On CNN's hero of the year award

The declaration by CNN of Filipino teacher Efren Peñaflorida as hero of the year is a landmark event in this country, more significant than Pacquiao’s vanquish of Cotto. One thing is that the Pacman’s triumph was in the domain of combat sports programmed like similar sports to destroy. The contest was a contest of bestial strength – muscle against muscle, bones against bones. Its appeal lay in man’s primitive instinct, paganistic and inspired by the will to survive over the weak and unfit.

Peñaflorida’s triumph was a triumph of the mind and heart. Self service was set aside to give way to service for others. As a young teacher, Efren’s motivation could have been towards building up his career and rising therein for higher pay and more comfortable state. But the thought of street children who could not afford a schooling prevailed. It must have disturbed him in the wee hours, and out of such restless moments was born his “pushcart classroom”.

Heroism? Viewed cursorily, what he did looked like one do gooder’s antic driven by hunger for publicity. But he could have gone through the whole thing for just a span of weeks or months, then quit and go his way in peace. But he persisted. And here lies heroism because such persistence called for a great amount of sacrifice. Pushing a “kareton” in the street under a blazing sun is not a joke, nor catching the interest of wayward kids to crack their heads on English and math.

I’m sure there were people who called Efren a quirk for doing what he did. And even with the award won, I’m sure there are skeptics who think his achievement is not such a big deal. But heroism is a triumph of altruism over egotism. The leap from self concern to self unconcern is a mighty difficult feat. And those who can do it surely deserve a hero’s pedestal.

Among those who seem to have lost face as a result of Peñaflorida’s global recognition are DepEd’s teachers and officials. What role did they play to help the young man succeed in his initiative? Most probably they played no role. In fact, it was possible they did not take Peñaflorida seriously, thinking perhaps that teaching out-of-school kids was their own responsibility. In fact, the DepEd operates mobile libraries, and there used to be some itinerant teachers who would visit homes and tutor unschooling children. But these attempts were limited hampered by lack of funds and, on the part of top leadership, moral support.

Moreover, DepEd people have their hands full trying to cope with burgeoning school population whose basic needs can hardly be met for again, lack of resources, thanks to the government’s myopic outlook on education as an instrument of development.

Like the DepEd personnel, most of us Filipinos seem to have been placed in an uncomfortable situation with Peñaflorida’s award. Coming as it did close to the Pacquiao’s conquest of Cotto for which the entire country exploded in jubilation, our reception of the CNN news on the award was subdued and minimal, and the event was hardly talked about even among the so called educators. This is not surprising, of course, because boxing on the level of the Pacman-Cotto skirmish was a high-financed entertainment, while a read-and-write class by the roadside is a boring sight and does not entertain.

If anything, the yawning gap on the quality of our reaction to these two events speaks much of the quality of our national psyche. If we gloried on the “sinombagay” and felt little about educating street children, what kind of world view do we have? A wise man once said, civilization is a race between catastrophe and education. Are we losing that race? We seem to be.

But as long as we have people like the CNN hero there is still some hope. And if we look closely, we’ll find out that many of our people, the humble simple folks especially, are playing heroic roles. Look at the farmer who spends his waking hours under the heat of the sun to feed his family. Look at the fisherman who ekes a living from an almost barren sea to keep his kids in school. And look at the teacher who endures hard life in a remote barangay to brighten the future of rural kids. These and many other Filipinos are heroes in their own way. They may not have won awards, but they are heroes just the same. With these people the country cannot lose its race against catastrophe.

Winning that race could be the motive behind the decision to confer on Peñaflorida the highest award the nation can give - the Order of Sikatuna. It looks like an after-thought, but it’s better than none. Hopefully, such award would inspire other young people to emulate Peñaflorida to help make this country move forward.