Holy Week is time for cool change. There are instances wherein a storm has yet to rage on before this astounding change happens. It is not the geophysical storm as strong as the destructive supertyphoon Haiyan, but one that swirls within one’s inner self prompting him to let go of what is kept hidden for years and not be bothered by the “cold” around him. The kind of hurricane that is truly life changing is the sincere return to the Holy One.
From the time Shirlee Herrera-Kaquilala, a beauty and wellness entrepreneur, felt her spiritual calling, she would not miss a time sharing about her transformation. She would recall having chided his husband, Marlaw, a successful businessman based in Metro Manila, for giving more time and part of his material wealth to his vocation, before she heeded to the vocation to a more solemn spiritual devotion. She then could not understand the essence of surrendering oneself to whom she now accepts as her true master – God, Our Father.
Not questioning any of the responsibilities that go with such calling, Marlaw over time became the president of God Our Father Foundation, while Shirlee an obliging follower sparing a regular part of her business income to the foundation’s missionary works. She is more than inspired every time they would visit places, including the remote sitios in Tacloban City’s northern barangay, to join in prayer and Bible service and giving out prayer books and Bibles to the members and the natives there. She admitted having to spend quite a sum, but assured that God is constantly returning what she shells out for God.
What is most astonishing in her is the transformation in the way she looks at life, paying special focus on what is most important – a fuller life with God and a place in Heaven. This Holy Week, she encourages friends to do the CARE – Confession, Adoration, Rosary and Eucharist, which she learned in the advices of priests, including his first cousin who is now a parish priest in Allen, Northern Samar. She believes that CARE should be fulfilled in CARE before the Holy Week.
Lent is a time for healing, Rev. Fr. Rex Ramirez, rector of the Sacred Heart Seminary in Palo, Leyte, said in a Lenten recollection he recently conducted. Besides being a chance for real spiritual conversion and transformation, Lent is the time for reshaping one’s soul and improving one’s health, properly utilizing each sense organ in ways pleasing to God. By meditation and sincere prayer as medicines for the soul, the body also gets a cleansing by God’s grace.
The Holy Scripture speaks of a story in Moses’ time about healing and conversion, which was one of the Holy Mass readings this week. While Moses and the people were on a journey, the people whom Moses led from slavery in Egypt complaint against God and him, yelling, “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is neither bread nor water here and we are disgusted with the tasteless manna!”
God sent fiery serpents. They bit the people and many died. The people then came to Moses and said, “We have sinned speaking against God and against you. Plead with God to take the serpents away.” So did Moses. God instructed Moses to mount a serpent on a pole and whoever has been bitten and looks at it will live.
In a similar passion, when one is almost dying because of sin but turns away from it and focuses his gaze on Christ at the wooden cross will live. This is how the change came into Shirlee. She is now a believer of the agonizing Christ on the cross. She felt she has change a lot when began to fix her attention upon the Lord who suffered for humanity in order to inherit a place in Heaven and have a more meaningful existence while on earth.
Time for change
Reconstruction
The basic question is whether we will keep stagnated with our old communities where there are no clear streets and access roads as houses were erected adjoining with each other, set apart by party walls with no space for passage ways. The lack of access roads had been detrimental to our lives and a huge roadblock to development. This is a time for us to reflect on the message of super typhoon Yolanda, that perhaps God afforded us a good opportunity to reconstruct our communities and rid ourselves of our greed by taking so much of our properties based on our vested private interests without giving due consideration for the greater good of the greater number and for the general welfare of our people and our barangay.
People fence their properties because, indeed, those are private properties. But we never gave a damn considering that our actions had placed us to great inconvenience and danger, without passable access roads where vehicles and people could pass freely. We never thought of emergency situations when our lives would be put on great peril when for instance an ambulance could not pass to conduct an emergency patient or a fire truck could not reach a house on fire because passage ways are blocked by fences and houses that were erected on lots that should have been allocated for roads.
We cannot deny that our forebears owned privately the public places and streets that we have, as ownership of land during their era was based on occupation, the one who is strong and industrious to clear areas would occupy and become the owner of the land. But they surely were selfless in giving up what would have been their private property for their family generations to succeed for the welfare of the people. We enjoy the use of plazas, school sites, church lots and community centers mainly because our forebears generously gave up what they privately own for the good of the community.
