A gift for myself

If time, as they say, is the best gift we could give to someone and vice versa, I am more curious to know what is that best of gifts we could as well give to ourselves. Of course, and for sure, it will be a subject of debate to many and may vary from person to person as each one of us has his or her own personal preference or opinion for what he or she thinks is the "best" that he or she could possibly give to his or her own self. Whatever it is, let’s leave it at that. But I wrote this article because this coming June 21^st I will be turning 35 years old and I was thinking about what kind of gifts I would like to give myself on my natal day. So the story is going to revolve around me for that particular time of my life, not anyone else.

Having learned from what I will often hear about the best of gifts that should come from small packages and even in disguises, I think I already had an idea about what should be that kind of thing I’m going to soon receive for myself. While this life that I’m living, a gift as it already was to consider, has blessed me with lots of wonderful things as well as to give back what I can to it, yet nothing challenges me more than the idea of giving me something which I know is the best that I can give myself. Can you guess what is it?

It should be the Gift of Love. Love is the lifeblood in everything that seeks for a meaningful experience through the appreciation of the goodness of a thing. It also implies action because I’m going to “seek” for that meaningful experience myself to make it happen.  It is through this appreciation of the goodness of a thing that something will abundantly flow from my source of what is a selfless giving towards my subject. It is naturally very generous and unconditional. 

So whatever it is I’m going to do and give for anything and for any time, as long as there’s love in it, is the best gift I can give for myself. I’ll be turning 35 come June 21^st but believe me, it’s just a number. Wish me Happy Birthday anyway! Are you wrapping the gifts yet?

Some thoughts on fatherhood

Fatherhood, for me, is a special task that can expose both the worst and the best character of a man. And as we celebrate Father’s Day today to honor all the dads in the world, allow me to share to you some insights about how it’s going to become a good father--something I never quite understood from my father then until I became a dad myself. What does, after all, it takes to become a good dad?

He's not going to be perfect though, of course, because we all know there's no such thing as it is. But some dads managed to make it pretty close at it and that’s very good. A good dad knows what's best for his children and makes all the difference in their lives. He makes sure he always had something good to impart to his children and shows to them the value of even the most little of things. He might be a disciplinarian or not, but what's important is that he takes into consideration that his children are human beings capable of making mistakes as a part of growing up. He instead encourages them to make up for these mistakes but also warn that a repetition of the same mistakes all over again will have to meet exact punishment.

A good father knows when to apply discipline. He must be one with a good sense of humor, honest, committed, trustworthy, a lover, compassionate, open-minded, God-fearing, and most of all has time for his family. When it comes to family matters, the gift of time is valued more than anything else.

A good father accepts about the fact that he can’t always fit his children into his mold as every child is unique and has different character traits and talents. A good father should not expect for his children to live the same kind of life that he does and to do the same kind of work.

Fatherhood is such that will make our children to trust, love, and respect the adults of their lives. It is also, above all, to illustrate the importance of affection for a dad to love the mother of his children. To all the dads out there, Happy Father’s Day especially to papa Rudy, brother Jun, and me.

Signs of Times: Triangulating our spot in prophecy

War. Famine. Greediness. Wickedness of man. Rape. Hatred. Flood. Earthquake. Murder. Poverty. Immorality. These are just some of the negative things that will headline every newspaper of the present time. Of course, we could find good news, too, but the bad ones, being the majority, often won the limelight to become the newsmakers. But have you ever wondered why these things are happening? Why the world has become so strange now and some people are becoming so indifferent? Did it ever cross your mind what causes all these? I think I have found the answer to all of these questions in the Holy Bible. We are living under the spell of a prophecy and to be able to know what it is being prophesied about us and our times is to understand why all of these things that are happening today happened.

