As concurrent Secretary of Agriculture, President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos, Jr. (a.k.a. PBBM), called the Food Processing Firms to discuss his primary production on food security in Malacanang recently.

One of those who responded was the Chen Yi Agventure (CYA), founded by Patrick Ranucci and Rachel Tan. Also, present was Private Sector Advisory Council.

CYA, located in the 3rd class municipality of Alangalang town, impressed PBBM when the founders said that the CYA is a “business that specializes in sustainable investing and rice processing technology, to explore strategies for achieving national food security. Agventure responds to PBBM’s call to all food processors “to support the agriculture industry and its workers.”

The couple Ranucci and Tan are non-Leytenos, but developed a soft heart to the Warays after leaving their high paying jobs in Europe, in favor of helping the town and province stand on their feet after the destruction suffered from the Super Typhoon Yolanda in November 8, 2013. Incidentally, I have written about the couple and how they have considered Alangalang as their adoptive town.

Ranucci and Tan describe CYA and its “rice processing center as the most technologically advanced in Southeast Asia.” Incidentally, Leyte was the fifth largest rice producing province before the onslaught of Yolanda.

MY COMMENT:
A hats off for Patrick Ranucci and Rachel Tan for bringing and implanting their passion in rice farming in Alangalang, Leyte – the couple are living proofs that for the Philippines, an agricultural country, and for its quest to to strengthen its economy must continue to develop and improve its pre- and post- agriculture technologies for food security and improve its revenue through high agri-produce.

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THAT’S true! Love and all its different manifestations always work for unity among ourselves, irrespective of our unavoidable differences and conflicts. In fact, these latter conditions can occasion a greater and purer brand of love.

At the same time, hatred and all its cohorts do nothing other than divide us. They inflict wounds in us—mental, emotional, moral, etc.—with hardly any care to bind those wounds. In fact, they tend to make those wounds fester even more.

We are reminded of this fact of life when in the gospel, some scribes, filled with envy, suspicion and anger against Christ, made that clearly self-contradicting accusation that “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “By the prince of demons he drives out demons.” (Mk 3,22)
Of course, Christ was quick to note the fallacy and clarified the issue by saying, “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him.” (Mk 3,23-26)

Clearly, when one does not believe in God, the very essence of love, and is driven instead by hatred, his reasoning can go off the rails. Even the simplest of logic is thrown out. We need to do everything to always strengthen our belief in God, the very cause, origin and pattern of unity amid the vast and increasing diversity and variety of elements we can have in this world.

Nowadays, we are seeing the intriguing phenomenon of asserting what is right and moral as wrong and immoral, and vice-versa. What is clearly an expression of true freedom is now called slavery, and vice-versa. What should clearly be considered as taboo is now regarded as a human right. The forms of self-contradictions go on and on.

To correct this situation or, at least, to deal properly with it, we need to take care and strengthen our belief and our charity. We cannot take this duty for granted, especially now when the world is sinking in confusion and error as it distances itself farther from God.
And since we cannot avoid having differences and conflicts among ourselves, our attitude should be that instead of being afraid, irritated and stressed out by them, let’s be welcoming to them and take advantage of them. A lot of good can actually be derived from them, even if we are not exempted from being pained and mortified by them.

Our differences and conflicts, which by the way are unavoidable in our life, can actually occasion genuine love and many other virtues to develop and grow. They can purify us, smoothing out the rough edges of our personality, and fine-tuning our views, opinions and preferences.

They can give rise to the development of patience and compassion, and the pursuit for the truth and justice is guaranteed to be more authentic even if it is also arduous.

They can actually expand our world of knowledge and understanding, and trigger the dynamics of a more meaningful unity among ourselves, not in spite of but rather because of our differences and conflicts. The unity we are speaking of here is not uniformity, but one that is richly nuanced and capable of accommodating everyone.

Love develops in us a universal heart. Hatred makes us an isolated heart.

Usually, I don’t mind dreams unless they are jolting enough and worth-pondering on. They just come and go and are soon forgotten. Sometimes, I don’t even remember them right after waking up.

But some dreams are so realistic and detailed that they make it to my memory. These are the types of dreams that make me sit down and ponder. I’ve had many such dreams. Some even turn into nightmares because they’re scary and unfold between being asleep and awake. How I struggle with bodily and emotional reactions, trying to wake up but cannot. Moans and groans become my desperate resort.

I don’t claim any special connections with the source of dreams, nor do I pretend to know the future. But dreaming is something so common to me. I am prone to it. I dream a lot, and I don’t have control of it. I have no control over it. I am, therefore, a dreamer in the real sense of the word.

Again, I don’t claim any special ‘powers’, but a few years before Yolanda came, I dreamed of a scene wherein the ocean washed inland and drowned a community of people. Houses and all came under water. I took it as a really bad dream because many people had drowned. As the Yolanda storm surge got nearer in 2013, my dreams about that similar incident became more frequent until such that, until the super typhoon came, I was able to record six such dreams in all.

Before the deadly storm surge, I wondered why those dreams. I didn’t understand them. They scared me to death because the details in those dreams were so glaring and vivid, with me as a permanent participant. I was always there, part of the crowd, frantically trying to save myself from drowning. It was only when the real storm surge came that I realized why those dreams haunted me. But since I gave them no significance, I didn’t prepare for the real flood that had submerged our district and the rest of Tacloban City in flood water.

Two days ago, last Sunday to be exact, I again dreamed of another catastrophe. I accordingly looked out the window one night and saw that the moon had turned so big, around four times bigger than a full moon. Alarmed by what I saw, I informed my household members about it. When I returned to look past our window again, the moon had further multiplied in size, and I could see it moving closer to earth, almost covering the open horizon.

Shocked and taken aback, I accordingly fell to the floor. And right there and then, the earth started to shake violently that houses, trees, and even mountains started to topple down. Strong winds started to blow, and people and things were being carried away by the winds while the earth, beneath us, was kind of dancing in the air. I was half-awake, then, and I could even explain to myself that the reason for the earth’s shaking was due to the gravitational push and pull, being too close to the moon.

It was a good thing that, before the two heavenly bodies collided, I awakened. But my heart was pounding heavily, as I caught my breath. Would such a time come? I don’t know.