MANILA: "America The Beautiful" versus "America The Beautiful" - how do you like that?! Here is the short story of the rise of the individual and the fall of the social in the United States of America. A largely untold story.

Through forwarded email has come to me the poem written by American Judge Roy Moore entitled "America The Beautiful" (I'm reprinting it in full below, as a footnote[1]). I Filipino am awed by the poet's creative expression, the originality of thought, and the courage to proclaim his belief in the Christian God despite the God Denial by Americans in their government offices and public schools.

If you're not American, or if you didn't know anyway, Katharine Lee Bates' original poem "America The Beautiful" (original published in 1895, Wikipedia), after 100 years inspired the original poem "America The Beautiful" by Judge Moore (circulating in the Internet via email since 1997, urbanlegends.about.com). Only the titles are the same; the latter is a parody of the former. Bates' poem has become an unofficial US national anthem; as for Moore's poem, I will not be surprised when someone puts it to music and it becomes a national anthem for those who, like me, see this:

There is no moral separation between Church and State.

Judge Roy Moore's story is one of a battle between Church and State, and where faith won over fact. It's a story of Law and Order - Man's Law and God's Order.

This one began when Moore was removed from office in 2003 by a federal judge when he refused the order to remove a 5,200-pound granite Ten Commandments monument that he himself envisioned, enshrined and exposed at the lobby of the Alabama Judicial Building (Dave Bohon, 07 November 2012, thenewamerican.com). The judge then became a Condemned Man for years and years.

But this loser never quit!

Late last year, Moore won back the seat he was ousted from almost a decade ago, being Chief Justice of Alabama (Kim Chandler, 09 November 2012, huffingtonpost.com). On winning, Moore promised not to return the monument because, he says, the issue was never the monument. "The true issue is whether we can acknowledge the sovereignty of almighty God over the affairs of our state and our law," Moore said. "That I will not back down from. I will always acknowledge the sovereignty of God and I think we must." Moore's poem does exactly that.

I love poetry; I love the English language; I am indebted to the Americans for bringing this language to the Philippines. Judge Moore's is simple poetry, and yet I find it beautiful. Beauty is in the eye of the beholden.

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

America the Beautiful, or so you used to be.
Land of the Pilgrims' pride; I'm glad they'll never see.

It was the Pilgrims brought by the Mayflower boat to New England who started modern America. And who were they? They were seekers of religious freedom, dissenters who escaped the unpredictable political environment in England for the relative peace of Holland from the 16th to the 17th century; later, they arranged with British investors to establish a new colony in North America (Wikipedia).

I understand there were 2 Pilgrim groups: Separatists and Puritans. The Puritans kept their membership and continued their allegiance to the Church of England; independent-minded, the Separatists did not want "the trappings, traditions and organization of a central church" (Wikipedia).

If you deny the traditions of a central church, you deny the traditions of a central moral code. Now then, I see that the seed of liberalism in America was planted about 15 centuries ago; a mighty plant grew from the tiny mustard seed and branched into the institutionalizations of the separation of Church and State, divorce, promiscuity, and lately same-sex marriage - not to mention Keynesian economics, which explains the great Wall Street "Financial Tsunami" of 2008 (ANN, 14 September 2008, cnbc.com) and whose devastation the US will never recover from.

Can America recover from the Moral Tsunami that has engulfed the land and never left?

Babies piled in dumpsters, abortion on demand,
Oh, sweet land of liberty, your house is on the sand.

The Philippines, hugely influenced by contemporary American theory and practice, is beginning to see more of those "babies piled in dumpsters" and more and more "abortion on demand" (if secretly). The reference to the "house is on the sand" is from Matthew 7: 24-29 (NRSV):

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell - and great was its fall!

Judge Moore is predicting that if America continues to be a dumbbell, great will be her downfall.

Our children wander aimlessly, poisoned by cocaine,
Choosing to indulge their lusts, when God has said abstain.

Drug abuse such as with cocaine you can read about any day in the American papers even if you are thousands of miles away, as I am. And the young ones? What Judge Roy Moore is saying is that now, encouraged by liberalism, too many of American youths are into licentious sex with no marriage in thought, or even love in sight.

From sea to shining sea, our Nation turns away
From the teaching of God's love and a need to always pray.

From the East Coast to the West Coast, America denies that it needs to observe God's love, and that is to give without reservation, and to pray without cessation. Americans, if walls stop you from praying, you have imprisoned yourselves!

So many worldly preachers tell lies about our Rock,
Saying God is going broke so they can fleece the flock.

What those preachers love to tell is that you have to offer love to God in the form of dough, because this is food for the good of His flock.

We've kept God in our temples, how callous we have grown.
When earth is but His footstool, and Heaven is His throne.

America keeps God in those man-made temples and will not allow His Commandments to disturb Man's Commandments as far as the world is concerned. America has reason that reason itself does not understand.

We've voted in a government that's rotting at the core,
Appointing Godless Judges who throw reason out the door,

For too long, American government has never been of the people, by the people, for the people. Because judges can invoke the law, they don't have to bother with the wisdom of holy traditions.

Too soft to place a killer in a well-deserved tomb,
But brave enough to kill a baby before he leaves the womb.

America invokes clemency for murderers and charity for pregnant women but no compassion for babies in the insides.

You think that God's not angry, that our land's a moral slum?
How much longer will He wait before His judgment comes?

America is complacent that there will be no modern Sodom & Gomorrah, but that's exactly what happened before it happened to the ancient Sodom & Gomorrah.

How are we to face our God, from Whom we cannot hide?
What then is left for us to do, but stem this evil tide?

If we who are His children, will humbly turn and pray;
Seek His holy face and mend our evil way:

Then God will hear from Heaven; and forgive us of our sins,
He'll heal our sickly land and those who live within.

America, what is necessary is your repentance, which is "the detestation of sin, not of sin in general nor of that which others commit, but of one's own sin" (newadvent.org). That is to say, America, you should not wait for others to declare their repentance before you declare yours.

But, America the Beautiful, If you don't - then you will see,
A sad but Holy God withdraw His hand from Thee.

What happens if America refuses to mend her ways? God will not save her from herself. As political will is taken, not given, so is religious will. God will not will that America wills herself to be well.

America, it's a do-it-yourself thing!

[1] The original poem in full:

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL
By Judge Roy Moore

America the Beautiful, or so you used to be.
Land of the Pilgrims' pride; I'm glad they'll never see.

Babies piled in dumpsters, abortion on demand,
Oh, sweet land of liberty, your house is on the sand

Our children wander aimlessly, poisoned by cocaine,
Choosing to indulge their lusts, when God has said abstain.

From sea to shining sea, our Nation turns away
From the teaching of God's love and a need to always pray.

So many worldly preachers tell lies about our Rock,
Saying God is going broke so they can fleece the flock.

We've kept God in our temples, how callous we have grown.
When earth is but His footstool, and Heaven is His throne.

We've voted in a government that's rotting at the core,
Appointing Godless Judges who throw reason out the door,

Too soft to place a killer in a well-deserved tomb,
But brave enough to kill a baby before he leaves the womb.

You think that God's not angry, that our land's a moral slum?
How much longer will He wait before His judgment comes?

How are we to face our God, from Whom we cannot hide?
What then is left for us to do, but stem this evil tide?

If we who are His children, will humbly turn and pray;
Seek His holy face and mend our evil way:

Then God will hear from Heaven; and forgive us of our sins,
He'll heal our sickly land and those who live within.

But, America the Beautiful, If you don't - then you will see,
A sad but Holy God withdraw His hand from Thee.

MANILA: Rica Peralejo is a vague memory, and now she has turned out to be a big surprise.

Last month, I read on Yahoo News the story headlined "How To Make A Relationship Stronger" about what Rica Peralejo has learned in her 3-year old marriage to Joseph Bonifacio (Chuck Smith, 09 January 2013, ph.omg.yahoo.com). Smith describes it as "one of local showbiz's most enviable relationships." Rica has been a popular TV host, an actress and a singer. How come?

