It was not a case of
blaming Santo Niño or any demigod, as Antonio mistakenly put it.
Those who surmised about His wrath simply wanted to remind us all that
the practice of faith on something universally held as holy must never
be altered for any other reason. It is unlike believing in a form of
government that its fundamental law must be scrutinized and edified
time and time again, depending on the direction taken by the thoughts
of the powers-that-be. Antonio must have misread his own inner
thoughts. He perfunctorily said: “To blame everything on God and His
heavenly saints is rather irreverent and illogical. If Manny Pacquaio
loses his bout with Diaz this coming Saturday, God forbid, please
spare the Sto. Niño of the blame. Don't blame him if David Diaz is a
better boxer than Manny.” Nobody was blaming the Holy Child. Nobody
was blaming God. On the contrary, there was a warning from the Santo
Niño faithful.
Antonio has instead
introduced a misdirection which is unfair and unjust to the
Taclobanons and their elected leaders even as he was trying to
pontificate. Said he: “God is good. It is the evil portion in the
human heart that is not good. That evil that doesn't care for the
environment, that evil that doesn't honor honest-to-goodness
governance in the local government units responsible for clearing the
waterways, that evil that professes faith in the goodness of God but
blames Him for their sufferings, and worse that evil that doesn't
recognize with humility his/her own guilt. So, please stop blaming God
on things He is not responsible and instead face the mirror to see
who's the culprit. If you want to blame Him all the time, it is better
for you to be an animist (one that believes in the divinity of animals
and things) because you can easily make your God your scapegoat..”
Antonio missed the
point. Precisely there are festival activities and Tacloban must be
transformed into a festive mood, albeit for days, because the city is
thanking and must forever be thankful, and grateful, to Santo Niño -
again, not his icon! but the Holy Child Himself, God who appeared to
the Taclobanons as though He were a small child. Precisely the
festivities are dedicated to Him. If you have an unquestionable and
unwavering faith in Him, you do not put things and persons before
Him. Manny Pacquiao drastically takes away human attention, but isn’t
it that God Himself is a “jealous God”, as the Church repeatedly
reminds us? And so, according to the few Taclobanons, the June 20
typhoon served to remind Taclobanons that He was to have His day as it
was. The Holy Scriptures reveals many instances where God punishes
mankind. Taclobanons who believe in the Bible believe that certain
other forms of calamities and things that occur on mankind or on
anyone are manifestations of God’s wrath.
Antonio wanted to
posit a different view of things for his thesis on “blaming”: “How
about those who perished in the sea off Romblon while aboard a
Sulpicio vessel? Was it because they've offended some middle-earth
gods or that the white lady
Carolina
from Biringan City fetch some new workers for her Bermuda
Triangle-like paradise? Truth to tell, the current global warming side
effects are being felt all over the world with stronger typhoons in
the Pacific Rim, stronger cyclones in the Indian Ocean, stronger
hurricanes in the Atlantic, stronger tornados in Midwestern USA,
torrential rains and tectonic earthquakes that caused flooding in
China, and other catastrophes all over the world. Sto. Niño, the child
image of Jesus, must not have caused all these maladies the same thing
that the Lady of Penafrancia did not cause the tragedy during her
feast some years back.”
And finally, Antonio
served a grain of salt to the typhoon-stricken Taclobanons - whether
or not they suffered from typhoon Frank’s wrath (not Santo Niño’s
wrath): “For Taclobanons and those under water, keep afloat!!!” Yes,
no choice. “Keep afloat”, even if there is no rescue coming (some
barangay officials got sour after their lists of victims were ignored
vis-a-vis a previously announced relief service coming in for actual
victims of Frank). “Keep afloat” - just that, and don’t think of God,
don’t pray to the Santo Niño, don’t ask for God’s mercy. But I and
those who strongly believe in the Holy Child and in how much the early
Taclobanons and Basaynons regarded the “Balyuan” on its own day, June
29, were left for hours during the typhoon and the flood praying hard
and harder for a rescue from Santo Niño. The prayers worked. Santo
Niño listened. No, no human being was able to drive away Frank.
