I tried uploading this but it must have been too big. A powerful 20 minute film that depicts poverty that largely remains hidden to those of us who do not seek to know what is truly going on around us. To those who don't speak Tagalog, a pity because the script is poetic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzYgSJCPEtY

So soon after my darkest post, we learn that convicted plunderer Erap Estrada has been pardoned. Just as the leading Pharisees of the day could not cast the first stone which would have ultimately killed the adulteress, so did GMA rush to the defense of her political existence, her way of life. Think about this, if your spouse is cutting deals worth $70 million a pop, what would you do to perpetuate a system that will automatically provide you cover when you are brought to justice?

So while this is a sad day it is also an essential rite of suffering we Filipinos have to bear in our struggle for national purification. Pardon was never for Gloria to bestow. It could only come from the millions of Filipinos forced to flee their country in search of a fairer life. From the generation of idiots we have bred in educational darkness, disease and malnutrition. From the many who lost their lives pursuing truth, justice and liberty.

A bitter irony from all this is I personally don’t hold anything against Estrada. The fool was used by the same operatives who engineered his rise and fall and who now determine it is time to spring him from his privileged detention in order to sustain this disgustingly immoral and lethally corrupt dispensation. I have always been full of hope for our country but I am having a difficult time at the moment convincing myself that we will have redemption anytime soon.

The Secretary of Health recently admitted that the Philippine medical system is in crisis and could face eventual collapse. He stated that a whopping 88 percent of health care professionals are now abroad. There is only one government doctor to attend to every 28,000 Filipinos.

The looming collapse is the direct product of years of neglect to the healthcare system. Did the good Secretary actually expect anything better whenever you allocated a measly 1% of the national budget towards healthcare? He should have fought harder long ago to end the criminal neglect shown to the health needs of the nation.

Now it is too late. I am convinced, with the startling revelations made today that the husband of GMA was set to gain $70 million over a broadband deal that this corrupt political order is coming to an end. And I am not referring to the presidency alone. Look how all these governors and congressmen immediately went to the aid of their crumbling way of life. Just as it is never within the interests of parasites to kill their hosts, the days of these vermin are numbered.

I hope that the change will happen peacefully but when we learn of the staggering amounts of dirty money involved, that possibility becomes remote. There is too much at stake for these people and their armed minions to give up without violent protestations.

In a crowded city, it is difficult to see dark clouds form in the distance. Try scanning the horizon from the vast plains of Oklahoma.

About a week ago, I was invited by the Philippine Medical Association in Oklahoma to become their guest speaker on the occasion of their 26th anniversary. I obliged them with the following message that I wrote while I was on a flight back home that they graciously printed in their souvenir program:

“I am on my way home again as I write this message to you, my fellow Filipino physicians in Oklahoma. We are all on a homebound journey and I will always be grateful for the 11 years that I have spent in Oklahoma because it enabled me and my wife to return with our children to our beloved Philippines.

We are all witnesses to the beautiful way of life that Oklahoma provides. There is security and prosperity. This is a wonderful place to raise children. Unfortunately, the absolute majority of our countrymen left behind can not even dream of the opportunities we enjoy here and which we sometimes take for granted. Those left behind are also so far behind.

We need to get together and try our best to help rescue our country. We are fortunate recipients of much learning and skills that did not come to us without much sacrifice. We all worked hard to get to where we all find ourselves today. However the cycle of what we call brain gain consisting of learning and earning will only be completed with the firm commitment of returning.

Returning does not have to mean the physical act of going back to the Philippines. Even better than going back is giving back which may be accomplished in so many ways.

If we apply our abundant talents and share our many blessings, we can permanently change our country. We all left the Philippines out of necessity. Now that we are stronger and better prepared, it becomes necessary for us to take our country back. Just because we needed to change our visas and citizenship so that we could stay and work in this remarkable land, the Philippines never ceased to become our country. We have only learned to love her more.

Congratulations to the officers and members of the Philippine Medical Association of Oklahoma. Let us stay united as we pursue our common goals of service and compassion to all.”

Now I am writing this post while yet on another flight home again. There were about 100 physicians in that gala and there were no exceptions, everyone was prosperous and successful . Quite a few were retired or semi-retired and many continued to give back to their country of birth through free clinics, donations of money and medications and hospital supplies that they would carefully collect in whatever hospitals they worked. I was very happy to note that we all felt that material success was not sufficient.

This is probably why I am eager to rejoin the fray. I know that there are many of us who are no longer willing to stand idly by while our country is battered by rapacious politicians who have totally lost their purpose to serve. This loss is not a conscious process. It is simply the result of lingering too long.

From Oklahoma, I found the account of Governor Father Ed Panlilio concerning the 500,000 pesos ($11,000) stuffed in a sack that was routinely handed to him after a meeting with GMA as a reminder of how utterly corrupt politics is in our country. Only one other politician verified this transaction while another traditional politician claimed it was “standard procedure” to be given assistance money for various community activities.

I hope the good priest keeps up the fight to expose these shenanigans that no longer repel most of us. We have become so jaded and so accustomed to this shameful system. Shameful because there are people who do not have the means to eat more than once a day and shameful because we seem to give more care to the palay seeds that farmers strew in the fields over the educational investments we need to be making so that the next generation will become more competitive.

David Brooks wrote “Politics, as you know, is a tainted profession. Professional politicians cannot serve their country if they do not win their races, and to do that they must grapple with a vast array of forces that try to remold and destroy who they are. No normal person can withstand the onslaught of egotism and come out unscathed. And so there are two kinds of politicians: those who become creatures of the process, and those who resist and retain the capacity to be appalled by what they must do.”

We need to support Father Panlilio. We need to thwart any attempt to unseat him in the ongoing recount of votes from last May. We need to fight for these increasingly rare politicians who fight for us all.