Smith says, "It has helped her marriage work so well." What is it? Rica gave up her showbiz career for Joseph, wanting to "focus on being a supportive wife." They have been married since January 2010. "Being a supportive wife" sounds news to me!

Rica says:

Probably a lot of people have said that marriage is not all romance but I don't think it's been said enough that marriage is hard work. So the way that you would do well or excellent or passionately for a job, (it should be) more when you're working on your marriage (because) it takes two to tango.

So that's what Rica has been working on, her marriage. Rica has married a pastor; that is to say, husband and wife share a belief. But, as Smith sees it, Rica "believes sharing a common ground with a partner isn't enough to maintain a healthy relationship." I see it like this: If you want a relationship to last, don't treat it as a relationship. I see it beyond a healthy relationship; I see Rica isn't looking at it as merely a relationship; it's more than that - it's a partnership of equals, but with one more equal than the other, the husband more than the wife. Is the wife willing to accept that? This one is!

The wife has work to do at home, not the less with the husband. Rica says, "There are many things to learn about one another. If you're both willing to work it out, it's going to work." Nicely put, Rica!

You have to Invest Love in order to Earn Joy.

Another surprise for me: Rica is a blogger, and she has been blogging at least since January 2012. Her blog, Real Rica, is where I learn that since 19 August 2012, Rica is now a columnist for the Manila Bulletin, working under Ms Isabel de Leon, Editor of MB's Lifestyle & Travel (realrica.com). No sweat. She has in her purse a diploma for the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts, major in Creative Writing from the Ateneo de Manila University.

In fact, Rica says, if I understand her right, writing is her first love; read her "Moving Forward By Going Back To My First Love" (15 August 2012, realrica.com), where she tells the little story of how she learned that she was already an MB columnist even before she knew it. Now she has to keep up with her writing. Even as she keeps up with her marriage. She writes well, if I may say so myself.

Rica says, "I learned that you cannot do marriage apart from God." And why is that? "Two human beings are too different. You may look the same on the outside or you have a lot of common interest but that's not enough to keep it together. You need God talaga." Really.

About her column for Manila Bulletin, Rica says (realrica.com):

(It's all about) regularly writing short articles for Manila Bulletin's Lifestyle section on Sundays, tackling personal discoveries, wisdom, and generally things about life. I think the most thrilling part of my conversation with Miss Isabel was when she said, "It's like you're just blogging on us." In my heart, I was thinking, "What could be more fun than that???"

Moreover, I am just so touched that my first few published and widely circulated works, will be articles coming from much joy and my heart. I really appreciate and value the trust and creative freedom I was given by my editor.

On my part, Miss Rica, may I observe that, already, you appreciate and value the trust your husband gives you and enjoy the creative freedom of being a wife to him and, sooner or later, a mother to your children.

I just came back from reading the Wikipedia entries about you, where I learned that your full name is Rica Carla Bautista Peralejo, where I was inundated with entries on your significant roles on numerous TV guestings & dramas, your TV hosting and judging, and your controversial and adult movies with Viva, OctoArts & Canary, Regal and Star Cinema. You have been dubbed "Horror Queen" and "Scream Queen" and "Bold Queen." It must have been a busy and noisy life!

You have also been a recording artist too, with a hit single, "Fallin'." Music has charm that soothes even the busy and noisy bee.

After you got married, you came out and said, "This is the new Rica Peralejo. I can honestly say I'm new. I'm not a fixed Rica. I'm totally new" (Thea Alberto Masakayan, 10 August 2011, ph.omg.yahoo.com). I believe you.

Talking about your past showbiz life, you said:

I got hurt so much. We may look glamorous all the time but it's a hard job.

There was a time I wasn't being who I was to be anymore. I was just really lost.

I went from happy to dark, to sad, then after that I realized some things. I was able to go back to that state where I'm just happier. And then there's more grace in my life.

You found a new purpose in life. "I find it purposeful to be who I am; to have that kind of past is a very good platform for me to be able to help others."

You and your pastor husband want to reach out to the youth. You said they are our future. That's what you meant when you said, "You can also help others without entering politics."

You were born on 07 March 1981; Advanced Happy Birthday!

MANILA: If we can't defeat China in a hand-to-hand combat, let's try a metaphor!

On January 22, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said, "The Philippines had exhausted all political and diplomatic avenues for a peaceful negotiated settlement of its maritime disputes with China" over conflicting claims on the South China Sea / West Philippine Sea (ANN, 22 January 2013, guardian.co.uk). "We are all for improving our economic relations with China, but it should not be at the expense of surrendering our national sovereignty." He then handed a note to Chinese Ambassador Ma Keqing, signifying that Manila was bringing the dispute to an international tribunal, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS).

On February 19, the Chinese Ambassador returned the favor with a note that said Beijing refuses to participate in the UNCLOS arbitration (Joyce Pangco Panares, 21 February 2013, manilastandardtoday.com). "Beijing repeated its long-standing position that it has indisputable sovereignty over the entire waters and formations southeast of China encompassed by its nine-dash line claim." Goliath flexing his muscles.

About China's reaction, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said:

China's action will not interfere with the process of Arbitration initiated by the Philippines on 22 January 2013. The Arbitration will proceed under Annex VII of UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) and the five-member arbitration panel will be formed with or without China.

China is acting true to form. Raul Hernandez, DFA spokesman said, "The Philippines has been engaging China in political and diplomatic dialogues for a peaceful negotiated settlement of its maritime dispute for the past 18 years, but with no success." David negotiating with Goliath flexing his muscles.

Now, the UNCLOS arbitration will take 3-4 years. While we wait, we shall twiddle our thumb and pray that China, after refusing to participate in the very proceedings, will meekly obey the tribunal's ruling? David forgetting Goliath's challenge for a battle of champions.

Bully to you! Sticks & stones may hurt my bones, but words will never hurt me.

Just now, I have reached the conclusion that if you think China will yield to UN arbitration on the South China Sea imbroglio with its Asean neighbors, I think your thinking isnot ancient enough!

The Philippines has submitted its case to the UNCLOS; China has rejected the call for UNCLOS arbitration. The Philippines is arbitral, China is arbitrary.

Like you, I have been thinking China has been acting like a bully to Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, not to mention Japan and the United States, but yes, there is a better explanation, and it's historical. It's also Chinese in character.

In the family of nations, the quarrel over the South China Sea is a family feud. Which reminds me of feudalism. Now, according to William E Griffis, in Europe, feudalism lasted about 1,000 years; in China it lasted much longer ("The Baldwin Project: China's Story," china-holiday.com). The Chinese liked it more; their feudalism lasted from 1122 to 255 BC (mainlesson.com). Who wouldn't like to be landlord & master, the longer the better?

Now then, as feudalism is an old Chinese habit, that is exactly how to look at China's claim of territory that covers virtually the entire South China Sea (ANN, 22 January 2013, guardian.co.uk). China is the landlord & master; the Philippines, and the rest of the Asean countries are the peasants. Bow!

Given that, I'm not advocating what Chairman Mao advocated, which is a peasant revolution. For the West Philippine Sea, I'm advocating that my tiny country, the Philippines, instead do a David.

Remember the story of David and Goliath? It's true; the Bible says so. It went like this. According to The Monastery (catholickingdom.com), the Philistine and Israelite armies faced each other on opposite mountains. From the Philistines' side came down Goliath, who was 11-1/2 feet tall, and he challenged anyone from the Israelites to fight hand to hand. The loser would become the servant of the winner, and all the members of his tribe. Goliath repeated his challenge for 40 days, and nobody dared fight Big Boy. All the Israelites were afraid. Oh men of little faith!

