The meaning of the Day

IF WE are to draw out the deepest meaning of what we celebrate today, it will not be enough to merely recall all the glorious epochs in our history: of the unfurling of the Philippine flag at the Aguinaldo Mansion in Kawit, Cavite; of Tirad Pass and Zapote Bridge, and earlier on of Bagumbayan and Pugadlawin; and even much, much earlier, of the various revolts of Dagohoy and Maniago, of Sumuroy and Hermano Pule, Diego and Gabriela Silang, down history line to Soliman of Tondo and Lapu-Lapu of Mactan.
Nor should we be content to merely pay tribute to Rizal and Bonifacio, Mabini and Jacinto, Jaena, the Lunas and del Pilars, Sakay, onto Abad Santos and Aquino, and all those who consecrated their lives to this nation, not excluding Edgar Jopson and Lean Alejandro.
To take the full measure of our celebration today, it is not enough that we commemorate what our heroes did. It is a requisite that we imbibe their spirit. It is a must that we match their deeds with our own.
No, I do not mean we should all die like them. As a smart-aleck once said: “There is one thing about heroes that I don’t aspire to be – that is their being dead.”
Heroism has become the subject of humor, even the object of derision, in these unheroic times. As that common caution to the heroic goes: “Huwag ka nang magpakabayani. Binabaril yan sa Luneta.”
No, we don’t have to die, if only to emulate our heroes. They have done the fighting and the dying for our country. Our task is to live for our country. The song of our heroes for the Motherland is “ang mamatay nang dahil sa iyo.” Our song for her is “ang mabuhay para sa iyo.”
Dying for the country is the stuff of heroism. Living for the country is the essence of civic responsibility . Living for the country is our sacred call to duty.
Yes, Ninoy Aquino was right: “The Filipino is worth dying for.”
So are we equally correct: “The Filipino is worth living for.”
So how well have we responded to that call? How well have we served, and still serve our people?
For those in government, that call to duty assumes an even greater magnitude.
It is not uncommon to find in government people who value themselves as privileged by virtue of a padrino’s influence imposed on their behalf. Consequently, they feel no obligation to serve the public, or if they do so, they seek additional consideration as an entitlement.
It is not uncommon among government people to see a government post as a sinecure, an office that requires no work but pays off most handsomely.
It is not uncommon for government leaders to value themselves as Providentially-appointed and thus bequeathed with divine rights to inflict wrong upon their constituencies.
With such misgiven commonalities in government, what service can still be rendered to the public?
For the public at large, the so-called civil society most specially, living-for-the-country goes beyond the perfunctory relief-giving in times of calamities, way beyond the routinary round-table discussions of issues besetting the people, way beyond the television soundbytes of commitment to the poor and the marginalized. Living-for-the-people is pure will found manifest in the act of tangibilities: of real service.
No, we are not called upon to render the supreme act of heroism. We are called to be true and faithful to our civic responsibility.
With the flag as our witness, today requires of us to re-dedicate ourselves to our country, to give our own contribution, no matter how humble, to the mission of re-building this nation.
The fulfillment of any mission demands the unity of mind, the solidarity of purpose, and the collectivity of efforts of all those concerned. Unity is paramount. As it has long been said: “Never forget that unity is the distinct instinct of people who want to accomplish something.”
Unity then is our call. As rebuilding our nation is our goal. I find this the meaning of our Independence Day celebrations today. Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!
(Reprint of a past column on Philippine Independence Day.)

