When we excuse our faults by calling them ‘the Pinoy way’, how can we progress?

Of course, no country’s perfect. And the United States of America has more than its own share of defects. But having lived there as a student for six years, one of the things I learned to respect about Americans (and all nationalities who reside and work there) was their strict adherence to the "law". One thing is sure: If you break the law there, you simply cannot get away with it. Sooner or later, the law – even the Internal Revenue Service – catches up with you.

When I first arrived, being a Filipino, I thought I could manage to get away with almost everything, or take short-cuts. I soon found out I was wrong. As a result, I lived in paranoia during my entire stay there. (It was useful paranoia.) I began to be very conscious of rules and regulations, and the "law", by which I had to abide. As an offshoot of that, I feel, I became a better person.

When I returned to the Philippines, it was a different story altogether. Like probably every returning Filipino who’s been abroad for some years, I experienced "culture shock" – big time! It took me three years to recover from it! It was a shock to see how poor was the environment. It was even more of a shock to have to readjust myself to the "Pinoy" mentality! I confess that my reaction was that I wanted to go back to the USA. Yes, it was that bad! I tried everything to "come home" mentally, get in sync, and adjust to the conditions and situation here but I had great difficulty in achieving it.

Imagine when I got to my home, I saw too many people under our family roof, mostly household helps. I could not believe why there were so many of them. I counted, there were nine serving only four family members. I was too independent —- I chose to help myself. I only needed one maid to help me launder my clothes, clean the house and cook the food. But as I finally realized, these helps were not as practical and "efficient" as we would like them to be, and so the work that one person should have done required three people to do it.

The same thing goes for our local restaurants. In Europe, the restaurant owner is the cook and sometimes even the food server (depending on the size of his restaurant). The owner only has one assistant and they both work together. In the Philippines, you would need six people for what two people can do. What is wrong with us? I am sure you can relate to this to your own businesses and homes. We are really dons and doñas, señoritos and señoritas and this mentality is carried on by even the people who work for us. This is why we hire so many people — we want to get the work done for us.

During my period of re-acclimatization, I was perplexed and saddened to see how people love to make utos (to command). Why can’t they do simple things by themselves? For instance at one time the wall clock in our office needed a change of batteries, I was surprised when I found out that my secretary had to call an in-house engineer to change the batteries. I called her attention to it and said, "Can’t you do that yourself?"

Another incident was when my little dog accidentally urinated (the more polite word is "peed") in my office. The instant reflex of my officemate was to call the janitor. I said, "no need, I will wipe that mess off myself" and she was shocked to see me do it. Even if it were the number 2 word (feces), I would still clean it up myself, I did not see any difficulty in the situation. Well, by now I have made sure that everyone in the office does not call the janitors or electricians for simple jobs — they must do it themselves.

This brings me to the streets: I see five Metro Aides sweeping the sidewalk and center island in one part of EDSA alone. Can’t that number be reduced at all? Can’t one person do that? Why too many? In fact, just last Saturday morning, I saw six traffic policemen at the corner of SM North EDSA – all geared up with their walkie-talkies and motorbikes. Do they really have to be that many cops in one spot? Shouldn’t they be spread out to maximize their effectiveness to different areas of EDSA, especially since they have their radios to communicate with one another? You know what they were doing? They were just chatting and smoking – and, of course, they were pretending to monitor that traffic situation. But why should policemen be spotted by the public chatting and smoking during "office hours" while they are on duty? I’m afraid it is really in us to be this way. Well, maybe labor is cheap here so we think we can afford it — but you know what is harmful is that it makes us a race of lazy people.

I remember an incident when I first returned from my studies abroad. A friend took me to Robinson’s Galleria at Ortigas Center. Of course, I was riding in his brand new sports car. I do not know if he was trying to impress me with the way he drove. He practically sped through all the red spotlights in Ortigas until we arrived at the next main intersection of EDSA. I told him to stop overtaking and just wait until the green light went on.

He just ignored me and breezed through the next red light. I tell you, I was really scared. Aside from the danger of being hit by an approaching vehicle, in the US, you would already be severely penalized for this infraction. Well, at that point a traffic enforcer stopped us. I exclaimed to myself, "Ay salamat! Nahuli ka rin." I wanted him to learn a lesson. But guess what? He just rolled down his window and to my amazement, he said, "sorry, boss, papunta lang kami sa bahay ng mayor, ang uncle ko" (Sorry, we were just on our way to the house of the mayor who is my uncle). The policeman said, "Ah! Okay, sir, Sorry po naabala ko pa kayo" (Sorry to disturb you, you can go). My God, I could not believe how he could say what he did without batting an eyelash, and even more dismayed at witnessing such an abrupt reversal of command – it was the policeman who apologized to a traffic violator. To be truthful, I did not even know how to react. Should I have been proud of him for so easily getting away? Actually, I was not. I was sorry for the cop and the way he had reversed himself. The cop had every right to issue my companion a ticket but I guess he did not want to since he feared losing his job (because of the "uncle-mayor").

This happened eight years ago and up to this day, I still see drivers trying to overtake and beat the red light. Nothing has changed! If only, our cops could enforce the traffic rules and impose right violation "penalties", then, these drivers would begin to feel "paranoid" like I was in the US. They will begin to obey. But first, I have to say, our policemen must set the example by "disciplining" themselves, too.

There are so-called Filipino traits that we experience in our day-to-day activities. One of them is the Mañana Syndrome. We Filipinos are always late and we love to blame it on the rains or on the traffic most of the time. We even cheerfully call it "Filipino time"! We are not conscious of time — we even make it a point to come late so we can be noticed by the crowd — to make a "dramatic entrance"! I guess, we are "KSP" (Kulang Sa Pansin) talaga!

Then, we have the already famous Crab Mentality which our government officials clearly exemplify. But this mentality is not only experienced in government circles but almost everywhere else in our society. We always seem to believe we are a "superior" race. The awful truth is that many of us are just too proud – we haven’t even given humility a chance to work in us. I have written a few columns in which I attempted to point out a few things that distress all of us in our communities. Once, I criticized problems like basketball courts being set up in the middle of the road, a huge and smelly pile of trash on a street corner, some obstructions blocking sidewalks and inconveniencing pedestrians, etc. Imagine, instead of taking this as a cue to improve conditions, a government official in the town I mentioned sent me a defensive and very offensive letter. Did he think he could cover up with bluster what I had witnessed with my own eyes — and smelled with my own nose? Why can’t our so-called "public servants" (as they call themselves while campaigning and soliciting our votes) humble themselves and, instead of getting all hot under the collar, go out and improve what needs to be improved? Then and only then will they be entitled to "respect". Come on: Stop covering up! Start doing the job!

Sadly, these are traits which we Filipinos meekly – and many even proudly – accept to be the core of our national character. We can’t accept this as the Pinoy way! If we do that, we can never move our country forward. We cannot improve and uplift ourselves. What we need is a new Pinoy way. Then we’ll be a happy, self-respecting and successful nation.