Then David came to King Saul's camp, sent by his father Isai to bring food to his brothers Eliab, Abinabad and Samma, who were fighting with the Israelites; Isai said to inquire about the welfare of his brothers too in the battlefield. With David there, Goliath repeated his challenge, and David said, "Who is this Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" Eliab his eldest brother admonished David, who answered back, "What have I done? Is there not a reason to speak?" In other words, David was saying that if nobody else dared fight Goliath, he will. "A boy's will is the wind's will / And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts" (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).

David's words reached King Saul, and he summoned the boy, whereupon David offered to fight Goliath himself. Saul reminded him of his youth and lack of experience in battle. Goliath was a giant and David was a runt; Goliath will strangle him to death. In reply, the boy told the king how he had confronted a lion and a bear that had attacked his father's sheep, caught them and strangled them to death. David said, "The Lord who delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will also deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine."

All right then, Saul had David put on a brass helmet and a coat of mail and armed him with a sword. But as he wasn't used to the warrior stuff, David rejected them in favor of just his staff, sling and some stones. Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord go with you." When Goliath saw him, he mocked him, saying, "Am I a dog that you came to me with a staff? Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air, and to the beasts of the earth." David said, "The Lord saves not with sword and spear; for it is His battle, and He will deliver you into our hands."

Goliath didn't know what or whom he was fighting against. Goliath rushed toward David, and David swung his sling around, and let it fly. The stone struck Goliath on the forehead and stuck there; he fell, and David cut off Goliath's head with his own sword. Seeing their champion dead, the Philistines turned and ran. Oh men of nimble feet!

That's the story from the Bible, the Great Book. Now, what am I trying to say here: That the Philippines fight the modern-day Philistines by throwing The Book at them? And, since we are mostly Roman Catholic, throwing at them volumes of the Magisterium and Holy Tradition as well? No! I don't have that much faith that David had. I am a man of little faith. What I have is smaller than a mustard seed.

What I'm proposing is for the little Davids among us is to look for so many little slings & stones with which to strike Goliath all over his body, not strike dead but down, so that he will be mocked by his own tribe first, then by his extended family, the family of nations. To start, let us gather 5 smooth stones out of the brook of life. We can do it!

So, what and where are those slings & stones? Who will then cast the first stone? That's for me to say and for you to find out!

MANILA: I don't remember now how I discovered SkillPages, or who discovered it for me, but I think SkillPages is great, or a genius, or both.

For more than 3 hours this morning, Saturday, 23 February 2013, I was busy working on my SkillPages Profile, editing the original titles of the skills I'm offering the whole wide world to take advantage of - Creative Writing, Editing, Desktop Publishing, Photography, Book Producing, and Ghostwriting, as I first entered them weeks ago. Just boring titles, no images, and no other entries of any kind. This genius didn't know any better.

Today, I don't know why but I decided to revisit my SkillPages and revise my list, but I'm glad I did. A lesson here is that you have to review what you have written, to find out what you haven't. And so now they each carry an adjective in their heads:

Super Creative Writing
Best Text Editing Via Word 2010
Tops Desktop Publishing
Smart Photography
A-1 Book Production
Real Ghostwriting.

And now there are lots of entries under each of those titles. And therefore, lots of opportunities for those out there seeking to hire people with skills like mine. I'm crossing my fingers.

Above, what you're looking at are images from me, cropped by SkillPages for my editing pressure and pleasure. You will see the full banners and more of me if you visit my Profile page, Frank Hilario, at skillpages.com. But they do make nice little teasers and eye-pleasers, don't they?

On Page 1 of my Profile, you can read the list of my skills, about my work experience, my education, my connections. If you're looking for a creative writer, or an editor, or a desktop publisher, or a photographer, or a book producer, or a ghostwriter - or all of the above, you can find me there. I hope.

It must be unbelievable to find someone with all those abilities, and to think that he is self-taught in all of those! Well, I'm not surprised. I am a genius, you see; you're a genius, too, you know, but you haven't tapped into your abilities yet, while I have been tapping mine since, officially, 1975, when I joined the Forest Research Institute (FORI) and where I became the Chief Information Officer. The 1970s and 1980s were The Age Of Dinosaurs, as I like to call the giant typewriters that we used to type our popular articles, research reports, technical papers, and chapters of books with. In those days, with devices as ancient as those, you had to dig deep into your genius to be the Founder and Editor in Chief of 3 different FORI publications: Canopy (monthly newsletter), Sylvatrop (quarterly technical journal), and Habitat (quarterly color magazine).

Those days are gone now, and I'm happy to be in The Age Of The Information Superhighway, where anyone can find you travelling or stopping anywhere in the world as long as you make yourself findable - which is what SkillPages is all about. And I'm glad this is the place where I can apply the 4 Cs of Writing and describe myself rather Clearly, Concisely, Comprehensively, and Coherently.

So, you can imagine how I described my skills under each title, and what I said about my portfolio under each category. Here are the summaries:

About my Super Creative Writing, I said:

My creative writing is non-fiction, that is, in science, agriculture, government, education, entrepreneurship, environment, management, you name it. In fact, being extremely creative, and a master of Windows 8 and Office 2010, I can write on anything that you can find in the Internet - and quick as a mouse!

About my Best Text Editing Via Word 2010, I said:

With my favorite Word 2010 (or your older Word version), I can edit your article, essay, speech, or book manuscript using Track Changes and some other techniques - on any subject under the sun, including boring statistics and the incredible Bible. I edit so that what you have written becomes clearer, more concise, more comprehensive, and more coherent - and since I do not change your style (unless you want me to, or unless it's terrible), you come out still you!

About my Tops Desktop Publishing, I said:

I'm referring to practical desktop publishing that I can do for you - surprise! using mainly Word 2010. Is that possible? I can show you anytime anywhere in the world. I have so far desktop-published 7 books using this Microsoftware as a fast, efficient, interactive, flexible, and manageable desktop publishing program. The image you see is from one of the covers of the Philippine Journal of Crop Science when I was Editor in Chief - and the one doing the desktop publishing too. I worked so fast being editor and desktop publisher at the same time that I made the PJCS up-to-date in 4 years, from being late 3 years. That was a one-man-job. I can do it! And I can teach you so that you can do it yourself!

About my Smart Photography, I said:

I shoot with my 1-year-old digital Lumix FZ100 using skills that I developed in the last 35 years asking advice from many skilled photographers, and reading quite a number of books about and by master photographers - and master painters. Subsequently, I have developed a photographic style that is eclectic and adaptable to any assignment. I wake up very early morning (at 4 AM if necessary) to get good shots. You should too.

About my A-1 Book Production, I said:

Being very creative and with years of experience, I can adapt to the needs (felt or real) of a client. The subject can be anything under the sun - it's the story that counts first. If I like your story, or if I write it myself, I can produce the book for you.

About my Real Ghostwriting, I said:

I think like the would-be author - and then again, I don't think like him, because that's why he needs me in the first place. My skill in ghostwriting lies in both research and rewriting. My research is thorough; my rewriting is comprehensive, if not complete. With me, in the end, the ghost turns out to be really somebody who has a message to the world - and with that I the writer may surprise the ghost himself.

As I finalize this in the afternoon, at 1842 hours, SkillPages is reporting more than 18 million skills and still counting. If you assign 3 skills average to each SkillPages person, that gives you 6 million geniuses. And there I see a big question that this genius cannot answer:

"How in the world are those looking for the special genius they would love to hire when they have to wade through 6 million geniuses?"

Don't bother answering. At least, if you're looking for some genius with words, now you know where to find me!

MANILA: Whom have you hated lately? Remember what I said: Hate hates haters.

Pope Benedict XVI is resigning effective today, Thursday, 28 February 2013 at 8 PM, the first Pope in the last 600 years to abdicate. Some people ask, why the rush? In the rush to judgment, ANN's 3-year old sentence reflects, I think, the intellectual mood of the times (author not named, 21 March 2010, nbcnews.com):

Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday urged Catholics to refrain from judging sinners a day after he rebuked Irish bishops for their handling of a half-century of sexual abuse of minors by clergy.