Santo Niño did. All that was faith. Where science, technology and
human wisdom fail, have faith, and keep fighting for your faith.
From the Author:
Happy Santo Niño fiesta to all on June 29-30! Antonio is cordially
invited to join the Taclobanons in this joyous veneration of the
Miraculous Holy Child Jesus.
Judicial remedy for victims of torture
must be adopted too
A Statement by the
Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Day
against Torture
June 25, 2008
(June 26 is observed every year as the United Nations
International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.)
Article III, Section
12 (2) of the 1987 Philippine Constitution clearly prohibits the use
of torture. Although the country’s Constitution has long protected its
citizens against torture, any person claiming a violation of this
constitutional right has not found a legal means to seek remedies when
this right is violated. Thus, this constitutional prohibition against
torture has been a right without any legal remedy, a state of affairs
that severely dilutes this constitutional right.
While there have been
judicial remedies and relief adopted ensuring the protection of
constitutional rights – for instance, the writ of amparo on the
right to life and the writ of habeas data on privacy and
information – any sort of remedy or relief for victims alleging or
claiming that their right against torture has been violated has
remained non-existent. Not only is there no judicial remedy for a
violation of this right, torture has also not been declared a crime in
the Philippines.
Recognising a right is
obviously meaningless if people who claim that their rights have been
violated cannot obtain any legal remedy or relief. In the Philippines,
a person who claims that their rights have been violated can seek
remedies from laws, policies or judicial remedies that are adopted by
the Supreme Court. Regarding torture, however, there are no remedies
for a person alleging that their rights have been violated or their
grievances heard.
It explains why
torture victims have long been deprived of any remedy or why torture
cases cannot be prosecuted in court because there has not been any law
outlawing torture. Moreover, the Supreme Court has not yet acted to
adopt rules on judicial remedies for victims of torture, and it has
yet to acknowledge that correcting this deficiency is long overdue.
When the Supreme Court
adopted the writ of amparo and writ of habeas data in
2007 following unabated killings of social activists and challenged
the security force's practice of wrongful labelling of individuals
respectively, the constitutional rights of Filipinos to life, privacy
and information had been reaffirmed and given more meaning since they
could now petition the court to seek judicial remedies once there are
threats or a violation to their constitutional rights – remedies that
should be made available to victims of torture as quickly as possible.
In other Asian
countries, for instance,
Sri Lanka,
Article 126 of their 1978 Constitution gives their Supreme Court
authority to have "the sole and exclusive jurisdiction to hear and
determine any question relating to the infringement or imminent
infringement by executive or administrative action of any fundamental
right." Their Supreme Court accepts and hears petitions on individual
applications through the filing of a fundamental rights application by
people claiming that their constitutional rights have been violated.
The Supreme Court then determines whether or not a person’s
constitutional rights have been violated and affords victims
compensation if it is established that they have been abused.
In every case of
torture when the petition of a victim alleging torture is affirmed,
particularly by the Supreme Court, legal relief is thus provided for
torture victims from being wrongly accused and inhumanely treated by
state agents. In Sri Lanka, though the perpetrators are not criminally
held liable in a fundamental rights case, once the Supreme Court finds
that the perpetrators have tortured a victim, the victims would then
be able to receive compensation for their suffering.
To obtain compensation
and have their allegations of torture affirmed is itself a strong
condemnation of the security forces, which proves that those
responsible for protecting people's rights, i.e., the police and
military, were responsible for violating them. These are judicial
remedies that have already become possible for victims of torture in
Sri Lanka, which is yet to take place in the Philippines. In the
latter country, torture victims have been deprived, not only of
remedies, but are forced to suffer the tremendous consequences, such
as physical injuries and psychological trauma, without any remedy.
As well as
constitutional remedies or relief from the Supreme Court in Sri Lanka,
torture in this country is also a criminal offence. Thus, victims can
pursue the prosecution of perpetrators under the law, the Convention
against Torture Act of 1994, for, as a state party to the U.N.
