OUR COUNTRY’S CRITICAL CONDITION IS SIMPLY THE RESULT OF WHO WON THE ELECTION

August 15, 2005
Recent news says, “ARMY Captain Marlon Mendoza disclosed at the Senate jueteng hearing Wednesday that alleged gambling lord Rodolfo ‘Bong’ Pineda contributed P300 million to ‘support President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s victory in last year’s national elections.’”
Before the 2004 election, our NGO received the information that there was a collective effort of all drug lords, gambling lords, prostitution lords, and other operators of illegal businesses to win the election.

Their strategy: To put up the biggest money.

Purpose: To buy victory for their chosen candidates.

Strategy: To seduce first both (opposing) candidates. If both accept the offer/deal, the money was to be divided. If one refused, then, all the money would be poured into the candidacy of their candidate.

Because our people were and are still buyable by money, the candidates of these evil illegal businessmen won, simply because they had the highest amount paid to each voter.

Whose victory was the election? Victory of the illegal syndicates! Victory of the drug lords. Victory of the gambling lords. Victory of the prostitution rings. Victory of the contrabands.

Now, evil businesses/activities are operating free – under the protection of those who sit in the government!

In my hometown of Loon (Bohol), the previous chief of police accepted P500.00 per week from each Swertres usher, and P1,000.00 from each drug pusher.

A new very young chief has recently replaced him. Already captain in rank at age 24. Tagalog When the same ushers and pushers approached him, he protested, “Ah, sa amin P1,500.00 ang minimum!” [“I can’t accept that for in our place, P1,500.00 is the minimum!”]

***


One Boholana has just been recently (just last week) rescued from the Middle East through the effort of the Provincial Government and the district congressman.

It was learned that when she was about to leave our country over three months ago bound for the Middle East, she saw money was given to the embassy employee by her employment agency. She began to suspect that embassy (government) employee acted as a pimp, and that she was being dealt as or like a prostitute.

That she was a sex object was somewhat confirmed as soon as she started her work as a Domestic Helper where her male employer made sexual advances on her. But the wife discovered it and became jealous, beat her without reasons, and finally locked her inside a room without food and water for days, not even given the permission to go to the CR!?

How she escaped the ordeal or how she was rescued by the government was not told in last week’s news report.

What is confusing is the fact that she availed the government’s ‘FLY NOW, PAY LATER’ employment program.

Is the government, after all, involved in the evil conspiracy of the so-called flesh trade – of selling our women to effect an emergency salvation of our economy which is in severe crisis due to the ineptness of these same leaders? Are these leaders afraid that their incompetence and their theft will be brought to light in the form of a bankrupt nation, bankrupt economy, high unemployment, severe poverty, hunger among our people? Are they afraid that the ghost of their evil works will come back to haunt them? Are they also afraid that this hunger will intensify and so they hasten to fling our women to the mouth of the foreign crocodile? Are they nervous now of an impending mass revolution by hungry people?

In a special 3-part serial report in the Philippine Daily Inquirer last March, 2003, entitled “GRO, not entertainer: Gov’t accused of sex trafficking”, we can quote the following statements,

“Wilma has no illusions about her ‘students’. ‘They get singers or dancers here, but the work awaiting them in Japan is that of a GRO. That’s how it is,’ said Wilma…Guest Relations Officer (GRO) [has been] the hotel industry-inspired code for sex workers…’ Is TESDA aware that her agency sends GROs, not entertainers, to Japan? ‘Of course,’ she said, ‘All this training of talents is a charade.’”

When confronted with the question, the country’s top female official tasked to protect our OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) simply said, “We only are concerned of letting our people go abroad. What will be their final work once they get there, is no longer within our control or concern.”

In many mayor’s/governor’s offices, there is posted, “TESDA-assisted FLY NOW PAY LATER employment program. For female applicants only.”

The truth is coming out and is becoming crystal clear: That the government is involved in the selling of our women in order to avert the crisis which is resulting from their thefts and incompetence!

They are using our women to save our country from economic bankruptcy! By victimizing them!!!

