The Chilean Model: Is God Involved in Government and Politics?

What recent developments point us to the hand of God working to convince people of His involvement in their affairs? What specific global events will clearly show us that His eternal plan is the ultimate plan for all humans, whether we believe it or live by it or not?

We need not go far to see that calamities occur more often now than before with such disastrous effects that explaining them away as mere glitches of Nature makes us belittle historical proofs of divine power at work from creation to revelation. Only atheists and cynics take out God from the equation and end up factoring in “chance” -- that indeterminate (read that: illogical and baseless) value -- as the only reason for such disasters to occur.

Two contrasting events in the near past seem to stand out and to show us that neither God nor chance plays mindlessly with the lives (or deaths) of people: the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. (There is as much purpose for the geophysical design and processes of the Earth as for the birth and death of a person.) Haiti suffered a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in January 2010 with more than 250,000 casualties while Chile had it at magnitude 8.5 in February 2010 with more than 700 deaths. Geologists and engineers would easily explain the difference in death toll to dissimilarities in the geologic foundations of the two countries and differences in structural designs and strengths of the buildings and houses that were damaged. Sociologists, economists and politicians would also explain the great difference in how the global community responded to both countries in terms of the two nations’ contrasting political, economic and social conditions. Many of us, however, do not concern ourselves with how both countries may have prepared for such a calamity, intentionally or unintentionally, knowingly or unknowingly. But there are clear and valuable lessons we can derive from seeing those disasters from afar.

No one knows when disasters strike. We can only prepare so much for a cyclone or a volcanic eruption, for instance. But these two nations provide us models, not just in disaster preparedness but in overall national preparedness against all kinds of major problems that may arise.

Haiti has been known for its adherence to a form of religion (Vodou) that includes Catholic prayers and hymns, ritual food preparations, invoking family spirits and the possession of certain individuals by those spirits. The Haitian form of this religion originated in Africa and is characteristically conservative and decentralized. Many observers blamed Vodou for the dire economic underdevelopment of this country which was exposed to the world in the aftermath of the earthquake. Scenes of people losing homes and loved ones brought tears to many viewers on TV. The great outpouring of aid and relief for the Haitians revived a similar global response for the hapless people of Africa two decades earlier. The inevitable conclusion for many Christians -- as “tactlessly” expressed by Pat Robertson -- was that Haiti had forgotten God and in her pursuit of other gods, reaped judgment.

Perhaps, it was a harsh indictment or judgment. Maybe, the quake was a mere admonition for people to wake up. Judgment -- if God were to do it now, I guess -- would involve annihilating whole cities or nations, as He did with Sodom and Gomorrah. Or the whole world when He sent the Great Flood. Sparing some to live somehow tells us that He is out to renew the land and to give people a chance to return to Him. Alright, some people are judged and given the death sentence. But the question asked is: Why include the children?

That is a tough one to answer, one that only God can answer. And so, we leave that hanging in Heaven. Let us deal with people of our own size and sinful nature. We boast of ourselves as intelligent beings, even as gods, sometimes. All we can do is to ponder upon our own vulnerability as we walk through the carnage and among the broken bodies.

On the other hand is Chile. After the earthquake, the country mobilized its own disaster relief and rescue operations with great efficiency. The Chilean government emphasized their desire to help its own people and did not seek foreign aid or assistance. In contrast to Haiti, Chile faced its calamity with mature resolve and political strength. (Not even the US showed such firmness during Hurricane Katrina.) We can only admire such qualities in a nation and its leaders.

What many people do not realize is that Chile is a strong Christian nation which went through a Pentecostal or Charismatic renewal in the early 1900’s. Although it is a traditionally Catholic country, it boasts of at least 20% (as of 2002) or more Pentecostal-Evangelical Christian population. Through almost a century, Chile has transformed itself from being just another “banana republic” to an economically and politically stable nation. While we fervently sing a hymn calling for aid to Haiti victims, why not sing a song of praise for Chile for its political and moral maturity?

Our country, a predominantly Catholic nation with a population of about 13 % Protestant or Evangelical Christians, has not fared well against the forces of Nature, and much less against economic, political and social problems. A nation that has faith and yet does not show it in its governance and overall national discipline has much to learn from Chile. We had our 7.7 Magnitude earthquake in 1990, our Pinatubo in 1991 and our Ondoy last year. But we have not arisen from our disciplinary experiences. We continue to be a poor and corrupt nation.

Unlike the Confucian nations around us, we are still incapable of applying high ethical and moral principles in social, economic and political administration. Surprisingly, the similarities between Chile’s military regime under Pinochet and that of ours under Marcos, make our countries twins in socio-economic-political experiences. We also had a Pentecostal-Charismatic-Evangelical revival in the early seventies which has resulted in the establishment of many mega-churches that minister to executives, business-people and young professionals. Even the Catholic Church has her charismatic renewal and marriage-encounter movements. This religious ferment, however, still has to produce bountiful moral fruits in business and governance. The State and Media show perfunctory, if not hypocritical, tribute to Christ’s teachings. Our politics, sad to say, has remained the longest-running and most pernicious disaster of all.

Disasters then, as we can see, have two basic purposes: admonition and testing. Moral or not, a nation is constantly reminded to remain true or turn back to the call of Heaven. Obedient or not, people are tested in order to prove their faith and character and to make them stronger through perseverance. As such, we must accept disasters as they come. And they will.

God is present during hard times. Even in the midst of disasters. He is in the center of every storm. He is in the middle of every volcanic eruption. He speaks in every thunderstorm and hailstorm. He created everything to obey His command. He even created humans in His likeness. And yet, we are the least willing among all creatures to hear and obey God.

For better or for worse, God is in our politics. He waits patiently for us to see Him and what He is doing.

When a person seeks to call upon Filipinos, whether Christians of not, to heed God’s desire to choose a God-fearing leader to sit as president, many do not listen. Why? Because they believe that God is not in the middle of our elections. Sure, He is not, if the people themselves drive Him away from its exercise. But if God is at the center of Nature and all its forces, why should He not be the focus of our political affairs and in our presidential elections? God is everywhere and every place we want Him to be, including our hearts and our lives. He can be the Spirit behind our national government.

I chose to hold up for Filipinos to see the Chilean Model to remind them that God is not asleep. He is awakening us to His very presence now and in the years ahead. Perhaps, it is us who have been sleeping and not hearing and seeing what God has been doing. Earthquakes occur not to bring fear into our lives but to bring faith in our hearts and to lead us to trust in the God Who has the power to save and to give us life.

Politics is God’s way for people to create order in society. The people He chooses to rule often may not be perfect in our sight but, in His plans, those people He chooses serve His perfect will. Within democratic governments, God seeks to show all people -- whether ruler or follower -- that His will is for us to learn to apply His principles which alone can make us perfect subjects and followers of His plan.

Socrates, Confucius and other great teachers like Augustine, Luther and Jose Rizal taught people to attain moral perfection. Their visions of the perfect society have remained clear and valid for all times. We need modern leaders who can encapsulate the ideals of these moral pioneers in our families and communities.

Choosing a leader does not merely require us to consider a candidate’s qualifications but what God wants to do with the would-be leader and with the people whom he will lead. A president then is not just charged with administering a nation’s policies but, more importantly, giving people opportunity to participate in the eternal plan of God. No, we must not merely elect a true believer to become a president but a man of tested faith to assure that our nation will remain true to our calling as a people of God.

The lessons of other nations show us that God is at work. The big question is: Are we working with and for God?

(Photo above: As early as the 70's, we were singing: Ibon mang may layang lumipad, kulungin mo at umiiyak; Bayan pa kayang sakdal dilag ang 'di magnasang makaalpas. . . . If even a bird that is free to fly, cries in its cage; much more would an enslaved nation of supreme beauty also yearn to overcome.)

Why I Choose Bro. Eddie Villanueva to Be Our Next President

Superman was once a boy, too. He grew up eventually and dealt with all kinds of grown-up evil in this world. Running for president is similar to that. It is playing the big-time hero in a big-boys’ game. The rules change from simple to complex, from fair to crooked and from child-like to devious. Well, that sounds almost like high-school capers or college frat-life.

Who said the world has truly grown up? Politics, in general, can be as dirty as a baby’s diaper in the morning. But it can also be as clean as, well, the heart of, ah…, Clark Kent? I’ve been a fan of Superman since childhood. But, we have to deal with the coming elections as mature people, no matter how unheroic and, well, childish sometimes our candidates may seem. For even kids need to be serious for once in their short lifetime. How then do we separate the grain from the chaff, the substance from the media hoopla in this election campaign? How do we help the still undecided millions to choose the best “bet” for their future?

