PHILIPPINE TRIBUNE 3www.thephilippinetribune.comJanuary 2 - 8, 2020

MOMENTS

OK! * * *

Stay focused. This is the most basic rule in our journey. It is so easy to get distracted, and to be confused. Our journey through life and our journey to God’s heart require our full concentra-tion and attention. Take note of the three P’s we’ll need in our journey through 2020. The first P is prayer. We must keep in touch and be connected with our Lord who knows and sees everything. We must continue to consult Him and listen to Him for directions. The second P is patience. Our journey is not a walk in the park. There will be obstructions, de-lays and even complete stops. Let us be patient. If we are hum-ble and trusting in God, we can handle anything that comes our way in stride. No need to com-plain, to get angry, or be mad. Patience. Patience. Patience. The third P is perseverance. Let us not give up. Just keep moving, and keep on believing that we will reach our goal and accomplish our mission. Let us not be affected by human ap-plause nor condemnation. In the end, it is what God thinks or says that matters. Praying with you that 2020 will be a better year for all of us, in all aspects, in Jesus’ name. Happy New Year! Think about this: “Let nothing disturb you; let nothing frighten you; all things are passing; God never changes; patience obtains all things; He who has God lacks nothing. God alone suffices” (Saint Teresa of Avila).

A moment with the Lord: Lord, with You by

our side, we will be OK all the way.

Amen.

By: Fr. Jerry M. Orbos SVD

THE announcement last Friday by Malacañang that President Rodrigo Duterte would skip Monday’s traditional Rizal Day ceremonies was not much of a surprise, given the by-now lengthy record of the President missing out on major engage-ments here and abroad, for vari-ous reasons. But it’s still a keen disap-pointment. This marks the second year in a row that the President has chosen to snub the annual solemn ritual of the country’s chief executive lead-ing the national commemora-tion of the martyrdom of Jose Rizal—a day that had been des-ignated a holiday precisely to allow the country to observe the occasion with the proper stateli-ness and sense of remembrance befitting the National Hero. Last year, Mr. Duterte spent Dec. 30 in Davao; ostensibly on doctor’s orders, he was a no-show at the 122nd anniversary rites honoring Rizal at the city’s park named after the hero. It was his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, who subbed for him, reading a mes-sage that urged Filipinos to “emulate Rizal’s patriotism” by, among others, “supporting the government’s development agenda and campaign against corruption, criminality and ille-gal drugs.” Rizal’s courage and patri-otic fervor, the speech added, should “inspire us all to develop compassion for our fellowmen, as well as foster a greater desire to always think of the common good so that we may be able to progress as a people and as a na-tion.” This year, it isn’t for a medical reason that the President would not be laying the traditional wreath at the foot of the Rizal monument in the Luneta. Per a report in this paper, “Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Duterte would rather honor other Fili-pino heroes who do not have a date to commemorate their heroism.” The President, it appeared, had expressed irritation at hav-ing to do the same thing again: “He said he always goes to Lu-neta,” said Panelo, so “I think this year he wanted to give treatment to General Gregorio del Pilar.”

Wouldn’t that be a show of disrespect toward the National Hero? Panelo: “I don’t think so. He always issues statements, anyway.” Panelo’s glib dismissal of the sour taste arising from the Presi-dent’s apparent disdain for his duty to publicly lead the Rizal Day honors is breathtaking (“he always issues statements, any-way”—as if platitude-studded pro-forma presidential state-ments, most likely dashed off by Panelo himself, amount to any-thing). But the proffered expla-nation for Mr. Duterte’s pointed refusal to go to the Luneta is something else. Why must Rizal, who holds a preeminent place in the panthe-on of the country’s greats not by his choice but by the historic ac-clamation of his countrymen, be pitted against other Filipino he-roes—as if celebrating his hero-ism also means denigrating and making short shrift of others? Who thinks this way other than Mr. Duterte? Why is the President seemingly making a big to-do about how other he-roes are supposedly ignored in comparison to Rizal, on the very day meant to salute the man’s sacrifice—as if Rizal himself were not, in fact, the inspiration and exemplar for many of these heroes, begin-ning with Andres Bonifacio who avidly read Rizal’s two novels and whose Katipunan distinctly honored the “Noli” and “Fili” author by using his surname as a password among its members? Or is it simply that Mr.