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (CAT), Sri Lanka has enacted this domestic law
on torture, making it a crime in compliance with its obligation to do
so upon signing and ratifying the convention. Whether or not this law
is effectively implemented are issues that Sri Lankans need to
address.
While Sri Lanka has
already complied with its obligation under the convention, the
Philippines, which has signed and ratified the same U.N. convention
against torture, has not done so despite being a party to the
convention since June 1987. The proposed domestic law on torture,
which is long overdue, remains pending before the two houses of the
Philippine Congress, the Senate and House of Representatives, and
there is no indication that this proposed law will be enacted soon.
The Asian Human
Rights Commission (AHRC) therefore urges the Supreme Court of the
Philippines to urgently develop and adopt a rule which would provide
remedies for victims of torture. It likewise renews its calls upon the
Philippine Congress to enact a domestic law on torture without further
delay.
The wrath of Santo
Niño on June 20, 2008
By CHITO DELA TORRE
June
23, 2008
For the first time in
100 years, flood in
Tacloban
City
was at its highest level. This was recorded by many between four and
five o’clock last Friday afternoon. A few religious Taclobanons had
surmised that Señor Santo Niño, the Patron Saint of Tacloban City, got
angry for the change of the date of the Balyuan rites from June 29 to
June 20.
The Balyuan is a
yearly commemorative re-enactment, done every 29th of June since it
was reintroduced and revived by then First Lady Imelda Romualdez-Marcos
in 1975. It serves to remind the people of Tacloban that their city
was once only a sitio of barrio Buscada of Basey, Samar, and that the
sitio, then known as Kankabatok, (not “Tandaya” as a non-Waray
government information executive wrongly stated before a local
television camera a few months ago), borrowed the image of the Santo
Niño which was in the possession of its owner, a businessman from
Luzon who became progressive for working closely with the people of
Buscada and for revering the Santo Niño which is the patron saint of
Buscada during the barrio fiesta every January. The original icon of
Buscada’s Holy Child Jesus Christ was small, and so, to show his
gratitude to the Buscadan-ons and his imbibed and adopted faith in
their patron saint, he caused the carving of a much bigger icon.
Tacloban being a sitio of Buscada, most of whose original natives came
from Basey, its inhabitants also adopted their own Santo Niño icon as
they assigned Santo Niño as also their patron saint. Because Tacloban
became bigger and more progressive than Buscada, and Basey in a sense,
the Roman catholic brotherhood of Tacloban decided to borrow the
bigger icon in Buscada for their celebration of their fiesta.
The “borrowing” gesture was entered into the records and in the books
as mere exchange (balyuan = bal-yu-an) in 1975 and every year
thereafter.
The new version of the
borrowing, the “exchange”, made everything festive – from the change
of nice clothing of the images to the participation of local
government executives, up to the fluvial procession and installation
of the images at their respective home church altar.
The newest version,
circa 2008, had been to hold the “exchange” on June 20, instead of
June 29, the traditional date, because people in Tacloban who thought
they were nicer than the traditionalists believe a part of faith could
be moved earlier just to give way to one that is even not part of a
local tradition – a glorification of sort of Manny Pacquiao. On June
20, the typhoon was not even expected to hit Tacloban. In fact, a
weatherman speaking on a radio broadcast shortly before 12 noon last
Friday, was emphatic that while the typhoon was to land fall at late
afternoon of that day but not in Tacloban. Every ear glued to the
radio set thus believed the typhoon would spare Tacloban. The 6 a.m.
radio guide had said Friday that typhoon signal was raised to number 3
already in the city. Just right. Even at the wharf front of Basey,
wind and rain would occasionally become strong and then be gone for
long minutes but be back again with a similar strength. The
inclemency of the weather prompted the organizers of this year’s
“balyuan” to put off the fluvial procession but opted for a land
procession instead. And that was how the “balyuan” partly took place
for this year’s June 30 annual fiesta of the Taclobanons.