In just 32 words, ANN seems to contradict herself. If you are a proper Roman Catholic, you don't judge sinners. Rebuking the Irish bishops is not judging them but judging their acts, in this case, sin of commission or omission, as the case may be; otherwise, the Pope would have dismissed them outright. Hate the sin, not the sinner.

In the New Testament, in John 8:1-11 (NRSV), there is the story of an adulterous woman whom the men brought to Jesus as they wanted to stone her to death, and Jesus said, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." (I prefer the earlier, non-politically correct version, the one I memorized, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.") No one did, and everyone went away. "Neither do I condemn you," Jesus said. Relating to the gospel, Pope Benedict said one Sunday at St Peter's Square, "While acknowledging her sin, he does not condemn her, but urges her to sin no more" (ANN as cited). "Trusting in His great mercy toward us, we humbly beg His forgiveness for our own failings, and we ask for the strength to grow in His holiness."

Instead of hating the sin, an American blogger hates the sinner, and only one sinner. Andrew Sullivan is fixated on pinning the label "Gay" at the back of Joseph Ratzinger, soon-to-be-no-longer-Pope, and is happy about it. As a Roman Catholic, I'm not happy about it, because Andrew is supposed to be a Roman Catholic; in fact, Adam Taylor calls him "perhaps the best-known Catholic blogger in America, today" (28 February 2013, finance.yahoo.com); and his tattletale proves what Nick Rizzo says, that Andrew is a "gay (and Catholic) blogger" (19 August 2010, mediaite.com). Being gay may or may not be a sin, but hating the sinner certainly is.

Andrew Sullivan is the best-known Catholic blogger in America because of his tattletale? It just proves that non-flattery can get you somewhere. In fact, Andrew started calling the Pope "gay" at least 3 years ago yet (Rizzo, as cited). Today, he says, in another vein, "The damage Benedict XVI has done to the Catholic church and the papacy may be far from over" (Andrew Sullivan, 27 February 2013, andrewsullivan.com). This is Catholic blogging!?

Who is this guy? Andrew Sullivan is "the World's Best Blogger" in the opinion of Max Read, Gawker Editor (gawker.com). I'm afraid Max has been reading too much about Andrew. Born in southern England in 1963, Andrew Sullivan is a former senior editor of the Atlantic (theatlantic.com). He has published 5 books and has been blogging since 2000. World's Best Blogger? I have been blogging since 2006 and I have uploaded about 2,000 essays of at least 1,000 words each to the American Chronicle (check it out here, americanchronicle.com), and to my blogs (visit now The Creattitudes Encyclopedia, blogspot.com). I write the alphabet, from A (as in A-1) to C (as in 4 Cs of Communication) to M (as in Microorganisms) to P (as in PageRank) to S (as in Science) to V (as in Vision) to Y (as in Yesterday) to Z (as in Zimbabwe). World's Best Blogger? Setting aside 2 million words blogged: Frank A Hilario is successful in raising fun; Andrew Sullivan is successful in raising funds. My language is simply a better renegade; Andrew Sullivan's language is simply a better rogue.

Andrew Sullivan is a champion of gays in the military and same-sex marriage. You call that Catholic? Not me. On 02 April 2012, Andrew wrote about "Christianity in Crisis" (thedailybeast.com), saying that "Christianity has been destroyed by politics, priests, and get-rich evangelists," and that the best thing is to "ignore them, and embrace Him" (Christ). This is not Catholic blogging! (The Protestants should embrace Him, I mean, Andrew Sullivan.)

So why does not Andrew Sullivan ignore Pope Benedict XVI? If he believes in Christ, why does Andrew not pray the Pope's prayer? "Trusting in His great mercy toward us, we humbly beg His forgiveness for our own failings, and we ask for the strength to grow in His holiness."

In his Crisis article, Andrew defies the Christians and deifies Thomas Jefferson and tells this little story: When Jefferson was already 77, he created a different New Testament out of the Christian Bible, cutting out by razor what to him were the "misconceptions" of the followers of Jesus, those verses "expressing unintelligibly for others what they had not understood themselves," and pasting on only "those passages he thought reflected the actual teachings of Jesus of Nazareth." This was desecrating the Bible. This is not Catholic blogging!

Jefferson's biblical act was not statesmanship either. Neither was it churchmanship. It was Jefferson who invented the phrase "wall of separation between Church and State" (Wikipedia). In 1786, his proposed "Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom" was adopted, "its goal (being) complete separation of Church and State." Now then, what was this statesman doing with the churchman's sacred text? Did Jefferson perhaps receive some revelation from someone that impelled him to his unvirtuous act?

This is not to be ignored, I mean the New Testament as revealed to us by a former American President as revealed by a blogger. Thomas Jefferson was among the Founding Fathers of the United States, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and the 3rd President of the US (Wikipedia). With divine inspiration, it was Jefferson who wrote these words into the Declaration of Independence: "All men are created equal." Jefferson also owned hundreds of slaves and was the biological father of the 6 children of one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. Such is Andrew Sullivan's hero. A sinner.

Did Andrew choose his sinner by mistake? When he was US President, Jefferson "permitted church services in executive branch buildings ... because he believed that religion was an important support for republican government" (Wikipedia). And yet, in his later years, "Jefferson refused to serve as a godparent for infants being baptized, because he did not believe in the dogma of the Trinity." If a blogger believes in a hero who does not believe in the Trinity, he may be the World's Best Blogger but he is not a Catholic.

He is entitled to his opinion, but Andrew Sullivan cannot go on masquerading as a Catholic blogger. If he keeps doing it, he is an inveterate sinner, and I cannot but hate the sin!

MANILA: We have a hero for Catholicism in the boondocks, the remote Church promoted especially for the poor, the Basic Ecclesial Community (BEC). He is Fr Acong, the Rev MsgrCiriaco Alberto Sevilla Jr of Lucena City who served in the Gumaca Diocese from 1980 to 2007. In 27 years, within the Diocese, as a parish priest within an area that covered 1,200 sq km, he built 400+ BECs; that translates to 5 BECs every 4 months! St Paul would have been proud.

More than 5 years ago, the month after he died, I wrote about Fr Akong/Acong ("Love's Martyr Of Fatima. Fr Akong & The Hidden Agenda Of The Rosary," 02 November 2007, americanchronicle.com). I had wished to write a book on him; now I have a book, composed by Fr Acong's own sister Milwida Sevilla-Reyes. Why did she compile a book on him? She writes on the Preface:

He was not without blemish, but his exceptional life, particularly his pioneering the MSK (Munting Sambayanang Kristiyano) - Basic Ecclesial Communities - in the Gumaca Diocese, shouldn't remain under a bushel.

Milwida, I think that beyond pioneering, your brother's legacy is persistence in work in promoting the remote Church for the poor. To "persist," according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is "to be obstinately repetitious, insistent, or tenacious" and "to hold firmly and steadfastly to a purpose, a state, or an undertaking despite obstacles, warnings, or setbacks." Perfect words for the perfectly tireless but not trouble-free MSK/BEC life that Fr Acong lived. Building an MSK and starting another every month, if that's not persistence, I don't know what persistence is.

He was a preacher who was a teacher, and as a writer who is a teacher I can relate to that. As a Roman Catholic priest, he taught by his homilies, which were unusually long and also unusually interesting; but he taught mostly by his example of living a humble life, also by dreaming for his parishioners and believing and helping them make those dreams come true. He also built a shrine for Our Lady of Fatima in Apad, Calauag, Quezon Province; it was almost complete when he died on 18 October 2007. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in July 2003; he underwent surgery for colon cancer in December 2005. Fr Acong promoted MSKs as if his life depended on them - and it did. Till the day he died, his was a life dedicated to the unchurched poor in the unreached areas of Calauag.

