JULY 3 - 9, 2009
Mabuhay
LINGGUHANG PILIPINO MULA PA NOONG 1980
3
Depthnews
J
UAN
L. M
ERCADO
We owe Cory
Regarding Henry
H
ENRYLITO
D. T
ACIO
Cebu Calling
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OY
C
IMAGALA
Spiritual and moral auditingTo forgive and forget
FAMILY chitchat over dinnerfaded when evening news’ cam-eras panned on the frail lady. Sup-ported by children, a visibly-thin-ner Corzaon Aquino gingerlyshuffled to the hospital elevator.She started, this month, her lat-est clash in a year-and-half long battle with colon cancer..Corazon Cojuangco Aquino isnow 76. Like many daughters of the landed rich, Aquino gradu-ated from the best schools hereand abroad. She became the firstwoman president of the Philip-pines, as well as in Asia. In thatrole, she has won numerous hon-ors from the Freedom Award tothe Ramon Magsaysay annualhonor for governance.For ordinary Filipinos, like us,Cory was more. We saw her as the quietwoman whose husband, Benigno Aquino, now a national hero, hadbeen jailed, then murdered by thedictatorship.“Ninoy? He’s nobody. AndCory? She’s just a woman,”Ferdinand Marcos sneered, as.people pressed her to challengethe dictator. . “And the place of AUDITING need not only be fi-nancial. More important than fi-nancial, it should be done toverify the spiritual and moralconditions of our life. Are we ingood shape? Are we aware of theproblems? Are we already think-ing of the appropriate solutionsand remedies?This spiritual and moral au-diting is done mainly through theexamination of conscience, whichwe should try to do regularly, if not daily, just before going to bed.It will give us a good picture of our spiritual life, monitoring itsdevelopments and challenges,and defining its directions forgrowth and fruitfulness.More importantly, it gives anoccasion to say sorry to God, topatch up things with him and tobegin again. It’s where the theo-ries of spirituality are poised topractice, where desires are posi-tioned to action.The examination of conscienceis a wonderful tool for our spiri-tual maintenance, where we do a little tweaking here and there, a little tightening and oiling of thedifferent parts of our life, a little“SEAT number C21 … ,” I readmy seat number. It wasn’t easyto decipher from the nowcrumpled and soggy stub. I wasglad –at least I thought– to aban-don the purgatory of a waiting lounge whose air-conditioning unit got busted. I was, however,totally dismayed to find myself ina much worse condition as a dense humid Amazonian curtainof humanity –a mixture of co-logne, perfume, deodorants andsweat– greeted me as I enteredthe plane whose air-conditioning wasn’t yet on.I waded through the obstaclecourse of people crammed in thenarrow aisle. They seemed lost ina jungle of sweaty arms, luggagestraps and multi-colored plasticbags. It’s amazing how we Filipi-nos literally want to bring every-thing with us whether taking a plane or riding a bus. I guess it’sto save some extra pesos.
Forward to Basics
F
R
. F
RANCIS
B. O
NGKINGCO
‘E-ncompatible’
THE major investors in inte-grated area development (IAD)know what they are looking for,and so it is really a plus to inte-grate planning at the area level,to make it more attractive to thefund sources. The question nowis how to define the scope of theplanning area, and how big itshould be. A new trend in IAD planning follows the mindset that the uni-verse of the plan should be thenatural biosphere that encom-passes the area being planned;including of course all the lands,mountains, waterways, air spaceand watersheds around it. Thisapproach departs from the oldpractice of planning along artifi-cial political boundaries that werecreated by national laws.It is my good fortune to haveknown top officials in local andinternational development orga-nizations, and I am getting tomeet more contacts now becauseof my TV show. Putting two andtwo together, it is now very logi-cal and practical for me to bring these officials and contacts to-gether, so that they could all sup-port IAD planning, using of course the biosphere approach.It seems that we often takeIAD planning for granted. We of-
Fair & Square
