Awakening

For months I left my blog page dormant, until the gunfire of August 23d woke me up and I received this e-mail.

The Filipino today

By Alex Lacson

After the August 23 hostage drama, there is just too much negativity about and against the Filipino.

“It is difficult to be a Filipino these days”, says a friend who works in Hongkong. “Nakakahiya tayo”, “Only in the Philippines” were some of the comments lawyer Trixie Cruz-Angeles received in her Facebook. There is this email supposedly written by a Dutch married to a Filipina, with 2 kids, making a litany of the supposed stupidity or idiocy of Filipinos in general. There was also this statement by Fermi Wong, founder of Unison HongKong, where she said – “Filipino maids have a very low status in our city”. Then there is this article from a certain Daniel Wagner of Huffington Post, wherein he said he sees nothing good in our country’s future.

Clearly, the hostage crisis has spawned another crisis – a crisis of faith in the Filipino, one that exists in the minds of a significant number of Filipinos and some quarters in the world.

It is important for us Filipinos to take stock of ourselves as a people – of who we truly are as a people. It is important that we remind ourselves who the Filipino really is, before our young children believe all this negativity that they hear and read about the Filipino.

We have to protect and defend the Filipino in each one of us.

The August 23 hostage fiasco is now part of us as Filipinos, it being part now of our country’s and world’s history. But that is not all that there is to the Filipino. Yes, we accept it as a failure on our part, a disappointment to HongKong, China and to the whole world.

But there is so much more about the Filipino.

In 1945, at the end of World War II, Hitler and his Nazi had killed more than 6 million Jews in Europe. But in 1939, when the Jews and their families were fleeing Europe at a time when several countries refused to open their doors to them, our Philippines did the highly risky and the unlikely –thru President Manuel L Quezon, we opened our country’s doors and our nation’s heart to the fleeing and persecuted Jews. Eventually, some 1,200 Jews and their families made it to Manila. Last 21 June 2010, or 70 years later, the first ever monument honoring Quezon and the Filipino nation for this “open door policy” was inaugurated on Israeli soil, at the 65-hectare Holocaust Memorial Park in Rishon LeZion, Israel.

The Filipino heart is one of history’s biggest, one of the world’s rare jewels, and one of humanity’s greatest treasures.

In 2007, Baldomero M. Olivera, a Filipino, was chosen and awarded as the Scientist for the Year 2007 by Harvard University Foundation, for his work in neurotoxins which is produced by venomous cone snails commonly found in the tropical waters of Philippines. Olivera is a distinguished professor of biology at University of Utah, USA. The Scientist for the Year 2007 award was given to him in recognition to his outstanding contribution to science, particularly to molecular biology and groundbreaking work with conotoxins. The research conducted by Olivera’s group became the basis for the production of commercial drug called Prialt (generic name – Ziconotide), which is considered more effective than morphine and does not result in addiction.
The Filipino mind is one of the world’s best, one of humanity’s great assets.

The Filipino is capable of greatness, of making great sacrifices for the greater good of the least of our people. Josette Biyo is an example of this. Biyo has masteral and doctoral degress from one of the top universities in the Philippines – the De La Salle University (Taft, Manila) – where she used to teach rich college students and was paid well for it. But Dr Biyo left all that and all the glamour of Manila, and chose to teach in a far-away public school in a rural area in the province, receiving the salary of less than US$ 300 a month. When asked why she did that, she replied “but who will teach our children?” In recognition of the rarity of her kind, the world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States honoured Dr Biyo a very rare honor – by naming a small and new-discovered planet in our galaxy as “Biyo”.

The Filipino is one of humanity’s best examples on the greatness of human spirit!

Efren Penaflorida was born to a father who worked as a tricycle driver and a mother who worked as laundrywoman. Through sheer determination and the help of other people, Penaflorida finished college. In 1997, Penaflorida and his friends formed a group that made pushcarts (kariton) and loaded them with books, pens, crayons, blackboard, clothes, jugs of water, and a Philippine flag. Then he and his group would go to the public cemetery, market and garbage dump sites in Cavite City – to teach street children with reading, math, basic literacy skills and values, to save them from illegal drugs and prevent them from joining gangs. Penaflorida and his group have been doing this for more than a decade. Last year, Penaflorida was chosen and awarded as CNN Hero for 2009.

Efren Penaflorida is one of the great human beings alive today. And he is a Filipino!

