True national unity

True national unity

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Politics in our country is seemingly going bananas. Our political life appears to be characterized by political spurts which ultimately lead to disunity.

The political power game now going on is a case in point. We witness the splintering of many political parties and the spreading practice of turncoatism. These result in confusing our already confused people and further illustrate our disunity.

In these times when our country can hardly cope with the difficulties brought by natural and man-made calamities, we should be united and design a common agenda to bring our country back to its feet.

However, a sense of unity must first be initiated by our leaders. They should be the exemplars of unity. The cliche "follow the leader" is native to the Filipino mind. That is why, we fix our attention on our country leaders and whatever they do, we follow. We are not unified as a people because we do not see any unity in our leaders. If only our leaders appreciate a little more the value of unity, we will follow suit and our country will be better off.

Too much politicking causes disunity among our leaders. It blinds their eyes to the general welfare. They become myopic and see only the enhancement of their political careers, not our needs.

When will we ever learn to unite? Many claim that the Filipino people unite when something tragic happens. Thus, we are united and pool our resources to help our countrymen who are victims of coups, earthquake, volcanic eruption and flood. But such a demonstration of unity is artificial. Our country cannot anchor her survival on this kind of unity.

What is imperatively needed is a genuine sense of unity. We should not only be united during natural and man-made calamities, we should practice unity as a way of life.

Therefore, I appeal to our country leaders to show us the way to unity by being united themselves. They are our mirrors. We see ourselves in them. We follow ther examples.


Reginald B. Tamayo
member, Sangguniang Bayan
Aparri, Cagayan