Señor Santo Niño
didn’t like it. He wanted His own festive day, June 29, and on the
sea. He got angry with the changes made. The organizers did not ask
for any sign from Him if He liked the changes. But obviously, Señor
Santo Niño also didn’t like Manny Pacquiao. And so He showed His
wrath. He changed the course of Frank, and put Tacloban directly on
its path, then let the typhoon hover and strike the homes of the
Taclobanons by 2:45 p.m. (3 p.m., according to others), fanning
Tacloban furiously with strongest winds (150 kilometers per hour
“only”, according to weather reports) and intermittent strong rains.
Some passenger motor cabs found it hard to go straight in their chosen
directions as the winds got harder by 3 p.m. and for the first time,
some coconut trees in the city swayed like the pliant bamboo tree –
all also for the first time.
Then the flood rose so
fast, getting higher and deeper every second. A portion of barangays
2, 5, 5-A and 8 in the city saw the floodwaters rising almost 3 feet
from the concrete roads. Even those that looked like houses on stilts
had their elevated floors sunken in the black color water. The flood
stayed for long hours, starting to subside only by 7 p.m., rather at
slow rate.
By 12 midnight, these
flooded areas noticed the flood to have receded to road surface
level. By 2 a.m.., the flood was gone, but many homes had flood waters
remaining in some parts of their houses.
A year ago, the
highest flood level recorded in these areas was only about 2.6 feet
high from the road surface.
The traditionalists
among the believers in the Holy Child Jesus Christ remarked: The
balyuan date should not be changed anymore. That’s the only way to
please Señor Santo Niño.
Perhaps they are
right.
Maybe, too, the
borrowed image should be returned. Jun Distrajo and others in Buscada
are strongly hoping so. To them, there never was an exchange.
Restlessness Response
Rev. EUTIQUIO ‘Euly’ B. BELIZAR, Jr., SThD
June 18,
2008
The skyrocketing fuel
and food prices in the
Philippines
(but especially) and throughout the world are nothing short of
alarming. I see not much disagreement on this. It’s a given and
governments (which include ours) should, at least, be credited for not
sleeping on the job. But the response from the RP government and from
ordinary Pinoys has been remarkably a seesaw between creative and
cosmetic, between promising and unfulfilled, between original and
merely tired, official line of ideas. And may I also add that such
response has also been varied but, so far, nothing is yet universally
effective or enough. One fruit of the present tree of uncertainty is
‘restlessness’ that most governments wouldn’t want to erupt into chaos
or actual wars for food, fuel, safe drinking water and other basic
necessities. (Surprise, even we the people wouldn’t want that, too.)
I live and minister in
rural Philippines, in a town that kind of pretends to be a city (it
already is, officially) but we residents know better. For one, we know
better than our local government officials are prepared to admit that
our ‘city’ woefully lacks basic services other cities simply take for
granted (I have no intention to badmouth my hometown but, rather, to
tell the truth). My point is that rural and urban Pinoys often have
different, at times contrasting, circumstances that could help or
impede our common response to this national and global crisis.
And yet I see common
challenges from this shared human crisis.
First off, the
challenge to simplicity. For instance, the rising fuel prices urge us
to cut down on unnecessary or extra trips or to go back to healthier
alternatives, such as biking or walking as means of transportation
(more ideal in rural than in urban Philippines, I admit). The rice
scarcity and price crisis also impel us to educate our children more
and more on the virtues of abstaining altogether from junk food and
soft drinks to save money for rice and/or more nutritious food, with
more emphasis on vegetables and fruits (I pray this succeeds as more
and more Pinoy kids especially in the rural areas suffer from
junk-food-related diseases, such as U.T.I., obesity etc.).
Alternatives to rice diet, such as the diverse kinds of Pinoy root
crops, may not be as popular but should be encouraged for their fiber
and other nutrients. Simplicity is beauty; it can also be healthy (to
body and spirit).
