Height of Insensitivity

I guess the President is past caring about how people judge her actions. It would've been nice, however, for her to rethink her US trip. Along with her came 59 congressmen, as well as her immediate family members.

This, despite the common Filipino's woes: the never-ending rise in oil prices, the domino effect on the prices of goods and services, and now, the death and destruction brought about by typhoon 'Frank'. Worse still is the fact that, since this is a working visit, we Filipino taxpayers are footing the bill for this trip.

Of course, our politicians will mouth the necessary soundbites, about how it is necessary to help sell the image of the country, or how they need to study certain practices in the U.S., (although I can't think of what might those might be), but nothing can be more graphic than seeing our congressmen and President going off on an expensive junket while the country wallows in misery.

The Philippine Star, in its editorial yesterday, had the right of it, castigating our political leaders for their insensitivity, and asking at the end of the editorial the question, "Where is leadership by example in this country?" It's certainly not found in our current political leaders.

The challenge is for us to be able to actually select leaders of vision and commitment, and not because we are compelled by the 3 G's of traditional Philippine politics. It would be nice to call for voters to identify these politicians who joined the President, and call on voters not to vote for them, but that is shooting for the moon. Change is not going to happen overnight, but it should not stop us from continuing to push for it.