29 Years After the EDSA Revolution

Wow! I can't believe 29 years have passed since the EDSA Revolution. I still remember that week quite vividly. I was just in fourth grade then and I remember my parents explaining to me why we had to stay home and why they were so worried that my Kuya decided to go to EDSA on his birthday. There were a lot of things happening during that time and I was told that it was dangerous to go out.

During that week I learned how to ride my shiny red bike. I didn't really like the color of my bike because red symbolized Marcos and, of course, I was pro-democracy so I was hoping to get a yellow bike (I eventually did when my red bike got stolen). Back then before we had our freedom my parents were very strict with my Ate and Kuya about coming home late. "Delikado ang panahon" they would always say. We only went out during special occasions and only went to the supermarket when we needed to buy groceries (there was no such thing as malling back then). We stayed home often and family trips was limited to going to our hometown in Bicol, but we had to stop going for awhile because of the NPA.

I guess I'm in that generation that experienced Martial Law, but didn't understand it that much since I was too young then. I did experience coup d'etats during the first Aquino administration, blackouts during the Ramos administration and the disgrace that was the Estrada and Arroyo administration. We acquired the freedom we wanted and there were a lot of improvements after, but we were bogged down with bad leaders and their personal motivations.

As much as the media keeps saying that it's all bad in the Philippines, it's not (they just love to sensationalize things). We're just culturally very sensitive people and we absolutely love to rant. For me though I like to see a half-empty glass as a glass half-full rather than half-empty. As I mentioned in a previous post, things have to go through a tedious process in order to become perfect (e.g. glass goes through fire to be formed, diamonds need to be processed to look beautiful). I am sure that our country did not have an easy time to recover after the Battle of Manila and that's what we are going through currently.

Back in 2008 my Dad wrote a blog post about "Moral Discipline" and he mentioned that in 1939 President Manuel L. Quezon formed a "Moral Code Committee". President Quezon eventually issued Executive Order No. 217 (Moral Code, 1939). The code points out very sensible things we can do on our own to help in nation building.

Let's all do what we can to build our nation and I hope that by the 50th anniversary of EDSA we would have learned how to manage our freedom.  

25 Years After EDSA

Happy 25th EDSA People Power Day everyone!

How time flies! Twenty five years ago I remember helicopters flying over our house every so often. Classes were suspended so I was just home listening to/reading the news and learning how to ride a bicycle. My Kuya went to EDSA and being only ten years old I had to stay put at home. One of our assignments was to put together a scrapbook of news clippings and put reactions about it. I hope I'd be able to find it somewhere. It would be interesting to see what I had to say about what was happening back then.

Wow! So much has happened in the past twenty-five years! Mabilis nga ang buhay! The past two weeks passed like a blur. I was so busy toiling. Working on things I hope would help many people. And I hope, like my Dad, that's something I'd be able to accomplish in my lifetime. I have bottomless optimism, so abangan.

My more meaningful post about EDSA is over here.

It's also been an exhausting month for me, but I completely forgot about it when Miguel presented me this -

I had to dig around to find out what it really means and I found out from my thesismate in DLSU (who now handles their MCO) that the lanyard set was sent to "top passers" across all colleges. Awesome! Congratulations to my all-around, great-genius kid!

Remembering EDSA I, Let's Do What is Right

It took me two weeks to write this post.

Two weeks ago I was feeling really blue and my Dad visited me in my sleep. The first night he was just making funny faces to cheer me up, but I guess that didn't work too much so the next night he gave me marching orders. He drove me to a 'clubhouse' to meet with some people. On the way to the venue we were talking and he told me to write about honesty. "What about it Dad?" I asked. "Just write something about it," he replied. It was then that we reached the venue, so we got off the car. I was going to ask him more about his "assignment", but when I turned to ask him he had left and I just saw the tail end of the car.

I woke up from the dream when the phone rang. It was my Tita on the other end of the line and she just called to tell me that General Reyes had died by committing suicide. I didn't get it at first since I wasn't really following the news about the AFP issue, but I felt strange that my dream was somehow connected to current events. So I attempted to write my assignment, but it was only today that I realized what my Dad wanted me to share. It took a series of events to get my thoughts organized.

Do what is right. The opening line in the Gospel today was "You have heard that it was said, `An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'" (Matthew 5:38). Fr. Luis explained that back then when someone killed one of your relatives, the clan would retaliate by killing everyone in the killer's clan. It was Moses who started to veer things away from that by teaching that life should be about love and relationships and not about hating your enemy. And in loving your neighbor you have to do what is right and not accept what is wrong.

Do not accept what is wrong. Yesterday my Mom told me a story about my Dad which she just recently found out. Dad apparently got a number of death threats when he was still in the judiciary. He once got a note from one of the accused in a case assigned to him. The accused stated in his note that my Dad should absolve him from the crime, if not he was going to be killed. My Dad just said that the hearing would proceed and he would decide based on the evidence.

My Mom would also receive phone calls about these threats. I remember being sent off to Baguio with my brother one Christmas season because of the threats my Dad was getting. My Dad never wavered and stuck to doing what was right. He was really stubborn about it and he continued to fight for it to the end.

Accepting what is wrong is not an excuse. Accepting something because it's "the trend" or because of the notion that "everybody's doing it" when is wrong compounds it. What is wrong, however which way you look at it, will never be right even though everyone else is doing it. White is white. Black is black. It happens all the time in many different levels, but when you look at it closely, it's just very basic. Do what is right because that is part and parcel of the golden rule, "Love your neighbor".