EDITORIAL - Flag size does not change anything

A huge Philippine flag was unfurled in Liloan last week. There is no doubt as to its size. At 200m x 100m, it holds some record in the Guinness list. And the unfurling of the flag was supposed to signify unity and inspire healing of the nation's social ills.

The great misfortune about the display, no doubt patriotic as opposed to the ephemeral distinction of being listed in Guinness, is that the big words do not seem to match the physical size of the flag.

Unity. Healing social ills. No words can be farther from reality in this country. In fact the country cannot be more divided than right now, as we plunge headlong into one of the most heated election campaigns ever.

If a way can be found to convert the intensity of the negative political campaigning into electrical power, we probably would no longer experience any power shortage over the next 10 years.

And healing social ills? Nothing can be more difficult to address, especially when the symptoms of these ills start manifesting themselves not in the larger society but early on, in homes and in schools where they are first ignored and thus allowed to take root.

Let it not be said that we are against unity and the healing of social ills. We are all for them. But unity and healing social ills need more than just the unfurling of a giant flag, even if it holds the distinction of being a world record holder.

Unity and healing social ills need more than a flag. They need the people for whom the flag symbolizes. But to whip an entire people into unity and engage them in a collective healing process needs a bigger sacrifice than unfurling a two-ton flag.

But that sacrifice is not taught in any school. It is not sold in any store. It can only be found in the heart of every single Filipino who cares for his country, a Filipino who is not willing to wait for tomorrow but do what he can today.

What that Filipino does today is up to him. We do not presume to know more than the next person. What we do presume is that we all know right from wrong, only that we do not stick to our own convictions. If others do it, the tendency is always to do the same. Strange unity isn't it?