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self-motivating exercise for ourtired if not harassed selves. We cannot deny the fact thateven without major trials andsins, we need to do some regularcleaning of our spiritual life. Ev-erything else needs that—ourbody, the car, the garden, ourtables, our cabinets, etc. Withoutthis frequent dusting and wiping,things just pile up into a mess. We always collect dirt all day long. And these days when we aresubjected to so many competing elements, we cannot deny the factthat we have to contend with anenvironment whose spiritual andmoral ecology is complicated, if not downright polluted. Precisely,the complicated and confused aircan unleash and create more de-forming factors.Even our most civilized meth-ods of communication areswamped with twisted and dis-torted values. If we are not care-ful, we would unknowingly im-bibe these contaminated values,slowly building up a disaster thatcan explode sooner or later. We have to be more sensitiveto our need for examination of conscience. In it, we put ourselvesin the presence of God, who is a father to us, ever understanding and quick to forgive, and whogives us light to see things objec-tively. When done well, we can seethe roots of our problems, andcan have an idea of what to dowith them. We should never re-main only in the level of symp-toms. And solutions and anti-dotes, one way or another, arealways available to our problemsno matter how difficult they are.It’s amazing that if throughthe examination of conscience wemanage to micro-manage ourspiritual life well, always coming up with prompt resolutions nomatter how small they are, thenwe can really take giant steps inour spiritual life. Impossibledreams, like chastity, become a throbbing reality.Truth is we just cannot allowourselves to go namby-pamby inour lives, letting ourselves to driftto any direction our moods, feel-ings and instincts may take us. We need to be quite serious, put
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It was a pity to see shorterpassengers sink into the quick-sand of humanity and fortunatelyrescued by a stewardess putting on her best “trying-hard-not-to-ruin-her-make-up-smile.” Otherswere less lucky after being squashed by baggage compart-ment traps that spew its contentsactually belonging to passengerssitting elsewhere.“C18…, C19…, C20…, C…?”I was surprised to see C21 alreadyoccupied. I quickly grabbed mystub to verify. The people behindme grumbled when they felt I wasdelaying the flow. The almostfaded letters read: C21. To topthis all the entire row next to theEXIT hatch was occupied by onlytwo people. Next to the EXIT wasa lady, and beside her was anenormous gelatinous gentlemansnoring his way to Netherland ashis excess vibrating mass oozedinto my seat.“Ed, you’re engulfing myseat!” I already classified theoversized protozoan-of-a-walrusbasking on two seats.“Huh, wuzzup?” Ed camearound when the woman gavehim a stab in between one of hislayers. She was lucky enough tostill pull out her elbow intact. Irealized Ed didn’t recognize mesince I was wearing my “barong”and not my usual black clericalattire. “Oh, [SNORT] it’s you,Fathu Francis! This is indeed a pleasant surprise!”“Yup, but always in the sametight situations, Ed. Mind if Itake my seat?”I had second thoughts aboutputting my bag in the overheadcompartment. I relented uponseeing a dozen items randomlydangling out of its gap: shoelaces,camera and Velcro straps, rubberbands, etc. Ed’s things were ob-
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ten presume that local govern-ment units (LGUs) would haveIAD plans and that they are prob-ably implementing these whetherwe know it or not. The truth is, if we do not know or hear about it,there are probably no such plansat all. After interviewing hundredsof local mayors, I arrived at theconclusion that they are not ableto plan for the development of their local jurisdictions, becausethey have no money to beginwith. They would often gripeabout the fact that their internalrevenue allocation (IRA) is toosmall, that is if they have notheavily borrowed against it yet. Almost traumatized by whatI heard, I have always kept myeyes and ears open for a possiblesolution to their problem. Per-haps due to good fortune again, Iactually found not just one, butfive solutions to their problems.The only challenge now is how toconvey this good news to them.The Local Government Code(LGC) allows LGUs to enter intoBuild-Operate-Transfer (BOT)infrastructure projects under theBOT Law (R.A. 7718). The BOTscheme does not require anymoney on the part of the LGUs,
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Integrated area development