***

When the 2004 election was ongoing, there were some women (wives and mothers) who huddled around a purok hut, in one poblacion. These women were overheard by the roaming/campaigning candidates as saying, “Well, the candidates who will not give money will be the most pitiful. We will give preference to those who will give the bigger amount.”

And then the moneyed party/candidates laughed inside and said to themselves, “Oh, yeah, you foolish women! Accept our money. For this is a DOWNPAYMENT for your daughters whom we will turn into prostitutes and your sons whom we will turn into drug pushers or drug addicts.”

***

It is said that over 90% of the winning candidates were supported by dirty money of vice-sin businesses.

In other words, our country today is being manned, ruled and governed by men who are servants of these evil lords, who are the actual rulers of this nation!

If you have been wondering why this nation is tottering, then, there you have an explanation. We are governed by men who are incompetent to guide us towards progress and prosperity. They do not possess the qualifications, skills and the wisdom to steer our nation to true greatness and sustainable development! Worse, we are led by men who are leading us towards our own perdition!

Their skills are: skill to deceive, skill to flatter, skill to outmaneuver, skill to manipulate, skill to coerce, skill to lie, skill to cheat, skill to steal, skill to murder and the likes.

***

The latest expose that Jueteng lord Bong Pineda spent some P300 million to let his candidates win is only a confirmation of what we already knew and tried to inform and forewarned the country!

Forewarned is forearmed. But how many listened to our warning? We are only reaping what we sowed!

But on the other hand, as regards the evil that they have been keeping in secret, Jesus said, No secret shall remain a secret. It shall be exposed!

***

Now our mayor decided to get active in cock derby. He is sponsoring a town-wide cock derby wherein each of our 67 barangays would contribute one cock and a bet of at least P500.00!

When will we come to comprehend as Christian that gambling is a gross violation of the Law of God “You shall love God above all and your neighbor as yourself”? Gambling is never a godly love, nor a neighborly-brotherly love. You will just have to look at the heart and eyes of the wives and children of the gamblers. They are bleeding. They are suffering. They are crying.

I did! My father was a full-pledged cockfighting gambler. He had many cocks. He spent much money for those cocks. And much of his time. Because he lost money for our food, and schooling, and also time for us, we complained a lot. And because he was uncontrollable in his vice, we suffered so much.

Consider that for every person who wins P3,000.00 in card or cockfight or whatever form of gambling, realize that some 60 wives-mothers and so many children were crying for the loss of say, P50.00 each which they could have used for their food or education.

The labels “Illegal Gambling” and “Legal Gambling” have no value before God. To God, all forms of gambling are evil – sin. They hurt people. They harm. They destroy trust, relationships, marriages, families, future of our children…they destroy nations! They morally destroy our children!

With regards our mayor, I heard his side. And I pity him. I don’t condemn him. He is so busy nowadays going to cockfights within our district because he plans to run for the provincial board. He thinks because he knows that this is the only (or one way) he can win the election.

So, my question is: Whom do you blame for our misery: the candidate or the people?

Don’t tell me you blame God! Let us all blame own ourselves!

That is why I urge for a simultaneous reform – read: repentance. Repentance in the top (our officials) and repentance at the bottom (we, the people). God does not favor nor endorse faultfinding or blaming one another. “Judge not,” He said. What He advices us to do is self-reform. “Take the plank off from your eyes.” Pride is an example of a plank (big sin). After that, we can proceed helping others clean their eyes in a brotherly way, no longer in a hostile un-brotherly manner.

Question: Under such conducive environment, isn’t it repentance and reform easiest to do? And if repentance and reform is done, what else can we expect but salvation, liberation, progress and prosperity?

But under the present faultfinding, evasive environment, no genuine reform can be done.

Do we need the worst to come before we come to our senses? To our knees?

I fear that might be the only way… for us obstinate people. We can learn only by hard most painful experience.








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Success is TO HAVE JUST ONE TO FOCUS!

I believe many of our problems can be solved if we could just have someone to focus it.

I remember a saying that success is doing one or only a few things which are right. It does not mean the rest are wrong. What is meant is that success comes from focusing on one or two things.

