The Filipinos need a socio-economic and political transfiguration

In today's Gospel of St. Mark (9, 2-10), the evangelist narrates the miracle in Mount Tabor, where Jesus was transfigured before the eyes of apostles Peter, James, and John. That transfiguration calls on Filipinos to embrace substantive and substantial changes in our personal lives and also in the social, economic, and political transformation of our nation and people.

Five years ago, my wife and I joined a religious pilgrimage to the Holy Land and we visited that mountain with my cousin, a religious missionary as our spiritual guide, high up to its zenith 1,886 feet above sea level, in the center of Galilee and east of Nazareth. There is now a Franciscan Church on top and my cousin celebrated the Holy Eucharist in its main altar, and all of us joined with myself acting as lay minister. There were thousands of other pilgrims from all over the world, and the Church was overcrowded. My reflections on that experience led me to think of our country compared to Israel. And so, I read the Gospel now and focus my mind on the socio-economic and political dimension, as I saw the miraculous progress of Israel into a major world power today, despite the fact that it’s a small nation surrounded by enemies.

But before Filipinos can hope to change their government, its economic, social, and political institutions, our people should first and foremost embrace the righteous and virtuous characters, traits and behaviors of the Israelis. First is linking love for God with love for country. Second, is love of family should expand to love of community and love for our countrymen. Third, there must be uncompromising defense of our territorial integrity and peace with neighboring countries should be founded on mutual respect and adherence to international law. Fourth, hard work and frugality and focus on the economy rather than partisan politics. Fifth, tolerance of other cultures, religions, and traditions, but subject to mutual respect and accommodation. Sixth, adoption of modern technology. Seventh, focus on research, education, and scientific studies. Eighth is managing our population and minding our per capita production, income, and consumption.

When Israelis took the Exodus journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, they started to connect their love of God with love of country because they believed their land is a gift from God himself who sent Moses to liberate them from the Egyptians. Filipinos don’t have that kind of connection. We profess to love God and our country, but there is no connection between the two. Second, when it comes to love of family, Filipinos are number one in the world. But such love doesn’t really extend into a wider circle of community, much less the whole nation. In fact, we don’t have a sense of nationhood. We allow foreigners to trample on our territorial integrity. We are all talk and no action and hide behind the pretense that we are too small against the giant grabbers of our territory. Israel never surrenders to bigger and stronger world powers.

Compared to the Philippines, Israel is a much smaller country in size and population. Israel is only 22,770 square kilometers while our country has 300,000 square kilometers. Israel has only 9.3 million people and we have 110 million. Israel's GDP of $372,324 billion is 51st among the world's 200 economies and nations, smaller than ours. Its per capita income, however, is $44,474 the 19th in the world. While we have a bigger GDP of $993,913 billion, 27th in the world, because of our overpopulation, we only have a per capita of a measly $8,573 and we are 115th worldwide. Israel's poverty incidence is almost zero and its unemployment rate is also nil. We suffer by comparison. Almost one-third of our population is poor, and one fifth live below the poverty line. And yet we are living on very fertile land, while Israel is an arid desert, interspersed with some oases here and there. Israel lacks water except for Jordan and the Galilee. The Philippines is a big body of water sprinkled with 7,107 green islands. What's wrong with us? We really need a transfiguration as a people.

Israel's form of government is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic. We have a unitary presidential constitutional republic. Among the ten ASEAN member nations, only the Philippines and Indonesia are presidential. The strongest with most stable economies have parliaments like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the rest. The Philippines should transfigure, and that process should start in the personal lives of each Filipino.