While history records past events, people, and their civilizations, prophecy foretells of things yet to come. Knowing what happened in the past and to trace back our origins is just great but to know what lies ahead or where we are heading is, for me, a very important thing to consider. So where are we now in prophecy? It all began and revealed by God through Daniel about King Nebuchadnezar’s dreaming of a human statue for what all of Babylon’s wise men at that time failed to interpret. The story about King Nebuchadnezar’s dream and of Daniel’s interpretation of such a dream could be read/found in Daniel chapter 2 verses 1 to 47:

"1. In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep.
2. So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king,

3. he said to them, "I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means."

4. Then the astrologers answered the king in Aramaic, "O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it."

5. The king replied to the astrologers, "This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble.

6. But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me."

7. Once more they replied, "Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it."

8. Then the king answered, "I am certain that you are trying to gain time, because you realize that this is what I have firmly decided:

9. If you do not tell me the dream, there is just one penalty for you. You have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change. So then, tell me the dream, and I will know that you can interpret it for me."

10. The astrologers answered the king, "There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer.

11. What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men."

12. This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon.

13. So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death.

14. When Arioch, the commander of the king's guard, had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact.

15. He asked the king's officer, "Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?" Arioch then explained the matter to Daniel.

16. At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him.

17. Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

18. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

19. During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven

20. and said: "Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his.

21. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.

22. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him.

23. I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king."

24. Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, "Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king, and I will interpret his dream for him."

25. Arioch took Daniel to the king at once and said, "I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell the king what his dream means."

26. The king asked Daniel (also called Belteshazzar), "Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?"

27. Daniel replied, "No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about,

28. but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you lay on your bed are these:

29. "As you were lying there, O king, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen.

30. As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than other living men, but so that you, O king, may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.

31. "You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue--an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance.

32. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze,

33. its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.

34. While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them.

35. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.

36. "This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king.

37. You, O king, are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory;

38. in your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.

39. "After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.

40. Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron--for iron breaks and smashes everything--and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others.

41. Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay.

42. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle.

43. And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.

44. "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.

45. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands--a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. "The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy."

46. Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him.

47. The king said to Daniel, "Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery."

The Book of Daniel in chapter 12: 4 also gave us a striking hint about the future which is today, considering technological advancement and the continuing quest to improve it: “But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.”

In the days of Jesus, he also warned us in the book of Matthew 24: 5-7, about the present times that we’re now in, to be like this: 5”For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 6And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in diver’s places.”

The Holy Bible contains the Words of God. It should serve as our manual on how we should function according to the purpose that He wants us to be. He wants us all to “voluntarily” submit ourselves to Him, in a total surrender, and allow Him to be in full control of our lives. But He wants in such a way that, by our own will, we should choose Him that’s why He has given us the freedom (“Free Will”) to choose which way to go. The physical world that we are living today may come to an end, as it was prophesied long ago, but the Words of God should stay.

115th Philippine Independence Day: What shall our own history is going to teach us?

Although it was short-lived, the Philippines made it to become Asia’s first republic. It was proclaimed at the balcony of General Emilio Aguinaldo’s ancestral house in Kawit, Cavite in the afternoon of June 12, 1898, so ending Spain’s almost 400 years of colonial rule. The Philippine flag, for the first time, lay unfurled and waved in the air, accompanied by bands playing the Marcha Nacional Filipina composed by Julian Felipe, a music teacher and composer who was appointed by Aguinaldo to lead the National Band of the First Philippine Republic, which later on became the Philippine’s national anthem.

At the height of Philippine Revolution fought between Spanish authorities in the Philippines and the Filipino insurgents in the year 1896 to 1898, Aguinaldo went on a voluntary exile to Hongkong in compliance with what he has signed on December 14, 1897 known as The Pact of Biak-na-Bato which was a truce created between Spanish Colonial Governor-General Fernando Primo de Rivera and him to end the Philippine Revolution by giving him (Aguinaldo) and his fellow revolutionaries amnesty and monetary indemnity by the Spanish Government. He later on used the money to purchase firearms instead. Upon his return from exile in 1898, the truce signed between Filipino revolutionary fighters and Spaniards at Biak-na-Bato no longer observed and kept.

The ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Malolos Congress on September 29, 1898 and the framing of the Malolos Constitution on January 21, 1899 should be forever remembered in Philippine history for such achievements. The Malolos Congress, by the way, was the constituent assembly of the First Philippine Republic.  The Constitution, aimed to protect the people (with individual and national registry rights) against the abuse of power, was written right after the American Navy's total annihilation of the Spanish flotilla in what was known as the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American war. Both the United States of America and Spain failed to consider an independent rule of the emerging revolutionary government led by Aguinaldo. Under the Treaty of Paris in the year 1898, which ended the Spanish-American war, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States. The Philippines has yet to struggle for independence against another colonial power--the United States of America. Filipino-American war broke out in 1899 until 1902.

America's colonial mission for the Philippines should be defined as one of tutelage and to prepare the country for eventual independence. But it may also be for some important reasons:

The American leaders during that time were so much concerned about the Filipino people’s incapability of a self-rule government, that in the process they also feared about the fact that if they would not take control of the islands another powerful country might do so.

The Americans during that time expressed a great desire for commercial opportunities in Asia by which the Philippines, being just strategically located, could offer best for that purpose and later on, they realized, could also serve well militarily. 

Some prominent figures in American politics during that time who supported  American Imperialism believed that it was the duty of the “White race” to govern the inferior races of people by bringing them the joys of civilization.

Many Americans during that time believed it would be just right for America to annex the Philippines and that it would be good for both countries.

Before the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II, Commonwealth of the Philippines was formed with Manuel L. Quezon as president. After half a century of waiting, the United States of America finally granted the Philippines its independence on July 4, 1946, becoming the first country in the world to have gained independence after World War II. It was not until the late Diosdado Macapagal’s presidency that the observance for Philippine Independence was moved back to the original June 12, 1898 date and that the July 4 date instead has since become the Philippine-American Friendship Day.

Philippine Independence, which was first echoed by our noble ancestors who fought against Spanish colonizers and later on against American imperialists, must have proven the capacity of the Filipino to exercise his right to freedom, self-determination, and sense of nationalism. The struggles, sacrifices, and courage of our great men paving the way for the birth of our nation, should be such that we must not forget because, as a nation and a people, we have duties to fulfill and obligations to answer. One of such duties is to preserve, maintain, and keep active the right to liberty of every citizen towards nation building, unity, and prosperity.

Our quest for “independence” did not end with the Western colonizers now all gone and neither have we totally attained it. There is another breed of oppression springing from within one’s own: A Filipino enslaving his countrymen and women. The divide-and-rule tactics and other dirty tricks of the past colonizers can still be seen and, in fact, applied today, substituted/transfused into what some, if not most, of our politicians/oligarchs becoming masters of such a craft.

Celebrating the birth of our nation, for some, if not most, of the Filipino people of today, is nothing more than just a misguided sense of nationalism and somehow reduced to as just, as what columnist Randy David in his June 11, 2010 column of the Philippine Daily Inquirer titled “On our nation’s birthday” puts it, “a vehicle for the realization of popular aspirations. It has since shed much of its progressive function. Today it mostly finds expression in pop markers of national identity--patriotic logos on T-shirts, caps, watches, bags, and bandannas, etc.--than in sustained efforts to develop our country and people, build on our cultural heritage, and map the future of our nation in a complex and uncertain world.”