Second, the challenge
to explore solutions using local resources. I subscribe to the ancient
Chinese description of ‘crisis’ as encompassing both danger and
opportunity. It’s obvious how through the media we have been barraged
with all sorts of information on the dangers facing us from the fuel
and food crisis. But are we just as sharp on our perception of the
opportunities it brings? Some Pinoys seem to be, and thankfully so.
I’m speaking of a number of our scientists and plain citizens using
common sense who till now experiment tirelessly on the infinite
possibilities from ecologically clean and renewable sources of energy
– the sun, the wind, water, air, the sea, plants, organisms etc.
Third, the challenge
to a greater sense of community. Every crisis heightens everybody’s
survival instincts but not necessarily our humanity. Hoarding food and
fuel is quite natural as a recourse when these goods are scarce, as
they are now, but also shows how our natural instinct for survival
could make us turn inward and forget that our neighbors also have the
same needs or could help us respond to ours. Nations who help one
another out of compassion as well as individuals who discuss and
respond to their crises together have a greater chance not only to
survive but also to become more human and build a better world. In
this sense loving our neighbors as ourselves is both a definition of
community and a necessity for the survival of human civilization.
Fourth, the challenge
to spirituality. The current crisis involving food and fuel should
make us humans more acutely aware than we are now of how food and fuel
as well as everything else in this life are gifts. Gifts come from
givers, from donors. Food and fuel, even if they pass through human
hands, ultimately come from the ultimate Source whom we call God. To
miss God in whatever crisis we face is to miss the point not only in
how best to meet the crisis but also to miss the point in how best to
understand life and living. If everything is a gift, then we need to
recognize the Giver in whom “we live and move and have our being”
(Acts 17:24-25, 28). The materialism that often characterizes our
approach to life should come to see that the truth of the human and
earthly condition includes the dimension of God and that matter is
also suffused with the reality of his Spirit. Do not our scarcities in
material things tell us of how much we need to depend on their Giver?
Is not our crisis an invitation to faith? I found it intriguing how a
rural parishioner explained to me why there were more people inside
the church last Holy Week. “The crisis,” he paused, “has started to
wake us up.”
No wonder St.
Augustine prayed “Lord, our hearts are restless until they rest in
you.”
Agrarian survey to
begin now in Manlilinab
By CHITO DELA TORRE
June 8, 2008
Today, a group of
personnel from the Department of Agrarian Reform offices in Catbalogan
City and Basey, accompanied by work-oriented-and-fieldwork-conversant
administrative aide Alfredo B. Ocop of the local government unit of
Basey, will be on their first day of a long period of perimeter and
segregation surveys in Manlilinab, Basey’s farthest interior barrio in
the north whose borders meet those of the towns of Sta. Rita and
Pinabacdao in Samar province.
By tomorrow, about
half of the personnel will be helping farmers from Bagte of barrio
Mabini, right in Manlilinab, apply for lot allocation of up to 3
hectares each inside the 1,235 hectares that will be surveyed.
In a week’s time, the
group is expected to interview 411 land applicants.
As of Thursday, 46
farmers in Viga, Mabini had applied to DAR land tenure improvement (LTI)
specialists Regino “Rene” Marzol and Marco “Intoy” Matias. With this
number, already 232 farmers had been accommodated, leaving only 179
more lots open for application.
The survey crew is
expected to determine the exact area, location and boundaries of the
barrio site or the place where the people of Manlilinab have put up
their houses, pathways and other structures and where they still have
plans for expansion and development as a community belt. To be
included in the determination are the school site, the chapel, the
barangay hall, and the barrio plaza and planned road construction
projects, according to punong barangay Gonzalo S. Ragobrio.
That will be
beneficial to the whole barrio. They will soon know exactly the
borders of their barrio site. From the survey, they will then be
able to draw up their barrio map, with better accuracy, and update
their barrio profile, a document which can be consulted from time to
time by anyone wishing to help introduce improvements to Manlilinab.