women is in the bedroom”“A nation of 60 thousand cow-ards and two sons-of-bitches”,was how a U.S. senator describeda Philippines then. Murder,threats and bribes of what Imelda Marcos boasted was the “NewSociety chained us” — until Corystood up.Then, ordinary Filipinos rosetoo. And People Power spilledover into similar non-violent up-risings: Czechoslovakia’s “VelvetRevolution”, the “Cedar Revolt”of Lebanon and Ukraine’s “Or-ange Revolution”.Filipinos thrust Malacañang on her. And unlike FerdinandMarcos, Joseph Estrada and nowGloria Macapagal Arroyo, shedidn’t scheme to retain power. When her term ended, she re-turned to her modest home onTimes Street, untainted bysleaze.“What is the price of a valiantwoman?” asks the Book of Prov-erbs. “Her value is far beyondpearls.” We owe Cory. Distracted bypolitical leeches, we’ve forgottenhow much that IOU is. And ordi-nary families, like ours, join oth-ers in prayer for her. Perhaps, it’dbe useful to re-read, as I havethese past days, what she had tosay of the country today:“Why did (People Power) hap-pen?,” she asked in 2000 when a corrupt Estrada administrationseem entrenched. “How did ithappen? … When did the Filipi-nos decide — each one alone andwithout prodding — that it wasnow or never?“Suddenly, they were there,standing tall like Ninoy, as hewent down the stairs to his deathbecause it is better to die in thatposture than to go on living on your knees … To such questions,I will not even try to give an-swers. (These) are known alreadyto those who actually lived them.…“Inside all true Filipinos is a sense that there is a point beyondwhich wrongdoing can not be al-lowed to go on: that point is whenthey will take action. Hence, theinstantaneous reaction to thosefew simple words: Tama na.Sobra na. Palitan na.
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JONATHAN (not his real name)came from a very poor family.There were seven of them in thefamily and he was the eldest. Hisfather was a farmer while hismother used to wash clothes of their neighbors. He wanted tofinish his studies, get a course,and find a good job.Mario (again, a fictitiousname) was the only son of a wealthy family. Whatever hewanted, he could have it. He hada nanny who took care of him. Hedidn’t worry about his futuresince his father owned a big busi-ness.The two crossed their pathwhen they were in high school.It was an exclusive school, where Jonathan was a working student.He worked as janitor and was a student at night. Oftentimes, hewent home famished. But despitethis, he still managed to be oneof the top students.Mario, on the other hand, wasvery popular among ladies be-cause he was very handsome.However, he was always defeatedby Jonathan when it comes toacademic. Mario didn’t like theidea of not graduating as classvaledictorian; so he told his fa-ther about it. The father went tothe administration and talk withthe faculty. As expected, Mario was chosenas class valedictorian althoughtheir classmates knew that itshould have been Jonathan. Itwas not the honor that Jonathanwas after but the scholarship thatwent along with being a valedic-torian.But life went on. Jonathan at-tended a not-so-popular college,where he met Alice, the womanwho loved him despite his being poor. As fate would have it, Mariocourted Alice but her heart al-ready belonged to Jonathan. When Mario learned about shehad chosen Jonathan over him,he fumed.In retaliation, he kidnapped Alice. At their beach house, heraped her several times. She wasstabbed to death but survived.Despite what had happened toher, Jonathan still married Alice.Today, the happily marriedcouple is blessed with three chil-dren. When asked if he has alreadyforgiven Mario of what he and hisfamily had done to him, Jonathanreplied, “Yes, a long time ago. Thehatred I had for him was buriedwhen I married Alice. ”Had someone not asked him,he would have not rememberedit at all. Henry W. Beecher wasright when he said, “Forgivenessought to be like a cancelled note,torn in two and burned up, sothat it never can be shownagainst the man. ”If we forgive someone, shouldit be quick and fast? Or should ittake time to heal all wounds?“Forgiveness is not act – it is a process,” explained David Augsburger, author of The Free-dom of Forgiveness. “It is not a single transaction – it is a seriesof steps. Beware of any view of instant, complete, once-for-allforgiveness. Instant solutionstend to be the ways of escape, of avoidance, or of denial, not of for-giveness.“Forgiveness takes time – timeto be aware of one’s feelings, alertto one’s pain and anger, open tounderstand the other’s perspec-tive, willing to resolve the painand reopen the future,” he added.It is not easy to forgive, muchless to forget the wrongs theother person had done to you.Our tendency is to revenge: aneye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.“We are most like beasts when wekill,” someone reminded. “We aremost like men when we judge. Weare most like God when we for-give. ”In some instances, we can for-give someone but not totally for-get. “Forgiving and forgetting arerelated,” pointed out Americantheologian Frank Stagg, “but
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