A poem for Dan Brown's 'Inferno'

Dan Brown’s choosing and vivid description of Manila, in all the cities of the world, through a character in his latest novel "Inferno" saying about the city capital of the Philippines to be the Gates of Hell, have sparked anger in the Philippines. Philippine government officials especially that of the tourism department have denounced Brown's novel for it can only create a bad impression of the city to the world. He (Dan Brown) may or may have not been to the Philippines, but he sure has all the freedom to create a world for what his mind is capable of describing through the written words. But, the truth is and in reality, Gates of Hell is not Manila and vice versa; he only needs to see the beauty of the place for what his fiction cannot quite appreciate. There's no such thing as a perfect city but there are places/cities in the world which are far more worse than what the Gates of Hell that is Manila being portrayed: Mogadishu in Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan, North Korea, Monrovia in Liberia, and many more. It only supports the fact that the Inferno's Gates of Hell, after all, is just an exaggeration in fiction. This novel may have told the truth about the city and its people but it's only focusing on the negative sides of it. Manila is a beautiful city with rich history and culture and one that the Filipino people can be proud of. Dan Brown, who also authored the highly controversial The Da Vinci Code, Demons and Angels, and many more, is, of course, just a fictionist who would like to sell out his books. The creator of Gates of Hell in this Far Eastern city of the doomed, trying to blip away from my radar screen to escape, cannot go unscathed. I have prepared something for him to deal with what, I think, is his fiction’s antidote: A poem for Dan Brown’s Inferno:

Gone are the Gates of Hell published--

A flaw it was, indeed;

But someone thinks what he had wished:

The hell that he has made.

So much for telling truths and lies

And deep imaginings;

The Gates of Hell seen through his eyes

Is one hell best of things.

The Gates of Hell resides in us

If we would let it be;

Not in a place we think it was

But where we drift away.

Time to defend our national pride and dignity

What happened on the 9^th of May 2013 when the patrolling coast guard of the Republic of the Philippines intercepted foreign vessels sailing within Philippine waters and accidentally killed one person, which were later known to be Taiwanese fishing boats, should have served a lesson from both sides. For these Taiwanese poachers, they should have been aware of the fact that what they’re doing is illegal. Some of these poachers, taking advantage of the poorly equipped Philippine navy and coast guard, have been entering and going out of Philippine territory so many times already without getting caught. And, in some instances, when they are caught they will just say as an excuse, “We’re having engine trouble and while we’re doing repair the current of the sea brought us here.” But the incident on May 9^th is a different one as the coast guard reported that one of the foreign boats tried to ram their vessel. Of course, I believe, the rules of engagement have been observed by our coast guard. But after several warning shots have been done and ignored, and upon seeing one of the boats heading towards their direction, they decided to open fire again this time aimed at the engine area of the incoming boat to disable it. The boat did stop, and so is the life of a 65-year-old Taiwanese fisherman inside. It was an accident.

The rage of the Taiwanese people erupted after that incident. Taiwanese government demanded a Philippine government apology and compensation to the family of the accidentally slain fisherman. But while the Philippine government was apologizing, Taiwan rejects it. The lives of almost 90,000 Filipinos working in Taiwan could be in great jeopardy if the situation gets worse. According to a report in the news, some Filipinos in Taiwan were attacked by some Taiwanese gangsters and sympathizers. Some of them were even hospitalized due to the severity of the injury absorbed. They even threatened about going to war against the Philippines if their demands won’t be met. Damn, who are these Taiwanese people to dictate us what we shall do by the way? Their arrogance, no doubt, reflects that of their cousins from the mainland.

The president of the Republic of the Philippines, being the commander in chief, should be tough on this issue. We've had been so much trodden as a people. They show us no respect. I think it’s about time to defend our national pride and dignity for that matter. The Philippine government should never have apologized to the Taiwanese people in the first place. Apologize, for what? These poachers violated laws and the coast guard naturally is just doing its job. To compensate, out of humanitarian reason is, for me, okay. But to apologize to a violator is a big joke. If they want to go to war against us, then let them. We as a free people should fight them with what we have; our battle-hardened soldiers could give them a good fight. We have to show to these arrogant race of people that we're not afraid of them. As a preparation, president Pnoy should create more industries in the soonest possible time to accommodate the displaced Filipinos in Taiwan should the war occur. More industries mean more jobs. 

