Chinese hegemony

“IN A state so insignificant our commerce would be a prey to the wanton intermeddlings of all nations at war with each other; who, having nothing to fear from us, would with little scruple or remorse, supply their wants by depredations on our property as often as it fell in their way. The rights of neutrality will only be respected when they are defended by an adequate power. A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.”
So wrote in 1787 Alexander Hamilton, pen-named Publius, of the then fledgling United States in The Federalist No. 11, titled The Utility of the Union in Respect to Commercial Relations and a Navy.
We are now that nation, most despicable at our weakest, forfeiting not just neutrality but our very own territory. Sabah is but a generation removed from today, still relatively too recent to be forgotten.
And last week, it was the Scarborough Shoal.
The Chinese intrusion into the sandbank is but the latest of that country’s infringement upon our territory, the area well within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, as recognised by international law.
To China, the shoal is but a part of its irredentist claim to all of the South China Sea, including waters abutting the coasts of Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines, not to mention Taiwan, which it has always regarded as its province.
To many, China’s Scarborough affair has found an analogy in the stranger who barges into a home, rapes the wife, and then proclaims ownership over the whole household. With the man of the house kept outside, a weakling reduced to whining.
Come to think of it, this is the second time that we, as “a nation despicable by its weakness,” have forfeited territory to the China bully.
In February 1995, it was discovered that China had already occupied the Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands and set up structures which the Chinese said were meant to shelter their fishermen working the waters in the area.
Mischief Reef, claimed by the Philippines as Panganiban Reef, is 150 miles west of Palawan – well within the Philippines’ 200 mile exclusive economic zone too, while it lies a very distant 620 miles southeast of China.
Still, China had its way. No matter the protestations of the Philippines and Vietnam, no matter the alarms in the ASEAN over China’s territorial aggressions, diplomatically termed “assertions.”
A powder keg in the South China Sea, so were the disputed Spratly’s considered in many “strategic studies” since. The Scarborough Shoal now providing an added fuse.
Defused last Friday, April 13, was the tension at the Scarborough Shoal.
After days of stand-off seven Chinese vessels including their marine survey vessel, the Zhungguo Haijan 75, left the area by noon, and around 7 p.m., five more vessels pulled out leaving only one in the shoal. So reported Lt. Gen. Anthony Alcantara, Northern Luzon Command chief.
"Wala nang tension [There's no more tension]." So was Alcantara quoted as saying, underscoring that the Chinese pull-out was "apparently the result of the negotiation by our foreign department with that of the Chinese counterparts."
So all’s well that ends well?
Not quite, from this corner.
The quote from that little red book I have consigned to memory – of the Great Helmsman’s counsel to the youth: “China is yours as well as ours, but in the long run it will be yours” – gravely bothers me.
Paraphrased thus: “The Philippines are yours as well as ours, but in the short run, they will be ours.”
Chinese hegemony here. Or haven’t you yet noticed who rules and reigns in this country, from its economics to its politics? Sy, Tan, Go, Kong, Wei. Co-Wang-Co.
Wapelo.

