LOON-SOUTH PTAF PAPER NO. 1

DATE : September 18, 2010TO: Our Respected Loon-LGU Officials: Mayor, Vice-Mayor and members of SangguniangBayanCC: via internetFROM: Arnulfo Y. Laniba, president, Loon-South PTA FederationRE: Appeal for support and cooperation to cope the sad signs of the timesHonorable gentlemen and fellow servants of God and our people:Greetings!I have observed that evils, dangers, and problems have been intensifying.For examples:Two weeks I ago, I went to the beach with my three young sons and a nephew, to practiceswimming and back tumbling.It was morning. Broad daylight.A few meters from us, there were around 8 youths, about 5 of them were girls. I cannot bewrong to say they are high school students.At first, one scene began to disturb us: they buried one of their female friends in the sand,whole body except the head, and drew female sex organ and breasts on the sandcorresponding to the actual locations of these reproductive organs in the body. And then, oneof the boys placed an artificial sand-penis on the artificial female sex organ made on the sand.Since I was reading a book, I did not notice clearly what was in details. One of my boys calledmy attention to it by saying, “Papa, bastos o!” [Father, look, that’s indecent!”]The youths continued to frolic, some of the girls went to the sea to swim.We were only a few meters from them. I was not up for what would happen next.The girls bathed in the waist-deep water. They were actually only about 10 meters from theshore where the boys were drinking some beer.First, one of the girls who were immersed, she must be 15 years old, called the attention of theboys. To our dismay, she was waving her short pants! “She’s on her panties,” must be ourimmediate thought. “Hey, boys,” she shouted while waving it.Her tone was that of trying to let them come over, not just to let them see what she washolding up in the air. My immediate reaction was, “This girl is egat [morally loose].” What followed made my teenage boys howled: the other girl swung her panties up in the air, asif she would not allow the other girls to beat her!Then, as if in competition, they waved their shirts and panties and pants! This meant to saythey were totally naked, saved that they were immersed in the water!I’ve never witnessed such blatant shameless manifestation of the present state of morality ourchildren have already nowadays. I had never known that is how loose the moral is already.I am sad that my fellow parents, who worked very hard to send their children to school andgive them a better future, do not know what is taking place when their adolescent high schoolor college children asked permission to go to the beach with their friends. Or do most of themask permission from their parents? Are not most of them doing things and going places whilethey keep their trusting parents believe them to be in school?I am reminded of what one church is telling parents, quoting the verse from the Songs of Solomon: Do not allow sex desires to be awakened among your children before the propertime.

We, parents, being already experienced, already know that, as much as it is very dangerous,sexual desires are more powerful than the desire to study, desire to eat, desire to drink, toplay, to watch TV, etc. This means to say that this can easily crowd and suppress the desiresand goals that we first want them to fulfill, such as to be doing well in their school and to finallyfinish it with satisfactory performance even with honors, to have first a job and spend years tomake it stable, while they grow in maturity in body, mind and emotion.When sexual stories, texts, pictures, videos, thoughts and desires occupy the front, ourchildren’s priorities will rumble and there is going to be confusion and disorder in their lives –disorder that we, as well-meaning parents earnestly oppose!If, besides from drug addiction, there is one thing we want to prevent to happen in ourchildren, upon whom we place much if not all of our hope, it is them to become “sex addicts” before the right time.We know the results of “pre-mature sex addiction”: teenage pregnancy, school drop, marriagebefore graduation, dependence on parents for the milk of the newborn, etc. As we trace theline farther, we can find worse fruits of promiscuity such as adultery, and the likes.One aunt cried when her only left daughter got pregnant 6 months before graduating from herBS in Computer Science course. Her years of raising pigs and working as part-time house-helpof a neighbor and years of climbing up and down coconut trees to make tuba on the part of herhusband, not to mention the other sacrifices, such as farming, etc.Sex, if not wisely viewed and handled, is a fire – a dangerous fire. It can burn, hence, performdestruction. Much sufferings.One of the sufferings this girl in our story caused, though not with her intention was this: Sinceshe got married even before she could find her first job, she could not financially support heraging parents. In fact, she and her infant has to be partly dependent on the food and income of her parents, noting that her husband, a former school mate, was not yet stable in his job.So, no matter how she and her mother and the other children would tell the old father not toclimb the tall coconut trees anymore, he would not listen, not that he was not yet tired andknee-shaky, not that he did not want to rest. There were two successive storms at that timeand he was told earnestly not to climb the coconut trees. He did not listen.So, in one of those stormy and rainy days, one late afternoon almost to twilight, when thefamily members were gathered in the veranda resting and conversing after a hard day’s work,they heard a sound similar to that of a coconut fruit falling into the ground, but quite muchlouder.They ignored it, thinking it was normal. But it wasn’t. For when one of their neighborshappened to pass by the already darkened spot, he heard a moan, and alas, he saw the oldman lying helpless and groaning, but who could not call loud enough for help. He had beenlying there for half an hour beside the coconut tree from off he fell! His neck and back werebroken.They rushed him to the hospital. The local hospital refused to accept him and they wereadvised to take the patient to the city hospital. He did not spend long there; he died.My question is: Had his youngest daughter, the only one who has finished college, not marriedearly (she married before her graduation), and could have earned enough to support her oldparents, sending to them her earning every month, would he still insist with coco-tubagathering – would he continue to climb the tall coconut trees with his shaking weakening limbs?Or would he not proudly retire and enjoy her daughter’s remittance as her return-love to aloving old father?Many parents are too shy to ask or demand return-help from their children. But, we mustadmit, most of them – most of us - expect it or hope for it especially when they [we] have noone to turn to in their [our] old age.During some of my private and silent reflections, I can say that my uncle would not have fallenoff the coconut tree had my cousin observed the proper timing of her life. For as the book of Ecclesiastes says,