Nestor Suplico is yet another example of the Filipino’s nobility of spirit. Suplico was a taxi driver In New York. On 17 July 2004, Suplico drove 43 miles from New York City to Connecticut, USA to return the US$80,000 worth of jewelry (rare black pearls) to his passenger who forgot it at the back seat of his taxi. When his passenger offered to give him a reward, Suplico even refused the reward. He just asked to be reimbursed for his taxi fuel for his travel to Connecticut. At the time, Suplico was just earning $80 a day as a taxi driver. What do you call that? That’s honesty in its purest sense. That is decency most sublime. And it occurred in New York, the Big Apple City, where all kinds of snakes and sinners abound, and a place where – according to American novelist Sydney Sheldon – angels no longer descend. No wonder all New York newspapers called him “New York’s Most Honest Taxi Driver”. The New York City Government also held a ceremony to officially acknowledge his noble deed. The Philippine Senate passed a Resolution for giving honors to the Filipino people and our country.

In Singapore, Filipina Marites Perez-Galam, 33, a mother of four, found a wallet in a public toilet near the restaurant where she works as the head waitress found a wallet containing 16,000 Singaporean dollars (US $11,000). Maritess immediately handed the wallet to the restaurant manager of Imperial Herbal restaurant where she worked located in Vivo City Mall. The manager in turn reported the lost money to the mall’s management. It took the Indonesian woman less than two hours to claim her lost wallet intended for her son’s ear surgery that she and her husband saved for the medical treatment. Maritess refused the reward offered by the grateful owner and said it was the right thing to do.

The Filipina, in features and physical beauty, is one of the world’s most beautiful creatures! Look at this list – Gemma Cruz became the first Filipina to win Miss International in 1964; Gloria Diaz won as Miss Universe in 1969; Aurora Pijuan won Miss International in 1970; Margie Moran won Miss Universe in 1973; Evangeline Pascual was 1st runner up in Miss World 1974; Melanie Marquez was Miss International in 1979; Ruffa Gutierrez was 2nd runner up in Miss World 1993; Charlene Gonzalez was Miss Universe finalist in 1994; Mirriam Quiambao was Miss Universe 1st runner up in 1999; and last week, Venus Raj was 4th runner up in Miss Universe pageant.

I can cite more great Filipinos like Ramon Magsaysay, Ninoy Aquino, Leah Salonga, Manny Pacquaio, Paeng Nepomuceno, Tony Meloto, Joey Velasco, Juan Luna and Jose Rizal. For truly, there are many more great Filipinos who define who we are as a people and as a nation – each one of them is part of each one of us, for they are Filipinos like us, for they are part of our history as a people.

What we see and hear of the Filipino today is not all that there is about the Filipino. I believe that the Filipino is higher and greater than all these that we see and hear about the Filipino. God has a beautiful story for us as a people. And the story that we see today is but a fleeting portion of that beautiful story that is yet to fully unfold before the eyes of our world.

So let’s rise as one people. Let’s pick up the pieces. Let’s ask for understanding and forgiveness for our failure. Let us also ask for space and time to correct our mistakes, so we can improve our system.

To all of you my fellow Filipinos, let’s keep on building the Filipino great and respectable in the eyes of our world – one story, two stories, three stories at a time – by your story, by my story, by your child’s story, by your story of excellence at work, by another Filipino’s honesty in dealing with others, by another Pinoy’s example of extreme sacrifice, by the faith in God we Filipinos are known for.

Every Filipino, wherever he or she maybe in the world today, is part of the solution. Each one of us is part of the answer. Every one of us is part of the hope we seek for our country. The Filipino will not become a world-class citizen unless we are able to build a world-class homeland in our Philippines.

We are a beautiful people. Let no one in the world take that beauty away from you. Let no one in the world take away that beauty away from any of your children! We just have to learn – very soon – to build a beautiful country for ourselves, with an honest and competent government in our midst.

Mga kababayan, after reading this, I ask you to do two things.

First, defend and protect the Filipino whenever you can, especially among your children. Fight all this negativity about the Filipino that is circulating in many parts of the world. Let us not allow this single incident define who the Filipino is, and who we are as a people. And second, demand for good leadership and good government from our leaders. Question both their actions and inaction; expose the follies of their policies and decisions. The only way we can perfect our system is by engaging it. The only way we can solve our problem, is by facing it, head on.

We are all builders of the beauty and greatness of the Filipino. We are the architects of our nation’s success.

To all the people of HK and China, especially the relatives of the victims, my family and I deeply mourn with the loss of your loved ones. Every life is precious. My family and I humbly ask for your understanding and forgiveness.

Alex Lacson wrote an article titled The Filipino Today. It is a well meaning, carefully researched piece but it is flawed on many levels.

1. He says we must accept the Luneta incident " as part of us Filipinos.. a failure on our part, a disappointment to the whole world.." It is not so.

