The word is clemency.

Ah, what a beautiful word. If one were to associate it with a particular human person, that person could partake the beauty of the word. For instance, if one were to say that the President of the Philippines granted executive clemency to a convicted prisoner, the logical conclusion would be that the President has shown a merciful disposition toward that prisoner.

Given that the Philippines is touted as the only Christian nation in Asia, the President or any other Filipino citizen who performs an act of clemency may be perceived as a true Christian because mercy is one of the important teachings of Christianity.

Clemency, therefore, has the potential to paint an image of excellence for the Filipino in the spiritual area. This would be a great consolation, even if the country fails to show excellence in the political and economic areas of governance.

For one fleeting moment, and thanks to the President, the Filipino nation earned a high score in the spiritual area but not necessarily because of clemency. It was when the death penalty was abolished. That one drew the approval of the Catholic Church. Applause.

Whether the abolition of the death penalty proceeded from the noble intentions of a pure heart is something only the doer and his Maker know. The only certain thing about it was that, just like God’s rain that falls on both the righteous and the wicked, it spared the lives of both the innocent and the guilty.

Was it a strategic preparation for a forthcoming string of executive clemency decisions? “The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.” So the song goes.

If the office of the President instructed the Department of Justice and the bureaus under it to review the judicial cases of all poor, unknown prisoners to find out if they were really given fair trial before they were made to languish in jail, and the review resulted in identifying those who were wrongly imprisoned, and recommendations for their pardon were submitted to the President, and the President granted clemency, then the President would certainly have become the epitome of an Asian Christian, and all the rest of the Filipinos would have rejoiced because they, too, would have shared the President’s honorable image.

Lamentably, the Filipinos have not seen something like that happen. And the people may not have the opportunity to see it happen at all, not with the President that they have in 2009, because the President’s current tenure comes to an end in 2010.

What the Filipinos actually see instead is a long list of big-time, big-name, high-profile convicts for the crimes of plunder, rape, and brutal murder walking out of prison by virtue of Presidential clemency.

Perhaps these convicts have consistently demonstrated remorse and repentance for their crimes by means of humble, exemplary conduct during their term in prison, thus deserving recommendation for Presidential pardon.

But surely, there must be hundreds — or thousands perhaps? — of small-time, no-name, low-profile convicts who are equally, if not more, deserving of the same recommendation. Why have they escaped notice by the Department of Justice people? And why has not the President asked the same question?

It is not good to see that the disposition to mercy does not include the poor and underprivileged. These are the people Christian eyes ought to have preferably seen.

Nations with the right attitude and spirit go to the Olympics to make known to the whole world their greatness through the performance of their athletes in different individual and team events they participate in. They don’t go the Olympics merely for demonstrating their spirit of friendliness for that’s politicking, nor for the sake of telling everyone, “Hey, look, we’re participating” for that’s junket. They go there to prove that they, as a nation, are winners. Champions.

And to make sure they have a firm grip on championship, these nations prepare their athletes years in advance, not just inside the four-year waiting period until the next Olympic games. They give them the best trainers and coaches, provide them with the best facilities they can afford, feed them the best health food they could give, and constantly motivate them to be the best. They measure athletes’ training performance against recorded performance in past Olympic games and strive to consistently break the record while on training. They give them the winning form by the time they’re ripe for the Olympics.

The symbol of an Olympic champion is the gold medal. The nations that seek to be champions go for the gold and no other. Well, they know that sometimes they make a haul of silver and bronze medals but that’s not what they want. Silver and bronze are symbols of runners-up, not champions. A nation that goes to the Olympics unsure of its probability of winning gold is better off staying at home and watching the games on TV.

At the end of the games, the nation that gathers the most number of gold medals earns the right to be called the Greatest. We’re talking here of real gold medals, as contrasted with token ones given out for events categorized as “demonstration events”.

For the nation that gathers no real medal at all, what description does it earn?