THE story is told about a monk who asked his brother monk, “How are you?” Before he could make a reply, the bell rang, signaling the great silence all throughout the year. At the end of the year, when the bell rang signaling the start of talking time, the other monk hurriedly looked for his brother monk, and when he found him, said: “I’m OK.”

* * * Happy New Year! With faith in God’s love, and with our Mother Mary’s powerful inter-cession, we believe we will be OK in the coming year ahead of us! Let us not forget to have a positive outlook. And let us not forget the UPLOOK.

* * * In today’s Gospel (Mt. 2, 13-15. 19-23), we hear how the Lord protected Joseph, Mary and the Baby Jesus in the most difficult and most dangerous moments of their lives. The Lord was there to warn them, protect them and provide for them. So, too, will the Lord warn, protect and pro-vide for us in this coming New Year.

* * * Joseph listened and obeyed the Lord. That, too, should be our attitude as we journey through life. Otherwise, we will get lost or go through unneces-sary delays, and bumps, hard-ships and confusions along the way. Listen, obey and follow the Lord, and you will move on and go forward.

* * * As we journey on in 2020, let us bring along with us these les-sons from Christmas: The joy of the angels, the eagerness of the shepherds, the obedience of Jo-seph and Mary, and the open-ness and the availability of the Baby Jesus.

AT this time, people make a spe-cial effort to meditate on what went wrong and what went right during the year, praying that the mistakes will not be re-peated, and that the rights will be multiplied. My end-of-year assessment last year titled “Glo-ry and shame in 2018” was done from the perspective of Inang Bayan: the events that brought glory and honor to her, and the events that put her to shame. Let us repeat the exercise this year, and as I did last year, I invite you, Reader, to add or subtract.

What events brought glory and hope?

1) Surely among the most glori-ous occurrences was the defeat of many dynasties (partial or total), in areas large and small, in the last elections—such as the Estradas (Manila, San Juan), the Demaalas (Narra, Palawan), Eusebios (Pasig), Binays (Maka-ti congressional race), Codillas (Leyte), Duranos (Cebu), Os-meñas (Cebu), Ecleos (Dinagat

Islands), the Magsaysays (Zam-bales). The fight is not over, not by a long shot, but the great message of hope, and at the local level where governance is the pri-mary issue, is that it can be done even without the law against dynasties that should have been passed by Congress since 1987. We are doing it the hard way. But the people who voted them out of office should be congratu-lated, and emulated.2) Then there is the mighty blow struck against poverty, wherein 5.9 million individuals, or 1.1 million families, were lifted out of poverty between 2015 and 2018. A great victory. We still don’t know how many of these are urban, and how many are rural, but the President in the Philippine Development Plan vowed to bring the incidence of rural poverty down from 30 percent to 20 percent, and we won’t know, until the figures are released, whether he

Duterte is not in the mood to go, for whatever reason, and so his underlings must come up with some ludicrous, tendentious pretext to justify yet another snub by the President of one of the country’s most important civic occasions? Once upon a time, “So im-portant was the observation of Rizal Day that President Quiri-no approved on June 9, 1948, Republic Act No. 229 which prohibits cockfighting, horse racing and jai-alai every 30th of December of each year, in or-der to have proper observance of Rizal Day.” That’s from the official website of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, in an article detail-ing the “Historical Context and Legal Basis of Rizal Day and Other Memorials in honor of Jose Rizal.” The decades since have seen the steady erosion of the signifi-cance of the day, if not the man; Rizal seems to inspire more lip service than sincere emulation these days among men and women who imagine them-selves worthy of being called leaders of this country and heirs to the work of nationhood of the National Hero and his compatriots. But if visiting dig-nitaries still find it necessary to pay homage and respect to the Filipino race by, first and fore-most, trekking to the Luneta to lay flowers at the foot of Rizal—“The First Filipino,” in Leon Ma. Guerrero’s estimation—is it too much to expect that the Presi-dent himself should be bothered to do likewise?

Glory and sorrow in 2019

GET REAL

Please turn to page 14

By: Solita Collas-Monsod

Show of disrespect

EDITORIAL

There is no crueler tyranny than that which

is perpetuated under the shield of law and in

the name of justice.Montesquieu