I’m a huge Bob Ong fan. I love his first two books, ABNKKBSNPLKo! and Bakit baligtad magbasa ng libro ang mga Pilipino?, and everytime I open either of them up, I feel renewed and nostalgic. As I’ve mentioned before in this blog, I love Bob Ong’s writing style and his comic sidetrips. I simply adore it when he tries to make us see a serious flaw in our society but hides it ingeniously in a joke. I think he lives with the mantra that Pinoys are really, really, happy people so perhaps, he tries to joke his way around to get his message across. 

His 6th book, Macarthur, is not a collection of stories, jokes or essays from the internet like the way his previous books are patterned. Neither is it about Bob Ong’s supposed life experiences. This time, the book ventures more into the sad realities of being poor and underprivileged in the country via Voltron, Jim, Noel and Cyrus’ tupsy-turvy lives. Yes people, Bob Ong has sunk his teeth into writing non-fiction.

Macarthur, as in General Douglas McArthur of WWII, is actually about human feces, well at least for me in it’s lightest sense. But if you dig deeper into the story, it’s not just about Voltron’s feces or the regurgitated food in his throat: the book is about breaking the bad habits that we do over and over again. For some, breaking the rules is fun but if you break the LAW, get in jail and hurt others in the process, that’s misdemeanor.

We’ve heard stories about dirty and indecent policemen who take care of certain snatchers, robbers and some other hooligans only to set them loose on the streets and loot innocent bystanders. These policemen would then act to chase or imprison these criminals but in truth, they get a share in their bounty. Of course, policemen are just small fry when compared to the big time thieves: public officials. But let me make it clear: stealing in any way is still bad, whether you steal from the streets or from the national treasury. Either way is evil and should not be tolerated.

But the ills of our society do not end with theft, drugs, unemployment and poverty. It includes our social, justice, political, economic and agricultural systems. When I look at these things, the solution I think of is rather inappropriately simple: initiating the change within ourselves first. Yeah, I know, cliche, cliche…but what else can we do? People Power has long been drained of it’s convincing capabilities, impeachment, The Office of the Ombudsman and the Blue Ribbon Committee are just practical jokes and the Genuine Opposition is a paradox! I mean, really, what other things can we think of to solve our rotting core systems? And remember, Philippines is the MOST CORRUPT in Asia this year. It may seem a small solution and an incomprehensible one at that, but it seems to make a lot more sense than to give our continued support to the crackpots up in Congress.

This is what I feel whenever I read a Bob Ong book; vigilant and overly conscious and concerned about the country. Although his last four books, including this one, are not as funny as his first two, I still love Bob Ong’s efforts to reach out and appeal to our patriotic senses. Even with his small and unassuming books, the man tries his best to help and encourage us to do better for the nation. And I second his motion.