The survey is also
expected to delineate and measure the perimeter distances of such
tourist spots in Manlilinab as its three waterfalls, including the
surrounding four creeks and rivers. (Part of the Salug ha Salug
river is believed by some townsfolk to teem with gold as big as the
head of a matchstick about 10 years ago but which may have grown in
size as years went by.) When work will have been through, those
who applied for lot allocation will be recommended for issuance of a
common title, known to the Republic of the Philippines as certificate
of land ownership award (CLOA), the designation for the land title
that will be registered with the Register of Deeds.
Common ownership of
the 1,237 hectares will prevail for sometime until these lands will
have been subdivided. During the period of common ownership, no
one among the 411 can claim which part of the land held in common is
his or hers. Thus it will be necessary to guide them how they
should go about with the farming of the whole land. Given the
right amount of time, the DAR personnel will be able to help the 411
prospective CLOA holders or co-owners get through with this concern.
One approach would be to first determine the exact present
cultivations which should be delineated immediately as the area
actually tilled by the prospective co-owner, provided it does not
exceed 3 hectares per prospective co-owner. The other approach,
which could also be applied next, will be to raffle off the farmlands
at 3 hectares each per prospective co-owner. From there, the
co-owners can proceed farming on their delineated farm areas.
KATUNGOD-SB-KARAPATAN
welcomes the investigations of the House Committee on Human Rights
A Press Statement by
KATUNGOD-SB-KARAPATAN
May 28, 2008
On May 29, 2008 the
House of Representatives Committee on Human Rights will be conducting
an on-site hearing here in Tacloban City. This hearing aims to
investigate cases of human rights violation in the region particularly
cases of extra-judicial killings, arrests and detentions, and other
cases of human rights violations.
This only shows that
Eastern Visayas indeed stands as among the regions that have the worse
record in terms of human rights. The Region now has 1,475 cases of
human rights violations with 108 cases of extrajudicial killings under
the presidency of Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
KATUNGOD-SB-KARAPATAN,
the regional Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights, welcomes
this investigation. This will provide us an opportunity to prove that
the spate of human rights violations is a product of a nation-wide and
systematic campaign against the legal and democratic organizations
dubbed as Oplan Bantay Laya I and II.
As part of welcoming
this investigation, we will actively participate in the conduct of
this hearing. We are facilitating the attendance of the victims and
the witnesses, including the victims' families.
We, however, appeal to
the Committee on Human Rights of the House of Representatives to delve
on the roots in the continued persistence of the Arroyo Regime of its
counter-insurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya I and II: which aims
directly at attacking the legal and progressive organizations,
leaders, and members – the civil society.
We challenge the
Committee to take the stand of the victims and prosecute the
perpetrators of human rights violations – the military; give the
families of the victims due indemnification for their loss, and to
give the victims and the witnesses’ genuine protection from further
harassment from the military.
We call on all civil
libertarians and advocates of human rights to attend and to
participate in this hearing and to register our voices in unison in
condemning the continued violations of state agents on our human
rights. Let us stand and speak as one in our continued commitment in
defending the victims of human rights violations, defending our human
rights and defending the broad number of masses.
Villa Aurora looking
for 300 has. for Jatropha
By CHITO DELA TORRE
May
5, 2008
Villa Aurora, the
mother barrio of Ugbok where some 15 armed New People’s Army members
were confronted last week by a mobile Army unit under the command of
Lt. Col. Jonathan G. Ponce of the 62nd Infantry Battalion, is now in
identifying up to at least 300 hectares of land that it could use for
its community Jatropha production project. The search for a suitable
space, preferably abandoned or idle, or otherwise not cultivated for a
long time now, actually began immediately after more than 20 Jatropha
planters from the barrio, together with their energetic punong
barangay, Marito Lancanan, and some kagawad, concluded their community
assembly on Jatropha and agrarian farmer-beneficiaries
re-identification in the afternoon of April 17 at the elementary
school in the locality.