Milwida's book, published in 2008, reached me in 2013, finally! Titled Father Ciriaco Alberto Sevilla Jr - MSK Trailblazer, printed in Lucena City, compiled by her who lives in Australia, and published 5 years ago, the volume reached me today at about 1500 hours Thursday, 28 February 2013. Bad news travels fast; good news travels slowly.

Actually, the book is in 2 versions but with the same title: English and Tagalog (Filipino). The English one is 6" by 9" and the Tagalog is 8" by 10" - I like the layout of the Tagalog better, as it is more inviting to read. (Notes: The English version is mostly a translation of the Tagalog originals, but it was published first. The Tagalog version was published in 2010.)

Milwida, the question is, either version: Is it readable? I've written enough books (10 in all, 7 printed, 1 coming out shortly) and edited quite a few to come up with the answer to my own question in an hour of browsing: It is readable, although I prefer the English version. An Ilocano, English comes to me naturally; after all, I grew up on the Reader's Digest when I was in high school in my sleepy hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan.

Indeed, by all standards, including those of the Reader's Digest, it is readable - as an album of memories by a myriad of voices. Never mind that as a collection of recollections, I would have titled it a more meaningful Building Churches Of The Poor,Remembering Father Acong. As it is, the book isa compilation of text contributions from Fr Acong's superiors, colleagues, parishioners, nuclear & extended family members, and friends. It is, as it were, a portrait of Fr Acong etched on stone up a mountain, in this case his beloved church on a hill in Apad, Calauag, Quezon Province, a shrine for Our Lady of Fatima. Fr Acong, never to be forgotten. (The image is my Photoshop version of the book cover.)

In content, the book is more than a mere compilation; it is more than a testament to Father Acong as a priest, as a family member of the Sevillas, as a builder of MSKs, and as a builder of the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Calauag, Quezon. If I had the means, I would write another book to bring out and highlight Fr Acong's

personal triumph in becoming a priest where others failed
preference to remain a "mere" priest and not accept "promotions" of any kind
building & rebuilding relationships with family, friends and others
ups & downs with his Tora-Tora companion of a jeep covering 1,200 sq km
tortures & raptures in building 400+ MSKs all over the Gumaca Diocese, and
trials & troubles & triumphs in engineering the last edifice of his priesthood, his last offering to the Virgin Mary, the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Apad, Calauag, Quezon.

Indeed, as did St Paul, he had run the race; he had fought the good fight.

For now, with Milwida's book, let us remember him in kindness, as they did, some 70 of them:

Mother Butler Guild: "What we appreciated the most was his innate diligence" (page 7). Perla Luna: "He was an active, brave and holy priest. He trekked from barrio to barrio to bring the word of God to as many communities as he could. He even climbed mountains" (7).

Bishop of Gumaca Buenaventura M Famadico: Fr Acong volunteered to serve in San Andres, Quezon, "in that distant area to start a ministry focused on the formation and participation of the lay faithful in the life of the Church." (8).

Nol Tejada: He literally blazed trails with Fr Acong. "I was impressed on learning how barrio folks, when given the essential training and proper motivation, could become effective lay missionaries and MSK leaders" (11). "His opting for voluntary poverty was apparent in his lifestyle" (21).

Msgr Leandro Castro: Fr Acong "left no stone unturned to win the hearts of the people, to teach them and lead them to God" (27).

Bro Ricky Aceberas: "(Fr) Acong showed us the austere life in the way we dress and we eat - that we should be like the people we serve" (29).

Rebecca Bersabal: He was a "fearless Padre" (31).

Ramil Rey: With him he traveled the road from ignorance to knowledge of God (35).

Marissa Villasanta: "In my mind and in my heart, (he) opened my eyes to true faith and the love of God" (38).

Zandro de Leon: He became a priest because of the "persistent voice" of Fr Acong, the Lord calling "Samuel! Samuel!" (39). "I consider Fr Acong's life to be a never-ending lesson" (43).

Remy Chipongian: "It was so kind of him to volunteer to look after our children and they enjoyed his company" (45).

Ed Goleña: Because of Fr Acong, "I'm a more confident reader and prayer leader now" (46).

Belen T Mendoza: "I sensed his unfailing faith and his passion for the MSKs and the church he was building in Apad" (47). Celso Satira: "Thanks to him, I learned to read the Bible" (47).`

Bro Boy Malabuyoc: They were partners in building the shrine in Apad (48). "I'm grateful to (Fr) Acong for giving me the confidence to be a lector. Before I met him, I seldom went to church" (49).

Gemma Bañares: He was father to her and other members of the Lay Apostolate Missionaries of the Poor (52).

Seminarian Ruel Peñaflorida: He had a summer apostolate with him. "(Fr) Acong had a true love and devotion to Jesus and the Blessed Mother. I was impressed that he set aside many hours to commune with God" (55).

Gloria Allarey: "He was very good at motivating people" (56). Nilda E Acuña, his teacher in Grade School: "Ciriaco was an intelligent boy who carried out all tasks well" (56).

Norman Capisonda: He helped him decide what to do with his life - become a priest (57).

Bro Dick Barilla: "So charitable. He shared his knowledge and helped many, financially" (59).

Michael Valencia and others: "We were like one family, who had a father who cared for us, gave support and guidance, but showed displeasure when we did something wrong" (61).

Ron Aquino: He lived with him and treasured those 2 years, and was inspired to become a priest (63).

Mylene Argao: "(He) was always with the barrio folks" (65). Tessie Lamar: "When he was already sick, he was a speaker in one of the 12-Saturday training for MSK workers. He shared many beautiful MSK experiences" (65).

Carmel S Reyes: "These (MSK) activities signal more than difficulties to overcome with extra effort. They were and are a sign of purpose, a sign of interdependence. They are signs of empowerment and communion. ¶ My perplexity is now well-rested. ¶ I see the MSK as an integral Faith movement in remote areas. ¶ I now have a better understanding of the holistic mission (he) had undertaken. ¶ This book is a testament to the value of MSKs and (his) work. While it symbolizes a grand celebration, it is only a small indicator - a symptom - of an infectious development that he brought about. Mobilized. Regardless of distance" (68).

Amor Pacaña: "I missed out on the opportunity to be (his) parishioner" (69).

Fr Christopher Parraba: "As an alter server staying with (Fr) Acong at the Buenavista presbytery, I saw the unique value of the MSK. … "Through the MSK, the teaching of the Faith could come easier" (70).

Milyang Aquino: "Thanks to (him), our whole family has been at the service of the Lord since then" (73).

(The pages between pages 75 and 156 are "His Own Words" and will have to wait for my attention some other time. However, I quote from the inserts.)

Luz C Obmina: "I was impressed with how he relocated the San Andres Church from the bottom of the hill to the top" (111).

Msgr Atilano Oracion: "Acong was most faithful to his priesthood. He was a man for others" (117). Elsie Luzavia, now a member of the Third Order of Carmel: "I was always rapt listening to (his) homilies. He had a knack for incorporating the Word of God in our everyday life" (117). (A great talent indeed - FAH.)

Dr Miriam Bayaua: "As a friend I could go to him for advice anytime." "He always had his parishioners foremost in his heart" (128).

Maribel Lopez: "I thought (his) goodness stemmed from his being a priest. But I could see he was a good person even if he (didn't happen to be) a priest" (133).

Lorna Llave Yson: "I read (his) last homily and I am deeply touched. He really had a great faith and he was a true shepherd. ¶ Once I expressed to my husband my curiosity on why he remained a parish priest and didn't get 'promoted.' Pol said that unlike others who are career priests, (he) was a hands-on priest" (140).

Bishop Emeritus Ruben T Profugo: "I praise and thank the Lord for the gift of having him for a brother and friend" (160).