Our generation is unquestionably better off than that of our forefathers in terms of education and capabilities. Ironically, we have miserably failed to follow the beginnings they left to us, allowing our greed to overcome our sense of community. There is no question that we have owned as private and appropriated as our own the lots of our communities. But to become greedy and insensitive to the needs of our fellowmen to have good access because we want to grab for our own what we consider as privately ours, is certainly a social mistake that we all were made to pay the price too costly. The number of fatalities in many communities may have been less if there are good roads that would allow people to flee than by breaking walls and fences.
It is perhaps the will of God that our communities were cleared of all greedy obstructions to allow us to reconstruct our places the way our forebears had envisioned. We have the capacity, we only need to muster our willpower to abandon our old communities and reconstruct a new one where we would live with contentment and a peace of mind that we are safe and that we will leave a legacy of a well reconstructed community.
The need to reconstruct our communities is urgent as it is at this time that the areas had been cleared by the force of nature. No human power or will could have done what the super typhoon accomplished in terms of giving the community and its people a rare chance of a lifetime to reconstruct our communities. Establishing a good road network had been brought to the fore by the resultant effect of the super typhoon. It is all up to the people if they want to remain greedy by still thinking just for individual goals, opting to rebuild our houses and fences along what must be roads and passage ways. We too have the power to choose to reconstruct our communities and make it a better, safer and progressive place to live for our and the many generations to come.
Comments to alellema@yahoo.com
Forming the youth
ONE of the occasional advantages of being a senior citizen is to see the welcoming sight of talents emerging among the young people in the different fields of human interest.
Young prodigies can be seen in the fields of arts, sciences and technologies, definitely warming the hearts of the elders among us. Even in the fields of business and politics, sensational personalities among the youth are coming up.
This gives us a very uplifting and reassuring feeling that the world continues to be in good hands, and the prospect of further development, advancement and progress becomes clearer.
That high, exhilarating feeling, of course, is accompanied by the ardent desire that there be more of these talents, and that they really pursue and develop their gifts properly, that is, for the common good and ultimately for the greater glory of God, since nothing can be good and proper for us unless it is related to God.
This truth has to be made clear always. We cannot depend on mere philosophies and ideologies, and, much less, on good intentions alone. God has to enter into the picture. In fact, he has to be given the pride of place, since more than us it is he who is the real engine of human development. He is, after all, the Lord of History. Divine providence permeates in a mysterious way the whole human history.
We cannot deny the fact that many times these precious human treasures that give us so much joy, get wasted on idle and selfish pursuits, or worse, are employed for destructive, if not immoral purposes. History, so far, can attest abundantly on this sad phenomenon.
Many of the game-changing and trend-setting characters through the centuries, who in their youth were driven with passionate idealism with matching capabilities, aiming at excellence and leaving mediocrity behind, though their motives might not have been pure, have caused more harm than good.
They might have put the people of their time under their spell, but after sometime their ideas and contributions were found to be destructive or corruptive. They managed to embody a certain spirit of the times that was actually not a good spirit, but one that often was highly deceptive.
This can only mean that God’s providence continues to work effectively regardless of our sins and violations to the divine plan. Anything bad or false, no matter how attractive, popular and useful at least for a while, would sooner or later be exposed, usually with some drama or bloody and violent events as reagents.
We need to form our youth so that they may really have a vital relationship with God, a living encounter with Christ, an abiding and synching union with the Holy Spirit. This ideal should not be in the abstract anymore, detached from the prevailing conditions, but rather translated into concrete, breathing and functioning reality.
The problem we often have is that many of us consider this business of developing a relationship with God through Christ in the Holy Spirit to be too spiritual, or too personal and individualistic, that nothing tangible, practical and systematic can be made out of it.
It’s true that this ideal is spiritual and personal, but it does not mean that it has no material, practical and systematic manifestations and possibilities. Since we are both spiritual and material, individual persons and social beings, this ideal of having a living relationship with God should meet the requirements of those conditions. Otherwise, that ideal would just be a fantasy.