Among Ven

FRAIL OF health but soaring in spirit.
That was Among Ven Samson the last time I saw him – at the recognition rites for the Most Outstanding Kapampangan Awards capping the Pampanga Day celebrations on December 11 last year.
We embraced each other not so much as fellow MOKA awardees as still-a-penitent son to an ever-forgiving father.
Yes, Among Ven and just-out-of-the-seminary me had some issues back when he was my parish priest in Sto. Tomas in the early ‘70s. So much water has not only gone under the bridge but even flooded my town since then, and we have reconciled. But still, some pangs of guilt and remorse are just too deep to finallyb heal. And I am now in mourning.
Anyways, Among Ven, barely audibly exulted, “ikwa ke mu rin” holding the MOKA trophy.
You long deserved it, Among. I told him as we posed with his beloved Atching Claring for photographs.
Among Ven stands out among the MOKA for culture recipients. No mean feat is his translation of the Bible in the Kapampangan language, and as great an opus is the Kapampangan Dictionary. These, aside from his translations of novenas and other liturgical rites.
It would have been to the eternal shame of the Kapampangans had he been bypassed anew in the last MOKA.
It was Easter Monday when I got the text message from Ronnie Tiotuico, president of our Mater Boni Consilii Seminary Alumni Association that Among Ven had his own Passover – to the kingdom of the Father.
And soon our website filled up with sharings of experiences with Among Ven.
From our elder brother Rey Deang, president of our alumni group in the US and Sta. Ana townmate of Among Ven:
“He loved the priesthood to the end. He ceased his ministry because he respected the priesthood so much, even when he was offered a post in Iraq as a Catholic Priest, he took it on but later quit, because of his state of life at that time. He enjoyed his work there, and the opportunity to be with Armenian Christians.”
Another US-based elder brother, Verne Quiazon, summed up our collective feelings for our mentor thus:
“Fr. Ven was a man of talent, dedication and integrity. The Church in Pampanga would have been the poorer but for the voluminous work of translations that Fr. Ven has done and in the process he also advanced Kapampangan culture and literature. A cynic might say that others would have taken up the work Fr. Ven has done anyway but it would be difficult to match his scholarship and dedication.
Fr. Ven's dedication is deeply rooted in is faith: he was faithful to his priesthood, to his Church and his family. He was a priest to the very end and he will always be Among Ven to me. He loved the Church dearly and kept on doing her work even after he has left active ministry. And his love for his family is a strong testament to married love in a world where the family is constantly being barraged and damaged by an hedonistic and materialistic environment.
Fr. Ven's integrity is a challenge to the Church. He could have stayed on an active priest with a family on the side - a number of priests actually do. But he chose to do it by the rules - dura lex, sed lex. Celibacy is not a divine imposition, it is not even biblical - most of the apostles were married and were family men. In the past, priestly celibacy was a witnessing to a life totally dedicated to the ministry. Now, that the family as an institution is under constant threat and barrage, married priests would be strong witnesses to the sanctity of married life and the family.
Apu Ceto is a pastor very much after Christ's image and heart. He is not one to condemn sinners but would break bread with them. It is so very Apu Ceto to have been the last person to spend time with Among Ven during his last minutes of his earthly existence. Even from afar, I can feel Apu Ceto's great love for his priests and he makes no distinction between the good ones and the bad ones. He loves them all - like God loves us all.
I pray for both Among Ven and Apu Ceto and thank God for having blessed my life with these two saintly persons.
May Among Ven rest in peace.
May Apu Ceto's tribe increase."
Aye, Verne, we, the sons of our Mother of Good Counsel, all say “Amen.”

No, they don't blast Judas in Sto. Tomas anymore

IN FIERY-RED pants and long-sleeved high-collared shirt a la Elvis taking over the flowing robe of his time.
Short cropped hair a la early Beatles, and sideburns straight from King FPJ himself.
Mick Jagger tongue, yeah that same one hanging from wide open puffed lips that has become the trademark of the now-geriatric-but-still-rocking Rolling Stones.
There is nothing biblical in the countenance and appearance of the Judas on-a-perch at the center of the courtyard of the St. Thomas the Apostle parish church in barrio Poblacion of the eponymously named town. He looked more like a puppet from some Punch-and-Judy show. But the throng, nay, the horde of faithful did not mind at all.
That was the Judas the elders have seen since their youth. The Judas now passed to their sons and grandsons, and to be passed on to their own progenies.
It was past the stroke of twelve noon, and the crowd was getting uneasy. Easter Sunday noon has always been the designated time for the Judas show. But the concelebrated Mass officiated by the archbishop is taking a little too long with all those post-communion remarks of the pastoral council president and the awarding of some certificates of appreciation to the comite de festejos led by the Honorable Melchor Caluag, barangay chair of Dolores, City of San Fernando but whose mom Imang Paulette nee Santos is a true-blue native of Sto. Tomas.
The tensed uneasiness turned to collective relief, and explosions of joy, at the pealing of the church bells, the music from the band, and the explosion of kuwitis that signaled the end of the Mass.
Some more minutes of waiting had to be endured as the patio gets cleared of the parked vehicles.
Then some firecrackers woven in large sipa ball-like contraption are let loose around the platform holding Judas’ perch to clear it of people. To establish a sort of a safety zone.
Then, the show starts.
Four paper mache pyrotechnic black ravens from four corners of the platform “peck” at Judas’ feet igniting them and propelling Judas to make dizzying twists clockwise and counterclockwise, then turns upside down, round and round, the tongue sticking in and out.
Then the explosions begin with the feet, the legs, the hand and arms – the head last, and loudest.
Judas was blasted to smithereens. In all of 15 minutes. There was a murmur of disappointment. Judas did fewer twists and turns. His tongue did not stick out that long. And the head exploded too soon and not too loud, as the crowd desired.
In years long past, this would have borne an ill omen. The loudness of the bang ending “Judas” then deemed a sign of the volume of the year’s harvest in the then-farming town: the louder the bang, the higher the yield.
What the heck, to the handful of foreign tourists including some mediamen from Japan, Singapore and Malaysia, it was one fine show of “local culture.”
Ain’t that what the Holy Week is supposed to be? Foremost a cultural show, its being a spiritual experience only an afterthought?
So, where you’ve been, what you’ve done this past week, Jude?
xxxx
SO I wrote here under the head Hey Jude five years ago.
Alas and alack, that is no more.
Instead of Judas, what exploded Easter Sunday noon in Sto. Tomas was a globe. No, it was not meant to signify the end of the world, not to presage any interpretation of the Mayan calendar.
What was blasted away, symbolically, were the worldly sins, those that keep mankind away from God. It was some sort of raising the event from pure vengeful glee to a higher level of spirituality.
Whatever, the loss of Judas at the scaffold unsettled, utterly disappointed the loyal crowd who, year-in and year-out, come from near and far – even from overseas – just to be part of the annual spectacle.
Me, born into and bred in this tradition, shall always have Judas in my being. His blasting at Easter Sunday noon, I mean.