The Luneta incident was a result of the ineptitude and insensitivity of the police force and officials of the present administration. I and more than ninety million Filipinos here and abroad had nothing to do with it. We refuse to be identified with the dullness of mind and spirit of a handful of policemen and politicians.

2. He says we must protect and defend the Filipino and hence he makes no explicit condemnation of the character of the hostage taker, the conduct of the negotiators, the blind, unthinking carelessness of the government authorities with human life. But there is nothing Filipino in violence and irrational recklessness.

3. Instead he implies that the persons responsible for the death of the hostages may not be judged too harshly because after all there are heroes like Jose Rizal, celebrities like Ruffa Gutierrez, athletes like Manny Pacquiao and singers like Lea Salonga.

This is absurdly irrelevant. The nobility of Dr. Rizal, the looks of Ms Gutierrez, the strength of Mr. Paquiao and the talent of Ms Salonga belong to them alone.

4. If Alex Lacson claims kinship to Rizal, and a connection to Gutierrez, Pacquiao and Salonga, then he must admit complicity to the cupidity and cruelty of the Marcos dictatorship, the cases of corruption in the Aquino, Ramos, Estrada, and Macapagal regimes, the lawlessness of the NPA, the malevolence of the Abu Sayaf. I am not prepared to do that.

5. The point is this: Filipinos should not be burdened by collective guilt anymore than they can justifiably claim credit for individual endeavor and achievement. Each of us must account for himself and receive praise or blame as he deserves. Misconduct and merit are non transferable. Neither can truly be shared. In a social context the doctrine of Original Sin does not apply and Redemption by association is not possible.

I must say I agree with the writer and I apologize to my friend Alex Lacson who perhaps, if he had enough time, would have taken a more nuanced position.

So it seems ludicrous to me that members of the administration who are actually culpable for the mishandling of the hostage crisis should announce to media that "they would not abandon the President."

One of them said, "I am willing to take a bullet for him."

Needless to say none of them has admitted any blunder or negligence on their part.

My question is: Why would anyone need to defend or shield the president ? He is not to blame. It is he who at an enormous personal sacrifice is assuming responsibility for the incompetence of his men. He is helping those who are supposed to help him. And this is where I agree with the writer. The President's generosity, his willingness to protect his people can only go so far. The President's men must show individual capability, resourcefulness, drive and intelligence to meet the challenges which the Aquino administration will surely meet in the days to come.

Much is expected from the President and he has the mind, heart and spirit to live up to the people's expectations.

But those around him should not only avoid being part of a problem but devise their own solution to a bad situation of their own making.

There is no need to take a bullet for the President. No one is shooting at him. He is blameless. But it may be time for some of the President's men to bite the bullet, acknowledge the fault that is theirs alone and face the inevitable consequences.

Maraming Salamat

The Philippine election is over. I have returned to Guymon, Oklahoma where I have spent much of the last twenty years of my life. I left in winter--in my heart, many more seasons ago--to join the campaign of Noynoy Aquino to transform the future of our country.

It has been an intense, bruising, bewildering hundred-twenty days, marked by hours of confusion, stress, frustration, and also by special moments of excitement, passion, kinship, hope and inexplicable joy.

I did not lack energy or enthusiasm. I immersed myself completely in the campaign, fully involved in town meetings, debates, media engagements. I spoke, attacked, parried, promoted, persuaded, and in the end, I placed 35th in the senate race.

What did I accomplish?

Looking back now, in the placid Oklahoma spring, I have a simple answer: I helped.

True to my code as a physician and my values as a Filipino, I answered the call of Noynoy Aquino as he reached out, and Filipinos at home and abroad responded, and now we have a new President Aquino. This was not an exercise in nostalgia. It was a collective expression of hope.

Hope shared by millions that government corruption would be stanched, as indeed it will be; that new men in office would try harder, as indeed they will; that the burden of Filipino families would be lighter, and life, somehow, would be better, as indeed it will.

It is why I am happy and gratified, without a Senate seat, but with the knowledge that I have been of help, if only in a small personal way, to President Noynoy, and in the final analysis, to the Filipino people whom he will serve honestly and well.

A few words of sincere gratitude to all the men and women of goodwill ( many more than I had expected) who gave the campaign material and moral support. In behalf of Noynoy Aquino and in my own behalf, let me say, thank you. Maraming, maraming salamat. All of us can say together, with one voice, in this proud moment of history: I helped.

Yet the struggle is not over. The work is not done. Actually it begins now and will continue with every passing day. President Noynoy will continue to need us, each one of us ("Kayo ang Aking Lakas"). Let us be unselfish in our assistance, unstinting in our cooperation and unwavering in our dedication to help him recover and restore the hope of a nation which seemed to have been irretrievably lost.