We have to train the youth in the art of developing and keeping a living relationship with God. We have to introduce them to the gospel and the truths of faith. We have to teach them to pray, to see the great value of sacrifice, the virtues and the sacraments.
We have to see to it that Christ to them and to all of us is a living person who is with us here and now, and not just a historical figure or a slogan. Everyone should realize that only in him would we have the fullness of our humanity.
We just have to learn how to bring Christ to our life and to our concerns. We have to know how to discern and follow the many flowing implications and consequences of his presence, will and action in all our human affairs. To be sure, Christ always intervenes in our life.
In this way, we can expect the youth to know how to read the signs of the times and generously respond to the current challenges and needs, whatever the cost!
In Calbiga, Samar Political row over; Nacario recognized as mayor
TACLOBAN CITY-After almost six months, the political impasse in the town of Calbiga in Samar has ended as the Department of Interior and Local Government finally “recognized” Melchor Nacario as the “duly elected mayor.”
The recognition of Nacario as the duly elected mayor of the town was just an act of “putting everything in order” in Calbiga, said DILG Regional Director Pedro Noval, Jr.
With this move, acting Mayor David Bacsal has to return to his post as vice mayor, the position he was elected in the first place, Noval added.
However, Bacsal appeared not to have accepted the decision of the DILG totally saying that his move to abide was just to avoid any further tension in their town.
“We are peace-loving people. I am now discharging the office of the vice mayor,” Bacsal said in a phone interview, adding that he hope DILG Sec. Mar Roxas would come out with his own decision on the controversy.
Nacario, meanwhile, said that he was confident all along that the controversy would end in his favor as what happened.
“What happened on March 31, 2014 at the municipal hall of Calbiga was not an installation of Nacario but was just putting everything in order in Calbiga,” Noval said.
“Nacario was the duly elected mayor of Calbiga so he has to discharge the (functions of the office) while Bacsal was elected as vice mayor so he has to return to his office as vice mayor,”he added.
The recognition of Nacario as the mayor of the more than 20,000 people of Calbiga was by virtue of an opinion issued by DILG Assistant Secretary Austere Panadero in his communication dated March 18, 2014.
In his three-page opinion, Panadero cited the “overwhelming support” and “recognition” by Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan to Nacario as well as the majority members of the town council; department heads and rank and file employees.
“It appears that the recognition of Mr. Nacario as mayor of Calbiga, Samar is an established fact already,”Panadero said.
The political tension in Calbiga started when Bacsal refused to step down as acting mayor after Nacario was proclaimed as the duly elected mayor of Calbiga on October 14, 2013 by a special board of canvassers.
The proclamation of Nacario as the elected mayor of Calbiga was based on a decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc on October 4, 2013.
However, Bacsal assumed the contested post on October 11, 2013 after the then sitting mayor Nicasio Abaigar, made an “irrevocable resignation” reportedly to seek for a “very special treatment care.”
Abaigar tendered his resignation addressed to Gov. Tan on October 11, 2013 after the Supreme Court dismissed his motion for reconsideration on August 13, 2013.
The motion for reconsideration filed by Abaigar before the High Court was based on an en banc decision by the Comelec on February 5, 2013 cancelling Abaigar’s certificate of candidacy for “false material representation.”
Abaigar, who garnered 5,804 votes against Nacario’s 5,747 votes during the May 14,2013 elections, claimed that he was a registered voter of Barangay Canticum, Calbiga; born on December 15,1951 and a resident of the Philippines “since birth.”
However, it was discovered that he was not a registered voter of Canticum; was born on December 14, 1950 and an actual resident of California, USA.
Noval said that there was no “tension” when he both informed Nacario and Bacsal of the decision of the DILG.
“There was no tension; it was smooth,” he said. (JOEY A. GABIETA)
Southern Leyte’s top drug pusher falls
ORMOC CITY- Police operatives in Southern Leyte arrested the reported top drug dealer during a buy bust operation on April 3.
Nabbed by the police authorities was Simon Mercado, 36 and a resident of Barangay Canturing, Maasin City near the Metro Hyper Mall, Brgy. Tagnipa of said city.
Senior Inspector Shevert Alvin Machete, chief of the Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs and Special Operations Task Group(PAIDSOTG), said that seized from the suspect were two sachets of suspected drugs; two unlicensed firearms with several live ammunitions; cash worth P19,569 believed to be proceeds of illegal drug trade and P2,000 marked money.