I made quite a long and winded pitch in four previous articles entitled “The Heart and the Spirit of a Nation”, hoping to provide voters with a deeper view of our national ills and the appropriate prescription for them. Yet, it seems the ordinary voter only wishes to see the shallow waters or even the debris or scum floating on the water surface and making do with removing only that part of the pollution that is visible. For them, the only – and simplistic -- answer to such a perceived problem is a public servant who carries a net that will scoop up all that dirt. But what about the dregs underneath, the black soot and the blood-stains that make the waters murky and stinky? Is there a human force strong enough to reverse the trend to our own social, political and spiritual decay? None. As in Noah’s days, only God can save us from ourselves. The lesson remains true today.

Given the problem and the required solution, who should we choose to be president? Is it Noynoy? Or Villar? Gibo? Or someone else?

Obama based his candidacy on the idea of change. Correction! Everyone uses the word as the magic spell to charm votes out of people. Change is a good thing. We all need change for a change. Just how we should attain it is the big question.

At the very least, we must make the initial step of producing change by following the steps of those who have, by their committed lives, pursued change and now show us the way to a greater and unified change for all. Such kind of leadership is the only one we need and must trust and follow for our own good. Christ led the way to such leadership – for He is the Way -- and there is no other. He is the real and mature hero-leader we need – not Superman or any Super-politician. What we direly need is someone who can inspire us all to follow the Way and His ways to bring about genuine change in our nation.

Who then among our candidates is worthy of the title: Genuine-Change Agent? One who – like every worthy Christian -- has gone through a personal transformation and triumphed in life’s essential battles: search for self-identity, accepting one’s destiny and achieving one’s eternal purpose. Anything less than these make us mere humans and not children of the Divine Nature.

From being an atheist to a believer, from an ideologist to a preacher of God’s righteousness and from an evangelist to a crusader for good governance, Bro. Eddie Villanueva, fits the bill for the president WE ALL need. No, make that: for the president that God wants us to have. Now, that may be too presumptuous – reading God’s mind for 94 million Filipinos.

Well, if Apostle Paul could claim that he and the early Christians “had the mind of Christ”, how hard is it for modern Christians to achieve the same thing? “All authority” had been to Christ by the Father in Heaven. To have the mind of Christ, therefore, means to be channels of Christ’s authority here on Earth. How Christians live is the picture of Divine Power – through the indwelling Holy Spirit – moving and giving them the ability to live pure and righteous lives. God’s kingdom must live in the hearts of humans before it can eventually transform human governments and societies.

No one else among the candidates has that clear vision in his heart and spirit that Bro. Eddie bears. We may not perceive him to be the image of the dashing and suave Clark Kent we dream to have as our hero in the Palace, but he has the willingness to provide us the unifying goal that we must achieve as a nation of God. The opportunity given to our nation to attain God’s plan is clearly shown in this one man’s desire to bridge the gap between political and spiritual administration. If we, because of our myopic or biased minds, fail to appreciate this divine plan, then we miss our chance to save as many people as possible from further suffering and even destruction in the gathering storms ahead.

To be sure, it will not be the president alone who will do all the work of changing our society. He will only fail just as Moses failed because of the unbelief of the Israelites. But like Joshua, Bro. Eddie can be our leader to lead us to our own Promised Land if we, by faith, uphold his leadership on our individual shoulders. The leader who leads with righteousness cannot bear the gargantuan weight of national government if the people will not bear their own share of the load through living righteous lives themselves.

Corruption in government can stop – and it will – if we vow to allow God to work in our lives even now, before we go to the polls to cast our vote. Today, let as choose to let God guide our steps to His life-giving and glorious presence. For no unclean soul can appear before the great God of Heaven. As a nation, we cannot hope to cleanse the evil in our land if we do not begin the necessary step given to us by God Himself toward healing our land.

Do we wait then to vote before God begins to heal our land? Or do we ask for His healing now before we make the decision to submit to His way of healing our nation? The answer is simple: Embrace change now! Voting will not solve our problems. The presidential elections will not solve our problems. God holds all the answers to our problems. Choosing the right leader – or, more precisely, choosing God’s righteous leader for our country – is the best step we can take to begin the renewal of our nation.

Bro. Eddie Villanueva is our God-given opportunity for a renewed and greater Philippines of the future. That is why I choose him to be our next president.

(Painting above: "Christ Healing the Blind Man" by Spanish painter El Greco.)
(Drawing above: Superman using x-ray vision.)

The Heart and the Spirit of a Nation (Part 4)

We should now inspect the palpable, gaping holes in the fabric of our society that weaken it. Often, we easily attribute this condition to the political mismanagement of our country. Wrong! As we have been saying, the problem is much deeper and goes right into the core of our hearts and of our spirits.

The root of our present multifarious problems goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden when Satan led our first parents to follow his ways through subtle and devious ways. Much of what we see then in government, politics, religion, business and media are shot full of holes -- holes of empty lies. That is another way of saying this world is controlled by the forces of darkness led by the “Father of All Lies”. For the best and most effective tool used to keep and control unwary people under one’s power is that age-old trick called LIES or FALSEHOOD.

Who among the present candidates tell the truth? Who speak blatant lies and half-truths? Who took bribes and deny it? Who used their positions to favour their family’s businesses? Who served as public servants and were not true to their vow to serve the masses? Who makes promises now with the silent intention to break them or go beyond their lawful duties?

If we could only answer these correctly, we would all be voting for the most truthful or genuinely servant-hearted of all candidates, if there is one. But precisely, the reason we are all in a big mess is because we cannot differentiate between lies and truth and even lie to ourselves and to others very often. Election campaign period, no doubt, is that time when lies flood our lives with the vengeance of ten Ondoy floods.

Lies come from our evil minds. Traditional politics is basically that which utilizes deception of the masses as the main tool for acquiring power. Hitler was a master of this technique. It makes it difficult then for majority of people to make an objective decision when lies and accusations of lying are thrown around during election campaign periods. We end up choosing whom we perceive to be the least evil or the least liar among the possible choices.

But is it the case in the present electoral contest? Are we up against a gallery of evil-minded manipulators who hold no punches in trying to put down their opponents through dirty tactics? We obviously see this happening as we come close to Election Day and will probably see more dirt flying. Is this the only way we can conduct a campaign or is there something we, individually and as a nation, can do to address the real issues at hand?

I submit that our country – like any sick person -- is basically ill as it has not achieved its full potential and status as a free nation. By what particular standards do I say that this is a fact? By social, economic, political and moral standards which would take so much space to discuss. Even if we assumed we were completely healthy in the first two (although in reality, we are socially and economically challenged), we would still be only half healthy when we take into account the political and moral malaise that besets our nation.

This pervading illness is a result of the basic immoral or evil administration of our nation by people under the control of dark spiritual forces. Psychologist M. Scott Peck defines “evil” as “the exercise of political power – that is, the imposition of one’s will upon others by overt or covert coercion – in order to avoid...spiritual growth.”* Politics then can be seen as a mere extension of the cosmic battle waged by evil forces against God’s sovereignty in order to subvert His will on Earth. That is, people – by their prideful use of their free will – commit acts that violate the laws of God and of society. Nowhere is this more true than in governance. In the face of such a chaotic reality, choosing a worthy leader would help jumpstart our journey to genuine recovery.

In the previous articles, we emphasized the idea that our country has a higher spiritual role to play than what most of our candidates would want us to be aware of. True, our many domestic problems demand immediate attention – health, education, infrastructure, transparency, corruption, etc. What we might be missing in our desire to solve these real problems is the question of why we must attain national development at all. Why deal with these problems in order to attain social, political and economic stability at all? Is it simply so we can say we are a bona fide member of the elite club of progressive nations? That we have what it takes to be at par with the community of world-class states?

It seems to be a given desire among many of us that in choosing a leader, we want one who will uplift us from our economic troubles and to represent us effectively in the global community. But is our country a mere part of Asia or of Asia-Pacific? Are we but a nation among hundreds which make up this Earth? Or do we have a greater role to play in the continuing historic and cosmic plan made by our Creator from the beginning?

But are giving too much importance to this plain and simple electoral exercise? Do we really care who will win as long as we have a government that will continue to allow us to live and work in peace and quiet? Are we then satisfied to live the way we have for the past decade or so? No, the essential question is: Will we allow our conscience to bequeath to our children a nation that has remained unproductive and undisciplined and just leave it up to them to unravel the whole mess for themselves?

If politicians, in general, cannot be honest with us, we must, at least, be honest with ourselves. We have a chance to begin rebuilding our nation and our lives. The heart and the spirit of the people of this nation desire a better government established according to God’s plan and run by people who submit to His laws.

We cannot possibly go through all the things that God requires from a “poor and mismanaged” country like ours. Common sense simply tells us that we remain bound by the chains of darkness, ignorance and corruption, no matter how much progress or development we might have attained so far. In the end, moral or spiritual health determines the real condition of an individual or of a nation.

