I finally got to read the TIME magazine issue about Asian Heroes. When I first flipped through it in the bookstore, I was disappointed to see that there was no one to represent the Philippines. Then again, I couldn’t really think of anyone to represent our country. So, I read the issue and read the ones that attracted my attention, the Taiwanese pop star that bridged political gaps, the Japanese cartoon character, the William Gibson article about the Japanese actor, the one about Jackie Chan, and the intro about the little boy defending his water buffalo. After leafing through it a third time, I finally read the editorial box and was surprised to find out that there was an article about someone in the Philippines.
As it turns out, our “hero” isn’t even Filipino. He’s an American living somewhere in Visayas and he’s a bookie for jueteng and he was considered the “hero” of the islands because he brought hope to hapless lives of the people.
And again, I thought there must be someone better to represent heroism in the Philippines. And I really couldn’t think of anyone. We don’t even have a fictional character like Doraemon that cuts across the age barrier and brings a smile to the weary Filipino worker.
Like most of what the Filipino looks up to, even our so-called “hero” is imported.
And I can’t really think of a politician or even a celebrity that has done anything significant in the past year or so. (And considering the number of celebrity-politicians there are I this country, that’s already a lot.) We don’t have any social worker, NGO leader or some priest in some barrio that has made a mark.
I guess they’re out there. Doing their little deeds. “Low wattage heroism” is what TIME called it in the introduction of their special Asian Heroes section.
But we need an icon. Every now and again, people need to rally around someone or something. And when we lack these icons, these heroes, sometimes we settle for the next best (or worse) thing.