Marito is hopeful that
until last Sunday, the barangay would be able to identify 300 has.,
with some lands probably contiguous or close to each other. Once the
total is met, the barrio council will pass a resolution that it will
send to Chairman Renato S. Velasco of Philippine National Oil
Company-Alternative Fuels Corporation (PNOC-AFC) through president
Teodorico D. Porbus of the Baktas Kabub’wason Rural Workers
Association (Baktas).
Marito is informed
that the resolution would serve as one of the strongest basis that
could facilitate the forging of a contract between Baktas and PNOC-AFC
pertaining to the massive planting of Jatropha or Tuba-Tuba in
Basey. He noted that some private agricultural lands had not been
cultivated or looked after at least by their landowners for more than
a decade now. These will be included in their project site
identification, he said, adding that he will attach a sketch to the
resolution, to indicate where in the whole map of Villa Aurora the
Jatropha production project of the barrio will be located. Through
the resolution that the barrio council will sit on, the barrio will be
asking also for financial, technical and technological assistance from
Chairman Velasco, particularly along the strategies that the Chairman
and PNOC-AFC consultant Dr. Visco discussed when they talked to the
Jatropha planters and enthusiasts of Basey during their first visit to
Basey on the occasion of the Jatropha production seminar and general
assembly of Baktas last March 8 at the Basey National High School.
The punong barangay,
who is also an active second top official of the CASA (Council of
[Agrarian] Volunteers for the Accelerated Development of Samar
Settlement Project-Basey), is happy to note that Villa Aurora tops all
50 other Basey barrios in terms of actual number of Jatropha planters,
total number of Jatropha shrubs planted, and widest area already
planted to Jatropha. Some of Villa Aurora’s planters received a
certificate of appreciation during the March 8 assembly, for having
been recognized as top planters and producers of Tuba-Tuba
planting materials that had been distributed to other barrios of Basey.
Among them is Carlito D. Porbus, younger brother of Baktas president
Dioring. Carling is elected chairman of the local management
committee (LMC) of Baktas in Villa Aurora. He holds the title of
having the most number of Jatropha planted in Basey.
At the April 17
consultative meeting in Villa Aurora, presided by Dioring and this
writer as the municipal agrarian reform officer assigned to the
SSP-Basey (particularly barrios Baloog, Cancaiyas, Manlilinab and
Villa Aurora), some of the male and female farmer-landowners expressed
their intention to also send their commitment to have their lands,
that are not planted or devoted to the production of staple food
crops, planted to Jatropha.
Clearly, the
Tuba-Tuba wave in Basey is on.
Dr. Wilmo C. Orejola
–
A great Basaynon in the U.S.A.
By CHITO D. DELA TORRE
April
28, 2008
The oftentimes
uncaring attitude of Basaynons who should have been very much aware
about their own brothers and sisters who are making good names for the
Philippines and the Filipinos other than themselves could be a
cultural oversight and faux pas. A great Basaynon could have gained
recognition about six years ago if not today. But perhaps even those
who are close to this great Samarnon prefer to be humble as not to
brag about their kin’s greatness. That may explain for the similar
failure of the other great Basaynons who are making a good fortune and
name in Tacloban City and contributing enormously to the
socio-economic growth and progress of the city that once was a mere
settlement site (“sitio”, in the old Spanish times) of Basey, their
hometown and birthplace, and yet prefer to remain behind the scene.
In the realm of this
oversight, this great Samarnon does not want to speak about himself
and his works, and what he is doing for the whole world. For many
Basaynons are just like him. They don’t brag, yet they perform even
if performing will make others deserving and noticed.
Never mind if he is a
distant relative of mine (according to the living revelations of my
departed parents) as anyway being a relative of this subject here has
nothing to do with this intrusive essay. I am referring to Wilmo C.
Orejola, a doctor, poet, book writer, and inventor.
Wilmo C. Orejola is
himself, a brilliant student since his childhood, who in his college
days, graduating as magna cum laude at the Divine Word University in
Tacloban, was already a writer interested in the realms of science and
poetry, and, further, even in the weird that science wants
demystified. In his younger days, he formed the Basey Juvenile
Community (BAJUCOM), the very first youth organization that tapped the
potentials of the youth in cultural research and advancement for Basey.