What is happening in Thailand, for instance, speaks volumes of the real condition of the heart and spirit of that nation. Civil strife and violence that arise from a divided nation tell us that evil reigns in the hearts of many of its citizens and manifests itself as hatred, criminality, greed, murder and rage. An election conducted under a military junta (reminiscent of our pre-EDSA snap election under Marcos’ regime), tends to encourage people to commit evil or immoral deeds in the name of nationalism, self-preservation, military discipline and even political righteousness. We thank God that in 1986, all those things found a way to be resolved peacefully. But what if they arise again and come to a fiery clash this time? Would that be the time we realize that God has departed from us and will finally forsake us to do our worst?

God forbid!

As it is, we – a nation of faithful believers, albeit so religiously and politically divided -- have been given the road map through the “valley of death”. God speaks to us more clearly now through those who declare His eternal plan. King David trusted in his Shepherd’s mighty staff to drive away the many enemies that surrounded him. The mighty hand of God stretches toward us now, waiting for us to willingly reach out so He can lift us up from the swirling currents that seek to drown us into oblivion. We can be as direct, plain and obvious as we want to be in declaring God’s plan for our nation today. But our hearts and our spirits – humbled before the Spirit of God -- can discern clearly what He wants us to do for ourselves, for our families and for our nation.

In May, vote for God’s rule of righteousness.


* M. Scott Peck, People of the Lie (Simon and Shuster, NY, 1983).

(Photo above: Sculpture in Baguio City depicts an Ibaloi traditional dance which for thousands of years expressed our joy in the bounties of Nature up in the Cordillera mountains. Today, however, many of our youth wiggle to the tune and rhythm of decadent and immoral songs in many villages.)

The Heart and the Spirit of a Nation (Part 3)

Can we separate the heart from the spirit and expect a human to live at all? Can we separate faith from politics and expect a nation to live a healthy existence?

Can we mix faith and politics then? Is there a realistic basis for the so-called separation of religion and government? If politics, ideally, is the pursuit of justice and emancipation of people from poverty, corruption and exploitation, then what is there left for religion to accomplish? If religion indeed concerns itself only with the ultimate destiny of humans in eternal terms and not the present issues of physical existence, then it is religion or faith that has missed its primary mission to serve as the channel for God’s love and grace.

“That you may have life and have it more abundantly” does not only refer to a future spiritual reality but a direct reference to the bounties of Paradise that once existed on this Earth and which we can have partial access to in the present. No, Christ did not come to re-establish Paradise on Earth but in the hearts of humans. For if people realize now that such a wonderful place does exist, then the burdens of this present corrupted world would seem like a passing inconvenience and they would have assurance of eternal redemption far beyond the pleasures of Eden.

Why did the early Christians sing and rejoice in the face of sure death amongst the lions in Rome? Why do they still carry that hope through the many heartbreaking struggles they go through in life in small and great ways in various cultural environments today? Whether we talk of believers in Costa Rica, South Africa, China, El Salvador or the Philippines, we refer to that common seed of spirituality that sprouted from the work that the Lord Jesus began through the Apostles and continues to bear fruit today in the lives of millions of believers.

What the so-called Christian Right in the US refer to as “confronting the culture” is nothing more than living one’s faith within the context of one’s unique social, cultural and political environment. A Chinese Christian must face the same temptations of the flesh as a Serbian believer or a Maori disciple. Issues of pride, greed, hatred, envy, lust and indifference beset both believer and non-believer anywhere in this world. The same motives that lead a president to receive big bribes work upon a lowly clerk who is offered a much smaller bribe. There is no political and religious delineation in giving in to one’s weaknesses. A sin has no political or religious color; it is all black to God. Failure to obey the Constitution is no different from failure to follow the accepted rules of society. The punishments may differ in degree and impact, but the root source and ultimate result remain the same: the passions of the human heart and spirit, that is, and how they affect our eternal condition before the God in Heaven.

If we surrender any government’s responsibility of being ultimately answerable to God, then it would be easy to put up walls of separation between it and God’s requirements in spiritual matters. Many, in fact, have used the doctrine of separation of church and state as an excuse for abusing political power. Furthermore, such a perceived separation has, in fact, resulted in establishing artificial legal constraints or social taboos against those who call themselves pastors or priests from going into politics. No, in reality, it is those pompous titles that some of God’s followers have unwisely chosen to embrace that have prevented them from entering freely into the arena where they may uphold the rights of the people. Isn’t the kingdom of God nothing but the rule or the governance of God over those who choose to trust in Him? His kingdom applies to living souls, in the body or outside of it.

Well, some may ask: Didn’t the Lord Jesus say that His kingdom is not of this world? Of course, that is because He ruled over angels as well but chose not to call them to save Himself from the cross. But did He not give the Apostles power to overcome evil spirits as well as to judge believers in the physical realm? Wasn’t that in itself ruling over the lives of believers as God’s ministers? Did not and does not Christian discipleship prepare believers to become diligent and law-abiding citizens of this world? A believer then who serves as a president or a mayor for God is no more special or different from one who serves as a waiter or a doctor for God. A person then, whether he works as a teacher of the Gospel full-time or one-day-in-a-week, has all the right and the freedom to desire a position in the political administration of a nation.

Was David a righteous person first before he became king of Israel or did he become a king whose righteousness blossomed because his position required it more of him as a leader of a nation? Or, perhaps, his being king was immaterial in relation to his being a “man after God’s own heart”? He was, in truth, a great sinner like most of us. And that is the big reason that not many look at him as a saint or a holy and faithful preacher of God’s righteousness. But show me a person who has written as many songs of poignant and deeply sincere praise and intercession to God and I will show you a person who is a better teacher and servant of God than David. Here was a man who knew God as much as he knew himself and other humans as if he had taken all the basic courses in Anthropology, Psychology, Musicology, Poetry, Military Science and Human Relations that all modern colleges could offer. (But some might argue that David had rebellious children. So does God!)

So, how did David do it? By the Spirit of God.

Under David’s rule, there was no separation of faith and governance. Of “church” and of “state”. There is one God and there is only one kingdom worth living in and working for. The Son of David came to establish that kingdom in the hearts of people by offering the Spirit of God as a gift to those who follow Him. David, as king, had the Spirit of God. Every believer may also receive the same gift of the indwelling Spirit.

Today, Christ desires that we all come under His authority for He has been given all authority on Earth and in Heaven. Politics, at best, is a very poor imitation of the spiritual and legal administration established by Moses over the Israelite nation which reached its military and political glory during the reign of David, bloody though it was. (Solomon’s reign was a peaceful hiatus which showcased the ceremonial or symbolic aspect of Judaism through the building of the temple; but David’s rule was the climax, Solomon’s the slow downfall into idolatry that would result in the nation’s division.) The only viable pattern that could usher in a return to moral, legal, political, social and spiritual rebirth of our country is one that follows the Israelites’ experience as God’s chosen people.

Today, Christians are a chosen nation and royal priesthood of God administering His spiritual laws, not just as they are applied in the family or the smallest village that exists, but also in the largest and most complex nation-states that rule today. The reason nations rattle the weapons of war or ravage other nations through war is because humans, like David perhaps, want to defend their beliefs or their way of life. The difficult task of uniting people and allowing them to live in peace, however, belongs to God alone. If He allows nations to go to war, it is because He wants to show us how much we must all work together -- under His power, not ours -- in order to attain what He desires for us. He cannot give us something we ourselves do not want so badly. He could not give Noah a new and cleansed world without destroying everything that stood in the way to that objective. If it takes wars to cleanse the world of so much hatred and so much cruelty, God must be willing to do it if we are as equally hard-hearted as the people of Noah’s time. War or civil war is the worst consequence in our failure to follow God’s leading through a peaceful spiritual revolution.

But we are dealing with something less traumatic: the coming presidential elections (although in the Philippines that may not necessarily be the case). Every big political event in our country is a big deal. As big as the next fiesta or social extravaganza the cities or the media can concoct. In many cases, we cannot separate elections, fiestas and extravaganzas from one another. They are all one and the same.

We all feel the need to have fun even in the serious task of governing a nation. A song or a dance is a necessary part of our rituals in nation-building. But then, we easily get caught in petty “cultural wars” that distract us from the greater tasks ahead. (Like getting constantly hyped over how the National Anthem is sung during Pacquiao’s bouts.) And yet, for many, this coming electoral exercise is a more complex one as it magnifies the religious conflicts among us which we have brought along into the political arena. As if politics were not confusing enough.

It is then in the light of clarifying the air that I have come out with this series of articles. The main objective is to allow every voter or even non-voter to get to know himself or herself, her country’s history and how we may compare to those countries which had similar struggles. We will always be a unique country with unique challenges; but, in the end, as humans we have a common calling and destiny with all other nations under God’s rule. To truly understand what we are and where we are, we can only see our lot through the perspective that God allows us to see through His written word, the Bible. After all, this holy book contains the history and the great lessons that many strong and stable nations applied to reach progress and stability. To miss that point and opportunity is to be blind to the teachings of our own National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, who used the Bible as the prime source for his noble writings. Hence, in his final novel, we see spiritual regeneration as his prescribed ultimate solution to our nation’s diverse political ills. Faith and governance brilliantly reconciled!

