DEATH OF THE OGRE IN POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE
(Erico Joseph T. Cañete)
EVERY ELECTION TIME, I can’t help but recall the story narrated by Hilarion “Larry” Henares, Jr. years back in his Philippine Daily Inquirer column, “Make My Day.” The story, an apt allegory haunting the culture of belligerence and chaos in Philippine politics, is entitled “The Ogre that Never Dies,”. It reveals a hidden meaning, typically a political or moral one, leaving an impression of what’s going to happen in this forth coming May 12, 2025 mid term election and its succeeding consequences in governance by the elected.
Probably you’ve heard or read varying versions of this story sometime, somewhere. Yet, allow me to recall, modify, narrate and deepen it based on our very own political scenario.
The Story:
A village, once blessed with milk and honey, was haunted and terrorized by an immortal ogre that stole the fruits and bounty of the villagers’s harvest hence disturbing the tranquility of the place. Consequent to the ogre’s belligerence, the chieftain gathered his warriors to fight the ogre. Sadly, the village gradually faced their waterloo as their warriors perished one by one.
This news came into the attention of two great warriors, brothers Abdul and Yossuf. Abdul accepted the challenge and told his younger brother Yossuf that he has all the reasons to avenge his death if he won’t come back fighting the ogre.
A day passed and no news of his brother Abdul. So, Yossuf decided to hunt and kill the ogre to avenge his lost and presumably fallen brother.
As Yossuf fearlessly found, fought and vanquished the Ogre, the latter metamorphosed into the likeness of his elder brother Abdul. It turned out that all the men who came before him including his elder brother Abdul were able to kill the ogre but they all turned into ogre themselves. Yossuf was no different. He, too, became the ogre himself and continued to rule the village.
This is exactly what’s happening to our Philippine politics and governance. We are haunted by our pretended ignorance allowing corrupt politicians use public service as disguise for their insatiable desire for power and materialism. We blind ourselves to do both their evil means to achieve their greedy end. We allow them to corrupt and to vile making them the next ogre in line.
The vicious cycle of the ogre’s existence is not actually immortal. It can be entombed to its finality. It can be defeated not by external forces but by forces within us – that is – responsible enhancement in the exercise of our freedom. It’s a kind of freedom which does not allow us to choose a candidate close to our passion due to monetary favor or political expediency. It’s a freedom which does not corrupt us, that is, choosing one based on integrity, moral ascendancy and, vision for the common good.
Let’s not leave knowledge and freedom hanging on air. The forces within us then constitute knowing what is right, exercising the real essence freedom and, doing or acting in consonance with the dictate of the intellect and will. These virtues kill the ogre’s multiplicity, hedonism, greed, and materialism.
Equipped with this weapon, we can put the ogre to its demise. And only then we can claim the veracity of the maxim “Vox populi, vox Dei – The voice of the people is the voice of God”.