His early scholarly and professional influence muscled the young male
and female professionals, mostly unmarried then, into activities and
norms that far exceeded those previously set by the Sorority or the
Cofradia, the Adorers, and other civic organizations then active in
Basey. His PRIMERS Club, an indubitable group of professionals,
mostly public elementary school teachers who often set the dancing
norms during each benefit dance at the then circular municipal
auditorium – the biggest in all of Leyte and Samar, roofed and walled
many years later to become the municipal gym, had blazed many trails
along community and civic endeavours. Today, the Club is an object to
miss in the hearts of those who had loved to work with it. All these
occurred before Philippine President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos declared
Martial Law on September 21, 1972.
Dr. Wilmo C. Orejola
is a licensed physician, inventor and poet based in Pompton Plains,
New Jersey. Says the amazon.com: “... he completed Doctor of Medicine
and residency in Cardiac Surgery in the Philippines. In 1982, he
migrated to the United States. He is a license(d) physician and has
been awarded US patents for medical and non-medical inventions. A
distinguished member of the International Society of Poets, he
publishes poems with the National Library of Poetry. He believes that
poetry may not only be a play of quotable phrases or verses but also a
source of information.”
Dr. Orejola published,
through the Watermark Press in May 2001, a book entitled “A Mat
Weaver's Story: the Legend of Bungansakit”. Its 65-page paperback
edition costs $14.00 in the United States of America. According to
the amazon.com: “The book is a 600-verse epic poem that tells of a
unique Filipino folklore from the author's birthplace Basey, Samar in
the Philippines during the Spanish colonization of the Philippine
Islands. It is a compelling drama of human frailties, ambivalence in
beliefs and earnest search for redemption.”
“A Mat Weaver’s Story:
the Legend of Bungansakit” (docketed as ISBN-10: 0795100612 and
ISBN-13: 978-0795100611) is #3,559,670 in the sales rank of Amazon.com
among the bestsellers in books.
Dr. Orejola also
published “Ghosts of the Insurrection” (ISBN: 1412079004) through the
Trafford Publishing. The paperback book was released on July 6, 2006,
priced at 18.99 US dollars. It is a “remarkable novel about a
little-known chapter of our history – the Philippines-American War,
that lasted from 1898 to 1906. Ghosts of the Insurrection deals with
the cycle of violence in
Samar in 1902,
involving Filipino townspeople and American soldiers. Orejola has
sampled the collective memory of a population that witnessed abuses
committed by both sides – resulting in a series of the earliest and
most significant war crimes trials in US history. Orejola’s account,
steeped in folklore and evocative poetry, reveals the thinking of the
occupied people, and their own struggles with the moral implications
of guerrilla warfare. As someone with a long-standing interest in the
Philippines, I found that this book earned a place on my shelf next to
Rosca and Rizal” says a printed “Reader Reviews” which extracts this
other one book review: “a personal narrative of Philippine history,
captures the human experience of it: (A) historical event can be just
told and written thru a timeframe. (B)ut, this novel highlights a
historical event thru a narrative. It is well written and you journey
thru history together with the author. (B)y the time you come to the
end of the book, you experience the passion and imagination of the
author. (T)he author leaves a lasting impression of the event and its
significance and the historical importance of it to (the) (P)hilippines.
(I)t is a literal time travel thru history.”
The Filipino Science
Trivia wrote: “Wilmo Orejola, a Filipino surgeon, created the harmonic
scalpel, anultrasonic surgical knife that doesn't burn flesh. He has
more than a dozen medical and toy patents in the US and in the
Philippines.”
I only wished
Wilmo’s name would have been thought of at least. I couldn’t change
history afterwards. I sat with the conclusion that probably, Wilmo’s
recognition would be at another place in another time, as his
contributions did not mean anything at all to the Philippines.