A hammer in the hand of a good carpenter can build a house; in the hand of a homicidal maniac, it kills. A computer in the hands of a conscientious system designer can put things in near-perfect order; in the hands of a sick hacker or prankster, it spreads chaos. An airplane in the hands of a good pilot takes passengers to their intended destinations; in the hands of terrorists it sends people to their doom. Divide and conquer in the hands of the righteous produces prosperity and well-being for people; in the hands of the corrupt, it erases a country from the economic and political map.

In the bible we find divide and conquer being used to destroy evil. The book of Judges tells us that God drove division into the ranks of Gideon’s enemies by giving the illusion that the person next to them was their foe and caused them to annihilate themselves. In the book of Genesis, God caused division among the proud people building the tower of Babel by making them speak different languages; the breakdown of human communication instantly led to the abandonment of their ambitious and irreverent project.

The Philippines can benefit from the divide and conquer rule when and only when this tool finds itself in the hands of one wise, strong, and righteous leader whose only agenda is to put the country in good shape.

People will recognize him when this leader comes. He has no track record of serious wrongs, no skeletons in his closet; but like the rest of humanity, he has his share of slight human errors. His words are sincere. His actions are good and they match his words. His vision is clear. His plan is transparent.

This person has great talent and wisdom, but his actuations are always humble. He has distaste for monkey business and boot-lickers, but he is open-minded. He has compassion for the underdog but he has a keen eye for winners. He chooses to surround himself with people like himself, and he works through them and with them.

He is not an economist, but he will attract the top economist into his team. He is not a financial genius, but he will get the best and brightest financial talent. He is not a lawyer, but the greatest lawyer he can find he will put on board. He is not a doctor but the cream of the crop in the medical profession he will charge with the health of the nation. He is not a technical guy but he will find a working partner in the most technically qualified person in the land. He is a non-military person, but he will be the greatest commander-in-chief in Philippine history.

When he shows up, the few good men and women among the divided Filipino people must not hesitate to rally behind him. He will not offer rewards, but he won’t forget the contributions of those who support him. He will be strict, yet a joy to be around with.

This is not wishful thinking. God will not create a nation without such a person existing in our midst.

In his time the righteous leader will wield the tool of divide and conquer and drive terror and confusion into the hearts of the corrupt and all their supporters. He will defeat them. He.

When the Philippines is in good shape, truly the nation will achieve, with unprecedented swiftness, true greatness. We can’t say “This nation will be great again”. We have never been there.

A house divided cannot stand, and they knew it. So they brainwashed the Filipinos’ hearts and minds so that, for instance, Ilocanos would scoff at Pampangueños and Bulaqueños, Manileños would have bad blood for Caviteños, Tagalogs would have contempt for Bicolanos and Visayans, Ilonggos would feel superior to Boholanos and Cebuanos, the mestizos would treat brown natives like trash, the privileged high society would have nothing to do with the masses, and the masses themselves would pull down their own kind if any one ever attempted to move up the social ladder.

What for?

Control, brothers and sisters. Control. The erstwhile masters knew that sooner or later, people would complain of the way they were treated and attempt to rebel. They knew that when people are divided, they could not set up a solid opposition group and any plan to rebel would just die a natural death because whoever would lead them had to fight among themselves first. No cause for worry, everything under control.

As the divisive mentality was passed from generation to generation over hundreds of years, time came when there was no need for brainwashing anymore. Divisiveness had become a culture. It ran in the blood of every Filipino.

The wave of foreign invaders who came in after the Spanish instruders had little trouble putting the Philippines under their control. All they had to do was to use the natural divisiveness of the Filipinos to work against Filipinos. Remember the rift between the forces of Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo? Remember the traitors who squealed on the identities of Filipino guerillas during the Japanese occupation in World War II?

We are not under foreign domination anymore. At least not directly.

Today we look like a democracy, and we have (shiver) what Manuel L. Quezon calls “a country run like hell by Filipinos”. Uh-oh, that’s too strong; let me soften it. We have a government that’s poorly managed.

Why is this so?

