Views and reflections on the Philippine scene

Title

Creator

Sinco, V.G

Language

English

Source

Panorama Volume XVII (Issue No.8) August 1965

Year

1965

Subject

Autobiographies

Bocobo, Jorge, 1886-1965.

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

VIEWS AND REFLECTIONS ON THE PHILIPPINE SCENE The Message Of Jorge Bocobo Only recently the Honorable Jorge Bocobo died at the approach of his 80th birthday. The Filipinos thereby lost one of their most valued leaders in va rious fields of public service. He devoted the great er part of his life to education in its broadest con cept, for in his active life he served not only as a classroom teacher but also as an academic adminis trator, and not only as a professional school worker but also as a social reformer. He was an enthusiastic participant in religious movements and a . fearless defender of national causes on the higher levels of governmental and political affairs. [The authorized author of the national prayer which the Philippines needed in the .dark days of her struggle for identity and freedom, Bocobo pro vided the spiritual expression of the aspirations of our people. The vigor and sincerity of his convic tions* in matters that he considered important were almost fanatical in their fervor. This was particu larly so in questions which involved deep moral is sues*? "Bocobo was one of the outstanding jurists the Philippines has produced. His chosen field of spe cialization was civil law. In this legal discipline, he was not a mere compiler of judicial decisions or a mechanical annotator of codes and statutes. He was a real legal scientist, a true jurist, expressing his well-studied ideas on the meaning of particular as pects of law and jurisprudence, explaining his cri tical views on specific judicial decisions, and declar 2 Panorama ing his incissive opinions on the evils or advantages of legislative measures. But for the moment this discussion will be con fined to his educational and cultural work. In this field, he served as a classroom law teacher, College of Law dean, U.P. President, and head of our Dep artment of Education. Less than a year after my admission as a student in the College of Law, Professor Bocobo was ap pointed dean of the College. It was then that he started to make known to the law students his ideas on character, his nationalistic convictions, and his dedication to the development of moral values. Eve ry week he posted a one-page essay on the bulletin board of the College entitled Monday Mentor. This was a concise talk on what is expected of the stu dent in the classroom, in college activities, and in the community. The general ideas running through that series of essays centered on the student’s problems in and outside the school. They were an appeal to ideal ism, a stimulus to higher aspirations. They were intended as a guide for the student in serious aca demic efforts. Lucidly written, they attracted stu dents'to the bulletin board in groups eager to read the warm message of our new dean. Among the varied topics discussed, there was an insistent and clear call for devotion to the Mother Land. It was an urge for positive nationalism. This was an overpowering feeling amounting to a pro found passion — almost an obsession — of our Dean. But his approach on the subject was uniquely sin cere. It was not that of a politician or a publicity seeker or a notorious opportunist who uses national ism as a defensive mechanism against a background of anti-nationalist behavior. His approach was that of an intellectual moralist. For he treated the pro August 1965 3 motion and defense of our nation as a moral is sue worthy of the noblest and most unselfish thought and conduct of every true Filipino and of every man who claims himself as a Filipino. For that stand he was greatly admired by some, and attacked, even ridiculed, by others including those who paraded themselves as intellectuals, economists, and high po liticians. It was that strong moral concern he had for his country which made his detractors call him the GDoomy Dean. But he paid absolutely no atten tion to their taunts. For one thing was sure: no one dared accuse him of immorality, peculation, or sus picion of bribery and corruption. At one time when even President Quezon, who was his great friend, expressed disapproval of some stern attitude he had assumed he confided to me his feelings by saying that the President would in time realize that he had been only moved by what he, as Professor, had con sidered his duty. Incidentally, his Monday Mentor was always written in a clear, refined, and facile style. The sim plicity of his phrases and sentences made his essays pleasantly readable. His choice of words made his thoughts appealing. Forty years before the Filipino reading public had come to hear or read the lovely cadences of the famous speeches of Adlai Steven son, Dean Bocobo’s pen had already been producing bewitching prose to the admiration of those who had the chance of reading his literary pieces. He did not need to plagiarize the smooth style and the in cisive ideas of Adlai which have been so irresisti bly enchanting as a temptress to one or more Fili pino four-flushers. The Filipinism of Dean Bocobo was concerned with moral and cultural values, not with superfi cialities. He was not interested in the spectacular for the mere purpose of vain publicity. His interest 4 Panorama as academic head was in the development of the cul ture, the thinking, and the ideals of the Filipino youth. While in some instances his methods were not accepted by others, his objectives were praise worthy, scholarly correct, and above board. We remember his work in encouraging research es and studies in Filipino folk music and dancing without which the now famed Bayanihan Dance troupe would not have perhaps been born. Few seem to recall that the first important faculty committee he organized as University President was the Com mittee on Culture, which was to take charge of a monthly gathering of professors, students, and visi tors to hear a talk by- a group leader on an educa tional or cultural subject. Then to encourage stu dents to acquire excellent behavior and to improve social manners, President Bacobo organized a Cour tesy Committee and a publication known as Cour tesy Appeals. This he adopted in the Department of Education after he had left the U.P. presidency to serve as Secretary of that Department of the national government. The message of Bocobo’s life was one of unpre tentious idealism and courageous adherence to truth, freedom, and justice. He was not without blemish in his record as a toiler in the service of his people, for he was far from being a perfect human being. But the imperfections in his career were not those of a self-seeking, publicity-hankering, and insincere individual striving to put himself on a pinnacle of false pretenses. They were honest mistakes of a selfless teacher and an authentic scholar whose mo ral standards and noble deeds will long remain in our memory. — V. G. Sinco. August 1965 5 The Image Preoccupation It has become fashionable these days to talk about one’s image and to consider it with very great concern. This is not only the case with individuals but also with institutions, political, social, educa tional, and business. Each is interested in present ing a good image before other people; and each is worried about having a poor image to present to the public. What after