Who is equal to the task of applying such a vision in real terms today?

In concluding this series in the next part, we will expound upon how we can attain the objectives of God for our nation in more practical and specific terms through an active participation in the political contest in May.

(Photo above: A child is not afraid to swim in the dark so long as it can feel the presence of its father looking over it. Why then are so many of us so afraid of the gathering darkness over our country?)

The Heart and the Spirit of a Nation (Part 2)

That which comes out of our mouth defiles us, not what goes into it, the Lord Jesus said. Out of the depths of our hearts come corrupt things like lust, hatred, slander, envy, cursing, rebellion and murderous thoughts. How such things arise in the hearts of those who were once such innocent infants or children is a process not many of us understand. It also pictures the transformation that our nation went through when we lost what Rizal described as our Eden-like past.

In the early ‘70’s, I was a lad fresh out of high school, just starting to enjoy and endure college at the same time, together with my bosom friends. It seems, we never had a day without our usual jamming with a guitar and a Jingle chord magazine (which was optional for most of us). In the midst of the seething and growing political turmoil that would divide many of us un-politicized and nearly-politicized Diliman citizens into many factions, we strove to derive as much fun from the free time we had away from calculus computations and philosophical speculations. We had no idea our growing-up years would be accelerated in tempo with the literal staccato noise of Armalite gunshots. Within two or three years, we would see the worst of what a government can do and what depths of suffering a nation could go through before marching into a zombie-like existence during Martial Law years. By then, many of us were political or spiritual renegades, not knowing what to believe in or, in many cases, whether we needed to believe anything at all. Many of us found solace in the Gospel.

EDSA ’86 was a chain-breaking event whose euphoria lasted shorter than it took many of us to await its coming. What many do not realize is that many years before EDSA, the Gospel had already gained a strong foothold in the hearts and spirits of spiritually hungry Filipinos who attended Bible studies in almost every corner of towns, cities and inside stores and office buildings. The confetti that rained in Makati prior to the departure of Marcos were literally those of renewed or born-again believers who put their hopes in God to set them free and not in the ideologues or the politicians. Still, the freedom we thought we had gained remains as elusive as before.

Not many of our youth today understand what the ‘70’s meant to our generation, just as not many of my generation did not understand what our parents went through in the ‘40’s during World War II. If the youth of today could learn to see and appreciate their parents’ strivings to give them the best they can with their meager means, then they would know what we, the parents of today, feel for our parents as well. The cycle of life revolves no matter who sits in Malacañang Palace or in the White House. Each generation’s task is to form a society that works for the common good from top to bottom.

The relative peace and uneasy freedom we have we owe to the people who actively fought to establish our institutions: from the time of our ancestors who set up the villages in these islands and farmed the fertile soils beside the unpolluted rivers to the time of the revolutionaries who took up arms to regain our lost sovereignty. The heart of the Filipino is no different from the heart of the Hebrew during Moses time when they built the pyramids of Egypt. The sugar-cane planters of Negros slaved to maintain the haciendas of the Spanish rulers. Even today, they continue to live the same kind of life of our ancestors in the present haciendas of Negros and Tarlac. The massacres that happen there today are mere spasms of the continuing injustice Filipinos go through till now.

The heart of the Filipino is a patient heart. Like the timid carabao whose only sense of relief from the burden of work is to wallow in the mud after toiling in the sun-baked ricefields, he sits silently in his home waiting for a chance to rise above his dreary existence. The factory worker goes home to the squalid slums with the bright thought that someday, one of his children will work as a nurse abroad and finally give the whole family the comfort and peace of owning their own house. Thousands dream a similar dream in an oppressive landscape that remains etched forever in the conscience of those who desire to provide relief to the weary of body and soul but end up offering only prayers and consolation. In a world where poverty and relief work are daily realities, calamity is nothing more than a vacation from monotony.

When given finally the chance to express his anger, the Filipino rises to the occasion: the Katipuneros, the guerillas, the rebels and the student activists, among others. Each time, the heart marched or marches to the call of freedom and the desire to claim one’s destiny in this world. Yet, so much like the Hebrews who suffered silently and lived to see their freedom given to them through divine grace, Filipinos, in general, desire a peaceful resolution of things that beset them. The heart may rise up in protest but the spirit subdues the violence that emanates from the heart and seeks heavenly wisdom which alone can institute desirable, permanent change. God has honored such pacifism by sparing our land from complete civil strife.

Even before the colonizers arrived, the Filipinos already had a deep spiritual awareness of their role in this world. The Aetas of Zambales recognized the power that reigned over Mt. Pinatubo and called Him “Apo Namallari” – the God Who owns or the God Who is Almighty. The Igorots embalmed their dead in the hope that one day, their bodies would be reunited with their spirits which they believed remained with them, roaming in the forests and mountains and not to be disturbed or desecrated by those who destroy Nature. Perhaps, our ancestors believed in a Heaven somewhere but preferred to believe that the spirits of the dead lived among them and offered cañaos (meat sacrifices) when they had dream-visits from their dead relatives.

Enter the colonizers who taught us a devitalized form of Christianity. (To prove the ironic point: Luther defended the Reformation in the year Magellan arrived here. What Europe was beginning to throw away, we were only beginning to learn.) Thus, instead of showing our ancestors genuine freedom and compassion, they exploited them and educated them in their decadent ways. Thus, unlike the Japanese and the Chinese who preserved their identity, we lost our native character. We had the heart of a person rooted in tropical lands and seas but our hearts and minds were somewhere in the temperate continents, imbibing the soul and the spirit of the ruler who himself was once a slave but learned to conquer. And conquer he did -- or they did.

How do we free ourselves from such a confused experience? It is a task next to impossible. Many have tried to make us aware of this reality (like Rizal discovering and uncovering the writings of de Morga in London or Sionil-Jose writing about what we can do with what we are and have to improve ourselves); but, so far, we have failed to make a concerted effort to harness the gifts we have received through our revolutionary spiritual experiences. Instead of looking into the lessons of our past and charting our future upon our own unique identity, we move forward like dressed, headless chicken – naked and blind.

Yes, the heart may hold much of what we know and desire; but it is the spirit – quickened by the Spirit of God – that will overcome everything, according to the promise of Him Who overcame death itself. The human heart, after all, sees and feels what is right for us and our children. However, the heart, blind to the teachings of Heaven, will march ahead toward perdition in the belief that humans can steer their own destiny. Such were the colonizers who shaped the lands they conquered through their idea of governance and exploitation. They believed in their supposedly manifest role to mold others according to their image. They fancied themselves gods with a mission to save the world when they really needed salvation more.

We have fallen victim to the idea that our salvation is in the material advantages derived from industrialization and commercial progress. We want to be world-class and so we build bigger houses, condos, malls, churches, hospitals, monuments and institutions. Is it not those very nations who usurped our freedoms and stole our innocence who continue to burden the globe in the political and economic sense? Ironically, they also arrogantly assume that they hold the key to our spiritual well-being. The latter is the worst kind of deception our nation has gone through. For more than four centuries, our nation has remained hostage to the spiritual slavery which Rizal sought to free us from. Yet, today, we remain blind and enslaved spiritually. The so-called spiritual leaders are as confused as the people they lead. In many cases, they are as corrupt or even more so.

The heart, the soul and the spirit of a nation that remains enslaved to spiritual, economic and political imperialists, can only attain its freedom from the God of Heaven. It is not from its leaders or from its so-called allies. It is God alone Who can cause a rebirth of our nation. How He does it is clearly seen in the events that are transpiring in our midst today.

The signs of a deteriorating Earth are obvious. Forget about global-warming or climate-change brought about by CO2 emissions. This is already a discredited belief. Other alternative causes of the climate-change are equally viable. The point is: It is not us humans who are causing the deterioration for the signals are those of the End-Times. The problem is not merely social, industrial or economic; it is spiritual. The spirit of humans is what is at stake – not the Earth or the Universe even. If we continue to be deluded that science and technology can help us solve all problems, we are grossly mistaken. If we continue to think that good politics and governance alone will bring about real change in our societies, we are pitifully shortsighted.

The time Noah began to call for riders of the Ark was just before he began building it. More than 100 years earlier. Whether the end of this present world comes in 2, 10, 100 or 500 years from now, today is the right time to tell all that a Judgment Day is coming. We will not mince words; nor will we apologize for our doomsday message.

