Harry Roque and the Temple of Char!

Harry Roque is quite a conundrum. A brilliant human rights defender on the one hand but a seemingly cunning political sell-out on the other. Even his own sexual identity remains an enigma. Some call him Harry while others, Reyna.

But whatever his or her or their preference is, that should not be an issue. If he is gay, he should be proud. That’s who he is. The fact that he seems he is, although ostensibly he’s not, is a bit of a paradox that people naturally love to make a big fuss about. That’s understandable. But that is not really the concern.

I don’t really know Roque personally and I couldn’t care less about his gender preference. It is how he publicly immerses himself in politics that intrigues me.

For how can an advocate and a public international expert become so entangled with the system that the moment he throws his hat in the political arena he becomes outright different? The answer is corruption.

Now, I am not saying he is unscrupulous. In fact, there are far more solid indicators he might be gay than corrupt, which is fabulous by the way. The point is that the system is so venal that becoming part of it means a lot of compromises, which may include sacrificing one’s principles.

Honestly, I’ve seen quite a lot of people who want to change the system only to become the system themselves. You see, the thing about corruption is that it’s more of a cultural reality than some collateral nuisance that can be abated just like that. It’s embedded in our collective DNA.

Just because we elect the best candidate doesn’t mean it goes away. Running a campaign is so expensive that one becomes heavily indebted to guileful business and political groups that supported him or her in office. One has to make concessions in the process and at best, turn a blind eye, too.

The fact that we have a weak political party system surely exacerbates this. As politicians don’t stand on party principles, they tend to become a bunch of opportunists disguised as public servants, whose idea of public service is confined within the ambit of lip service.

This is why I don’t buy this good-versus-evil narrative peddled by some during elections. There is so much complexity here that even leftist activists who become part of mainstream politics tend to be corruptible, too. You see, even they have red flags.

Ours has always been a degenerate habit of patronage and accommodation. If you want things done, you have to either bribe or look for connections. Everything is for sale, including government posts and projects. Even simple government transactions have fixers.

There is so much red tape that the law has actually created this Anti-Red Tape Authority precisely to address that. In fact, a friend of mine once filed a complaint with the said agency since his local government unit could not process his application promptly. Turns out the said office also takes time to process his complaint.

Everyone given the opportunity is corruptible. As we no longer place a premium on honesty and integrity, we tend to embrace personality-based politics. Surely, there are those who pretend to see the light. But even they, at the end of the day, are blinded by their own delusions, thinking everything is black and white, forgetting about shades of gray.

So yeah, Roque is not an exception. Not even a unicorn. He is a paradigmatic embodiment of what is wrong in the system. He is like the rest of them. The only exception is Richard Gordon. But that’s only because he’s a Dick!