In our country, “Hero” is an honorific title bestowed upon persons who sacrifice greatly for the common good and yet are routinely screwed by an order controlled by a small group of entrenched parasites who live off the labors of these heroes. This is how it’s been all these years, first by our benevolent colonizers and then sadly by our own fellow Filipinos.

Soldiers, members of some religious orders, farmers and lately overseas workers have been given this all-purpose label. These privileged people are free to give their lives for the sake of the common weal for as long as they don’t disrupt the parasitic lifestyle of the freeloaders.

There are hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who have been toiling all these years under very trying circumstances who have never received a smidgen of the recognition and gratitude they thoroughly deserve. These are our teachers, particularly those who taught us in grade school and in high school. They have always been poorly paid, relative to the education and preparation they have attained. They have always been convenient to blame for our many societal ills. They have always been easy to mobilize whenever elections come around. They have always made up for the enormous deficiencies brought about by poor governance. I don’t know how these people do it, every day facing impossibly long odds teaching malnourished students in cramped, stuffy ramshackle classrooms using outdated and inaccurate textbooks.

In cinema, a sure way of rousing the audience is to portray a beleaguered band of people desperately fighting a lost cause. Think 300 Spartans, Custer, Light Brigade, Bataan….there is something romantic in lost causes. Unfortunately for our teachers in the Philippines, life does not imitate art. Yet.

It is up to us to work for higher salaries for all these teachers who have dedicated their lives towards giving many of us a chance to make our contribution to our communities. It is for us to ensure that their retirement benefits are not squandered by political appointees with self-serving agendas. It is for you and me to become teachers ourselves and help guide the youth through our example.

In the end, Heroes need no songs and paeans. The knowledge of having influenced students and inspiring them to work and live for ideals bigger than themselves is more than adequate reward.