Many Filipinos escaped sure death when the Ondoy floods came; but, today, they are back to their usual ways – dancing to the lewd tunes of material and carnal pleasure. Whereas they shed tears of fear or of gratitude for having been saved, they now smile smugly in their slavery to worldly passions. We live as if, like the Hebrews, God never showed us His power to save and transform us from within. The TV networks become compassionate and civically-minded when disasters come; but when summer vacation comes along, they purvey us with indecent shows as if the disasters never came about because of our immoral ways. Sadly, the spirituality of Filipinos has descended to a very low point that it is no longer a surprise when calamities visit us with a vengeance. For what the great and powerful media instill in our hearts and spirits is corruption (disguised as entertainment) that leads people to disobedience and further rebellion against God’s laws.

Yes, the average Filipino is corrupt or corrupted by the ideas he or she imbibes from the environment. The total decay we see is merely a manifestation of the corrupting evil spirit that rules over the nation. The only way God can purge such evil from our land, just as He did in the wilderness of Sinai, is to send more plagues. But plagues or disasters will never stop the businesspeople from making more money over the dumb souls of hapless and witless Filipinos who patronize their programs and products. Even the pure and wise may find it hard to escape spiritual annihilation.

Our present political leaders do not have the answers to all these problems we present. They only have answers to those problems they see immediately around them. They are blind to the spiritual decay around them for they themselves wallow in the mire of corruption and refuse to take the only way out. We need a more drastic, inner revolution. It begins with genuine education of the heart and the spirit that can only come with the intense desire to follow God’s life-principles.


I Corinthians 2:6-16

However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

But as it is written:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

(Photo above: Is it possible for an innocent child to teach an adult?)

(To be continued)

The Heart and the Spirit of a Nation (Part I)

The Philippine 2010 Election period gradually heats up simultaneously with the rising tropical temperatures of Asia’s first independent Republic. With 9 officially recognized presidential candidates, the contest has left not a few people rather confused and so many noncommittal at this point. Of course, we hear many others eagerly pitching for their chosen candidate with their personal reasons for doing so. Their choices, in the long run, are mainly based on their assessment of the personality, character, qualifications and experiences of their preferences. A few I have talked to and read about bring into the picture their rationale for choosing a person on his or her ability to provide the needed leadership to address the many problems the country faces. It seems that not many have fully analyzed the real state of the nation and what (and it seems to follow, who) it will take to bring it at par with the generally-accepted ideal state (no pun intended in regard to “US Statehood” proponents).

Most of the reasons given, therefore, can be clearly classified as perceptions of voters of the candidates as if they were applicants for a business corporation. True, the role of a president as Chief Executive of the nation requires the highest degree of qualification in administering the many affairs of the State. And among the lot, we can safely say that six or seven are equally and fully capable of fulfilling that task. In fact, even if all of them were individually qualified to serve as an effective orchestrator of the multi-tasks of the president of the land, we would still have to consider their ability to provide the most important ingredient needed in leading a nation into its uncertain future within a fast-changing and self-deteriorating globe.

To complicate matters, one of the main issues, if not the most important issue that is foremost in the minds of Filipinos, is that of corruption. One candidate is said to be so squeaky clean that he is ironically not qualified to rule because he has done nothing whatsoever as a legislator. Not corrupt but so inept, it is said. Another is so corrupt (having been convicted for economic plunder) that we wonder why he even had the gall to run for office. Still another has been charged of corruption that he has spent much money and time doing damage control by literally putting words into innocent kids’ mouths to prove he is not guilty. In short, out of the mouth of babes we could be hearing lies instead of praise for truth and honesty. Pity the children (and other young impressionable volunteers) and leave them out of politics.

Politics -- the ideal kind, the one that involves contemplation of the highest good of the majority and implementation of the supreme ideals of nationhood through selfless service -- engenders unity and cooperation. In that, we must involve the youth. But the one we have -- and the only one many probably know -- divides and corrupts. As it is, our nation is gradually being divided into ten or so partitions that could very well lead into an utterly fragmented nation that mimics the geographical nature of these islands. With such a divided mix, we would easily fall prey in the hands of criminals, opportunists and rebels among us. A failure of elections could very well produce a chaotic society that will be left with so many leaders fighting each other and not one strong leader to summon it toward harmony and peace. It has happened in many countries before.

In the light of such inescapable and even inevitable realities, the leader we choose must be more than an able executive or an astute politician as if the need for the hour is business and governance as usual. Yes, two or more candidates may present themselves as quite intelligent and also academically prepared for the job, but that does not still provide us with the assurance that the entire nation will be safe under the care of any of these “smart” leaders.

I would humbly like to beg the issue by saying that it will not take any one person among the many candidates to prepare us for the coming six years or more of our country’s existence. Any leader will only be as effective as the people will allow him or her to lead them. He will either succeed or fail with them. Take the case of Moses: Chosen by God to lead the Israelites from slavery and into freedom and nationhood, he eventually failed to enter with all those freed slaves because of disobedience. Both leader and people were prevented from receiving their trophy due to unbelief and disobedience.

Was Moses qualified to lead a nation? Absolutely! Was he wise and strong enough to save a people from slavery? Yes, he was. But the people rebelled and wanted to put up their own spiritually unqualified (un-anointed) leaders and because they kept complaining about their situation, God judged them unworthy of His material reward. Moses’ anger against a hard-headed people likewise led to his failure to get the reward. A small thing, perhaps, compared to the glory he received eventually as a prophet but it bears a relevant lesson for us today.

A leader can only remain a good leader as long as he keeps his heart and spirit in the power of the Lord in Heaven. And so with the people he leads. If the people, like the Hebrews, murmur and criticize (a favorite pastime of many Filipinos), any good or qualified leader will lose heart and spirit in his or her work. The Promised Land is for those who (like Joshua who was young, obedient and faithful) are brave enough to listen to the call of God to conquer through His might and to face the challenges of fearsome giants and countless enemies.

Let us then look at the hearts and spirits of those who would claim to be qualified to lead our nation. Let us test their hearts and their spirits and find out if they have gone through the fires of testing that God alone -- not business or political experience -- can bring about in order to form the real person or character that submits to Him and does not seek personal gain or glory. Let us check the motives of those who lay claim to the highest position of leadership of a nation which is called by God to lead other nations to Him.

Our country, by God’s grace and mighty plan, has been established not just to exist on these islands but on every part of this Earth. Visit any major country and you will see that Filipinos live and work there. Today, more than 80% of workers who operate and work in ocean-vessels are Filipinos. The dollars, pounds and euros all our OFW’s send back home are nothing compared to the honor they bring and will bring to our homeland when we, as a united people come to realize our unique role as God’s instruments of His salvation for the world.

Yes, we all want to save our nation from poverty and from corruption. We all want to see our nation like those around us, progressive and well-governed. For ours still needs to see the light of elusive unity and prosperity. The Hebrews also dreamed of escaping suffering, poverty and slavery. They wanted to plant their own seeds on their own land and harvest their own fruits for their own families. God gave them a leader suitable for their dreams. God showed them His power tenfold in Egypt and a hundredfold in the wilderness. Yet, they remained blind to God’s grace.

Even before this election period, we have been divided as a nation. We are even divided as a Christian nation. But our calling today clearly points to our becoming a nation of God that will bring about change not only in our families and in our towns and cities but in the entire globe, even in all the nations of the world. To look at Elections 2010 then as just a make-or-break political event for our country is to shortchange our destiny as God’s people. We are a beloved nation of God. We suffer because God is purifying us and preparing us for a great task ahead. We are divided because we go through the wilderness without a recognized strong unifying leader (although God is there speaking to us every moment). We are confused because there are so many around us who would want to leave God out of the picture and bring themselves or their selfish interests into the arena.

The heart and the spirit are not abstract things we are incapable of seeing and understanding. We, perhaps the most religiously receptive nation in Asia, if not in the entire world, are quite capable of discerning spiritual truths and realities. We just need to humble ourselves like we did during all the calamities and revolutions we have gone through and learn to recognize God’s hand in molding us into a nation ready to claim its Promised Land. It is faith in God that will guide us in this election period. It is our trust in the almighty power of God that will open our own hearts and spirits to the ultimate plan laid down since the beginning of the world for our country to accomplish.

Politics and elections are mere tools for attaining change in our society. Remember, we are not merely choosing a leader; we are reaffirming our submission to God as our one and only true leader. He is the one allowing us to escape poverty and suffering. He alone can bless us through the way He has chosen for us to follow. In short, when we choose a leader, we must allow God to enlighten our hearts and spirits according to His eternal plan for the life of our nation and the entire world. That plan cannot proceed without the people deciding as one that they will listen and heed the call of God.

Do you hear God calling you to do great things? Yes, you can do great things if you let God direct you. Choose and act according to His plan and His wisdom.

(Photo above: Filipinos crossing the "Red Sea" of Ondoy? Is there a Promised Land for our people?

The House that Built Many Nations

There is a proven, easy and inexpensive way to earthquake-proof your family and your possessions. Yes, truly there is and it has been around for centuries. How?