House of Arroyos

SO RAISED the Philippine Daily Inquirer of that possibility in the next Congress with the probability of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo aiming for the second district seat of Pampanga rising by the day.
The current House has presidential sons Mikey of Pampanga and Dato of Camarines Sur, and in-laws Ignacio Arroyo of Negros Occidental and Ma. Lourdes Arroyo of some party list group.
So, what’s wrong there? So what else is new there?
In the current Senate, there are the Cayetano siblings – Pia and Allan Peter, inheriting their late father Rene’s seat.
There used to be mother-and-son Doctora Loi and Jinggoy Estrada. And a biyenan-manugang in the aged Lothario Ramon Revilla of anting-anting fame, and once-legendary cager Robert Jaworski.
Had Miguel Zubiri not been Comelected, father Nene Pimentel and son Koko would have made a formidable tandem.
Relatively hidden from public view are familial connections in the House because of the sheer number of occupants there. Still, we note of family extensions from the House to the local governments.
There is resigned Kampi honcho Rep. Luis Villafuerte and his son the Camarines Sur governor. Perennial House Speaker wannabe Pabling Garcia to daughter (or is it daughter-in-law) Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia, who was the object of a faux pas by then senatorial candidate actor Cesar Montano acknowledging her on the campaign stage as Gwen Garci, the the FHM hot babe.
And there is nothing novel to this stranglehold of political posts by families, from the Crisologos of Ilocos to the Duranos of Cebu, from the Dimaporos of Lanao to the Dys of Isabela, from the Espinozas of Masbate to the Antoninos of Cotabato, and nearer home, the Josons of Nueva Ecija.
In Pampanga, there was once Gov. Francisco G. Nepomuceno and Cong. Juanita L. Nepomuceno, morping to Gov. Juanita L. Nepomuceno and Angeles City Mayor Francisco G. Nepomuceno. The current city mayor, most necessarily be then, the couple’s son Blueboy. And the more political son, once-Vice Gov. Robin, concurrently too Barangay Cutcut chairman and ex-officio member of the city council as president of the Liga ng mga Barangay.
As to the other political dynasty in the province, Don Rafael Lazatin, alternately governor, city mayor and assemblyman, did not share political stage at the same time with son Tarzan, congressman, mayor, back to congressman.
Bren Z, Guiao was already out of the governorship when brother pat became Magalang mayor, and was already at peace with his God when son Yeng was elected first as board member then as vice governor.
Sen. Lito Lapid bequeathed the Pampanga Capitol to his son Mark only to be snatched away by the suspended Fr. Ed Panlilio.
Now three-term Lubao mayor Dennis Pineda took over his mother Lilia who was elected board member, but subsequently lost in her gubernatorial campaign.
The twin towns of Masantol and Macabebe are ruled by brothers Peter and Bobong Flores, respectively.
San Luis Mayor Jay Sagum married 4th District Rep. Anna York Puyat Bondoc and got himself absorbed by the Puyat-Bondoc clan that traces its political roots to the ‘50s yet.
At the local legislative branches, there is 2nd District Board Member Edna David and son, Porac councilor Dexter keeping alive the flames of the political Davids sparked by Porac Mayor Roy.
Unarguably, the Morales family holds sway in Mabalacat with forever Mayor Boking, sons Atlas as barangay captain of Dau, and Miggy as sangguniang kabataan federation chair.
Political dynasties are a given in Philippine history. So what’s all these gobbledygook of the Arroyos being one?
Nothing wrong in political dynasties per se. So long as they don’t make public service into family enterprise.

Yeng on 'Q'

GOV. EDDIE T. Panlilio has taken the limelight anew with his filing a plunder case before the Ombudsman against the Lapid father and son that sat at the Capitol for all of 12 years.
This is no demeaning the deed of Panlilio or diminishing its importance – we should all be glad about it and give it our support – but there is actually nothing new to this. Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao filed a similar case even at the time of the younger Lapid at the Capitol.
Here’s something from the cobwebbed baul of files I unearthed. It came out in The Voice, October 17-23, 2004.
Yeng on ‘Q’
NO honeymoon period, neither a reprieve – sounds maliciously like a stay of execution given a death convict – is the hundred-day détente between the sangguniang panlalawigan and the Office of the Governor on the contentious issue of Q, that’s for quarry, dummy.
So it’s fire and brimstone time at the Capitol with the end of that hundred-day period last week? Asked the Society of Pampanga Columnists of Vice Gov. Joseller “Yeng” Guiao over lunch at Max’s along GSO Road Monday.
A big NO was Yeng’s reply: “We gave the (provincial) Executive (branch) the courtesy – for a few more days – to explain and convince us of whatever substantial changes have been instituted to improve the revenue collections from the quarry industry.”
Supposed the Executive did not come out with any explanation?
“Then we shall demand for it.”
Supposed the Executive’s explanation is far from convincing?
“We should know what to do.”
Spoken like the foxy strategist that Yeng is. What he would do, he did not divulge.
“You shall certainly know when the time comes.”
Notwithstanding the overt odiousness of comparison in the whopping P150 million-plus annual revenues the Natural Resources Development Corp. chipped into the government coffers vis-à-vis the dismal P8 million the provincial government mustered, Yeng sees no malice in Congressman Rey B. Aquino’s House Resolution No. 267 – “Directing the appropriate committees of the House of Representatives to inquire into the income-generating prospects of the Pampanga quarry industry.”
“Every Kapampangan should support Cong Rey in this quest to mine revenues to sustain provincial development. The issue of quarry income assumes critical proportions in these times of fiscal crisis,” stressed Yeng.
Support Cong Rey, Yeng unreservedly does. So is he in turn supported by the provincial board, given the as-yet-unproved, thus still malicious, innuendoes of P50,000-inducements allegedly given to all but one at the sanggunian?
Was it Ashley manabat or Arnel San Pedro, both of Pampanga News, that impacted the reality into Yeng o his being “last man standing” at the Capitol on the Q inquiry?
“It can come to that. I am prepared.” Yeng makes a good impression of Bruce Willis in that dusty, bloody bang-bang saga. Cool, real cool. Like in that game where Shell Turbochargers led in double digits down to the last two minutes only to lose miserably to the rampaging Red Bull Barakos at the buzzer.
Life’s a ball, ain’t it? And Yeng is never short of balls. Think of that video grab of the skyscraper Marlou Aquino of Sta. Lucia blinking, nay, cowering in fear, at Yeng’s fiery dragon looks.
“Better to be the last man standing than dead man walking.” I told Yeng.
“I just have to look at my back more often. Or have some good friends looking out for me.” He shrugged, coolly.
Xxxxxx
THERE WAS no looking back for Yeng from there. Soon after this piece, he made his j’ accuse privileged speech damning the Lapid administration – the whole SP in damned and dumb silence, the so-called civil society groups and the priests invited most conspicuously absent.
Last man standing at the Capitol there indeed. Undeterred, Yeng subsequently filed plunder cases against the Lapids at the Ombudsman.

