Monday, December 31, 2018

MABUTING KAISIPAN, SUSI SA KAUNLARAN

Keynote Speech by Sir Atty Edwin D. Bael, KGOR,
Undersecretary designate, Office of the Presidential Adviser
on Overseas Filipino Workers and Muslim Concerns
Magsaysay Park, Dipolog City, December 30, 2017, 7:30AM

Daghang Salamat, my esteemed Pare and classmate, Atty. Cyril Ruiz.

Governor Roberto Y. Uy;
Vice Governor (and classmate) Atty Senen Angeles;
Mayor Darrel Dexter T. Uy;
Vice Mayor Horacio Velasco;
Leader emeritus and First Lady of the Province, Mrs. Evelyn Tang Uy;
Judge Jose Rene Dondoyano;
Judge Rogelio Laquihon;
Judge Ric Bastasa;
DepEd Division Superintendent Dr. Liza Tabilon;
City Councilors: Atty Cyril James Ruiz, Malou Calibo, Atty Raul Barbaso, Maynard Baes, Atty Peter Co, Atty Ruben Legorio;
Provincial Board Members: 
    Ronillo Lee, Patri Jean Chan, and Romulo Soliva;
Police Superintendent Joselito Gallano, 1st Lt. Jose Ramon Mallare of the Army’s 5th Infantry Battalion, our men and women in uniform, from the AFP, to the PNP to the BJMP;
The delegation from the Masons from whose rich history of standing up for truth and justice Dr. Rizal had imbibed a lot;
The veterans from among whom I see my uncle General Rogaciano Bael;
Officers and staff of the different offices of the government at the city, provincial and national levels;

MGA KAUBANAN, MGA SILINGAN, MGA KAIGSOONAN,
MGA DIPOLOGNON, MGA TAGA-ZAMBOANGA DEL NORTE
UG MGA BISITA:

MAAYO UG BULAHANG BUNTAG KANATONG TANAN!

I appear before you this morning in the gala uniform of the Knights of Rizal to give full honor to the man who, 121 years ago was made to walk with his arms and legs tied, from Fort Santiago to Bagumbayan, where he stood before the firing squad composed of Filipino sharpshooters behind whom were a squad of Spanish soldiers armed with the most modern rifle at that time, the Mausers.

Let’s remember that and resolve right now: never to let Filipinos shoot down other Filipinos at the behest of foreign powers.

7:03 AM: December 30, 1896…
Tres minutos despues de las siete de la mañana:
sa petsang ika-tatlumpo ng disyembre, mil ocho sientos noventa y sais..
·        mao kini ang gutlo nga ang ispiritu ni Rizal mibalik sa Makagagahom;
·        mao kini ang punto sa atong pagsaulog karong adlawa…
·        nga matud pa sa National Historical Commission of the Philippines mas maayong hinumduman pina-agi sa ideya o tema nga –
-      MABUTING KAISIPAN, SUSI SA KAUNLARAN
-      MAAYONG PANGHUNA-HUNA, YAWI SA PAG-USWAG
-      GOOD THINKING, KEY TO PROGRESS

Ladies and gentlemen:

I wish to submit to you today, that the ideas and ideals of Dr. Jose Rizal constitute good thinking and therefore stand as tools to fully open the doors to our national progress.


Why I rejoined government

But first, let me explain why I rejoined government.

When my friend and fellow OFW in San Diego, Atty Abdullah “Dabs” Mama-o, asked me to join him in working for President Duterte last year, I readily agreed without any qualms. He is now Secretary and Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers and Muslim Concerns.

I had no reservations because I found in the President a fulfillment of a few lines in the poem of Dr. Jose Rizal entitled Miguel en Argamasilla de Alba which, if translated to English with substitution of Miguel with Rody, would read:

Go then, Rody, and with your bright mind like an incandescent, illumine your whole land and redeem the demented multitude, tearing off the dark heavy shroud; and like a pregnant cloud in flight so lofty, launch forth burning lightning to bring down the gods of insanity and let sprout the seeds of prosperity.”

Yes, in the late 1800s Dr. Rizal already saw many among our people as becoming demented and needing redemption by a bright and resolute leader.

President Duterte is the leader with the strength of will to turn our ship of state towards its true north direction. This direction is the vision espoused by Dr. Rizal in the Ultimo Adios, where he said:  “My dreams when a lad barely adolescent, My dreams when already a young man full of vigor, Were to see you one day, Pearl of the seas of the orient, The dark eyes dry, the head held high unbent, Without frowns, without wrinkles, without blushes of high color.”

