CONSECRATION TO INDEPENDENCE 2015

By Sir Edwin D. Bael, KGOR

What’s the point of celebrating independence day?

One point could be to refresh in our minds some consecration to a great ideal. For: “it is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great ideal. It is like a stone wasted in the field without becoming part of an edifice.” (Jose Rizal, El Filibusterismo)  

Perhaps we can bring alive once more, in our minds and hearts, Dr. Rizal’s cause and vision of a free, dignified, self-respecting, and respected Philippines for which he died.

As we recall, Jose Rizal wrote in his Last Farewell: “My dreams when scarcely a lad adolescent, my dreams when a young man all filled with vigor, were to see you one day, jewel of the Sea of the Orient: the dark eyes dry, the smooth forehead held high unbent - without frown, without wrinkles, without stains of high color.”

In the following stanza of the same poem, Dr. Rizal poignantly exclaimed: “Dream of my life, my ardent, living passion and rallying cry: Health, shouts to you the soul that soon shall go and depart! Health! O, how beautiful it is to fall to give you power to fly, to die to give you vigor to live, beneath your heaven to die, and in your enchanted land, to sleep in eternity never apart.”

And what dreams they are! They see Inang Bayan cool, calm, collected, and confident (like the pearl-jewel from living matter formed by enfoldment of loving, iridescent nacre of things that irritate) in overcoming whatever life may throw her way (the dark eyes dry, the smooth forehead held high), without any reason for worry (frown), doubt (wrinkle), or shame (blushing color); they observe her moving with self-esteem as her children mutually respect each other (with power to fly together); and they notice her standing with dignity (with vigor to live) respected by other nations, as she knows how, and has the wherewithals, to fight when it is right.

As Dr. Rizal envisioned our capabilities in the Hymn to Talisay, we are a people “… who, none can intimidate: not waves, nor hurricane, nor thunder; with speedy arm and serene feature, we can fight when in difficulties.”  xxxxx “There is no darkness, no pitchblack night, nor fierce storm or typhoon that we dread; and should Satan himself come to sight, he shall be captured alive or dead.”         

These are the dreams and visions worth keeping in mind as we continue putting into effect the Preamble of our 1987 Constitution where we declare we want “to build a just and humane society and establish a Government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity, the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace…”

We note that we have rolled into one the “blessings of independence and democracy”. This brings to mind the importance of the coming electoral exercise in May 2016 when we shall, as a people, select our new crop of leaders to spearhead our nation’s direction(s).

Being able to stand on our own in self-respect and self-esteem as Dr. Rizal dreamed, is our vision of being independent, and of being the proper basis for our inter-dependence with other nations.

That vision shall come to pass if we, the sovereign voters live that dream in our own respective lives; and thus, it shall be the main criteria for our votes for those who eagerly claim they want to be our representatives and “abang lingkod”.

For those of you ambitious ones with some money who now think of joining the contests for leadership positions in the coming May 2016 elections, please make sure you have not added to or been part of the cause, in any way, to the damage, decay, decline, deterioration, impairment, slowness, stagnation, or weakness of Inang Bayan… for “the glory of saving a country is not for him who has contributed to its ruin” (Jose Rizal, El Filibusterismo).  

For us sovereign voters, let’s make sure not one of those who by selfish, corrupt, and other actions have contributed to our country’s continuing weakness and inability to firmly stand for itself in self-esteem in such a way as to command the respect of others.

On the above conception of ideals and purposes, perhaps we can re-consecrate ourselves this Independence Day 2015.

Indeed, “a life not consecrated to some rational, lofty purpose is like a tree that affords no shade, if it is not like a poisonous weed” (Emilio Jacinto, Kartilya ng Katipunan).