all is an image? It is no more and no less than an appearance. Of course, it is quite proper to have a good appearance. One should not appear dirty or unshaven before others. An appli cant for a job should be neatly dressed. A lady could be seriously embarrassed today when she goes out to a party dressed in the fashion of twenty years ago. She could be misunderstood by observers. She could be taken for a crank or a candidate for a psy chopathic hospital. The best example of image-worshiping people is the pqlitician. He shines as an example because he is concerned about the impression he makes in al most everything he does outside of the privacy of his home. As a matter of fact, he does not even care about having any kind of privacy in his own home. To win the votes of the poor, he claims that he was born poor and had to suffer the miseries of pover ty. He appears before them in cheap clothing. He eats with them using his bare fingers. He kisses the hands of older people in public in order to ap pear extremely respectful to age. He tries to be spec tacularly courteous to every man and woman, young and old, who are seen around him. He uses all kinds 6 Panorama of publicity stunts the fertility of his imagination could devise, all for the sake of creating an attractive image of himself. Of course, the tricks of the politician are also practiced by persons in other callings or occupations. These are not only to be found among people in bus iness and industry who are engrossed in money making activities. They secure the expert assistance of so-called public relations executives to advertise their services or their products as something indis pensable for building up their public image. A face powder or cream that restores youthful beauty to wilted cheeks is dangled before newspaper readers and radio listeners as a must for improving one’s so cial image. In this country of ours where opportunists may be found in different corners of society, the preoc cupation for an attractive image is nation-wide. For the opportunist must always be ready to appear in the guise of an honest individual who is always moved by vapid reasons for jumping from one camp to another, from one party to another. He may look impeccable to those who do not know him well enough and who judge him only by his fine words and by the publicity he gets for himself from friendly newspapers. But he may in reality be just a smart hypocrite, a clever charlatan, who has suc ceeded in creating an admirable image of himself. If he heads a gambling club, it does not matter much. But if he is the pastor of a church or the president of a university or the secretary of educa tion or the judge of a court, no words could be strong enough to expose and condemn his pretensions, no matter how subtle and refined they may be for he uses them purposely to give him the/ appearance of greatness. A plagiarist is sometimes mistaken for a competent writer; and by employing ghosts, he man August 1965 7 ages to protect his inferior ability with the better product of his hirelings. In Saturday Review of July 3, 1965, Archibald MacLeish criticizing what he considers the present American policy of indifference to outside opinion on action in Vietnam, wrote: “We consider, not what we have to do, but what the world thinks of what we have to do. And the result is preoccupation with the opinion of others, the kind of preoccupation which the advertising in dustry has exploited with such humiliating conse quences. “There is truth in all this, of course, too much truth for comfort. The exploitation of a decent hu man concern for others to bully men and women into buying mouthwash is one of the least lovely things in American life. And the corruption of lan guage which accompanies it is another. Take, for example, the word image, which was once used a word of art employed with rigorous precision by disciplined poets who knew exactly what they meant by it.. It has now become a trade term of the ad vertising agencies used in the muzzy, fuzzy, girlish sort of way to mean what people think of' you — or more precisely what they will think if you don’t use a particular deodorant or a certain soap or the brand of China policy advocated by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Nobody thinks of a man anymore — only of the image of a man. No body thinks of a policy — only of the image of a policy. Sooner or later no one will think of the Re public either — only of the image of the Republic — how the United States would look in a full-page ad.” — V. G. S. 8 Panorama The Parvenu Society Economic development and social uplift, full em ployment, and high wages do not necessarily indi cate national strength. An affluent society, to use a term popularized by Pfofessor Galbraith, may be facing moral bankruptcy. Wealth in abundance may create an arid sense of decency. The pursuit of prosperity often utilizes ruthless methods and fol lows devious routes. It is not unusual to find indi viduals and communities enjoying a life of ease and pleasure in an atmosphere of moral filth. The evo lution of man and society can only be stunted and repressed when the higher ideals of a reflective life are not actively promoted. The highest goal of a socio-economic program of development is not attainable when the chief in centives it holds out to the people are no more than abundance of rice and meat, a car for every family, a surplus of foreign exchange reserves, an ever mounting gross national product, and an escalating per capita income. Not that these are undesirable matters but alone they cannot fully meet man’s exalted aspirations for a life of dignity and humar service. They are necessary for individual and com munity existence and comfort; but they are not the indispensable ingredients of a noble life and spiri tual freedom. To strive for a high standard of living is a legi timate and worthy ambition. But we need to vi sualize what we are after in its true perspective. We should understand the meaning of a high stand ard of living. It is not attained by simply having an income high enough to enable one to own a flashy car and a luxurious home, to dress elegantly accord ing to the latest style, to have servants at our beck August 1965 9 and call, to take trips abroad, to give sumptuous banquets. Not a few in our country today have succeed ed in accumulating enough money to do all these and more. Most of them have the spirit of the par venu. Their sense of values is vulgar and distort ed. The fact that they are rich has made them feel and act as if wealth gives them blank permission to ignore the law and the rules of good behavior. They feel they could buy their way to high public offices. Quite a number of them have actually done so; and the country has been the worse for it. Ram pant delinquency, both juvenile and adult, has been the consequence. The evils of society have proli ferated. Explosion in vice has followed explosion in population; and so a state of readiness for social disintegration looms perceptively over the Philip pine horizon. The best elements of the nation now face this challenge. The preservation of human va lues is at stake. — V. G. Sinco. ACCIDENT An employer’s assistant — bruised, scratched and battered — arrived at the office one hour late. "I fell out of a window,” he explained. His employer asked: “So did that take an hour?” — Harry Hershfidld. 10 PANORAMA

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