The answer came to me when I was reading yesterday’s Philippine Daily Inquirer’s section “Talk of the Town” on page A-10. There splashed on the page was an old, ink drawing (please see photo above) from the Illustrated London News, apparently on its August 29, 1863 issue, showing the destruction of the Danish Embassy in Manila in that year. The whole building is in shambles and mirrors the damage inflicted upon the UN headquarters in Haiti in the recent deadly Intensity-7 earthquake. Roof girders and beams pile up like “pick-up-sticks” in disarray while stone walls look like broken teeth, giving us an idea of the tremor’s devastating force. People carry the wounded and the dead while others evacuate their homes for safe grounds.

Yet, behind this bone-crunching view of nature’s cruel wrath lies a picture of how the ancient residents of these islands withstood the elements and triumphed to become the masters of their environment. It shows, beyond any doubt, something that we have failed to consider and preserve as a cultural legacy from our ancestors. And because of this failure, we have paid a steep price in terms of economic, social and engineering costs. What is this?

Beside the fallen Dutch Embassy still stands a bamboo-and-nipa house whose roof now seems to overshadow the exposed interiors of the embassy. If the native house suffered any major damage, the drawing barely shows it, but, on the contrary, proves modernity’s ironic inferiority to ancient designs and materials. Here, then, is an inkling into the story of our country’s sojourn as a free, self-governed and self-developed community of settlers whose domiciles and ways not just suited the climate but also took into account the destructive forces of nature. Our ancestors who came from neighboring Asian countries bequeathed us with ancient knowledge and wisdom we have somehow lost in less than half a century.

Typhoons have torn and blown away nipa roofings, we know this fact; but people always had a way to repair or replace them since the materials were almost always available within every locality. There were no hardware stores from which they could buy nipa or bamboo. More often than not, they made their own roofs, floors and walls. Filipino bamboo houses were genuine organic homes which provided the people not just with comfort and protection but also a living culture that kept them independent of any social or economic structures which enslaved them. Certainly, many may have eventually depended on skilled builders and traders to accomplish their construction and repair needs; but with the Bayanihan Spirit at work early on in these islands, building or rebuilding houses became a habitual community affair just as planting rice was. With bamboo, coconut and nipa plants growing all around them and providing almost everything one needed for a house – from roofing to walling, from flooring to posts and from windows to doors and stairs – the cost of putting up a house was minimal, if not, negligible as nature, in those times, cared for humans, and vice versa.

The Bayanihan or Community Spirit nurtured a culture wherein humans cared for other humans. A decent and livable house was a gift of the community to each and every new family that rose in its midst. Building and owning a house, then, was a family’s priceless inheritance from an ancient way of life and also a social contract to pay it forward to others who came after it. In that way, no one owned exclusively a house since the entire community pitched in to build it. Nature provided the materials as well as the land upon which the house stood. If nature decided to take the house back through disasters like typhoons or fires, the community offered sacrifices in order to appease heaven and to seek a way to rebuild or to relocate the community. In this way, the natives learned to live and survive in these islands.

For centuries, the bamboo-and-nipa house served as the shelter for many generations of Filipinos in a seemingly endless march. Many of our own aged parents still living now, with a few exceptions, lived in one. Hence, the picture of a bamboo house surviving a strong earthquake speaks thousands of words to us modern, city-dwellers who suffer the summer months inside steel-roofed, concrete houses with small windows that barely let the air in. Yes, we have learned to make them strong enough to withstand storms and quakes but at such a high price. The backlog in housing only shows that we have an impractical and onerous social, economic and engineering solution to a problem that we have so far failed to address completely and rightly. This is what happens when we turn our backs on our past.

Imagine, for instance, if Haitians had built bamboo houses instead of brick or concrete ones. Would there have been 150,000 people dead? Imagine if we had continued to give the honor we once gave bamboo houses for centuries, how much less would be the backlog in housing construction now? How many people would not be living in shanties in cities? How many people would have livelihood in the villages, planting and trading bamboo, coconut and nipa construction materials, not to mention other handicrafts and essential coconut products like copra and lumber? How much will we save from not importing construction materials if we had developed and engineered bamboo materials the way the Indians and Vietnamese have? (They sell bamboo houses to Hawaii from $15,000 to $45,000 or more for a single house kit. We can’t even allow a family to build a bamboo house inside a city subdivision for P50,000 because of impractical ordinances. Living in a bamboo house suddenly became a pitiful idea or sight even to us!)

This is not to say we should build bamboo houses everywhere. It is merely to say: Let us give back the respect we took away for our ancient, proven and practical ways. Yes, we dream of living in a California-style bungalow or a Swiss-chattel house, fine and dandy. We end up using so much energy air-conditioning it that we have ended up making our cities heat-sinks doing so because of the amount of concrete and steel we use instead of the less heat-absorbent bamboo, wood and nipa.

Yes, bamboo and nipa may burn easily. But so do all the wood and other synthetic materials we use in our modern houses. Fires occur not because we use wood or bamboo but because we do not take proper safety precautions. Building regulations have succeeded in discriminating against the bamboo house in cities and towns to the point of disregarding its versatility, adaptability and its acceptability as the prime symbol of our capacity to survive and to live in harmony with Nature.

The picture of the Danish Embassy in disarray beside a tall, proudly standing bamboo-and-nipa house after an earthquake tells a very convincing story that our housing officials must heed. It speaks not only of a way of surviving in these financially-challenged times but also of restoring the dignity in our social, cultural and environmental heritage. It presents an opportunity for us to utilize materials that are not just renewable but are also organically produced, thus benefitting the environment, and locally available, thus serving our economic needs. Finally, it showcases forms and designs that contain our original and authentic identity as a unique, free people.

What ultimately resulted when we neglected our precious architectural heritage by embracing and espousing external influences was our habit of conforming more and more to impractical and expensive methods of building homes and altering our environment, thus, making us forget the most fundamental principle of nature: growing and living with the environment. Today, we have cement plants run mostly by multinationals that scour our mountains in order to provide us with a durable construction material whose strength depends almost totally on another material that is more expensive than many basic commodities per unit of weight: steel.

When the Americans arrived in these islands in the early 1900’s, they introduced lumber as a new major construction material. This sounded the death knoll of bamboo as the primary source for building homes as well. After the Second World War, they introduced reinforced concrete and eventually led to the ultimate death of the bamboo houses in the cities and towns. Today, we hardly have any bamboo houses standing that date back to the American Occupation. In our rush to become modern and industrialized, we forgot to make use of a material that would have made us remain a self-sufficient nation capable of providing homes even to the least of our citizens. The pride we had upon what our ancestors practiced for centuries, we cannot even bestow upon ourselves as we see thousands and thousands of our fellow citizens dwelling in crowded slum areas inside shanties made of old galvanized-roofing walls, used-plywood flooring, recycled tin-doors, cardboard partitions and plastic-sheet windows and awnings.

Our ancestors would cry in astonishment to see us at this stage in modern civilization and say: “What a foolish people! They saw something from afar and copied it when right there in their backyard is what they need to live a happy and proud life in their homeland.”

Some would say it is a matter of taste and quality. Yeah, tell that to the millions of city-slum dwellers who could have been planting or raising their food and also their housing materials in the provinces if we had not given up on the essential and traditional Asian home: the Bamboo House. An earthquake may not easily destroy a concrete house; but neither will it easily destroy a bamboo house. A community of sturdy concrete houses may look modern and progressive; but a village of bamboo houses can be exotically stylish and even be more viable through a system that provides sources for construction materials, food and livelihood.

Calamities teach us a lot of things. But the greatest calamity that can happen to a people occurs when they can no longer learn to value the proven, ancient paths.

(The writer is presently working on a book entitled Bamboo House: The Essential Asian House.)

Heroes for President (Love Stories as Election Campaign Ads)

As we approach the May elections, we expect more media noise coming from the hundreds of candidates in their TV, radio and print campaign ads. Good for business, in general, but not so much for our tranquility and our efforts to achieve moral recovery. As the Medicis of Florence loved to proclaim: “Money to get the power, power to keep the money.” A concise definition of politics, if we ever needed one.

There is the billionaire who spends millions to gain access to the highest position of the land. His many and certainly expensive TV ads alone are veritable movie-trailers showcasing his past, his accomplishments and his abilities. Then, there are the two cousins – scions of wealthy landowners and industrialists – who are paraded as young and dynamic leaders, eager to serve the people and to please them with their promises of, well, wanting to serve them. Both also have their own ads, obviously created by the best PR and copywriters around – crisp and clean visuals and catchy cinematography that would make many would-be movie-makers envious, if not for their quality then the financial windfall they would provide. Such things don’t come cheap, you know.