Election time and Filipino stupidity

With the Philippine mid-term election coming in two weeks, there’s a great need for the Filipino people to become intelligent voters. It’s another opportunity for them to grab to make up for all of the stupidity during last election time's choosing for the wrong candidates. I can still recall the words a dear friend of mine have said to me before he died of heart attack a little over three years ago that the majority of the Filipino people, when it comes to electing their public officials, are somewhat suffering from what he called “stupidity syndrome.”  In the Philippines, he said, popularity triumphs over substance. I can only agree with his observation on how we Filipinos elect our leaders and you can add to it, at some instances, the equation: compassion + sympathy = presidency. It catapulted the late Corazon Aquino to the presidential seat in a peaceful way of putting an end to the Marcos regime in 1986 which was further triggered by the assassination of her late husband Benigno Jr. in 1983 and, as if history repeats itself, it happened to be a similar case also with her son Benigno III who is now the president of this country. President Benigno III owes a lot of his presidency to the people who sympathized with the death of her mother, the former president of the Philippines which, during that time, just in the right timing for the presidential election and the filing of candidacy was still going on. It prompted presidential candidate Mar Roxas, upon knowing and analyzing the whole scenario, to withdraw his candidacy to give way to Aquino and settled a vice president position instead by which he lost.

“The solution is not election,” my friend said when I tried to press him out what he can suggest to make this country change for the better, “but revolution. You have to test it with fire to burn impurities out, more impurities.” His eyes burnt the same color as that of a flame when I peered into the glowing depths of his own, the window of his soul. “But that would be too costly and bloody. Is there no other means aside from that?” I asked. “The people must acquire education not limited to school,” he said. “There has to be this maturity of thinking by the Filipino people and that will lead them to reach that level of consciousness to only do or make things better for all,” he continued. “This country,” he paused for a moment as he tried to clear out his throat, “needs an intellectual leader who can unite the people. Real problems need real solutions, not a cover up to things to only make the present administration looking good. A good leader will not only find the best solution to the problem but he must be the solution himself.” I had to admit I’m learning a lot from this man I called the “Walking Encyclopedia” in a different way than my professors in college. Before I could manage to ask for my next question he turned to interrupt me, now it’s his turn to ask questions, by simply asking: “What do you think will be the best thing you can do for your country?” I was caught off guard, I had to think hard and organize my thoughts in as quickly as I can. “It has to begin in each one of us, in me,” I sounded somewhat confident telling him my answer. “Each one of us should be a leader that serves and, like what you said, the solution. Becoming a solution to the problem instead of a problem to a solution is the best thing I can do for my country.” “That’s a lot better,” he said as if to flatter me, “you will become a good leader!”

“So who would you vote for as president?” his eyes narrowed and a little smile curved at the corner of his mouth.  “I’ll keep it a secret,” I said and thinking about changing the subject. But before I could manage to think for a topic to talk about he was already speaking, “It all began as a wish from the late president Quezon. Be careful what you wish for because there’s a chance you might get it.” “So what’s the issue with president Quezon by the way?” I asked. “Stupidity,” he said. I’m thinking about president Quezon’s greatness and how he has sought Philippine independence from the hands of the Americans. “President Quezon,” he explained, “became stupid by saying ‘I prefer a government run like hell by Filipinos to a government run like heaven by Americans’.” “Quezon is not at all stupid as what you think,” I tried to challenge him. “But he was trying to impart the essence of nationalism for a people called Filipinos and a nation called the Philippines so as to partake in such a chance of making good or bad decisions for its own.”  “Would you like to turn and make the Quezon’s curse into a promise?” he asked. Instead of trying to thicken out the discussion for that particular subject, I shot him a smile and said, “Should I blame Quezon for his answered prayers?” He shot me back a smile and said, "Well, good for him." Deep down, I know, come election time, I won’t be stupid enough to cast my vote for the wrong candidates.