THAT beautiful gospel story of a centurion who approached Christ on behalf of his dying servant, importuning Christ for a miracle to happen, that is, for his servant to survive, (cfr. Mt 8,5-11) tells us precious lessons about how our faith in Christ should be.
It should be a faith that is so strong and deep that we would not hesitate to go to Christ for ask for a favor. And it should also be a faith that is so strong and deep that without asking Christ for a direct, face-to-face encounter with the persons concerned, we know that the favor would be granted.

As the gospel narrated, the centurion boldly told Christ the now famous words, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.” To which, Christ responded, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.” And the servant was healed.

We have to remember that it is faith that would let us enter into the spiritual and supernatural world. It enables us to receive God’s favor, and brings us to share in God’s wisdom and power. Remember those stirring words of Christ: “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove from there, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible to you.” ((Mt 17,20).

Without faith, in spite of our keenest intelligence, we will miss much of the more important aspects of our life as we would only be restricted to the here and now, the material and the temporal.

To those leading Jews who refused to believe in spite of the clearest evidence at least of his special powers, Christ has these strong, intriguing words to say: “They who see not, may see, and they who see, may become blind.” (Jn 9,39)

Especially in our special needs and persistent human miseries, we need to follow the example of the men and women, the blind, the lame, the deaf, the sick, etc., who did all to get close to Christ and to beg. Some even had to climb to the roof and cut a portion there to be able to be near Christ.

This is the pattern we have to follow. We have to eagerly seek Christ and importune him with all our might, accompanying our pleas with external signs of our fervent faith and love for him.

We need to understand that as the very beginning of our life with God, our life in the Spirit which is a supernatural life more than just a natural life, our Christian faith has to be taken care of, nourished and developed to full maturity.

We need to be more aware of this duty and develop the appropriate attitude and skill to carry out this responsibility effectively. We have to go beyond mere good intentions or being merely theoretical in order to be truly practical and vitally engaged with this obligation.

Faith is a tremendous gift from God who starts to share with us what he has, what he knows about himself and about ourselves. It gives us the global picture of reality, covering both the temporal and the eternal, the material and the spiritual, the natural and supernatural dimensions of our life.

Faith contains the medicine and the remedy to all our spiritual inadequacies and illnesses. It is what is required for miracles to happen, as attested many times in the Gospel.

Sounds like a much welcomed news to the Philippine Dairy Industry is the report by the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) forecasted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Accordingly, the “country’s dairy production to increase by three percent to 26,800 metric tons (MT).

The rebound projected in 2022 “. . . will be driven by the active implementation of the government’s dairy development projects geared toward increasing milk production.” USDA adds that “. . . despite the projected increase, total production will only supply one percent of the country’s total annual dairy requirement and the rest to be served by imported milk.”

In 2021, the country’s dairy production decreased by two percent to 26,000 MT due to a reduced dairy herd following the slaughter and retiring of older animals. Meanwhile, the slow production growth is attributed to the inability to increase the dairy herd, mostly due to insufficient funding and little investment from the private sector.

The USDA predicts higher consumption to reach 3 million MT far from the 26,000 MT produced in the same year (2021). Also, contributing to the increased dairy product is the Milk Feeding Program (MFP), jointly implemented by the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Agriculture (DA). The latter remains the growth driver for the local milk consumption per USDA study.

The same US agency reports that 60 percent of the local fresh milk production goes to the MFP and the rest to local commercial sales or household use.

MY COMMENT:
The Philippine government should address the following to see the dairy production attain full recovery level as espoused by the USDA: 1) increase dairy herd by infusing fund, and 2) encourage active private investment in the dairy industry-related ventures.
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One may probably think that in subdivisions, life is satisfactorily comfortable due to the amenities enjoyed by the homeowners there, more so that the residents are expectedly well off compared to squatters living in illegal settlements.

Since subdivision blueprints require approval prior to actual construction, comfortable living is indeed ensured. Parts of this could be proper arrangements of housing units, spacious roads, excellent drainage systems, good power and water supplies, safety from both man-made and natural calamities, and many more. In fact, in the case of some subdivisions, the entrance alone is already suggestive of elegance, adorned with ornamental plants and impressive landscape, hence truly inviting to newcomers.

All these are the opposites of what can be seen in a certain subdivision here, in Tacloban City. Named St. Anthony Subdivision, this housing village has perhaps the worst road entrance/exit in the entire region or country among subdivision categories. It is located in Brgy. 87, Manlurip-San Jose, an ironically booming place for business and industry.

Two small roads branch out from the highway leading to this subdivision, separated by about 50-meter distance. One is a shortcut to the village; the other one snakes across residential units. They are too small they cannot accommodate two cars that encounter along the way. One car must have its one side out of the road and let the other one pass first so they can successfully push through in their opposite directions.

Aside from being narrow, these roads now are badly damaged. In fact, the short-cut one is not concreted; it’s just a dirt road, hence slippery during rainy days. The big rocks protruding from the surface are causing people a bumpy ride to and from the subdivision. The other one used to be a cemented road, but due to some reasons, it is now pulverized into huge and tiny cracks causing an equally rough ride.

Worse, these tiny roads are deeply submerged in flood water even after just a limited dose of rain. They are both prone to flooding, making it difficult for people to walk along them. Flooded, rough, narrow, and unpredictably risky, these roads are driving pedicab drivers away. They don’t want to get inside the subdivision anymore for fear that their tires might be deformed especially when the passenger’s luggage is heavy. If they must get inside, they charge the passengers so highly, making the transportation there very expensive.

One may wonder: why is the city government not addressing this problem there? Is it because the people there are identified with other politicians? Is it because the village is not vote-rich? Is it to punish someone there due to an old offense? Or is it due to sheer neglect and irresponsibility on the part of the city, knowing that this place is very much part and parcel of the city of Tacloban. What a shame to visitors from other places that in a highly-urbanized city, there are still Jurassic roads such as these.