There is a proper time for everything

.There is a proper scheduling.A time for study. A time for work and build a stable career, not just temporary jobs. A propertime for marriage. A proper time for sex. As we are taught, sex must be ideally long aftergraduation and within marriage.

And I think I have listed them in the proper order. If and when our children do sex beforefinishing their studies and before building a stable jobs, then, some bad things will happen tothem or to their parents, etc.Not always in our consciousness, but it is true that for not doing some thing right, or for notproceeding with life at the right timing, we do contribute to the demise of some loved ones –persons who of all people we do not want to lose!And then, it’s going to be too late!It’s very painful.So, we, parents, or more precisely, we of the PTA, feel it as our duty to promote information,facts, knowledge, enlightenment, understanding, comprehension and wisdom and domotivations along this line so there will be happiness, stability, health and long life in everyfamily, yes, in every family.This is just one example of the many things and duties that the PTA feels it must either initiateor support other sectors including the government with the single goal in mind: TO MOLDCHILDREN WHO ARE WISE AND LOVING.There are pending problems – overdue problems – that we need to address. Included in the listare: increasing cases of wrong sex prioritization, if we may call that as such; drug addiction;education and job mismatch which leads to unemployment, underemployment and poverty;negative influences that can destroy the body (health), mind and heart; growing hopelessness,lose of the right direction, low IQs and the likes – all of these produce bad character, mediocremind and skills – all in all factors of becoming a weak, poor, miserable nation, a nation full of vices, crimes, infightings, diseases and deaths.This is the last thing I dream of for my beloved country!I believe it is the same with you. And here, we cannot wash our hands like Pontius Pilate andexcuse ourselves, not to get involved. The bad influences – the sins, the vices, the crimes aremaking more number of criminals every day! -- more beggars each day! -- more prostituteseach day! -- more husband-grabbers each day! – more thieves each day! – more kidnappers-for-ransom each day! – more killers each day!And we cannot say, “I can make my family safe by building high walls – even iron bars –around my house”?! If you do that, then, you are converting your place into another New York: Good citizens hideinside their homes which are like prison cells surrounded and protected by high walls and ironbars; while the criminals, the drug addicts, the rapists, the thieves roam around freely outside,in the streets, etc.!You call that freedom?You call that progress?You call that safe?The time to act as responsible Christians who love their neighbors as themselves is now. Wemust help the poor so they would not turn into beggars to fret us later, or into prostitutes totransfer STDs and AIDS to unwary wives via their husbands, or into grabbers of husbands andbreakers of marriages and peaceful families; or into thieves thereby putting our properties andbusiness in constant danger; or worse, into kidnappers for ransom or even killers! We, who can do something, must approach this problem while our kids are still young andteachable – malleable – moldable -- guidable. When the branches are old, they will no longerbend towards the right direction we want them to take.We, as parents, teachers and leaders, must guide our children with both WISDOM OF THEMIND AND LOVE OF THE HEART. For it is with the mind and heart that the enemy makes adevil as it is also with the mind and heart that God makes men into angels.This, we, of the Loon-South Parents-Teachers Association, take this to heart. And we enjoinyou, you who are serving in the LGUs. Your positions of power may be temporary; you may notget reelected too many times, but mind you, you will always be either parents and/or teachersforever – of your own children, or your own grandchildren and others.So, it is with humility to express to you the present need of our association for funds to supportour monthly meeting, e.g., fares of school PTA presidents, food or snacks.