Joe Jara: "In your priestly journey, you remained fully human just like every one of us. Never in our ties together, with or without our classmates, did you show a holier-than-thou attitude nor moralize at every turn" (162).

Flor Liza Jara-Obana: He would advise: "Magdasal ka, Flor. Magpasalamat at magpatawad." Pray, Flor. Give thanks and give forgiveness (166).

Consor Malabuyoc: "Many of the Apad menfolk learned to pray the Rosary from him. Many of them have been enlightened" (167).

Fr Heraclio Fleta: Fr Acong saved him from drowning at the Iyam River in Lucena City. "He travelled by bus (in the US) instead of the plane, saying that that was the best way to see the country" (168). (In the late 1880s, Jose Rizal traveled the US by train, the better to study the country - FAH.)

Mely R Marin: He made her, his teacher, believe she could help in the education of seminarians - and she did (171).

April Reyes: "The memory I treasure is that of witnessing the simple and humble life that (he) led and seeing for myself how well he interacted with the people in the communities where he served" (172).

Bishop Teodoro Bacani: "Acong was intelligent but was not the academic type. He was more active, had a more practical bent and was very good at making things with his hands." He was "a selfless and tireless BEC worker" (173).

Fr CG Arevalo, his adviser: "He would remember years later, that with me as mentor he wrote a paper, "The Church of the Poor. It expressed a theme and concern, which even in his seminary days was already a true preoccupation with him. … It was to become the focus of his priestly ministry, especially in spreading the MSK among people who were baptized but whose concrete day-to-day as communities had very little, if any, deeper influence of Gospel and Church" (175).

Fr Vic Aller: He was "a man of vision with an exceptional sense of mission" (180).

Dr Cesar Sia: He was "a true missionary priest in distant, isolated places" (181).

Norma Chionglo-Sia, Fr Acong's catechism classes were "so interesting and the Christian values were explained with such lucidity, intensity and relevance that no one (was ever absent)" (183).

Necy V Dimasuay: "Fr Acong was creative" and that "he never tired of teaching me and others in the office handy hints that were useful in and around the house and in the office," that "nothing was wasted with this Padre" (185).

Levi: "I wasn't at all surprised that he chose to serve the poor and the downtrodden in the Bondoc Peninsula" (187).

Nanding Habito: "(He) made a difference in many people's lives particularly in those who live in the far-flung areas of southern Quezon" (188).

Nestor Pestelos: Fr Acong saved him from harm and helped him emerge from the underground (189).

Adoracion Alvero: "With his inherent love for the poor and with his simple, humble and detached way of living: He was not fazed by his next assignment: San Andres, a poor, far-flung underdeveloped town in the 70s" (192).

Yollie Gamboa: "My memories of him are of happier times" (193).

Rem & Kits Torres: Fr Acong "felt the great need for spiritual formation among his parishioners that he alone could not provide," that "he needed outside assistance" and that "our offer to hold ME Weekends was an answer to his prayers" (195).

Laarni Reyes: After she had just picked up a $20 note on the ground, Fr Acong "with a big grin" took it out of her hand and put it into his wallet. "He probably felt that I didn't need it anyway and I know that I wouldn't have spent it on anything important" (199).

Josefina Apondar: "When I received the news that he had passed away, I nearly lost my mind. I began questioning God again, something that (he) taught me not to do" (203).

Remy (sister): "(He) was devoted to St Therese" (205). Leonor (sister): "Fr Acong and I were kindred spirits" (205).

Ebeng/Juliet (sister): (He) was one who always wanted to make most of everything, especially his time" (207).

Guadi (sister): "His leadership potential came to the fore when in our final year in high school (sister): He ran for President of the QPHS Student Government and won" (208).

Nora (sister): He was "a handyman, fixing whatever needed repair" (210).

Mil (sister): When a nun asked him, "So, will your sister be joining a religious order too?" he replied, "No, as a teacher she has her own apostolate" (212). Erning (brother): There was "some big brother mentoring" (212).

Maria: "You are a priest - a priest forever. Thank for your perseverance to remain faithful to God's call" (214).

Fr Niño de Leon, the night before his ordination, Fr Acong told him: "Niño, the priesthood is not yours alone. It is a gift from God. He called you so that you can help Him bring people to Him" (217).

FrChristopher Parraba: Fr Acong "considered the MSK as the answer to some of the problems of the Church in the Philippines where many are baptized but ignorant of their Faith - baptized but not evangelized" (221).

Bro Boning Ong: "(He) taught by example. He gave value to each person" (224).

Loida Estravo: "(He) was like a father to us. He corrected our mistakes but at times he did it too harshly and sometimes, with other people around. … However, that wasn't for long as he would apologize soon after and the many kindnesses he showed us made up for it" (225).

Luningning Dacer: He was "The Good Shepherd of the Lord" (226). "1990. That was when I experienced a special bond with Fr Acong. I was about to go through an unexpected, unplanned wedding. I admired his concern, broadmindedness and humility when he learned about it" (227). On his deathbed, he told her: "I did ask for a long life - but for a long life that is worthwhile. If I couldn't be of help to others, what use is a hundred years!" (235).

Borrowing from Fr Acong, to all I say:

More than just remember, we should be of help to others.

MANILA: Some emails are enlightening; some are frightening; in this case we have both. Here is Rizal resurrected; here is Rizal contradicting himself!

This morning I received email with attachments from a friend, and this is what I'm going to tell you about this time. I thoroughly enjoyed writing this one, because it's about the Tagalog language and my favorite hero and my new non-hero. So as not to embarrass anyone directly, I am going to use only the initials of the fellows involved (excluding my friend the email sender).

Apparently, IPG has made it his lifelong task to proselytize the Filipinos about Tagalog. He's all over the Internet! This is from his recent email (with little editing by me):

Minamahal na Mga Kababayan at Kapatid sa Lahi: (My translation: Beloved Countrymen and Brothers of the Race)

Sa paniwalaan ninyo o hinde, ang sadyang ugat ng KAHIRAPAN sa Ating Inang Bayan ay ganito: (Believe it or not, the root cause of the poverty of our Mother Country is this)

All ARGUMENTS circulating in our e-mails give valid reasons and illustrate Convincing Means on How to SOLVE POVERTY IN THE PHILIPPINES. However, a very basic flaw in the understanding by many of our thinkers can be simply stated, as:

Inadvertent DISREGARD Of the Intelligence Bequeathed to our race by our own national hero - Jose Rizal - which he simply stated, thus:

"Any nation which uses a foreign language is an accursed race on the face of the earth."

Which simply means that for as long as our government processes and the system of education are conducted in an alien / borrowed language, our country and people will remain pitifully mired in the bog of a DAMAGED CULTURE!

RA 7041 which was enacted during President Corazon Aquino's leadership at the instance of PAMANA (Ka Pule2's Group) in the Office of the President, and which served as the basis of the present KOMISYON NG WIKANG FILIPINO, has not been really and substantially implemented!

Even the HISTORIC Memorandum of President Marcos to his Cabinet, particularly to the Minister of Education and Culture, dated 17 January 1986 ... "to create the conditions in your respective ministries and other instrumentalities of the Government for the optimal promotion and development of Filipino as a national language" was torpedoed - one month and eight days after its issuance - by the US Marines, c/o the CIA, with the EDSA One uprising as "cover."

Let our nation's leaders - nay! ALL OF US - hearken to our hero's strident admonition and call, even BEYOND HIS GRAVE:

"Uno y otro olvidais que mientras un pueblo conserva su idioma conserva la prenda de un libertad, como el hombre su independencia mientras conserva su manera de pensar. El idioma es el pensamiento de los pueblos... Xxx." - Simoun

"Nalilimutan ng isa't isa sa inyo na samantalang ang isang baya'y nag-iingat ng kanyang wika, ay angkin niya ang sagisag ng kanyang kalayaan, katulad rin naman ng pag-aangkin ng tao sa kanyang pagsasarili habang iniingatan ang sariling pagkukuro. Ang wika'y siyang diwa ng mga bayan. Xxx." - Salin ni Maria Odullo de Guzman.