Defending Luchie

HERS WAS the face that launched hundreds of relief missions at the time of the Mount Pinatubo devastation – from the eruptions through the lahar rampages, from the evacuation centers to the resettlement sites.
Relief – defined in cans of sardines and bowls of noodles, as written in the book Pinatubo: Triumph of the Kapampangan Spirit which I was most honored to craft and edit – finds one more meaning in Lucia Gutierrez, chief of the provincial social welfare and development office of Pampanga.
For as long as I can remember, Pampanga had no social welfare and development officer (SWDO) other than Luchie.
For as long as I can remember, Luchie had always excelled in her mission of providing relief to the most disadvantaged of the Kapampangans not only in times of natural calamities but also in instances of man-made distress.
From the scourge of Pampanga’s annual flooding at the time of Gov. Bren Z. Guiao, the Kapampangan found relief literally and figuratively in Luchie’s office’s quick response to his needs.
Inhered in the challenges of one calamity after another, Luchie thus was not totally unprepared for the worst calamity ever – the Mount Pinatubo eruptions.
Beyond the physiological requisite of feeding, clothing and housing the thousands of evacuees, Luchie’s office provided them with psychological counseling as well as spiritual relief. It was here that the “legend of Sta. Lucia of the tent cities” was born.
That the Pampanga government’s relief operations remained largely immaculate amid all the muck of corruption attendant to the Pinatubo rehabilitation efforts – the scams in the diking systems including the megadike itself, the sabo dams, the desilting operations, the livelihood centers and funds, the resettlement sites, among others – is a testament to the integrity of Luchie.
Conversely now: That the Church’s local social action center at that time lost undetermined millions of pesos, principally grants and donations for the Pinatubo victims – to a wily con artist-friend of the center’s chief per public knowledge – is equally a testament to the questionable judgment, if not doubtful character of that center’s revered head.
No definitive closure to that social action center scam up to this very moment, over 18 years after the fact. The perpetrator (s) remaining at large, unscathed and, most probably, still uncouth, finding new fields to sow his/their evil schemes. As in the field of politics?
Outside calamities, Kapampangans in distress found relief in Luchie too. Ever fresh in my mind is how Luchie managed to bring home the bodies of two Kapampangan traders abducted by some renegade terrorist group in the hinterlands of Mindanao, along with one survivor who was nearly a nervous wreck. Yes, it was Luchie that helped the latter fully recover from his traumatic ordeal.
How many abused women and children have found solace and comfort at her office, not even Luchie can remember for the sheer immensity in number.
And then, Luchie’s office is not only all social welfare and none other. The “development” aspect in its nomenclature most manifest in the livelihood training programs conducted there, instituted by Luchie herself in partnership with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. How many men and women who passed the trainings there are now gainfully employed here and abroad, not even Luchie can remember for the sheer immensity in number.
A grateful Pampanga has long accorded Luchie the recognition for her excellent work in helping the province rise from the ashes of Pinatubo and her outstanding contribution to its development.
Now, a politically-embattled, intellectually-challenged and administratively-inept Capitol slapped Luchie with a 90-day suspension for her office allegedly serving expired noodles to some kids and – if talks out of the woodwork are true – the governor himself.
That the Capitol grounded Luchie’s suspension – according to topnotch lawyer Fred Mangiliman – on the sexual harassment provisions in the civil service rules is not only ridiculously stupid. It absolutely exonerates Luchie from all charges. (The lord and lady at the Capitol must have been taken so much by the Hayden Kho-Katrina Halili sex scandal.)
Atty. Fred cries “absence of due process” in the suspension of his client, having been deprived of the opportunity to answer the complaints before an investigating body prior to the suspension which was a most unwelcome gesture to Luchie upon her arrival from Japan.
Anyways, Luchie has taken her case to the courts. So, we just have to give here our two-baht worth: Eating the “expired” noodles did not do any harm to the governor. His state of mind remains as is. Malilio.
Talk of gratitude now. Better yet, talk of ineptness. As has long been held, a state of idiocy obtains at the Capitol.

