The Philippines is hosting the Miss Universe pageant. Nearly 200 of the world’s most beautiful women—beauty defined, of course, by conventional standards—have descended upon our shores to spread goodwill and help us showcase the best our country has to offer.
The pageant takes place at an interesting time. We will be the first to claim that the Philippines is a beautiful country—in natural resources and the goodness of heart of its people—but several things make us wary about how we are doing the telling.
There is, for instance, an ongoing war on drugs—and on everyone else that appears to be in the way.
Nearly seven months after President Rodrigo Duterte took office, 5,700 people have been killed in the name of this war, and many of them under questionable circumstances. And while the drug menace is prevalent among rich and poor Filipinos alike, it appears the crackdown is skewed toward those who do not have the wherewithal to protect themselves.
And then, the President is known to be hostile towards those who do not agree with his methods. In fact, did he not say we could do without aid and other foreign assistance—even as, much later, he graciously accepted an investment package from Japan and has been cozying up to the Chinese for joint explorations in the South China Sea, disregarding the fact that even the permanent Court of Arbitration found merit in our claim?
Are we ready, too, to share with the world the transport woes our motorists and commuters have to live with every day?
Finally, poverty persists despite steady economic growth every reporting period. Pageantry will not be able to hide the ugly truth of wealth inequality.
Soon many will be caught up in the frenzy of pageantry. This will be a nice distraction from everything that ails us. Unfortunately, distractions are meant to be just that and we will have no choice but to face these ills again. This will not be pretty for a long time, no matter the effort we make in putting a positive spin to our circumstances.