Plainly stated, that vision - which enabled Dr Rizal to be cool, calm and collected before the firing squad with normal blood pressure - sees our archipelagic nation standing up with dignity, self-confidence and self-esteem, without any reason to cry, to bow down, to doubt, to fear or to be ashamed. That was his magnificent obsession.

It is the ideal and direction that the President leads us to and he needs our help. He needs our help, particularly the PDP-Laban Party members, because he inherited a vast bureaucracy with bad habits, in the midst of a population many of whom are demented by drugs, criminality and corruption, whose prevailing value is “paano natin mapagka-kwartahan ito na di tayo mahuli”…

With the election of President Digong, our people have shown true discernment and have pierced the thin veneer of good manners, right conduct and right speech which have become used as concealing criteria to delude our people. Our people have been searching and feeling for true love of country.

This search reminds us of 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, which teach that:
“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 
If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Given this teaching, we can as well say that: “If I have impeccable manners, courteous conduct, and always watch my mouth, but do not have true love for country, I really am nothing.”

Such is our people’s realization and appreciation of this truth, that it is captured in a t-shirt print I saw in Mega Mall: “Nagmumura, pero ‘tang ‘na, totoo’t nagmamahal”.

This pagmamahal sa Inang Bayan, I believe, accounts for the President’s continued very high marks in social surveys…

The opportunities to help redeem our demented multitudes, bring down the gods of insanity, let sprout the seeds of prosperity for all, and intensify true love of country are the reasons I have rejoined government.

Why Rizal’s thoughts constitute good thinking

As I said earlier, I submit that Rizal’s thoughts and ideals constitute good thinking that completely open the doors to national progress.

To show this, may I just speak on four of his many ideals: namely, (1) love of country, (2) unity, (3) education, and (4) perseverance.

Love of country

In a speech in Madrid, entitled “Farewell to 1883”, Dr Rizal declared his love of country in this wise: “In my heart I have suppressed all loves except that of my native land; in my mind I have erased all ideas which do not signify her progress; and my lips have forgotten the names of the native races in the Philippines in order not to say more than Filipinos.”

Writing to Mariano Ponce in July 1888, he told his friend: “Let this be our only motto: For the welfare of the Native land.”

Tayo, anong motto natin? “Kung ano lang ang nakabubuti sa sarili”?

In his article entitled “Love of Country” in the La Solidaridad (Madrid, 31 Oct 1890, p. 247) Dr Rizal asserted that “love of country is never effaced once it has penetrated the heart, because it carries with it a divine stamp which renders it eternal and imperishable…” He continued: “It has been said that love is the most powerful force behind the most sublime actions; well then, among all loves, that of country is the greatest, the most heroic and the most disinterested.”

In his letter to the Governor and Captain General of the Philippine Islands from Hongkong, on March 21, 1892, he mentioned: “the thought of my whole life has always been love of my country and her moral and material development”.

Remember: moral and material development; di lang pera.

Unity

On unity, the work of Dr. Rizal on the “La Liga Filipina” was a classic. Its foremost purpose was “To unite the whole archipelago into one vigorous and homogenous organization.” And its motto was “Unus instar omnium” which has three connotations: “one like all, one equals all, one for all.”

The Spanish colonialists got threatened for they thought that if our forebears followed those ideas of Rizal, then their “divide and conquer” strategy would be defeated. Immediately, they detained Rizal and exiled him to Dapitan.

Dapitan has contemporary significance because some Muslim separatist intellectuals have asserted that Dr. Rizal never mentioned Mindanao as part of the Philippines and had no Moro friends, to support their contention that as such Mindanao should be separate.

I beg to disagree. For Dr. Rizal wrote to his friend Blumentritt describing Mindanaw from linguistic perspectives to explain that he was exiled in this island that is part of the Philippines under Spanish colonial administration. Without reference materials, Rizal created the Mindanao relief map in front of the Saint James Cathedral and it continues as a living work of art in grass. And in his autobiography, Dr Pio Valenzuela attested that when he told Rizal that after the revolution starts they would come and get Rizal, the latter declined saying that they should not delay the revolution for one man, after all he said he could get out of Mindanao at any time with the help of Moro friends. Rizal trusted his Moro friends to get him out of Mindanao.

