The Philippines has been on a borrowing spree. Sources say our total financial debt has ballooned to more or less P12 trillion, up from the P6.4 trillion debt left behind by the PNoy administration.
And it’s not just our country that is deep in debt; many Filipinos are also buried in debt, especially after many businesses were forced to fold up.
Airline companies are also feeling the pinch, and have negotiated to restructure their loans with their lenders and investors to prevent bankruptcy.
There is also another kind of ‘borrowing’ that is more than just about money. You must have heard of the saying,“We did not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrowed it from our children.”
This belief prods us to consider the present and the future, and not to dwell in the past.
But instead of living just for today, and gratifying our own immediate needs, we should also think about how our current actions could affect the planet and the future generations.
Let’s think of the earth as a house. If we inherited a house to live in, we may think that we can use it as we please. But knowing that we will have to pass this house on to our children, we become more mindful of how we take care of it. By doing the best job possible with our home, and by extension, our earth, we are showing respect for it, and to its future residents.
The phrase “borrowed life” is common to Siquijorians and Negrenses, and is actually commonly used by Filipinos in general. This is related to the thinking that we don’t own our lives. We believe it is owned by our Creator, and that it can be taken back anytime through death like “a thief in the middle of the night.”
I read a book titled Managers not Owners, by William Girao, who says that the Bible “does not refer to our lives as ‘borrowed’. The scripture rather speaks of life as a ‘gift’. Life is given by God, but it is a gift over which the Giver retains sovereign control. Life is a stewardship from God (1 Peter 4:10).
Stewardship in Greek is oikonomia, a combination of two words: oikos, meaning “house” and nomos, meaning “law,” “custom,” “management,” or “administration.”
Literally then, oikonomia, or stewardship, means “management of a house” or “administration of a household”. It entails the “keeping of the law of the house.”
The author Girao continues that in the Bible, the practice of stewardship is seen in the context of ancient Eastern household. The head of an important household normally served the king. He would be on the king’s employ as soldier or administrator. When the king is away, he entrusts the running of the household to a steward. A eunuch (castrated male) is entrusted by the king to keep watch over his harem of concubines.
A steward, therefore, is a person of responsibility and authority.
When the king returns home, the steward is required to give a careful accounting for everything.
The author Girao concludes that in a parallel way, we are stewards of God. For each of us, life is an oikonomia. Everything we have, we received from God (1 Corinthians 4:7). We do not own anything. God owns everything. What we have is ours only to manage for the true Owner.
It would seem then that earth is a gift, at the same time borrowed from our children, our oikonomia.
If the Philippines is a place we borrowed from our children, then the king would be the sovereign people, the voters who will choose the country’s administrator or manager in an election.
We also have to choose our “eunuchs” who will take care of the priced loves and possessions of the Filipino people: the natural resources, democracy, territory, untapped minerals and sources of oil, and our citizens.
Come May 9 this year, we will commission the leaders especially the chief executive officer (President) who will lead our country for the next six years.
While the time may be short for a good steward, it is too long for an irresponsible and incompetent administrator who cannot be trusted in transforming an ailing economy devastated by a pandemic and other natural calamities towards socio-economic development.
Will the candidate be able to lift our people from poverty? Will the person be able think and implement programs to revive our economy, and attract substantial investments for the generation of jobs and employment for many unemployed Filipino, and make overseas employment as a matter of choice, and not of necessity?
Will the candidate be able to ignite the Filipino courage, and marshal the support from our allies to defend our territorial integrity from the intrusion and bullying of a country which illegally exercises control over the West Philippine sea? Will the person be able to free our country from secessionist and subversive elements of our society? Will he/she be able to prevent the country from becoming a banana republic run by narco-politics?
Will the candidate be able enhance the educational status of our people to be ready for the fourth industrial revolution (fire), and at par with other countries in the world labor market?
Will the candidate be able to protect our OFWs from abuses, who have been considered as slaves by their employers, or treated as second class citizens by their host country?
Can the candidate answer most of these concerns without jeopardizing the rights of our citizens and endangering the existence of our democratic institutions?
Will the candidate be able to minimize corruption which is a great menace to our governance?
Do we pay back or pay forward? Because all monetary loans should be paid back, but gifts and some borrowings should be paid forward.
If we have to pay our loans from IMF, the World Bank, or Asian Development Bank, should we not manage them responsibly and religiously?
We are, therefore, challenged to exercise our rights to vote or choose the stewards with much discrimination, for those who have shown by performance and potential that they can be trusted to transform election promises to realities.
Our criteria should be holistic, rational, moral, and encompassing.
Who is your choice?
________________________________
Author’s email: [email protected]