Rejoinder to Antonio Montalvan

Antonio Montalvan in his column "Junking Noynoy" presents a strident defense of the status quo. He calls "Anti Life" those seeking solutions to urgent social problems: Widespread ignorance, dismal maternal mortality rates and 750,000 annual abortions.

These are facts, as distinguished from the fears peddled by Mr. Montalvan. Regrettably he exploits these unfounded fears not for his avowed purpose of protecting human life but for a less noble political reason: to attack Noynoy Aquino and help elect his perceived exemplars of moral probity such as Juan Ponce Enrile and Francisco Tatad.

In the process he makes more than a few assertions that can hardly be taken seriously:
1. "Abortion and contraception are Siamese twins." (Both concept and metaphor are demonstrably absurd.)
2. "There is no such thing as overpopulation." (The mathematical relationship between amounts of food, water and living spaces and the number of human bodies is lost on him.)
3. "Abortion has risen in countries that have made contraception the norm." (Naturally he fails to specify the countries. Neither does he establish a causal connection between access to means of contraception and incidence of abortion simply because there is none.)

Perhaps it is time to leave Mr. Montalvan's world of delusion and deception and engage in a balanced, realistic and reasonable presentation of perspectives.

It boils down to faith. The first of 7 themes of Catholic Social Teaching enumerated by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops is the sanctity of human life and dignity of the person. There is a tendency to overlook the second component.

Take me as an example. My wife and I trained in the busiest hospital in the Philippines as well as in the busiest hospital in New York City. We were exposed to all forms of contraception including abortion. After a period of discernment, we decided on natural family planning methods. We have 5 children, the youngest of whom is 3 months old.

At 47 (my wife is 46), we had not expected to experience again the pure, joyful blessedness of a child's birth.

Pope John Paul II states that Catholic social teaching "rests on the threefold cornerstone of human dignity, solidarity and subsidiarity." (1999 Apostolic Exhortation, Ecclesia in America, 55). Solidarity, John Paul II wrote is "not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of others. It is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good" (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 38).

Complementing solidarity is subsidiarity. Pope Pius XI declared "that one should not withdraw from individuals and commit to the community what they can accomplish by their own enterprise and industry" (Quadragesimo Anno, 79).

During these partisan times when politicians pander to various interest groups in the spirit of expediency, let us not forget that each one of us possesses the capacity to prayerfully reflect upon our choices. For St Thomas Aquinas, conscience is the act of applying our knowledge of good and evil to what we do. The principle of the primacy of conscience is contingent upon education and enlightenment. John Paul II affirmed that "in order to have a 'good conscience,' (1Tim 1:5) a person must seek the truth and must make judgments in accordance with that same truth"(Veritatis Splendor, 62)

750,000 abortions each year is unacceptable (Pro-Life Philippines). In the absence of education, it is becoming the contraceptive of choice in our country. We must do something about this national tragedy. "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them." (Luke 11:46)

While I cannot support House Bill 5043 because of its punitive provisions towards health professionals and private enterprise as well as an inadequate educational component, we must persevere in crafting guidelines which will allow every Filipino to act according to their sufficiently formed conscience. We must have faith that each one of us, properly enlightened, will do right.

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"Junking Noynoy"

THERE may be no such thing as a Catholic vote, but not for long. Notice, for example, how presidential candidates who used to be uncompromising in their stand on reproductive health have suddenly turned nuanced in their language, suddenly sounding neither here nor there whether they truly are for or against reproductive health.

The most nuanced stand on reproductive health is Noynoy Aquino's. From his "I don't care if the Catholic Church will abandon me because of my support for the reproductive health bill," his last pronouncement tried very hard to please pro-lifers. "I am against legislating the use of artificial contraception; however, contraceptives must be provided for those who ask"-meaning, he will commit public funds for its promotion.

Watching Ramon San Pascual and Sylvia Estrada Claudio, both prominent anti-life advocates (and media talk show favorites, on Cheche Lazaro's ANC talk show "The Platform"), expressing disappointment at Noynoy's nuanced stand, it was not surprising that Noynoy got low marks from them. Well, for his nuanced stand, he is also getting low marks from pro-lifers. And for a very good reason.

It is not farfetched to think that a Noynoy presidency will open the floodgates to artificial contraception. Noynoy is surrounded by senatorial candidates who hold the most radical views on reproductive health. They are Neric Acosta, Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, Ruffy Biazon and Teofisto Guingona III. Noynoy's stand may be nuanced for now-we know that is just for election posturing-but not when he assumes the presidency. It is just all glib-tongue, campaign lingo. These days, he no longer admits that he was advised by Jesuit friends to support reproductive health. No, that would not be a vote-getting line.

