Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) Coordination with LGU for the welfare of children (pupils and students)

LOON-SOUTH PTAF PAPER NO. 1

DATE : September 18, 2010

TO : Our Respected Loon-LGU Officials: Mayor, Vice-Mayor and members of Sangguniang Bayan

CC : via internet

FROM : Arnulfo Y. Laniba, president, Loon-South PTA Federation

RE : Appeal for support and cooperation to cope the sad signs of the times


Honorable gentlemen and fellow servants of God and our people:

Greetings!

I have observed that evils, dangers, and problems have been intensifying.

For examples:

Two weeks I ago, I went to the beach with my three young sons and a nephew, to practice swimming and back tumbling.

It was morning. Broad daylight.

A few meters from us, there were around 8 youths, about 5 of them were girls. I cannot be wrong to say they are high school students.

At first, one scene began to disturb us: they buried one of their female friends in the sand, whole body except the head, and drew female sex organ and breasts on the sand corresponding to the actual locations of these reproductive organs in the body. And then, one of the boys placed an artificial sand-penis on the artificial female sex organ made on the sand.

Since I was reading a book, I did not notice clearly what was in details. One of my boys called my attention to it by saying, “Papa, bastos o!” [Father, look, that’s indecent!”]

The youths continued to frolic, some of the girls went to the sea to swim.

We were only a few meters from them. I was not up for what would happen next.

The girls bathed in the waist-deep water. They were actually only about 10 meters from the shore where the boys were drinking some beer.

First, one of the girls who were immersed, she must be 15 years old, called the attention of the boys. To our dismay, she was waving her short pants! “She’s on her panties,” must be our immediate thought. “Hey, boys,” she shouted while waving it.

Her tone was that of trying to let them come over, not just to let them see what she was holding up in the air. My immediate reaction was, “This girl is egat [morally loose].”

What followed made my teenage boys howled: the other girl swung her panties up in the air, as if she would not allow the other girls to beat her!

Then, as if in competition, they waved their shirts and panties and pants! This meant to say they were totally naked, saved that they were immersed in the water!

I’ve never witnessed such blatant shameless manifestation of the present state of morality our children have already nowadays. I had never known that is how loose the moral is already.

I am sad that my fellow parents, who worked very hard to send their children to school and give them a better future, do not know what is taking place when their adolescent high school or college children asked permission to go to the beach with their friends. Or do most of them ask permission from their parents? Are not most of them doing things and going places while they keep their trusting parents believe them to be in school?

I am reminded of what one church is telling parents, quoting the verse from the Songs of Solomon: Do not allow sex desires to be awakened among your children before the proper time.

We, parents, being already experienced, already know that, as much as it is very dangerous, sexual desires are more powerful than the desire to study, desire to eat, desire to drink, to play, to watch TV, etc. This means to say that this can easily crowd and suppress the desires and goals that we first want them to fulfill, such as to be doing well in their school and to finally finish it with satisfactory performance even with honors, to have first a job and spend years to make it stable, while they grow in maturity in body, mind and emotion.

When sexual stories, texts, pictures, videos, thoughts and desires occupy the front, our children’s priorities will rumble and there is going to be confusion and disorder in their lives – disorder that we, as well-meaning parents earnestly oppose!

If, besides from drug addiction, there is one thing we want to prevent to happen in our children, upon whom we place much if not all of our hope, it is them to become “sex addicts” before the right time.

We know the results of “pre-mature sex addiction”: teenage pregnancy, school drop, marriage before graduation, dependence on parents for the milk of the newborn, etc. As we trace the line farther, we can find worse fruits of promiscuity such as adultery, and the likes.

One aunt cried when her only left daughter got pregnant 6 months before graduating from her BS in Computer Science course. Her years of raising pigs and working as part-time house-help of a neighbor and years of climbing up and down coconut trees to make tuba on the part of her husband, not to mention the other sacrifices, such as farming, etc.

Sex, if not wisely viewed and handled, is a fire – a dangerous fire. It can burn, hence, perform destruction. Much sufferings.

One of the sufferings this girl in our story caused, though not with her intention was this: Since she got married even before she could find her first job, she could not financially support her aging parents. In fact, she and her infant has to be partly dependent on the food and income of her parents, noting that her husband, a former school mate, was not yet stable in his job.

So, no matter how she and her mother and the other children would tell the old father not to climb the tall coconut trees anymore, he would not listen, not that he was not yet tired and knee-shaky, not that he did not want to rest. There were two successive storms at that time and he was told earnestly not to climb the coconut trees. He did not listen.

So, in one of those stormy and rainy days, one late afternoon almost to twilight, when the family members were gathered in the veranda resting and conversing after a hard day’s work, they heard a sound similar to that of a coconut fruit falling into the ground, but quite much louder.

