back and make us worse off than we ever were before. Even the saying “don’t get mad; get even” should not consume our thoughts and drive us to action that will do more harm than good. Like acid, hatred and bitterness will eat up the man who keeps it.

Our country’s history has gone through many ups and downs. Which reminds me of former US President Richard Nixon whose life was a story of ups and downs. Richard Nixon was given an opportunity to become a great president. After losing to John F. Kennedy in 1960, followed by his defeat in the 1962 California gubernatorial race, and after giving his famous “you won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore” speech — he literally came back with a vengeance, winning the 1968 presidential race by a landslide and getting re-elected in 1972. 

He had great achievements especially in foreign relations, foremost of which was opening up US relations with China. But hatred, bitterness and vengeance got the better of Nixon — eventually costing him his presidency. Nixon best described his life in his final farewell speech to the White House staff in 1974, saying “…only if you have been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.”

And like Nixon, our country has been to the deepest valley. But we will never reach the highest peak of the mountain if we continue to be angry, bitter and vengeful. Too many times we have changed presidents out of anger, with no meaningful change for the better. Then we ask ourselves: what do we do now? Our past experiences should give us the answer.

Like Nixon, who came to realize the painful consequences of giving in to hatred, we must reflect on what he said: “Always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.”

Until we begin to get rid of all this bitterness, hatred and vengeance in our hearts, we will never move from where we are today. Because in the end, we will destroy ourselves.

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