The one big reason is: we unintentionally elected the wrong public officials by our own lack of agreement over basic things.

For example, some of us care about the quality of candidates for public office, but a great many don’t. Some go into intelligent discussion of the issues that need to be addressed by political candidates, but a great many don’t care at all. Some exercise their right of suffrage, but a great many sell it. Some are not impressed by road construction or repair projects undertaken by incumbent elected officials a few months before election period to make up for years of neglect during their term of office, but a great many fall for it.

Election time or not, majority of our present-day politicians use the tried and tested divide and conquer rule of long ago in order to maintain control and to preserve their power and influence. As we can see, they do get away with it most of the time.

Therefore, divide and conquer is evil. Right?

Not necessarily.

A poet once wrote:
How do I love thee
Let me count the ways…

If every Filipino could only say those lines from the heart, the Philippines we see today would be a much better one.

Sadly, most of mother Philippines’ children seem to be saying, not in words but in deeds:
How don’t I love thee?
Let me count the ways.

The ways are many, but let’s explore a few just to prod us into deeper self-examination.

Philippines, I don’t love thee…

• When I am an employer and I keep two sets of payroll records: one true and one for the show. Show? Yes, show the Department of Labor inspector that I’m in “complete compliance” with minimum wage laws, wage orders, and other labor regulations by reporting heavenly figures. The true record is for my employees to master what they already know: below-minimum wage rate; extended hours with no overtime pay; deductions, authorized and otherwise; their signatures acknowledging that they received their pay and their hopefully correct and existing payslip.

• When I am a clever business person and I am quick to collect payment from my customers and slow — if not negligent — to pay my suppliers.

• When I am a merchant and I cheat my customers by: selling goods with hidden defects; selling defect-free goods which are cold-bloodedly overpriced; using tampered weighing scales so that a sale for 900 grams of rice would look like 1 kilo; selling imitation products and convince the buyer that it’s genuine.

• When I am a government official or employee and I have all the excuses not to attend to the needs of the transacting public unless an envelop stuffed with cash is secretly passed to me first, or “innocently” slid into my ready and waiting partially-opened desk drawer.

• When I arrive late at the receiving counter with a long line of people waiting to be serviced by the teller, and I don’t take my place at the end of the line but instead squeeze myself in at the space occupied by the first person in the line, or else find someone near the front of the queue and request that person to include my transaction with that person’s transaction.

• When I treat the road as the world’s biggest trash box by throwing out of the window of my car food wrappings, fruit peelings, used facial tissue, or any other item I classify as garbage (“What’s the street cleaner for?” I say).

• When I put the volume of my karaoke/videoke unit to maximum and sing to my heart’s delight without regard for the disturbance I cause to my neighbor either from my awful singing, or the offensive volume of sound, or both (This is a free country, I say).

• When I’m a driver and I use one hand and one eye to answer text messages in my cell phone while the car is in motion (I am an expert driver and I can drive with one hand and one eye, I say).

• When I have a habit of being late to work, in appointments, in events wherein my prompt arrival counts.

• When I only want to be served but I am unwilling to serve others; when I only want to receive favors but unwilling give the same; and when I do give service or favors, I do it half-heartedly.

• When I’m a voter and I don’t even care about knowing who the candidates are; or when I’m a voter and I don’t exercise my right to vote; or when I’m a voter and I sell my vote (I’m just being practical, I say).

• When I run for public office and my real agenda are to use my position to feed my ego, to use my power to oppress others, and to use my office to amass private wealth.

• When … etc.

Where’s the love for the Philippines when one Filipino can’t love other Filipinos by showing them the consideration they deserve as fellow human beings? Where’s the love when everybody seems to be saying “I’m merely doing to them what they do to me; I follow the golden rule“?

How can we be in a position to contribute to the progress and welfare of this country when it’s nearly impossible for us to declare with all honesty that we love the Philippines?

Why do our people have the nerve to blame the government alone for the sorry state the Philippines is in, when the root cause of all the ills is the inability of the same people to love their country?