A peek into Jun Lozada’s mind

Last Tuesday, I went up to Silang to speak at the Synergeia annual retreat. My topic is “Community Organizing” as it applies to EFA. My voice was still hoarse, and when they asked for the reason, I joked that I had stayed up all night listening to Jun Lozada’s confession.

That drew some laughter, and instant advice: “Start your talk with that.” It seemed that Jun Lozada was the hot topic for the more than 18o education advocates from all over the country.

The strange thing is that I did meet Jun Lozada, but that was long ago, and all we talked about was his excitement about promoting the planting of tuba tuba or jathropa so that upland farmers can get more income while contributing to the country’s need for biofuels.

Little did I suspect that he was also into reviewing foreign-funded projects for NEDA chief Romy Neri, and trying to reconcile competing proposals, including “moderating greed.”

The second time I met him, it was to hear him talk about his struggle to reconcile another set of competing perspectives, of being loyal to his government superiors and being loyal to his conscience.

Since I hardly knew him, having met him only twice, all I could say by way of guidance was the biblical advice “to be pure and simple as a dove, and prudent as a serpent.” Watching and listening to him at the Senate and various interviews, I can only imagine the inner turmoil that is reflected in his face.

Over the weekend, I received an e-mail which was sent to a few other addresses. The sender used the interesting name “sinosirizal.” That’s the give away that it came from Jun Lozada, though the e-mail message was unsigned.

I am posting that email, because it gives us a peek into his mind, beyond the NBN-ZTE scandal, and the brouhaha about his abduction:

An appeal to our Patriotic Countrymen
It is time to move

“Once you achieved your aim of destroying the system you fought against, do not leave a single trace or else the bad habits that were formed during the period of the dysfunctional system and which still remains in the heart and mind of the people, shall nurture this remnant and allow it to come back in a more vicious form.”

This is one of the three conditions set forth by our beloved hero, Jose Rizal, this condition captures the framework of action and shall act as the guiding principle in any post game scenario that must be formulated as part of the preparation to undo this brazenly corrupt regime.

But before we consider any action to take, it is a must to first address the concerns and arguments of other individuals and sectors that I believe are critical in creating a broad based support for such an action.

The Arrogant Mindset – first of which are the purveyors of the Perversity issue whose main contention is that taking action may simply result to a more seriously worsened scenario than the present one we are against with. This is typified by remarks such as “any action against the administration will only result to anger and chaos in the street, a situation that can be taken advantage of by ideologically and militarily cohesive groups such as the CPP/NPA or the Right Wing military groups, which will be bad for the economy and will only worsen the already bad situation.” Let me warn you to look out for this arrogant mindset, it is arrogant because it is their view that the universe is totally predictable, and that they are capable of knowing ahead all the unforeseen both the intended purpose and unintended consequences of such purposive social action. It is a fact that no person has been endowed with such gift that borders on the Divine.

The Insulting Mindset – Second are the believers of the Futility issue, whose main contention is that any action taken will simply result in the same thing we are fighting against. This is typified by remarks such as “Kahit ano pang gawin natin, kahit sino pang ilagay mo dyan, pareho pareho lang ang mga yan! Ganun pa rin ang kalalagyan natin, mangnanakaw din lang ang papalit dyan!” Filipinos who say these words are insulting our entire race, they are condemning all of us as incapable of patriotism and love for one another. It seems that they are the majority now, they may have the numbers, but they are wrong. I’ve always believe that real strength does not come with numbers but it comes with commitment.

The Untrustworthy Mindset – Third are the proponents of the jeopardy issue, whose main contention is that any action taken will be too costly for the intended purpose of removing a morally corrupt administration. This is typified by remarks such as “Hintayin na lang natin hanggang 2010, anyway mahigit 2 taon na lang yan. Baka pag ginalaw yan mas lalo pang masaktan ang ekonomiya at maghirap pa tayo lalo.” These type of statements are usually observed from people who are willing not to do the right action now for fear that they may not have the courage to do what is right in the future. Watch out for people who thinks like this, for they will be the practitioners of the same corrupt practices that you are now fighting against once they are the ones in power.

What alternative action can we suggest?

Take action together– There seems to be a common agenda from among all sectors to eradicate state sponsored corruption in the country, as practiced by the current and her immediate predecessors. This shared goal will be enough to put together a sober and well thought out post scenario plan that will address the concerns of the first group in a more synergistic and certainly with a more chances of success compared to a number of separately conceptualized plan by different independent groups.

Inaction is going to be more expensive both in short term cost and long term goals – The short term cost of this state sponsored corruption is going to be enormous if measured in total peso cost, our quick estimate just for the current Chinese projects will run into tens of billions of pesos. But the more costly and hidden from the public is the long term damage to the government institutions, which will now have a new standard for public service that is “Corruption pays as long you as steal big, only the small gets to jail”. This argument will blow the second and the third groups arguments for not taking action, because it is more costly and it will not be business as usual even if a new group takes over government.

History will vindicate us – The history of our Nation has repeatedly shown that Filipinos do not punish a sitting administration for political and authoritarian misdeeds but rather only upon gross moral transgressions such as exemplified by Rizal’s death by the Spaniards, Moises Padilla’s death from the hands of a Quirino henchman in Negros, Ninoy’s murder from Marcos’ thugs and the Tessie Aquino’s jig from the unsealed envelope in Erap’s Senate. The Filipino people are now being subjected to such gross moral abuse such as the ZTE-NBN deal, the bribery scandal, Garci affair and other outright and blatant lies to the people.

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