Tea pot

Title

Tea pot

Creator

Bigay, S.P.

Language

English

Year

1969

Subject

Politics--Philippines

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

News and current affairs in the Philippine politics

Fulltext

Y ES, Jocelyn, politics is in the air. No one could say exactly how or when it started to appear in our scene. Or why it had to come 'So early in the year since there is a Tai'iada-Singson law that bans electioneering a full hundred and fifty days before an ele~tion. It would seem that, to our people, politics, like a cold, is inevitable and must come naturally to all. No wonder many, including myself, think politics is a kind of industry. And if industry is for profit, you can realize what po · litics as an industry means. YES, JOCELYN, POLITICS IS IN THE AIR It is in our midst, exposed in full dimension and in varying hues for all to see. And from what one sees, one discerns that the bead of politics is ugly, legions pay blind obeisance before its graven image, offering themselves as sacrificial lambs. For wfiat? For the opportunity of serving as servants to the people in some public office or trust. Nothing wrong wit.h that, really. Except that the smart ones make use of one office or another for personal ends The dumb ones stir their own little mud-puddles. The country? Aye, the rub is there! But let me not unduly destroy your ideal as a young one born of this generation. You must learn to live with politics and distinguish politics from politicians. You must learn to embrace good politics and support good politicians. Politics is made up of principles, postulates, promises. These covenants last. Politicians are men. They come and go; the mediocre politicians soon fade away and the corrupt ones are banished from the firmament (or something like that, anyway). Politics can be ennobling, can be an institution for good Most of our present-day leaders are creations of politics. Surely, we hfld heroic leadership at the turn of the century when the people had to fight for a place under the sun and in their own country. Bu~ since then, except during the last war, we had produced a bumper crop of political leaders. Many say that what our country needs today is another kind of leadership. They say we need an economic leader. What is an economic leader? I think what we need is a political leader with a great capacity to understand the wants and needs of the nation and to build the foundations for national growth. If you ask me whether President Marcos is building permanent foundations for the country's growth with his infrastruc· ture, food production and school building programs, my answer is yes. Anyway, what bothers me at the mom~t is the hazy picture of the future that lies ahead of you. I say hazy because there are voices filling the air with new promises and new postulates and, as the coffee crowd would boast, you can never tell what will come next. For example, what will your community be when you reach voting age? (By the way, is the voting age eighteen or tw~nty-one?) Right now, t6ere are communities in Luzon where the people feel they are oppressed or depressed and, therefore, are re~tive. There are also other parts in the country that have become virtual pockets of disorder. Here lies the crux of this whole piece. These things affect your future. And politics, for all its garish forms, seems to offer an answer. Tn this sense: that we who are · your elders, endowed at the moment with .. the inalienable right to choose the leaders of the government that we want, should exercise that right with an eye on what the future must be, not for ourselves, but for those who are just abo tohffome~~ S. P. BIGA AIL MR. MANALo·s CURIOUS HUMOR Your writer Mr. Fred D. Manalo has a very curious sense of humor. Frankly, I think his article on "The Boo Society" is a myth, except that it resembles very much the events of the recent weeks involving "booing" sessiQns at a sports coliseum and at a political surveying party. Anyway, this type of article helps cleanse our weekend of gloomy reading materials carried in other media and we congratulate you for encouraging it. However, I dare your Mr. Manalo to write in a similar vein about the political scene today. BIEN SALVADOR Baliuag, Bulacan NO INTERNATIONAL SCENE! Your magazine so far has carried no report on the international scene. How come? Surely, we in the province would also want to know what is happening elsewhere in the world. Your style of reporting if applied to international eventS might help us understand world happenings more easily. JULIO SAN PEDRO Tacloban City PM IS WRONG Your article on "Land Reform Now or Revolution Tomorrow" seemed to have lumped the restiveness of the people on land reform alone. You are wrong. Otherwise President Marcos need concentrate only · on this problem and relegate to secondary role his infrastructure, schools, food production, export promotion and industrialization programs, to make a success of his administration. Your magazine's policy of positive reporting over-simplifies things. And that's not too good either. LIBERATO SANCHEZ Cagayan de Oro, City PHILIPPINE MAGAZINE is published twice a mO'!th by The SP&A and sold as supplement to prov1n'Cial newspapers throughout the country. Address all aommunicotions, manuscripts and photos to The Editor. PM, CCP lluilding, Magallanes Drive, lntramuros. Telephone 40-81-01. PHILIPPINE MAGA· ZINE assumes no responsibility for. l~ss or damage to unsolicited contributions. Opinions expressed in signed articles are those of the aut~ors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Editors of PM. Registered with the llureau of Commerce 8 January 1969. Reproductions in part or in full allow~ provided proper credits ar! given. P~stal pe'."'1t second class mail still pending. S. P. 8tgay, editor & publisher / Nonilon P. So, business & circulat~on manager. THE PHILIPPINE MAGAZINE I MAY '1, 1969 I PAGE 3

Date Issued

1(8) May 31, 1969

Media