But Noynoy's reproductive health stand has the liberal media and poll survey organizations on his side. Media, especially television, are mostly anti-life. In measuring the candidates' stand on reproductive health, "The Platform" never had anyone from the pro-life side on board.

Media personalities, especially those who mix inane editorial commentaries with the news, gloat over the fact that surveys have shown that the Filipino electorate will vote for a candidate who will legislate for artificial contraception.

Surveys, however, have nothing to do with measuring political correctness. Morality is not measured by popularity. Anti-life advocates obfuscate many aspects of the reproductive health issue. Survey respondents are not expected to be fully knowledgeable of the pros and cons. Much of the statistics, especially from the experience of countries that have opted for full contraceptive availability, are not being made known. That is not pro-choice.

It is absolutely not pro-choice when anti-lifers are silent on the fact that many of these contraceptives are actually abortifacients. It is not pro-choice when they give mute testimony to the fact that abortion has actually risen in countries that have made contraception the norm. Because they purposely keep quiet on the fact that contraception promotes sexual promiscuity among the young, they proclaim early on that they are against abortion. But that is a lie of the nth magnitude. Contraception and abortion, as the statistics say, are actually Siamese twins.

Survey respondents also are unaware of the demographic winter. It is only candidate Ruffy Biazon who has so far expressed publicly that he fears, however, that we may go the way of Singapore: an aging population where government has to spend exorbitantly on social welfare but is now expressing mea culpa by asking its citizens to reproduce more children. It goes without saying, of course, that basketcase Philippines can ill afford to support an aging population. But survey respondents are nowhere near those data.

The most serious charade, however, is mouthing the line of overpopulation. That is definitely a bogey. Humans are resources that governments only fail to develop because of graft and corruption and misgovernance. There is no such thing as overpopulation.

Rejoinder to Carmen N Pedrosa

The April 24th column of Ms Carmen Pedrosa "Clincher" requires a direct, straightforward response if only to uphold the oft repeated principle that a columnist is entitled to her opinions but she is not entitled to her own facts. Neither is she entitled to fallacies, innuendos and contradictions.

Ms Pedrosa writes "The stories about Noynoy's mental illness...must be proved...We must look at the issue closely and not be satisfied with mere gossip but seek to establish the facts.."

Then starting with the very next paragraph she devotes her entire column to hearsay, rumors, insinuations based on no substantial or even factual basis.

Her story is this: Idle talk spun into a long, rambling defamatory anecdote resting on an alleged comment by Ninoy Aquino in the early eighties that his son is "walang ka-drive, drive." That is all.

From this single unconfirmed statement supposedly made by Ninoy more than a quarter of a century ago, Ms Pedrosa makes the incredible conclusion that "because of his mental problems.. Noynoy needs help.."

Ms Pedrosa offers no authentic evidence to support her conclusion. Her purported resource persons who will corroborate her personal judgment are unidentified, dead or incapacitated.

To put an end to this contrived issue of Noynoy Aquino's mental health, let me as a licensed physician with twenty one years of experience state, and in this case, re-state the veracity and accuracy of this medical fact:

According to the established clinical diagnostic criteria affirmed by the American Psychiatric Association in the authoritative manual DSM-IV, Noynoy Aquino suffers from no mental disease, disorder, or dysfunction. He is perfectly fit to carry out the duties of the Philippine presidency.

It is convenient for the black propagandists to pathologize normal, every day emotional reactions such as sadness, anger, shyness, annoyance, and label them as symptoms of depression or distress. But there is no medical basis or clinical justification for such labels.

They are, in a word, fallacious.

Ms Pedrosa's own half brother suffered from clear symptoms of sociophobia as a boy but he outgrew them and he developed into a reasonably normal young man.

The study of personality development is a complex discipline and false generalizations abound. More than a few members of the CCP board to which Ms Pedrosa has been recently appointed by her patron, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo believe that Ms Pedrosa may have some personality problems herself. Such suspicions however require objective proof.

I ask Ms Pedrosa to abide by her column's opening statements. Mere gossip is not enough. This should be proved.

Let me close with a verbatim quotation from the same column of Ms Pedrosa which accurately describes herself and the political interests she serves: ."We must save our country from vultures who will feast on the carcasses of a doomed country. They are willing to sacrifice everything and everyone for the sake of their ambitions."

Well said, Ms Pedrosa. It gives sanity to your opinion piece.