A Pinoy is basically honest

A Filipino is basically honest.

I am proud and happy I cannot remember having been cheated and the cheater getting away with it. Of course, I have not been involved in big business transactions.

And I cannot recall an instance that one has stolen from me and also got away with it. Because of this, my faith in the honesty of the Filipino is strong.

Honesty, like sincerity, is in the heart. It is deeply rooted in his conscience. A mind that thinks of cheating or taking advantage of other people is an evil mind.

If the country has been tagged as the most corrupt, it is not the people. They are themselves even the victims. It is our officials. And many of them used to be honest but have just been influenced, swallowed in the culture of corruption.

When politicians who are honest see that their fellow politicians are stealing and get away with it, then they tell themselves, why don’t we do it too? Dishonest politicians win election and reelection because of the money they stole. And they get away with it.

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The problem, we don’t punish our corrupt officials. I got this text yesterday from a British friend, retired from the commission against corruption in Hong Kong: “In clean countries, the corrupt are shunned, ostracized, rejected, humiliated, and incarcerated. In RP, we invite them to golf tournaments.”

It is the leadership. That is why I hope the Bishops and civil society keep on the pressure. Let us shame them in public.

There were only two times something was stolen from me. One stole one bag of feeds from my poultry. I had him arrested, handcuffed, and toured around to show to others a thief. Then jailed him. He left never to return.

The other stole two bags of my palay. Police also arrested him, handcuffed him and toured him around. He then went home to Iloilo. I never encountered a problem of dishonesty since then.

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I still insist the Filipino is basically honest. Take out the opportunity  because basically there is no desire.

The Reader’s Digest recently made a study of people’s honesty in many countries. They left a cellphone in a mall while they observed at a distance.

Some pocketed the phones. Many looked for the owner. They found out Filipinos are among the honest. Security guards pocketed the phones and refused to return. The rich are not more honest than the poor. In Brazil, I recall, a well dressed, high-heeled, properly coiffed society matron picked up the phone. She refused to return it.

* * *

I have two experiences of honesty. I placed my clutch bag at the hood of my pick-up years ago. It fell and was lost. That afternoon a mother and her 10-year old daughter  came to the house bringing my clutch bag. They were from Kilometer 11 outside of Sum-ag. They saw my name and brought it home. I gave them the cash and thanked them. I promised to send the girl to school. I paid for her four years in high school.

She didn’t go to college. She married.

The other one was at home. When we transferred to Seaside Subdivision in Tangub from Homesite in 1981, the clothes hanging in our clothes line were stolen. The following morning I went to the shore area where I knew the boys there because they always would come to me for whatever help.

I complained about the stolen clothes, telling them, “I thought we are friends.” One said, the clothes would be returned. That afternoon all the clothes that were stolen were returned.

It’s now about 30 years that we have stayed in the place. Never even once did one come in to steal something. Of course, I have good fences. And dogs.

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Let us accent the positive. I have always saluted the Christian businessmen of Bacolod spending money to put up billboards and signages of “Be Honest: Even if others are not, cannot, and will not.”

We should spread the Gospel, the Filipino is honest. Then let us ostracize, ignore, humiliate, reject, and jail the dishonest. Honor is the Pass Word. Honor is at the center of honesty.

On Feb. 23, 1525 – that’s 453 years ago tomorrow – French King Francis I lost and was captured in the decisive Battle of Pavia against Charles V. Francis wrote his mother, “All is lost except my honor.”

Miguel Cervantes’ Don Quixote de la Mancha, the Knight of Sorrowful Countenance (El Caballero de la Triste Figura) is not a fool though satirically featured as one out of his mind. He tells his sidekick Sancho Panza, “My honor is dear to me than my life.”

I like this poem from Rupert Brooks: “Honor has come back, as a king to earth,/ And paid his subjects with royal wage;/ And  Nobleness walks in our way again,/ And we have come into our heritage.”

Cheers to the Pinoy! Honesty is his heritage.*

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