Blaspheming Don Juan's legacy

IN MY age of innocence, Don Juan Nepomuceno made the supreme representation of all things good and holy.
In all my four years at the Mater Boni Consilii Seminary (MBCS), there was never a day that we did not pray for Don Juan and his wife Dona Nena, whether in the recitation of the rosary, in novenas, or in the Holy Mass.
That time, Don Juan was benefactor to up to 50 seminarians, coming not only from Angeles City but throughout Pampanga and Tarlac. Don Juan paid for the tuition, board and lodging of these papari and gave them allowances. In many instances, the families of the poorest among them were also provided for by the Don.
To this day, I rue my misfortune of not being one among those so much blessed with the generosity of Don Juan.
Even after they left MBCS, many of these ex-seminarians continued being scholars of Don Juan at the family-owned Holy Angel College. Just goes to show the depth of the man’s philanthropy.
Aside from sending young boys to study for the priesthood, Don Juan extended unquantified and unqualified support to MBCS itself.
One of the most awaited events among seminarians was the Christmas caroling at the home of Don Juan. We practically fought to be included among the carolers not only for the sumptuous feast Dona Nena always prepared and the to-go giveaways of Hersheys, Baby Ruths, grapes and American apples – exclusively from Clark Air Base that time, but for the honor of kissing the hands of the holy couple. It was as if our young lips touched heaven itself.
Holiness as though permeated the ground upon which Don Juan and Dona Nena stood. The couple did indeed make “a cofradia of two” as the book on their life was most appropriately titled.
Philanthropy Don Juan lived. Philanthropy Don Juan left as legacy. Alack, a not too lasting legacy. Given the current of issues obtaining in the Angeles Electric Corp. (AEC), the flagship company of the Don Juan Nepomuceno family.
Profitability – at all cost, it would seem – has most apparently taken over philanthropy as the core value of the Nepomuceno family. How else explain the unexplained and unreasoned sudden astronomical rise of AEC power rates? This, at the most frequent times of power outages in the AEC service areas!
Raking in the money in exchange for the worst services does not even make honest profitability. It is immoderate greed – to paraphrase Romulo Neri, or is it Jun Lozada at the NBN-ZTE scam hearings? – if not plain thievery to put it simply.
Amid the mounting complaints of poor services and arbitrary increase in the cost of electricity hurled against AEC, what would have Don Juan done?
Christian charity imbued in him his sense of philanthropy. With that as given, Don Juan would not have allowed the AEC to come to this sorry situation of being the object of so much denunciation, of defamation, even of damnation.
No way that Don Juan would have allowed anything that had to do with him and his family tainted with even an iota of avarice. For that would have totally negated everything about him.
Last time I paid my bills at the AEC offices at Nepo Mart – before it almost doubled – I took notice of the prominently displayed framed sepia photo of Don Juan and Dona Nena. Seeing them in their beatific best, I nearly made the sign of the cross as though I were in a sacred presence.
With the scheme of things at AEC now, that picture is not worth the office where it is displayed. It’s like making a memorial to the Virgin in a brothel. Sacrilegious.