IF I WERE THE NEXT PRESIDENT (Part 14 of a series)

By BEN R. PUNONGBAYAN

Founder, Buklod National Political Party

In the earlier parts of this Commentary Series, I dwell on the more important reforms and actions that the government must do to make the lives of the Filipino people much better, achieve higher economic growth and improve public governance.

To help achieve all these goals and maintain and sustain such achievements, it is necessary that the Filipino people themselves imbibe some essential cultural values that we still have yet to acquire.

The first among these values is giving respect to the rights of others. We tend to assert strongly our own rights but conveniently forget that the fellow citizens we live with have also the same rights.

When we break into a waiting line, we are blatantly ignoring the rights of others. When we drive against the flow of…