Mercado was believed to have been engaging in drug selling in the entire province that put him number one in Southern Leyte’s drug watch list.
A policeman, posing as a buyer, bought the illegal drug from the suspect while the latter was inside his car parked near the Metro Hyper.
During a body search, it was discovered that he was concealing another single sachet of suspected drug and cal. 45 pistol tucked on his waist with live ammunitions. While a 9 mm caliber pistol with ammunitions and two magazines for cal. 45 were recovered at his unlicensed car Sedan KIA YDV 714. Village officials, representatives from Department of Justice and media witnessed the search.
With the arrest of Mercado, the illegal drug trade in Southern Leyte is seen to decline, police authorities said.
Police Supt. Armando Bolalin, acting provincial director, encouraged the local police to carry on intensifying Coplan “crystal” that initially handcuffed the province’s top on the watch list.
Mercado was charged through an inquest proceeding for violations of sec. 5 and 11 of RA 9165 (Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002) and RA 8294 (Illegal Possession of Firearms). (ELVIE ROMAN-ROA)
First ever President to visit Samar
Singapore’s Tan donates medical supplies, equipment to Basey District Hospital
BASEY, Samar- Singapore President Tony Tan Keng Yam made the first visit ever by a head of state to this Yolanda-hit province as he personally lead in the turnover of medical supplies and equipment to the Basey District Hospital, this town, on April 5.
Aside from the members of the Presidential Security Group and his own security personnel, about 230 policemen, both from the municipal government of Basey and the provincial headquarters based in Catbalogan City, were assigned to guard the visiting Singaporean president.
“He is a president that is why we have a very tight security measure,” said Senior Superintendent Roel Acidre, police director for Samar, said.
The province, Basey in particular, was once a hotbed of the communist armed group, the New People’s Army, which the military officials claimed to have been “neutralized.”
President Tan arrived in this town, considered the most devastated area in Samar along with Marabut, at 2:10 p.m. on April 5 and left at around 2:47 p.m.
He was joined by wife, Mary, during his visit at the Basey District Hospital, located at Barangay Loyo, this town, and was met by local officials led by Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan and town Mayor Igmedio Junjie Ponferrada.
Also welcoming the Singaporean president and his group were officials of the Philippine Red Cross led by its chairman, Richard Gordon and secretary general, Gwendolyn Pang.
“Of course, we are honored to be visited by him and we are very much grateful for the donations for our hospital here in Basey,” Gov. Tan said.
The 25-bed Basey District Hospital is being maintained by the provincial government, which was destroyed during the onslaught of the supertyphoon Yolanda. Several of its equipment like its X-ray machine were damaged, said its chief of hospital Dr. Rutchie Igos.
Pres. Tan, in his brief statement before the media, said that his visit to this town and the nearby Tacloban City, was for him to personally see the devastation caused by Yolanda.
And almost five months after Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) pummeled Eastern Visayas, he was “impressed” on what he saw, the visiting Singaporean president said.
“The reason why we are here is to see for ourselves the impact of typhoon Haiyan on the lives and livelihood of the communities living here.And I would say, looking around, driving here, I’m very impressed by the resiliency of the Filipino people,” he said.
Thus, he said, he is confident that the Philippines could bounce back from the massive disaster to hit the Visayas on November 8, 2013.
Tan turned over medical supplies and equipment to the officials of the Basey District Hospital. Repairs of the damaged two buildings of the hospital would need at least P6 million.
“The effort which we are doing in Basey District Hospital is one of the rehabilitation efforts which Singapore is very happy to help. You can see that the hospital was extremely affected by the typhoon; the roofs were blown off. We’ll reconstruct new roof,” he said.
The Singaporean president also said that the donation made by his country to the Philippines, coursed through the Singapore Red Cross, was an indication on the “kinship” of the two nations.
During his visit to the country, Pres. Tan announced of S$7 million as his country’s contribution to the reconstruction and rehabilitation effort of the national government.
Health Regional Director Jose Lacuna said that they need about P500 million to repair several hospitals that sustained damages due to Yolanda. (JOEY A. GABIETA)