Building frenzy

“YES. THE city government is going full blast as to these much-needed infrastructure projects. It’s a long list actually where we hope Fernandinos will eventually be the beneficiaries thereafter as the projects are realized.”
So affirmed City of San Fernando Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez of the infrastructure boom in the capital. As reported in Sun-Star Pampanga.
Getting the lion share of the amount is the Sagip-Ilog Project, nearing completion – at last, at last, at long last! – at a cost of P700 million, with P100 million as the city’s counterpart.
Complementary to the river-saving project is the rehabilitation of Balimbing Creek at the cost of some P60 million.
A thoroughly flood-free city is the end in-view of the above cited projects. So we have heard, ad nauseam, from the city government.
The City College campus main building comes in at P100 million. A worthy cause, a legacy project there for Mayor Rodriguez, if only in keeping with his clarion call to the youth: “The future belongs to those who embrace it.” Hope I got that right.
“Add to national projects like the construction of the flyover at the junction of JASA (Jose Abad Santos Avenue) and Lazatin Boulevard, the construction of a footbridge in JASA-Dolores, road upgrades and the widening of vital roads, plus of course, the construction of school buildings in most barangays, it totals to about P1.1 billion altogether.” So computed Rodriguez of the cost of the building frenzy.
The term-ending city mayor said many other infrastructure development projects have been submitted to the city council: “It will be up to them to approve of more proposals in the city which will benefit not only Fernandinos but other Kapampangans in neighboring towns. I hope to hear from the council soonest.”
More salutatory – at the commencement of a term in office – than valedictory – at the closing – is Rodriguez’s current display of some edifice complex.
Which leads to various speculations that this is Rodriguez’s way of building up, aye, of consolidating a power base in the city to propel him to the Capitol in 2013.
Malicious, very malicious, is the conjecture – no doubt coming from malcontents at city hall – that with the P1.1-billion infra fund, Rodriguez will have “seed money” or “mobilization fund” for his purported run for the governorship.
Yeah, at the usual 10 percent SOP in infra projects, there’s a windfall of P110 million there. Enough for the fourth district to cover.
Woe unto these evil thinkers.
Rodriguez is doing one hell of a job in the City of San Fernando which benefits the rest of the province.
Rodriguez, term notwithstanding, is one heck of a civil servant, proven beyond an iota of doubt in his 14 years as congressman capped by his sterling performance as prosecutor in the Estrada impeachment trial; in his near nine years as mayor, highlighted by his runner-up finish in the World City Mayor awards. And as surely can be proven too in his being governor, given the mandate.
And that is that.
It cannot be helped that with Rodriguez’s erection of infrastructures all around the city, naturally come some ejaculatory delights – OCApitolyo! OCApitolyo! -- from those incessantly pushing him to the governorship in 2013.
Some welcome development there, not only for Rodriguez’s partisans but for Gov. Lilia G. Pineda herself.
On more than one occasion, the Nanay has declared: “Magaling si Mayor Oca at hindi natin matatawaran ang kanyang karanasan at kahusayan bilang isang public servant. Mas maganda na tumakbo siyang gobernador para mayroong pagpipilian ang mga kababayan natin kung sino ang gusto nilang mamuno sa kanila bilang gobernador sa 2013. Welcome siya at kahit sinong gustong magsilbi sa probinsya. I hope he will join (the gubernatorial contest).”
Any other politico saying the same thing would have amounted to nothing more than hypocritical civility. But not with Pineda, given her storied sincerity and innate humility – what you see in her is what you get; what you hear from her is what it is.
So whether Rodriguez succumbs to the mounting – and very tempting – pressure for him to run for governor, or take the congressional route instead, he has built up enough stock of goodwill, political and otherwise, with his dedicated service to his constituents.