Marcos had his “Iginuhit ng Tadhana”, a love-story starring Luis Gonzalez and Gloria Romero, which introduced him and Imelda as the "saviors" of our country. At least, with a movie, one stands to gain back some of the investment. Perhaps, the “Apo” was much wiser than we thought he was. Putting up the CCP was in itself the crowning jewel of his regime as it showed the world how beautiful Filipino culture was and how generous a government can be to preserve or develop its culture. Some, of course, would say it was nothing but propaganda. For some, it was indeed a shot in the arms for our artists and, it follows, for our people.

Others would say it was nothing but business as usual. Money making more money for the rich while sparing some loose change for the service industries. Media and the film industry stand to gain from this recent surge in demand for political ads.

However, business and culture are much like food and flowers in a restaurant. You can eat the former but not the latter. Yet, this kind of thinking is exactly what keeps us from maturing as a people: We spend each day thinking about what to feed our families while we forget to feed our souls with the finer things in life. In fact, we continue to patronize cheap western music and Korean telenovelas and forget to appreciate our own excellent music and literature. Ironically, CCP’s cultural events are affordable only for the wealthy. Whereas pop or rock concerts get replayed often on the TV networks, not many of CCP’s shows get enough sponsors to air them. Thus, we remain an unaware and confused people, subject to exploitation by cunning people.

One of the latest attempts at mimicking Marcos’ use of film as campaign tool came in the form of a network’s soap-bio on the love-life of Ninoy and Cory Aquino. Aired on primetime last weekend, people were treated to an “infotainment” (drama-docu show, that is) which probably garnered a sizeable chunk of the viewing public. Considering the network’s open and self-serving endorsement of Noynoy’s bid for the presidency, it was an unabashed plug for his character and his legacy as the only son of what many recognize as modern heroes of our country.

And they are heroes, if we are to set up before ourselves high standards of courage, dedication and sacrifice -- the very same standards we use to declare our OFW’s as our modern heroes. What makes Ninoy and Cory exemplary is the vast influence they had within a particular period in our political history. Specifically, in relation to the Marcos regime. They served to set us free from two decades of darkness. We celebrate -- and will again celebrate next month -- that fact as the EDSA Revolution. For how can we forget the glorious unfolding of our nation’s destiny without mentioning the contributions of these two personalities?

Yes, we need to thank them and uphold them as cherished leaders of our nation for when the time came when we needed them, they answered the call. And yet, the present requires that we kiss the past struggles and glories goodbye and face the future still with an open embrace. Open to new opportunities and new ways of meeting fresh challenges. Let us keep Ninoy and Cory as symbols of freedom, among so many others from the past and in the present who lived and live to make democracy a reality.

Noynoy, as a symbol of one family’s struggles and triumphs as well as a budding icon of what our nation can become is indeed a welcome potential. He deserves to be heard and given the opportunity to prove himself. Or, perhaps, he has already been given that chance and that it is time to make the right and mature judgment on his ability to lead our nation.

Would Ninoy, the father, have made a good president? Perhaps. If the TV drama is to be believed, he would have kept his promise to be uncorrupted, as his son now also promises not to steal from the nation. Ninoy never became president and Noynoy just might become one. But let us consider their qualifications, to be more subjective.

Ninoy was a traditional politician before he became a reformer of some kind. A defender of the system before he became an activist. A conventional thinker before he became a pacifist-rebel with a just cause. A mainstream Catholic before he became a mystic of some sort. I hope the soap drama would ultimately showcase (Part 2 is still coming) these nuances in Ninoy’s transformation as it is crucial in determining if we all have understood what it takes to bring a nation back, close to its Eden-like condition (Rizal’s vision of our own ancient past).

The questions then that we must ask, if we are to make the right choices when the time comes to choose our leaders, are these: Did Cory truly embody the same visions that Ninoy had (as well as those of Rizal, other heroes and those of our own today) when she served as president? Did she fulfill the dreams of her husband not just to restore democracy but also good government and social justice? If so, will Noynoy be able to do the same? If not, why should we entrust to him the seat in Malacanang? Has he done what is necessary to prove that he really is the very person his own father would elect to fulfill his (Ninoy’s) own dreams for our country?

It doesn’t take to be a son or daughter of Ninoy to know his ideals, the same ideals that our previous heroes held and defended with their lives. We only need to be aware of our own capabilities and duties to be ready when called upon to serve in turn.

The true measure of Ninoy’s success as a political leader and as a belated visionary late in life should not be simplified as if it were a natural or conjugal succession with Cory’s becoming president. It is a dangerous assumption that leads people to think Noynoy would then be the next and normal heir to the mythical throne of EDSA. EDSA was a phase, just as the Philippine Revolution was. Did we have the best leaders during the Revolutionary Government? Did we achieve our aspirations under their watch? Will we do so now under the one we want to elect? Is Noynoy the genuine reformer, activist, visionary and thinker that we need in this critical time of our history? Can we honestly say that he is and not merely hope that he will be when he needs to be?

Beyond mentioning the political baggage that the Aquino-Cojuangco family carry into this presidential campaign, we must look at a person’s claim to his ability to lead our nation in relation to our long history of heroism and not just recent political realities. For many are the problems and the enemies that we must face. The same issues that beset our fathers under the Spanish and American Regimes remain today in the same forms, colors and odors: black, odious and rotten corruption and exploitation of our social, cultural, political and physical environment. The skin colors and the names may have changed, the addresses and the costumes may also have changed, but the rules of the game have remained the same.

The powerful and the moneyed still hold sway over our lives and still hold the reins over how we think, believe and move. The friars may be gone; but their descendants are still around preaching love and receiving blood money. The Ilustrados may have long been silent; but their heirs still sit in gilded chairs in mansions. The Guardia Civil may be only be a memory now; but their brood still lurk somewhere ready to pounce upon those who disturb the status quo.

Elections give us a chance to see ourselves where we really are: Back to Square One. Corruption is with us and will be with us when we lie with the worms in the grave. For now, we lead ourselves into thinking that real heroism comes merely to those born of heroes and not to those who live it and plod through its struggles and come out as totally transformed individuals.

Who among our candidates have gone through a transformation from inside out? Who exhibits in living form the life worthy of our admiration and emulation? This is what should guide us this campaign period.

Perhaps, what we need is not a new president but a new spirit of heroism within us all, one that makes us to walk and live as heroes ourselves and not just followers of heroes. Perhaps, what we need then are movies that help us to become heroes and not movies that lead us to worship others as heroes – whether fantastic or real heroes. We certainly cannot fly like Darna does; but we can be compassionate like Josephine Bracken who cared for the wounded during the Philippine-American War. We cannot be as strong as the Flavio, the mythical Panday; but we can be as strong of mind and of character as Rizal was when he led the way to our freedom as a nation.

Incidentally, I wrote a semi-historical script of the love-life of Jose and Josephine a few years ago. The story makes Rizal the president of the Philippines, a timely idea that may help us consider how he would have behaved as a political leader. Here is an idea: Why don’t we writers and film-makers come up with stories of real or fictional people who will exemplify the highest ideals for us and candidates to follow? So, instead of us watching people tell us how great they are, we can show them how great they should be, that is, great enough for us to vote for them. But I still have to hear of a wealthy candidate who will bankroll a film on the life of, say, Bonifacio or Mabini just so he or she can win an election. Now that – is a real dream!


(Photo above: Is it a butterfly or a shell? Images can be deceitful.)

Predictions Made Me by Emilio Sardan Ragay

A month before my 81st birthday (22 November) an old woman appeared in my dream telling me that I will win the mega lotto jackpot. When I awoke, I kept tossing in bed trying to decipher who she was. After hours of “flashbacking” I recalled that she was someone I met during my younger bygone years.

Here’s my story. After graduation, the UP Vanguards Batch ‘41 to which I belonged immediately underwent physical and medical tests for commissions as 3rd Lieutenants in the Philippine Army. While waiting for my commission and call-to-active-duty, I decided to visit my father who was with the PC Command in Naga City.

I lost no time in befriending the folks residing in Mabini Interior Street, where my father rented a house. In no time, I became a member of DALOLI (dance, love and live) Club, which was very much to my liking.

One social event the club member looked forward to was the baptism of the son of our neighbor. I was supposed to be one of six sponsors. Unfortunately, our plans to this social event went “pffft” . In between sobs, the child’s mother informed me that her son was seriously sick. I hurriedly visited her sick child and what I saw alarmed me. Expecting the worst, I gave the child a layman’s baptism. I dipped my forefinger in a cup of water and made the sign of the cross on his forehead while intoning the “I baptize you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” ritual.

I felt momentarily relieved. An hour later, we rushed the child to the Cathedral to be baptized formally by a priest. The child who was cradled in my arms died right after his baptism. I was emotionally devastated by this sudden turn of events. The child’s grandmother confided to me during the wake that my godson would bring me good luck, saying, “He will save your life in a year’s time.” “Remember what I am telling you.”, she added.

Not long after, I gave away my civilian clothes and old uniforms. For the second time, the old woman admonished me not to give away my old clothes or else I would be begging for clothes myself. I hugged her and told her that would not likely happen. And again she told me, “Just remember what I am telling you.”

