Respect begets respect

Respect is one of the most important virtues of Filipinos that has been passed on by our ancestors to the present generations. Too much respect or the lack of respect shown by people to their family members, relatives, neighbors, community leaders among others reflects the kind of upbringing that they underwent.
It has been observed that the type of respect of individuals to others have been deteriorating because of the obvious influence of the western culture to ours. This resulted to the eventual absence of respect among those in a family, clan, tribe, barangay and spreads all over the place. It is also disheartening to note that even respected professionals, religious leaders and those who have influence in a village or community are now the ones who are showing bad examples of disrespect to lawful orders from concerned government agencies and the different local government.
Let us take the case of a certain heritage foundation composed of a few elite who pretend to be the only ones that care and love Baguio City. It unilaterally proposed the declaration of at least 43 sites in the different parts of the city to be declared as heritage sites without the benefit of public consultations but instead consultation among themselves. It refused to recognize the decision of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) interposing no objection to the implementation of the city hall ground improvement and fencing projects because they still believe in a lame duck boy in the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) which does not event have the contempt powers. Now, the NHCP again came out with a ruling that the Burnham Park is still not a declared heritage site which is again not recognized by the self-confessed protectors of the city from urbanization.
Upon fortunately, we observe that when decisions are favorable to the advocacies of this elite heritage foundation, they tend to support it and even obviously claim credit for such work but if the decision is against their propaganda and advocacy, they blame city officials for their failure to achieve their desired goals and objectives. They want Baguio to go back to its state in the early days. We happen to have seen photographs of how Baguio was in the early 1900s and the 1960s when there was still limited population and fewer motor vehicles. The groups advocating to bring back Baguio to what it was during the early years of its existence should bear in mind that Burnham Park was a grazing area and there were no sufficient number of trees that serve as protection and pollution control mechanisms. The question that we now ask these groups is that are they interested to bring back Baguio to the horses and cows? If the answer is yes, they better have
their psychiatric examination to test whether they are in their right state of their minds. If the answer is no, what then are their recommendations to contribute in addressing the pressing problems of urbanization. We do not need answers of political will but what we need are concrete and doable recommendations from them and for them to start from themselves practicing their own recommendations.
We tend to talk a lot when the problem is already in its alarming stage. We believe we also have to blame ourselves in what our city has been now because we failed to do our part at the right time and at the right placed. Let us not try to reason out for our failure to practice simple things such as segregating our garbage at source, bringing out our waste on time, actively participating in civic-oriented events among others. If we were not able to do these simple things, we surely do not have the credibility to be speaking out against what the government has not done for our people.
Kindly first examine ourselves on what we have time before we open our mouth to lament what is lamentable. Let us first try to look at our face on the mirror and remove the dirt on our face before advocating for others to remove the dirts on their respective faces. Let examine ourselves if we are ready to face the consequences of our acts or take the simple stand of sitting on the sidelines and watching the game clock to expire. Why not come out in the open to do what would be meaningful and helpful in improving the state of the city because we can no longer bring back what was there before. Remember that we are also contributory to the problems of urbanization because of our homes, generated waste, number of children, the type of our lifestyle among others which need not to be detailed. Come on wake up to reality and not just dream about the past.