When We Have To Make A Stand

The other day, I met my friend Cris over at Mr. Donut in one of the malls here in Naga City. She told me a story about how a mother chose the lives of thousands of people over her own child. Destiny is really fond of testing our faith once in a blue moon. Faced with such circumstance, we oftentimes choose what we believe is right morally.

One is expected to choose either of the two, never both or none at all. We are forced to choose either the left or the right way. These roads are most of the time trudged by only a few. Why of all the people in the world do I have to make this choice?

Responsibility. Is it wrong that once in your life you’d find courage to bear on your shoulders the others’ responsibility? Or is it more wrong to avoid that responsibility when you have an obligation to fulfill? Is there any difference between responsibility and obligation?

Well, as they said, once you step a single foot on a pit, you might bring your entire body into it in spite of your struggle to keep the other foot out of it. That is if you don’t know how deep that pit is. Or if they will ever let you know I should say.

Moreover, internal contradictions and personal beliefs, molded by your upbringing and faith, often come in the way. Social morality tells you it is right, but personally for you it is not moral at all. It is just justified by the saying “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” And the belief that power should be yours to attain the coveted, the much needed change.

Violence is part of our society, part of our being human. We tend to be violent even to ourselves whenever our instincts send the impulse to our mind to feel such feeling. But it is something that can be pacified, controlled. Violence to counter violence is deadly. Everything will just be in circles – unending. Somewhere, there has to be a dot, separating the infinite number of dots in a circle. Someone has to sacrifice.

Ah! I can’t think straight. I cannot decide. I cannot elaborate either. I envy a three-toed sloth. At least it doesn’t have to worry about the world even about itself. All it does is hanging upside down a tree enjoying the sky, barely moving. Meditating the sky?

Requiescat In Pace: When The Dead Are Politicized

Requiescat In Pace: When The Dead Are Politicized

November 30, 2006, our country especially the province of Albay was ravaged by the super typhoon Reming (international codename: Durian). That was barely two months after Milenyo (international codename: Xangsane), another typhoon hit us.

Its winds reached gusts of 265 kph or about 165 mph with 446 mm of rainfall, the highest amount of rain recorded in Albay since 1967 (equivalent to an average accumulated rainfall for a month), according to Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). It also claimed about 388-430 lives affected 800, 000 residents. Bicol Region incurred the greatest damage in houses with 215,510 houses destroyed and 328,592 houses partially damaged according to the National Disaster Coordinating Council's (NDCC) December 14 report on the effects of typhoon Reming.

When all of these were taking place, I was in Baguio attending the annual National Convention of YMCA Philippines with my fellow USC (University Student Council of Bicol University) officers and officers from the College-based YMCAs. Helpless, we can only watch and pray that our own families are safe and that our province will be raised hopeful from all these hopelessness. We were having breakfast when the news came, however, for our peace of mind; we weren't allowed to watch any further news.

Lahar and volcanic debris with boulders almost wiped out an entire baranggay in Legazpi City. Until now, Brgy. Padang has not fully recovered from the devastation of the typhoon, after almost 4 years after it happened. I have a firsthand account of the aftermaths of the typhoon. Transportation can go until Brgy. Arimbay Bridge only. From there one has to walk about 5.4 kilometers just to reach Sto. Domingo Bridge, the farthest the jeepneys can go from Tabaco City. Along the way, you will pass by National Highways littered by electric posts, fallen trees. Along Brgy. Padang, you will trudge on sands, boulders higher than buses, water flowing from every direction, the stench of death in the air. At that time, we still saw a hand protruding from a mound of sand just beside the remaining window of a lone wall of a once concrete house. One woman shrieked at the site. It was ghostly.

We conducted relief operations in different municipalities in the region through the efforts of the BU-USC, Kabataan Party-list and Bikol Movement for Disaster Response (BMDR).

Months after that, every time the bus passes by that place while I was on my way to the University, I kept thinking of that experience. Then an idea came to my mind that time. Why not at least create a shrine for those who died and for those who were never found?

The idea excites me. I was also a member of the University YMCA that time and we can spearhead that project. Plans are forming on my mind. We can contact friend organization abroad and get a grant - why not? Proposals are on my mind. However, sadly, I was not able to materialize that goal.

Then here comes election time. A new party-list advertising a major project of creating a similar memorial site in Brgy. Padang. Their rationale is: [Ako Bikol] has adopted baranggay Padang, Legazpi City as a memorial site to serve as a reminder not only of the tremendous losses of lives and properties as a result of the havoc wreaked by typhoon Reming in the Bicol region, but more importantly, to serve as a mute testimony of the resiliency of Bicolanos to rise above personal tragedies, to overcome fears, and to transforms weaknesses into strengths. Eventually, this site will become a major tourist attraction that will generate additional income to the locals.

I am happy that an organization had fulfilled this dream of mine. They have a gallant vision. However, I cannot help but be afraid that our beloved dead may be used for politicizing. They say that everything happens on certain times for specific reasons. They could have done these 3 years ago if they don't want to give this a color of politics. The party-list just surfaced recently, but the individual organizations/groups/companies behind it didn't. My question then now is what is their purpose?

For those who lost their lives - even those unaccounted for - I leave you a prayer.

Requiescat in pace.