Before I left Naga City, my barkada in the DALOLI Club tendered me a despedida party. When the old woman saw me dancing and being lovey-dovey with a school teacher, she called me aside during music breaks and whispered, “Lieutenant, you will not be lucky with her. Besides”, she continued, “you will soon forget her when you leave our place. You will meet your future partner in life in an unusual situation.” I simply shrugged and thanked her for her advices and predictions.

By mid- August, I reported to GHQ of the Philippine Army, which was then located at the Mehan Gardens (behind the present site of the Manila City Hall). Together with several army officers, we boarded the interisland boat S.S. PANAY bound for our Visayan and Mindanao assignments.

We were inducted into the USAFFE on September 1st at Camp Guihulngan, Negros Oriental and immediately transferred to another camp in Negros Occidental where we attended a refresher course. After over a month of trainings, we were moved to a camp in Negros Oriental. By the end of November, we were transferred for the third time to our permanent camp, Camp O’Donnell in Capas, Tarlac. We were barely settled in the new camp when on December 8, war was declared with Japan. We were hurriedly dispatched to the Lingayen Gulf frontlines. We did not have to wait long. On the even of November 22, the Japanese forces landed in La Union. We were committed to meet the Japanese Forces in Damortis and Rosario in La Union. Without airplanes, tanks and big artillery, we were decisively repulsed. From Rosario, we retreated to Sison in Pangasinan where we were also battered. We retreated to Pozorrubio, another town, and again we were attacked while resting at night. We again retreated to Binalonan which was defended by an American anti-tank unit.

Without letup, the Japs attacked us on Christmas Even in Binalonan. We were overran and ordered to retreat. Bullets were flying in all directions. When I fell for the first time, I thought I was hit but I struggled to get up and ran in semi-darkness. I stumbled again and again and when I looked back after my third fall, I saw the enemy closing in on us. I froze and stayed put where I fell and played possum, hiding beneath a canopy of palay stalks.

When morning came, I found myself among dead comrades. Not far was a machine gun nest of the enemy which kept firing at the retreating soldiers. I prayed hard as I never did before. Then I remembered my dead godson and the prediction that he will save my life. So I prayed to him for my deliverance.

Before noon, the Japs burned the rice field where I was hiding. Although my whole body was numb all over, I tried to shift my position slowly. To add to my misery, red ants were having a field day biting me; but movement of a “dead soldier” was too risky to gamble. I prayed again. Suddenly, a strong gush of wind swept the direction of the fire and stopped its tracks.

By about four in the afternoon, I heard a Japanese command which I could not understand. But a little later, the revving sounds of their tanks and lorries indicated that they were moving to the next town, Urdaneta.

It was nearing dark and the thought of being with the dead another night gave me goose bumps. I decided to change my position slowly to prone. It took me about half an hour to unwind the numbness all over my body. I slowly crept toward a patch of sugar cane where I broke two stalks and chewed to fill my empty stomach.

I moved stealthily eastward to avoid the enemy. While walking, I heard a voice coming from a deep irrigation canal, “Sir, help me, I am a soldier. I was hit by sniper fire in Urdaneta.” Thereupon, I applied sulfanilamide on the wound on his left shoulder, put a gauge and sling around his shoulders and neck.

I was glad to have met him. Being an Ilocano, he could be useful as guide and interpreter in my attempt to rejoin my forces. Our plans to reach Rosales in Pangasinan was, however, frustrated by darkness. We arrived at Villasis town where we were met by civilian guards led by an ex-teacher who advised us not to cross Agno River as it was very deep and swift. He instead invited us to his house. There, he produced a plate of hard cold rice (bahaw) with a few mustard leaves garnished with bagoong. That meal was indeed most welcome and a luxury, after two days of forced hunger. With a full stomach, I soon fell asleep only to be awakened by the shouts of our host to escape the heavy bombardments coming from both sides of the Agno River. After several hours of running and walking in darkness, we reached the evacuation center in Unsad, a barrio of Villasis where our host’s family had evacuated.

Since it was our duty to report back to our lines, we decided to cross the river in several places, but each time we were pushed back by civilians who were also running away from the enemy. After three failed attempts to cross, we returned to the evacuation camp. On the advice of the ex-teacher, we discarded our uniforms to escape detection by spies. He was so kind to provide us with used clothes.

Later, I joined the guerilla organized by an American colonel who escaped Bataan through Mt. Pinatubo. Unfortunately, I was captured several months later. I was incarcerated at the Kim Pei Tai POW camp in Binalonan, where I was kicked, boxed, “jujitsued” and given the water-cure treatment. My sufferings at the POW camp was somewhat eased when a week later, then Governor Estrada of Pangasinan visited the camp. It so happened that his cousin was my Literature teacher in Dumaguete City. This information elated the governor who promised to help me with my release. He convinced that Japanese colonel that I was his relative. Thus, I was released with the condition that I give my gold-plated Waltham Premier watch. I had no choice so I handed over my watch to the Japanese colonel who in turn handed me P70.00 as payment. That was how I lost my P120.00 pre war watch. It was good bargain, though. The money not only freed me from prison but also helped me finance my church wedding and barrio reception. Yes, I met my wife at the evacuation center. What a coincidence – the third prediction of the old woman had come true.

The events that happened some 59 years ago seemed like a beautiful dream. Recalling those incidents and predictions is what keeps me ticking like an old alarm clock. To me, she was a seer par excellence.

By the way, I am still hoping that I will soon be a quickie millionaire via the PCSO mega lotto draw as prophesied a few months before Y2K. Will her fourth prediction, even if relayed to me only in a dream, come true? Given her 100% track record, I have no doubt this too will come to pass, but that will be another story.

(My father wrote this article seven years before he passed away. It remained unpublished and hidden in his old but still-sturdy army-issue trunk until my sister discovered it and had it posted on Facebook. His war-time exploits often regaled our visits, with this story being a favorite of mine and one that became more interesting and real with each telling. We all miss him, more so with this written version of how the failed defense of Luzon and the country (what Quezon and McArthur called War Plan Orange) brought him to Villasis, Pangasinan where he met my mother. One of these days, I hope to write the sequel to this story: how he rejoined the USAFFE years later and helped in retaking Baguio City from the Japanese forces. Btw, my nephews and nieces still look forward to harvesting that Mega Lotto prize their Grand-Papang failed to get.)

One Week to a Disciplined Life

I started this set of New Year's Resolutions last year and did quite well during the first few weeks. It might be because the goals are too idealistic and too-world changing (I quit after a few weeks!). But that is what life is all about -- changing your perspective as you feel you need to in order to keep everything fresh.

I said "change your perspective" -- not change your personality or your beliefs. Someone said she found the secret to life: Stay around long enough till you get used to it. Removing bad habits involves replacing them with good habits -- candies for cigarettes or praises for curses. At first, it seems hard but time works wonders for those who persevere. I guess that word "persevere" comes from "perform" and "severe" (not really, but it's nice, no?). Do it even if it is hard or painful! Do it because it is the right and good thing to do. Just do it! Do!

For one whole week, focus on the goal set daily. Do a thing or two (or twenty!) to make the habit stick on the first week. Go back at the start of the list and begin all over again. When you feel you have formed the habits, forget about the list and live free and do right as a more disciplined person. Even if you do it for only a week or four, you would have set yourself on the course to a more focused and fulfilling journey to excellence. Most of all, you enjoy more in life when you have reason to be joyful about it. A better you is definitely reason to celebrate.

Read the list and prepare to begin a new life in 2010 (there's always next year to do it again!):


1. Clean up – Remove all unnecessary and harmful stuff from your dwelling place, work place and relations and, most especially, from your body, soul and mind. Example: real trash, dust and useless things and negative thoughts, energy-vampires and unproductive habits.

2. Organize – Establish order in your environment, work and relationships. Be not a servant to others or to yourself but only to God. Prioritize. Eliminate excess baggage. Give time for rest and recreation.

3. Simplify – Choose to be uncomplicated and unaffected. Deal with simple people, matters and ways. When tempted to take on so many things, stop and unburden. Unburden!

4. Economize – Save on energy, time and material resources. Do with little what others can do with much. Use only essential skills and the proper essential tools to achieve goals.

5. Work smart – Work for God and His glory and you’ll never go wrong. Do what is proper and what brings the best good. Be excellent!

6. Pray hard – Let God do the real work; you only listen and do as told!

7. Do it with God – You have a partnership with God – He shows the way but you have to do the walking. He lights the way; you keep your eyes on the pointing light -- the One that says Follow Me and YOU WILL LIVE.


Do it now! Zooo...2010...oooom ahead!

(Photo above: Guitar strings don't move at all until human hands coordinate in the making of wonderful music. Be the beautiful music that God wants to play. >>>Thanks to Rocky Esperon for the great shot.)