That is a point that I think we, as an entire people, should ponder and build on: trusting one another to get out of conflict and rebuild not only Marawi but also all of Mindanao by respecting each other and working together towards equitable progress; on the matter of equity, I was present at the meeting in the Palace between the President and fifteen Ulama leaders where PRRD said help and rebuilding should go first to those who do not have.

Education

On education, Dr. Rizal wrote from Dapitan in December 1893 to his nephew Alfredo Hidalgo to “study, study, and meditate well what you study. Life is a very serious thing, and only those with intelligence and courage go through it worthily.” He added: “To live… is to struggle. On this battlefield man has no better weapon than his intelligence, no other force but his heart. Sharpen, perfect, polish then your mind and fortify and educate your heart.”

So, teachers, are we sharpening minds and strengthening hearts?

In his Manifesto of December 15, 1896, Dr Rizal maintained: “I have given proofs as one who most wants liberties for our country and I continue wanting them. But I put as premise the education of the people so that through education and work, they might have a personality of their own and make themselves worthy of (liberties). In my writings I have recommended study, civic virtues, without which redemption is impossible.”

Let’s keep this in mind, then: to become worthy of liberties is the purpose of education; it is not just to become an OFW!

Perseverance

On perseverance, we have really something to learn from Dr. Rizal given our penchant to just blame, justify, criticize, complain, condemn, and not focus on the blessings and opportunities of situations.

He wrote in “Town Schools in the Philippines” that: “Whether the sacrifice be big or small; whether men be ungrateful and forgetful; whether malice be opposed; or whether  sterile and barren egos mock, we ought not to be dismayed before an insignificant failure nor go backward at the least obstacle that is discerned in the  horizon.”

He added: “Let us work then together and instead of useless lamentations, of disconsolate complaints, of accusations and excuses, let us apply the remedy, let us build, no matter if we begin with the simplest, for later we shall have time to erect new edifices on that foundation.”


As you can see, mga katagilungsod, we just mentioned four points of Rizal’s ideals and it has taken time; we will not finish if we mention all…

But it is clear from these short examples that Rizalian thoughts are good and fundamental to our national progress.

There is so much to learn from the hero’s writings so as to share them; that is why I am encouraging Mayor Darrel and the similarly minded to establish a Knights of Rizal Chapter in Dipolog City. The towns of Zamboanga del Norte should also have KOR chapters, given that our province hosts most of the descendants of Dr. Rizal’s pupils in Dapitan.

Siempre adelante towards equitable progress

Let me now wind up with my sharing what we do in our office in Malacanang.

Essentially, we provide policy recommendations to the President on OFW and Muslim Concerns and follow through with action units on problems involving distressed OFWs and urgent matters relating to Muslim issues upon the President’s directive.

We aim to help the President realize “Green Grass of Home” where every citizen has enough opportunities for employment, livelihood and business, so that our citizens, especially our women, would not feel compelled to grasp the sharp sides of the blade (kapit sa patalim) by going to dangerous places of abuse and exploitation; and so that our people may just exercise their right to freedom of movement as a matter of free choice and nevermore of compulsion from the dire circumstances of life.

This Administration pursues its Philippine Development Plan 2017 to 2022, through the three strategic pillars of Malasakit, Pagbabago, at Patuloy na Pag-unlad.

My friends in government: are we dealing with our people from the malasakit of our hearts, or merely from the wish to finish the hours by 5 pm?

The idea of President Digong is that all the programs in his administration would lay the solid foundations for the Ambisyon Natin 2040 Vision, which is that every Filipino has a Matatag, Maginhawa At Panatag Na Buhay.

Now, going back to good thinking, I submit these directions, would be actualized better, with Dr. Rizal’s ideas in the chorus of his Himno a Talisay which he wrote in Dapitan. And with this quote we shall close.

The original Spanish text says:
“Firme y constante, siempre adelante tú marcharás.
¡Tú, victorioso, todo elemento, mar, tierra y viento, dominarás!”

In English:
“Firm and constant, always advancing you shall prosper.
You, triumphant, all elements - sea, land and air: you shall master!”

Sa ato pa:
“Timgas ug makanunayon, punayng padayon, ikaw mag-mauswagon. Ikaw madaugon, tanang elemento – dagat, yuta’g hangin - imong dominahon!


Daghan kaayong salamat!    

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