‘Kapalmuks!’ SHAMELESSNESS, A NEW SOCIAL PLAGUE

By Manny Pinol

“Kapalmuks!”

This was the first reaction posted by a follower of this page in the previous story where Senator Ramon Revilla, Jr., who has been indicted for plunder along with two other senators, was reported to have dismissed calls for his resignation.

The reaction, posted by Desi Rose Mapalo, embodies the feelings and sentiments of almost every decent Filipino who still embrace the old Filipino value of “delicadeza” as Revilla and his ilk dug in, thickened their skins and shamelessly ignored the demands of the people for them to resign.

Last night, I almost fell off my seat when I heard the reaction of Revilla to the resignation calls. He said he was leaving his fate to God.

Invoking the name of the Lord to profess innocence in a crime which even a 6th grader now fully understands and appreciates is the worst form of blasphemy.

“Kapalmuks” or Shamelessness has indeed become a new social malady which, left unchecked, could turn this nation into a country of thick-skinned people who would and could lie, cheat, steal and kill without any feeling of guilt or shame.

What led to the spread of this social epidemic which threatens the moral fiber of this nation?

I believe it is the permissiveness, the indifference, the hypocrisy and the distorted sense of success that we all have displayed over the years which bred this disease.

This started in the homes, the schools, the churches, the media and later perfected in politics.

In the homes, when parents favor one child over another, they effectively distort the neglected child’s sense of fairness and justice.

In the schools, when teachers themselves tell young athletic competitors to lie about their age so they could win in the age-group athletic competitions, the children embrace a flawed appreciation of success.

The Philippine Little League Baseball team which won the world championships but which was stripped of the honor after journalist Al Mendoza exposed that some members of the team were teenagers and not boys was the perfect example of how the elders among us have injected the wrong formula of success into the minds of the young.

I remember that story because Al Mendoza, the baptismal godfather of my second daughter Josa Bernadette, was crucified for what he did and was called a spoiler and anti-Filipino.

When I was younger, our teachers in the public schools who wanted to win the School’s Achievement Test taught us how to cheat to be able to help the academically poorer students to have a better score in the tests to prop up the school’s average grade.

In the Catholic Church, when our top prelate declares that he does not care if the money comes from Satan for as long as it helps the Church in spreading the Gospel, a crooked sense of morality is spawned.

The media also contributed to this disease by glorifying criminals and portraying them as misunderstood heroes. One TV channel, for example, continued to show Revilla’s “Kap’s Amazing Stories” even when the evidence of his involvement in the pork barrel scam has become incontrovertible.

The media also could be held responsible for the corruption of the minds of the young.

Please do not get me wrong because I have nothing against homosexuals – gays and lesbians – but when the TV stations promote homosexuality and encourage young girls to gyrate on TV as sexy dancers, they all contribute to the moral confusion.

But the worse form of moral corruption is at the higher level of politics.

Cheating? That’s par for the course. Stealing? Everybody’s doing it. The general attitude is “Prove it if you can. Jail me if you could!”

Hypocrisy is the rule of the game in politics.

How do we explain it to the young Filipinos when the Philippine Vice President exerts all efforts to save a Filipino drug mule sentenced to death in China?

“Ano ba talaga ang tama Kuya?”

A drug mule caught in China must be helped and saved while the small time drug pushers here in the country are liquidated by vigilante groups?

Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla are indeed “Kapalmuks” for hanging on to their posts like leeches even in the face of mounting evidence against them.

Thick-skinned and shameless indeed!

But is it not worth asking ourselves: Have I not contributed to the spread of this social plague?