Gone are the days when “hiya” was a powerful moral force in the life :of the Filipino society. To borrow the word of President Marcos in the 4th state-of-the-nation address (SONA), that the controlling moral guide, equilibrium, if you will, has vanished from the imagination of the Filipino people, especially among its leaders.
There was time when “hiya” was an important theme in education. As a Filipino concept ,“hiya” embraces the complex interaction of shame, propriety, dignity and self-respect in human conduct, privately and publicly, perhaps more importantly in public conduct.
So, it’s no surprising that the President, in his message to the nation as he finished the first half of his term,invoked “hiya” , not just as a panacea as genuine rubric to deal with what morally ills the nation, or its leaders.
He was honest, straightforward, unequivocal about what is necessary today: magkaroon naman sana tayo ng hiya.
Specifically, he blamed the flooding woes and miseries suffered by a great swath of the populace to the collapse of dikes and other flood control infrastructures for the unprecedented devastation. The absence of “hiya”is zeroed in as the cause of the collapse and those whose hands are dirty in corruption will pay a heavy price sooner than later.
The President’s resolve to do what it has to uncover those behind the failure of flood control infras cannot be doubted as no longer the
Executive Secretary said heads will roll or will be published nationwide. as the President announced , in days or weeks, not months.
For a while, the immediate impression on this new tack against corruption I government was triggered also by at least two rumored scandals affecting two branches of the government, the Senate and the Supreme Court. There is an unauthorized insertion in the 2026 budget that needs an explanation.
The President has vowed to scrutinize the new budget that will he sign forthwith. The decision by the SC practically stopping the impeachment trial of the Vice President has been highly criticized by prominent legal luminaries for being based on wrong, even false, legal grounds, if not issuing suddenly new doctrines in contravention of existing jurisprudence by the SC no less.
The vlogging community has been broadly discussing the alleged transactional activities of people in high places who could be behind these latest travesties or criminal acts. In fairness, the President has stopped short of naming names as possible suspects. In the meantime, there are media stories that validate those possibly involved or in the know and are hard to ignore.
In the meantime, five well known top officials were absent, for one reason or another, from the President’s SONA, described as the President’s best yet. Namely, there was Vice President Sara Duterte, the President sister-senator, Imee, and the other three pro-Duterte senators Bato, Padilla, and Go, not necessarily in that order.
Of course, it is easy why they did not attend the SONA. First off, there’s politics:Duterte , their principal and raison de etre, is still languishing in the International Criminal Court (ICC) as his foreign lawyers are moving heaven and earth for his interim release. Ditto, for the Veep, apart from getting a break from the SC which, pundits say, exposes the President”s political weak side: translation: being a lame duck. Second off, the five top officials must have forgotten their official functions as leaders of the nation.
Intentionally, the clear objective is to minimize the President and ignore what he has to say that can only redound to the nation’s good.
It’s gratifying to note that President was honest enough to admit its ow meal culpas, as the youth unmistakably showed its huge disapproval during the last election. It is good that the government is doing its best to do better. How so, by its litany of achievements and performances which the five officials could have remarked on a subsequent combined SONA after all. No President is ever perfect.
By his encouraging promises and avowed achievements, the President hopes to bring the Philippines in his last three years in office to a better place in the international arena, mainly because of a bragging right of a new Filipino who’s best for the world not only in talent, skill but ln courage.s
But like the American poet Robert Frost the President has miles to go before he sleeps, so to speak. One of them is for the nation to resurrect “hiya” in the daily life, especially those whose lives involves public trust. The next few weeks ,not months, will show the President’s courage and determination in his commitment and passion in this direction.
How the Senate and the Judiciary and other branches of government will respond to his trenchant call for “ she” as a standard in governance and justice will be measured by social thinkers. How he will bring the perpetrator of the 100 missing sabungeros to justice is another milestone that should galvanize his call to decency an dignity in public life.
Regardless of his earlier commitment not to meddle in the vice president’s impeachment case, the President must still ensure that the Constitution is followed, given what seems to beset it along the way, including political pragmatism.
Ultimately, charity begins at home. The President’s sense of “hiya” should manifest itself in how the President and his family respond to the lingering call for accountability to the Filipino people which the judiciary and other branches of government had earlier decided they clearly should, if truly they mean business.
In other words, the talk calls for the walk. Or the whole idea of hiya”is a call in the wilderness.
