We have been of late bombarded by alarming news on massive corruption in government, wanton acts of criminality and natural disasters exacerbated by the incompetence of our leaders. Surely these onslaughts to our senses would provoke our youth into “doing something about it”.

Apparently, it does not.

So I talked to the ordinary “man on the street” that I meet in the course of my travels; from taxi drivers, restaurant waiters, vendors, house-helpers, hotel employees and ordinary wage earners.

They were more engaged and surprisingly well informed on the issues at hand. A favorite topic was Napoles and the corrupt senators, the “pork barrel” but more interestingly the latest VP Binay saga of “alleged corruption exposes”. Although these cases have not yet gone to court, the people I talked to have already discounted the “alleged” part of the equation. Most have already drawn their conclusion that VP Binay did all these and more. But now comes the astonishing part which can be encapsulated in the following statements:

“Pare-pareha lang yan silang lahat magnanakaw at corrupt. Yung mga senador nag-i-imbistiga sa senate hearing ganun din yun. Pero si Binay, parang si ERAP yan, matulungin sa mga katulad naming pobre.”(They are all thieves and corrupt. The senators doing the investigating in a senate hearing likewise.But Binay, like ERAP (fmr. Pres. Estrada) is helpful to the poor like us)

Certainly the response of the latter group does not suggest ‘apathy’ towards Binay, although a case can be presented as ‘apathy’ towards the corruption and perforce other ills of society.

Gleaning from all these, and the fact that Binay still leads in the polls, one can’t help but toy with the idea that the masses of our people will tolerate corruption (or simply apathetic) if the political leadership is perceived to share the fruits of corruption. This is a scary thought.

Analogous to this is the appalling notion that our people may already be calloused to the concept of change and reform in the system. Perhaps the insensitivity of our leaders is way too apparent and is the endpoint to all that is happening in the realm of Philippine politics.

It may have already set in that a politician in the Philippines delves into public office for two reasons: to get elected and to get re-elected. Problems in the country are multiplying if not, worsening due to our leaders who simply cannot practice integrity and social responsibility. The effect is public mistrust and “Public mistrust also breeds political apathy.”

The characterization of John Dos Passos, an American novelist could be apt:

Apathy is one of the characteristic responses of any living organism when it is subjected to stimuli too intense or too complicated to cope with. The cure for apathy is comprehension.

The last sentence could give a hint of a resolution. Perhaps what is deficient is the comprehension of the ‘masa’ on the state of affairs of the country, the causes of their poverty, the dysfunctional practice of our “democracy” and the perverted system. Certainly civic & political education can mitigate apathy.

A more succinct definition is proffered by another American author and social activist Letty Pogrebin:

Apathy is the self-defense of the powerless.

Thankfully there is a band of committed youth and political technocrats who take on the responsibility of empowering the masses enlightening them on their capabilities.

They are a new breed of Centrist Democrats.