"One and all you forget that while a people preserves its language, it preserves the marks of its liberty, as a man preserves his independence while he holds to his own way of thinking. Language is the thought of the people... Xxx." - Translation by Charles B. Derbyshire

Need we say more?!

FAH: The quote, in Spanish, followed by translations, is from Jose Rizal's novel El Filibusterismo, Simoun speaking.

ECK's reply is this:

Your statement that our poverty is mainly due to the "damaged culture" resulting from the adoption of the English language as one of our national languages is an oversimplification. While there are two other official national languages for conduct of government business, namely the Wikang Pambansa (WP-based primarily on the Tagalog dialect) and Spanish, English has developed as the "lingua franca" of the people, because it is widely understood and spoken. The different groups of our indigenous people are most facile in the use of written and spoken of English than the WP and Spanish. Our gifted writers in English have produced a body of literature that is viable, permanent, and the envy of English-speaking peoples around the globe.

The world has seen the English language as the most convenient mode of communication among the different peoples and cultures. That our people are well-versed in the use of both written and spoken English is actually a blessing, and the Filipinos now have the reputation of being adept in that language for business, cultural and personal exchanges. That fact is definitely an advantage, and has seen foreign business establishments come to our land to conduct business. The call centers of our country are booming, topping India, which previously was the locus for call centers. Reason is that Filipinos speak better English than the Indians. This is a source of good jobs for our people.

The root of poverty in our country has many causes, the primary one being our high birth rate. Our nation has one of the highest birth rates in the world and that means more people to feed and to secure jobs for, as the years roll by. The economy cannot provide for the phenomenal population expansion, in terms of jobs. Hence, our work force has to go abroad to look for jobs, resulting in the Philippine Diaspora, which has been conservatively estimated to be between 15-20 million. The bright picture of this overseas labor force is that it continues to send back money to support relatives back home, estimated to be about $10 Billion yearly, sustaining the national economy even in times of depression.

The quotation you attributed to our national hero, Dr Jose P. Rizal, about "an accursed race" was written at another time and circumstance. The world has contracted since his time due to modern modes of communication and media resources, unknown during his time. The adoption of English as one of our national languages is now a favorable factor for national development and progress, contrary to your thesis, and will favor our progress in the days ahead. Bear the fact that our WP does not have the equivalences in scientific terms, hence that is its inherent deficiency. To adopt the WP as the sole language for our land would be unwise due to the inadequacy of WP in the wide ranges of scientific expression.

Yes, as a nation, we have inherent intelligence, which has been developed by our educational system. Our people have a great gift of knowledge acquisition, and our yearning for knowledge is well known the world over. In that sense, one of our greatest resources is our human population. And patriotism can still be instilled in our people when we use the English language. The British are patriotic in their language, English. The Americans are as patriotic by using the English language. We can teach our children our rich history of patriotism and nationalism in the English language just as well. The mode and content of learning are the important roles in any culture; the medium is secondary. Fortunately, the English language is versatile in all phases of expression.

To say that our adoption of a foreign language, English, is the root cause of our poverty is simplistic, false, and not rooted in reality. We should continue and intensify development of the English medium in our country, because that will lead to further economic and literary benefits for our entire people.

And here are some of IPG's counter-reply point by point (the rest I will not dignify by quoting them because they are merely rants); those of ECK are in italics, IPG in underline (both with little editing); with my translation also in italics:

ECK: Your statement that our poverty is mainly due to the "damaged culture" resulting from the adoption of the English language as one of our national languages is an oversimplification.

IPG: Anong bahagdan (percentage) sa palagay ninyo ang talagang dumudunong sa English? Maraming nalalaglag sa pag-aaral (school dropouts); at konting bahagi lamang ang dumurunong!My translation: What percentage do you think are those who are becoming more educated in English? There are many school dropouts, and there are only a few who are educated!

FAH: IPG, since the Filipinos are not well-educated as you claim, and since the nationalists have been in fact trying to educate us in Tagalog since the time of Manuel Luis Quezon, and since we have many school dropouts, shouldn't we blame Tagalog instead?

ECK: The different groups of our indigenous people are most facile in the use of written and spoken English than the WP and Spanish. Our gifted writers in English have produced a body of literature that is viable, permanent, and the envy of English-speaking peoples around the globe.

IPG: Iyan lamang po ang inyong akala; malayo po sa katotohanan. Kokonti lamang po ang GIFTED! Ang napakalaking bahagi ng ating mga kalahi ay mangmang SA SARILING BAYAN. Translation: That's only what you think; it is far from the truth. There are only a few who are GIFTED! The greater portion of our people are ignoramuses IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY.

FAH: Your opinion or mine? In his reply, IPG says what ECK says is just his opinion - which is the opinion of IPG! More: IPG replies as if he is the authority on this one. My retort to IPG: If as you claim there are more Filipinos who are ignoramuses, we must blame Tagalog (Filipino) because that's what the government has been insisting as the National Language and taught in schools in all these decades! Since the time of your beloved Manuel Luis Quezon, in case you forgot.

ECK: The world has seen the English language as the most convenient mode of communication among the different peoples and cultures.

IPG: Hindi po tumpak iyan; tayo lamang sa Pinas ang ganyan ang akala. Sa Tsina po baga, sa Japan, sa Taiwan, Indonesia, India, Korea (North & South), sa Vietnam, atbp. ay Ingles ang sinasalita?Translation: Sir, that is not correct; only we in the Philippines believe that. In China, in Japan, in Taiwan, Indonesia, India, Korea (North & South), in Vietnam etc, is English being spoken?

FAH: IPG's reply is a non-sequitur; it does not necessarily follow that in countries where English is not the native language, they don't understand English. The point is that English is the most convenient medium of communication the world over, period. Well, if IPG is not conversant in English, then it's not a convenient medium for him.

ECK: That our people are well-versed in the use of both written and spoken English is actually a blessing, and the Filipinos now have the reputation of being adept in that language for business, cultural and personal exchanges. That fact is definitely an advantage, and has seen foreign business establishments come to our land to conduct business.

IPG: Anong percentage po kaya ng ating population ang well-versed sa Ingles? Milyun-milyun ang tulala! Ang kinalabasan ng ating pambansang populasyon ay CONSUMERS; KASI'Y ANG BANSA NATIN AY NAGING MARKET PRESERVE NG USA! Translation: What percentage of the population do you think are well-versed in English? Millions are dumbfounded! What our population has turned out to be is CONSUMERS; because our country has become the market preserve of the USA!

FAH: IPG ignores the point made by ECK about our people being well-versed in English and insist on looking at those who are not. Well, okay, IPG, do you know why millions of Filipinos as you claim are dumbfounded (tulala o tanga?) when it comes to the English language? Because of the insistence of Manuel Luis Quezon and his cronies that we speak Tagalog as the National Language! Even my alma mater the University of the Philippines teaches in Tagalog those subjects that it should be teaching in English.

FAH: IPG's point that we Filipinos have become the market preserve of the USA is not correct - the ones who barely speak English have become so, and who are they? The Chinese in mainland China. Not to mention the Indians, who speak British English.

ECK: The call centers of our country are booming, topping India, which previously was the locus for call centers. Reason is that Filipinos speak better English than the Indians. This is a source of good jobs for our people.

IPG: We simply feed the gluttony of alien commerce in our land!

FAH: IPG, when we engage in commerce and it is in English, that is gluttony? When we engage in commerce in Tagalog and we make millions at the expense of other Filipinos, that is not gluttony?

ECK: Bear in mind the fact that our WP does not have the equivalences in scientific terms, hence that is its inherent deficiency.

