THE PHILIPPINES IS A NATION WITH THE WHEREWITHAL TO BE GREAT

The civilization in the Philippines emerged by the 5th century AD. There were influences from other countries, primarily the Middle East, India and China. In the 14th century, Islam became firmly entrenched here. The 15th century brought about trade with merchants from the Chinese Ming Dynasty.

In March 1521 to 1898, Spain dominated the Philippines. Other countries wanted a foothold in the Philippines and during the 16th century there were attempts to achieve this goal in part by the English and Dutch.

On December 10, 1898, it was declared that Spain ceded the entire archipelago to the United States for $20 million. Thereafter, the United States started the establishment of U.S. military rule in the Philippines. Then, the Americans colonized the Philippines up to July 4, 1946 when independence was finally granted.

Based on the foregoing, our offspring is now the product of evolving genes over the course of many generations from different foreigners who once upon a time controlled and/or visited the Philippines. Therefore, the Filipinos are superior breed with inheritable traits that will stand out in countless ways. (See: WE ARE THE BEST OF THE NOUGHTIES.)

In assessing a country's growth, we consider its level of civilization/national development before colonization, the nature of colonization, amount of natural resources, amount of its educational reservoir, the patriotism of its citizens, length of sovereignty, population, presence or absence of ethnic diversity, and existence or absence of a dominant culture.

As early as the year 1611, the University of Santo Tomas was established in the Philippines. You see, functional, creative education is the substratum of any national development. With such functional proficient education, it has the capability to realize massive socio-infrastructural development in double quick time.

The Philippines has also a dominant culture—a Catholic Christian belief. Having a dominant culture in a society of 90 million facilitates the forging of a common front, unity of purpose, the creation of national consciousness and patriotism. In this sense, it would have no problem mustering support for the best government/public programs. As a result, the best government policies in the Philippines would usually be supported at the altar of ethnic/primordial sentiments.

It is just unfortunate to think that the Philippines with all its attributes and an unarguably great natural resources is lagging far behind with other countries in Asia when it comes to socio-economic development as a nation.

The Philippines is a nation with the wherewithal to be great. But I took sometime to ponder why it had become adrift and thrown into a perpetual third world country and one of the poorest. It has a population it cannot sustain when it would have been a land of milk and honey. Had our leaders not been greedy to enrich themselves in great measure, the image of the Philippines as one of the most corrupt on the face of the earth would not have been.

What the Filipinos need is good governance. We need a good leader whose concern and love is with humanity more than personal gain. It does not matter if it is somebody that falls from the sky and is able to give you light, good roads and unblemished background and reputation; and not a dictator, liar, and a skulduggery so that we don’t have to be weary of the unmitigated skulduggery of this regime again. Does it really matter who that would be? I don’t care. As a Christian, it’s better to have an infidel as a just ruler than to have an unjust Christian.