They ignored it, thinking it was normal. But it wasn’t. For when one of their neighbors happened to pass by the already darkened spot, he heard a moan, and alas, he saw the old man lying helpless and groaning, but who could not call loud enough for help. He had been lying there for half an hour beside the coconut tree from off he fell! His neck and back were broken.

They rushed him to the hospital. The local hospital refused to accept him and they were advised to take the patient to the city hospital. He did not spend long there; he died.

My question is: Had his youngest daughter, the only one who has finished college, not married early (she married before her graduation), and could have earned enough to support her old parents, sending to them her earning every month, would he still insist with coco-tuba gathering – would he continue to climb the tall coconut trees with his shaking weakening limbs? Or would he not proudly retire and enjoy her daughter’s remittance as her return-love to a loving old father?

Many parents are too shy to ask or demand return-help from their children. But, we must admit, most of them – most of us - expect it or hope for it especially when they [we] have no one to turn to in their [our] old age.

During some of my private and silent reflections, I can say that my uncle would not have fallen off the coconut tree had my cousin observed the proper timing of her life. For as the book of Ecclesiastes says, There is a proper time for everything.

There is a proper scheduling.

A time for study. A time for work and build a stable career, not just temporary jobs. A proper time for marriage. A proper time for sex. As we are taught, sex must be ideally long after graduation and within marriage.

And I think I have listed them in the proper order. If and when our children do sex before finishing their studies and before building a stable jobs, then, some bad things will happen to them or to their parents, etc.

Not always in our consciousness, but it is true that for not doing some thing right, or for not proceeding with life at the right timing, we do contribute to the demise of some loved ones – persons who of all people we do not want to lose!

And then, it’s going to be too late!

It’s very painful.

So, we, parents, or more precisely, we of the PTA, feel it as our duty to promote information, facts, knowledge, enlightenment, understanding, comprehension and wisdom and do motivations along this line so there will be happiness, stability, health and long life in every family, yes, in every family.

This is just one example of the many things and duties that the PTA feels it must either initiate or support other sectors including the government with the single goal in mind: TO MOLD CHILDREN WHO ARE WISE AND LOVING.

There are pending problems – overdue problems – that we need to address. Included in the list are: increasing cases of wrong sex prioritization, if we may call that as such; drug addiction; education and job mismatch which leads to unemployment, underemployment and poverty; negative influences that can destroy the body (health), mind and heart; growing hopelessness, lose of the right direction, low IQs and the likes – all of these produce bad character, mediocre mind and skills – all in all factors of becoming a weak, poor, miserable nation, a nation full of vices, crimes, infightings, diseases and deaths.

This is the last thing I dream of for my beloved country!

I believe it is the same with you. And here, we cannot wash our hands like Pontius Pilate and excuse ourselves, not to get involved. The bad influences – the sins, the vices, the crimes are making more number of criminals every day! -- more beggars each day! -- more prostitutes each day! -- more husband-grabbers each day! – more thieves each day! – more kidnappers-for-ransom each day! – more killers each day!

And we cannot say, “I can make my family safe by building high walls – even iron bars – around my house”?!

If you do that, then, you are converting your place into another New York: Good citizens hide inside their homes which are like prison cells surrounded and protected by high walls and iron bars; while the criminals, the drug addicts, the rapists, the thieves roam around freely outside, in the streets, etc.!

You call that freedom?

You call that progress?

You call that safe?

The time to act as responsible Christians who love their neighbors as themselves is now. We must help the poor so they would not turn into beggars to fret us later, or into prostitutes to transfer STDs and AIDS to unwary wives via their husbands, or into grabbers of husbands and breakers of marriages and peaceful families; or into thieves thereby putting our properties and business in constant danger; or worse, into kidnappers for ransom or even killers!

We, who can do something, must approach this problem while our kids are still young and teachable – malleable – moldable -- guidable. When the branches are old, they will no longer bend towards the right direction we want them to take.

We, as parents, teachers and leaders, must guide our children with both WISDOM OF THE MIND AND LOVE OF THE HEART. For it is with the mind and heart that the enemy makes a devil as it is also with the mind and heart that God makes men into angels.

This, we, of the Loon-South Parents-Teachers Association, take this to heart. And we enjoin you, you who are serving in the LGUs. Your positions of power may be temporary; you may not get reelected too many times, but mind you, you will always be either parents and/or teachers forever – of your own children, or your own grandchildren and others.

So, it is with humility to express to you the present need of our association for funds to support our monthly meeting, e.g., fares of school PTA presidents, food or snacks.

And it is with pleasure to thank you in advance whatever kindness you can give us.

However, at the end of the term, I still can say that it is not mainly by monetary resources can we do all this. We can solve the problems without money. We can meet – we can hold monthly meetings without funding. We can walk to our meeting place, if we want to. But we admit that an LGU support in this area will mean that you are in our side, meaning: that you are dedicated to the proper upbringing, protection and development of our children who will then become the responsible citizens or even leaders to take your place once you/we will be retired.