Frank Sinatra did not become successful by doing a lot of jobs. He did so by focusing on just one single thing: singing.

I may sound too elementary but that is really what I mean: The Filipinos, with a very few exceptions, do not have a focus in life – be it career-wise or spiritual. Perhaps this is the very reason why the average Filipino is half-cooked, that is, his skills are dull, his abilities underdeveloped.

The average Filipino does not know why he is here on earth or what he really likes to do in this life.

I’d like to take that same lack of vision or purpose to our being a people. Our government has no solid and everlasting purpose. Its purpose, if there is, keeps on changing, its projects keep on changing, and since, its officials come and go, and so many of the started projects become suspended – unfinished.

I find it a great misfortune that we have no real priority projects or goals that can be continued or pushed through despite the ever-changing officials who run our country. The vision, the mission, the goals should more or less stay longer than our officials.

In America, they have had a clear vision (purpose) that outlasted and continue to outlast their presidents and other officials.

They aim for LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.

Those are aims which are valid through generations. These are goals which are long-range. These are aims which win die-hard recruits and adherents.

One of America’s greatest legacies is ALTRUISM or love for fellowmen, which although blurred by the selfishness of the time, yet is still a noble
Intention beautifully stipulated in the famous poem of Emma Lazurus to wit:


The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"


Consider the immortal verse:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Such is the spirit that lifted and propelled America since its foundation. She offered herself as the haven for all those who were seeking freedom – the wretched refuse of other nations, the persecuted, the oppressed seeking to be free, the tempest-tost. Behold, “I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
What a beautiful love! I lack the words to describe what my heart feels as it savors those golden verses.

It is an understatement tp say that everybody agrees to it – that they were and are one in their decision and commitment to pursue that goal – that dream – as individuals and as a nation.

America was obsessed! America was impassioned!

Likewise, we need to become obsessed with something that is noble — something that is sublime — something that is eternal — something that lasts! Something has to set us on fire! Otherwise, we will continue to be the same lazy people, lost and confused who do not know its direction nor its importance.

Our first focus therefore is the clarity and constancy of vision or purpose. What is that sublime calling that we are called to do? Are we called to be a haven for the oppressed? To say to them “Behold, I lift up my lamp beside the golden door”?

Or are we called to be the way-shower to our fellow Asians? If we are, then, we need to be sure that we live Christ’s teachings in order not to be shamed by our neighbors. For at the moment, they are mocking at us, saying, “Where is that which you preach to be the magnificent ways of Christ?”

For shame on us! They are better than us in many things! And about the way of Christ, we do not have the proofs or fruits to prove to them the attractiveness of Christ’s way! And who is it but us who are classified as second most corrupt country in Asia? Is that the description of a Christian country to model Christ’s way?

Once we have borne the fruits of the Holy Spirit (such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control), then, that will be the time we can declare, “Send to me your blind, your feet-worn seeker. Behold, I stand beside the golden gate of the Kingdom, to be your humble way shower!".

Once that sublime purpose which is already laid deep in our heart but is still dormant, is awakened, then, the earth will see a vision-driven people once desperate but now impassioned, once adrift but now fixed on its purpose, once without reason to live, now powerfully fired up.

That is the first focus.

After that, we will cite a few more things to focus in. That is all what it takes for this country to be happy and successful: to focus on a few things which are right.

To get my point clearer, may I go down to specific solutions or strategies to solve our present problems. I will narrate to you two short cases – real stories. These are examples.

First, let us take the problem of expensive education that is becoming unaffordable to most of our families the majority of which are poor.

A second problem would be the expensive power or electricity.

First, is about a Samar high school that sent Pres Ramos a letter stating that they would stop accepting subsidy from the national government for their school because their school mangoes (more than 1,000 trees if I remember it right) had started to sufficiently support the needs of the school such as the salaries of the teachers, books, maintenance of the school, etc.

This is an achievement of a certain man who initiated the establishment of the school, asked land donations from parents, led the children to plant and take care of the mangoes seedlings, and later became the principal.