And here we ask and choose: Which kind of successors do we want to look after our welfare when we are old as well as the safety of our grandchildren: wise and loving leaders and citizens or criminals?

If we want the future society to be filled with wise and loving, responsible citizens and leaders, then, it is up to us to mold them NOW!

We cannot wash our hands and excuse ourselves. We will be there still: to suffer or to enjoy the results! We will still be living when that society and generation takes over. We cannot escape the fruits of our sowing. What we sow now, in our children, we will reap – be it bad or good, bitter or delicious.

We must go beyond our own family and reach out to them who are in need. The poor in material things, in knowledge as well as the less loved, must receive what they need abundantly from us, who are the “haves”, so they will grow into men and women with good minds, with good hearts and strong bodies, able to support and build and sustain a better society, not a degenerating one.

The future is built today.

The name of our children is TODAY.

We cannot wait for tomorrow. TOMORROW will be too late. Because the enemy of life has been at work already for too long – they have the advantage of mileage and volume of works done – e.g., they had already well-installed the establishments, the systems, made strong connections with many in authorities, to operate their wicked schemes effectively, with the aid of technology, organization and mass media, while we, the good men have been doing nothing beyond our respective family. Remember: the best way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

So, to us, it is EITHER NOW or NEVER! We cannot say, “Better too late than never!” It may not even be “It is never too late”!

We have to strike while the iron is hot. It is NOW or NEVER. It is now must the full awareness and awakening begin. When our children are grown-up or when there are too many mad men and loose girls around, or when too many of our men have become women like them in Sodom and Gomorrah, then, it will be too late.

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah was not handed to us, down here many centuries later, if not for its super-important universal lesson. What is the lesson? The lesson is: When the number of righteous people dwindled so much while the number of wicked perverted people increase in proportion, then, the cup of wickedness is filled to the brim, even has overflowed, and the people is ripe for punishment! It’s time for cleansing.

The whole area was not only composed of the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah; there were a total of ten cities. And therefore, there must be millions of people inhabiting those places. But look, Abraham was asking God what if there were 50 people who remained righteous, should God push through with His planned destruction? No, God assured Abraham. What about if there were only 40? “No, I will not push through,” God said. What if only 30 or 20 or 10? “For the sake of at least 10, I will not destroy it.” Sadly, only Lot and his 2 daughters were counted righteous. Their number did not reach the minimum, hence, Sodom and the 9 cities were destroyed.

Can we reverse the trend? Can we increase the number of righteous? Can we add our names to the list? We have had enough experience and number of years on earth, so probably, we can volunteer to be among those who work for the spreading of righteousness and the conquering of evils.

Let’s make the firm decision, first as parents, as teachers, as leaders and above all, as mature children of God.

More and more damages and harms are happening as the hours roll by. We cannot wait. In our apathy, we see frightening scenes pass by our eyes, real ones, even if sit down in front of our TVs. Just this week, three men are reported to have entered a boarding house and rape a young girl – and that they did in broad daylight. Criminals are no longer afraid to be seen or to be caught by the police. Criminals are getting more and more daring. They no longer need the night to cover their wicked acts. Many of those in the police or authorities do the cover up. So, they commit crimes during daytime!

So, dear Mayor, of loving and caring character, please lead the local government of our town, Loon, to the right paths, not just for temporal welfare, but as fellow believers of Christ, also to make all “fit” to enter His promised soon-coming Kingdom. That’s the common goal – the common destiny we are all aiming for, but seem to be missing.

Consider this to be an appeal not only for our local town, but for the rest of the nation and the world. Let this paper circulate to as far and as wide as it can, will and may….to Africa, to Asia, to Europe, to the Americas… for our local concern is also a universal and global one!

So, may YeHoWaH our God and Father, stamp His seal of approval, support and blessing to our humble effort,

Respectfully yours, and in service to Christ and our fellowmen,


Arnulfo Yu Laniba
PTA Federation President,
Loon-South District, Bohol Province, Philippines
Email: cocoy777@yahoo.com
Cell phone No.: 0910-9158-369

Note: To fellow PTAs, you can access a copy of this paper online at www.PTA-Paper-1.blogspot.com Feel free to add, refine, or expand this paper provided you stay on the proper context. And we will appreciate if you can also furnish us a copy of your revision/version. Spread the paper. Circulate the idea. Promote this good cause. Furnish as many responsible citizens and leaders as you can.

This is just the start. So keep in touch.





ARNULFO YU LANIBA
PTA Federation President,
Loon-South District, Bohol Province,
6327 Philippines
Email: cocoy777@yahoo.com
Cell phone No.: 0910-9158-369
Website: www.PTA-Paper-1.blogspot.com
Source of Christian education research: www.franky1.com