This was reported in the Philippine Daily Inquirer a few years ago, In fact, I had news clipped (cut out) it, but somehow misplaced the small paper.

It did not win the front page of the newspaper, but I think PDI and the nation owe this man. He must be awarded with the Magsaysay award!

Why? He has solved the problem of expensive education! His solution is very local but the result is amazing! Never-heard of such a school refusing national subsidy due to its initiative to earn its own income in the most practical manner! Imagine he does not only stop asking support from the government; he is also able to operate the school independently — profitably! — without tuition from parents or grants from NGOs or whatever Foundations!

The implication is very amazing if we only know how to copy what needs to be copied. We copy what does not benefit us. That is where we have been wrong.

Imagine each high school operating or managing an orchard. This is very feasible because to acquire land for this kind of purpose is easier for the government or local initiators to do.

The maintenance of the trees is also very feasible. We have more than enough number of pupils or students to help us secure or make organic fertilizers and do other things to take care of the trees.

We can also do this for college schools, not just high schools.

You see, if I were the President of this country, I would see to it that all schools from the elementary up to college shall own a large tract of land to be an orchard yielding enough produce for the financial needs and maintenance of the school. In short, FREE EDUCATION for the students and sufficient salaries for quality teachers.

There is also a bonus benefit that we can derive from this experience in addition to the fact that our young people will all be able to get sufficient education. This bonus benefit is the fact that since each child is assigned to take care of a fruit tree from his pupil-hood up to student-hood until his “graduate-hood”, each Filipino shall have learned how to tend an orchard!

And so the national vision of EACH FILIPINO WITH THREE WELL-CULTIVATED FARMS: THE HEART, THE MIND AND THE LAND can be attained!

We envision of a country where every person has attained his talent potential, e.g., as a great musician, writer, computer programmer, artist-painter, engineer, etc., while he lives amidst a wonderfully beautiful fruit garden (orchard). His wife adding the beauty with her flower gardens. Then this country shall blossom like a rose!


If you see what I mean, then, you will feel that life here on earth is beautiful – can be beautiful.

I am talking about sub-urban scene. The scenario between the crowded unplanned urban and the abandoned thistle-grown rural countryside. Just a beautiful place planned by both heart and mind.

Nay, I have diverted from my main point! It’s really nice to dream.

Anyway, I have finished with my first story.

The second story that I want to narrate is one which was also featured in the Philippine Daily Inquirer: the story about a far-plunged barangay which is located many kilometers away from the national highway. As reported, that barangay in Luzon requested the government for electricity. This request was not granted. Reason: the distance is very far and there are no houses along the way.

Then a son of that barangay managed to get out and work abroad. It did not take long for him to possess the capacity to buy - guess what. Solar panels!

The price was P30,000.00, more or less. My memory is not that accurate. But I do remember very well that after that, many more of his neighbors followed his example. And so that barangay is now being lighted by the sun during night thanks to the solar power technology.

Question: Do you think this barangay is affected by the oil crisis? In transportation – that’s true. But they are spared from the burden of paying for the ever-increasing electric bills which their sister barangays all throughout the country have been groaning about!

There is also the feasibility of solar-powered vehicles. Why don’t we push it through?

If I were the President, I would look for that dedicated person, and spend a portion of the nation’s tax (I’m sure that won’t consume 1% of the total tax) to support that person. I would scrap out many of the useless expensive positions, e.g., lawmakers who do not make laws but make money by stealing money from the people (taxes) or who make laws to make themselves or their friends and relatives richer!

As I have said, just one dedicated person is needed to make a big difference and make some great dream a reality. We are in need of such dedicated man!

We just need a few of that dedicated person to make technology finally work for us – to make use of God’s abundant gifts to us: the sun, the deuterium, the waters, the air, the mind, the heart, yes, many still untapped power-bases that we already have in great abundance but only failed to see and utilize.

If we can do this, then, we can reverse the present tide. Questions: When shall we do this? After so much sufferings? After devouring one another? After biting one another like dogs? After having destroyed one another?

BLESSED BE ARE WE IF DO THAT TODAY!