IPG: Our former Institute of National Language had assiduously developed scientific equivalents in our language; but the program was systematically neglected: first by the plane crash of President Ramon Magsaysay …Succeeding events are too lengthy to enumerate!

FAH: IPG, wake up! You're thinking like old Jose Villa Panganiban. Your National Language will never be able to develop scientific equivalents of English terms - science is not in the vocabulary of the Tagalogs, nor the Ilocanos like me. We don't have a scientific culture, so to progress as a country, all we can do is import it lock, stock and barrel.

ECK: To adopt the Wikang Pambansa (WP) as the sole language for our land would be unwise due to the inadequacy of WP in the wide ranges of scientific expression.It's our national leaders' neglect which hampered the development of our WP.

IPG: Quezon's Language Week has been just like floating a toy WP paper boat on the English stream, which became lost before reaching the ocean! FVR's Proclamation No. 1041 for a National Language Month of August is just like the curse of Sisyphus who was punished by Zeus to repeatedly roll up a boulder to the top of the mountain. which, when he gets exhausted, rolls back again and again to the plains, until eternity! A language-month and eleven months of neglect has stunted the growth and development of our language!

FAH: IPG, the law that mandates Filipino (Tagalog) as the National Language has not been outlawed (it should be), so what are you saying months of neglect? Despite the law in its favor, the growth and development of Tagalog has been stunted by the neglect of the Tagalogs themselves. But I suspect that it is more this: Tagalog is incapable of growing and developing into a real national, much less an international language.

ECK: Yes, as a nation, we have inherent intelligence, which has been developed by our educational system. Our people have a great gift of knowledge acquisition, and our yearning for knowledge is well known the world over. In that sense, one of our greatest resources is our human population. And patriotism can still be instilled in our people when we use the English language.

IPG: The Filipinos having been thoroughly brainwashed by the Thomasites have become unpatriotic! And Rizal called them "renegades"!

FAH: Tagalog is the National Language of the Philippines, IPG, and if most of us have become unpatriotic, we must blame it on Tagalog, mustn't we? And why didn't Rizal write in Tagalog, tell me?

ECK: We can teach our children our rich history of patriotism and nationalism in the English language just as well.

IPG: Our future hopes of the Motherland would do better in our native language(s); if they are not being systematically neglected or destroyed.

FAH: Don't blame English, IPG. We have had about 80 years of Tagalog as the National Language and you are still complaining about patriotism and nationalism? You must blame it on Tagalog!

ECK: To say that our adoption of a foreign language, English, is the root cause of our poverty is simplistic, false, and not rooted in reality.

IPG: Our present states of national under-development - culturally and economically - are the true indications of our government's past errors.

FAH: Our present state of underdevelopment is the true indication of our government's past error in declaring Tagalog as the National Language.

ECK: We should continue and intensify development of the English medium in our country, because that will lead to further economic and literary benefits for our entire people.

IPG: On the contrary, only the OFWs will be able to help in the survival of their kindred!

FAH: Don't forget, IPG, that Tagalog is the current National Language of the Philippines. If only the OFWs who must speak English are able to survive and their families, then we should blame the local failure of survival of the Filipinos who are forced to speak Tagalog, shouldn't we?

Related to all that, someone blogged IPG's "English is the bane of RP's socio-economic and cultural life" (14 February 2012, La Solidaridad, laonlaan.blogspot.com),[1] where IPG emphasized the following 3 points:

(1) In the 7th chapter of the novel El Filibusterismo, our hero counseled thru Simoun: "Any nation which uses a borrowed language is an accursed race on the face of the earth." "Ang alinmang bansang hiram ang salita ay lahing walang palad sa balat ng lupa."

(2) Sa kanyang "Liham sa Mga Kababaihan ng Malolos" ay tinutulan din ni Rizal ang kanilang petisyon sa mga namamahalang Espanyol na ituro ang salitang Kastila sa mga paaralan. Translation: In his letter to the young girls of Malolos, Rizal also objected to the teaching of Spanish in school.

(3) Nung musmos pa siya ay sinulat niya ang tula: Sa Aking Mga Kababata at doon ay sinabing: "Ang hindi magmahal sa sariling wika ay mahigit sa hayop at malansang isda."Translation: When he was still a child, he wrote the poem "Sa Aking Mga Kababata" and said, "Those who do not love their own language are worse than smelly fish."

My counterpoints to IPG's powerpoints:

(1) "Any nation which uses a borrowed language" - That was Simoun speaking, not Rizal, in fiction. What did Rizal do in real life? He wrote in German (to his soul brother Ferdinand Blumentritt) and Spanish (to the intelligentsia in the Philippines and in Europe). Don't forget, IPG, Rizal's masterworks Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo were both written in Spanish! His articles in La Solidaridad were all in Spanish. He wasn't contradicting himself. That was proper and correct - you communicate in the language of your target reader, not the language that your politicians or nationalists say you must use.

(2) No, IPG, Rizal did not object to the teaching of Spanish in schools in that letter! Please never forget to go to the Internet and check your facts before you open your big mouse. For one, that letter had no title. In fact, Rizal wanted those young girls to learn and teach others. Those girls were going to study Spanish and he knew that, and that's why he wrote that letter to commend them!

(3) If IPG is correct in his analysis, since Rizal never wrote in Tagalog (except a few lines, like his letter to the young girls of Malolos), this national hero was worse than a smelly fish? No! It is IPG's analysis that is worse than a smelly fish. By the way, the original title is "Sa Aking Mga Kabata," not "Kababata." Actually, that oft-quoted line about "malansang isda" is not the main message of that poem. Years ago, I translated that poem into "To Kids Of My Own Time" (in English of course), and noted that the poem was actually about freedom. If you want to know more of what I have to say about that poem and Rizal, see my "A Dangerous Peace. Being About Rizal" (19 June 2007, americanchronicle.com). IPG, Rizal was Tagalog but not Tagalista.

A rabid nationalist is what IPG is; that's what all the above tells me, after all these years. Some people change; some people don't. From all indications, now that he is nearing 90, I think that when his time comes, he will go rabid.

[1]By the way, the correct alias of Jose Rizal writing in La Solidaridad was Laon Laang (Old Only), not Laong Laan (Old Ready).

MANILA: Here are two of my predictions, and they both concern the Catholic Church. First, a new Pope is coming, and his name commences with the letter C. Second, a Catholic Vote is coming, and it will coagulate this coming elections. There will be a new Pope as a new voice in the world as there will be a new voice of the Catholics in the Philippines. The first needs no further explanation; the second needs further elaboration, because history is against it.

Thanks to Bishop Vicente Navarra and the Bacolod Diocese, a Catholic Vote is assured in the elections of May 2013. Thank God, the Comelec is literal-minded; it knows only the letter of the Law, and so it has made a tarpaulin an issue of national importance, all because it is unable to read the sign of the times:

"Conscience Vote: Team Buhay / Team Patay."

The Tarp of Bacolod is the tarpaulin on the façade of a church in the City of Bacolod that is a story of faith asking for works. Very Roman Catholic. Faith without works is dead! The tarp is saying it is incumbent on the Catholics to vote according to the dictates of their conscience, and this time that conscience is aided by the portent of things to come: "Team Buhay / Team Patay." This time it is a matter of life and death.

A Roman Catholic, I am even now recommending that the Diocese of Bacolod be given the 2013 Catholic Mass Media Award for their "Team Buhay / Team Patay" awareness campaign via a 6' x 10' tarpaulin. It has utter significance: Choose Life, or Choose Death. Even the tarp measurements have meanings: If you are six feet below the ground, you're dead; if you feel like ten feet tall, you're alive, you're feeling great! Even the colors have implications: What's the color of life? Red. Buhay! What's the color of death? Black. Patay! Even the positions have import: Team Buhay at the top of the heap, Team Patay at the bottom.

I also look at the Tarp of Bacolod as a call for a miracle. You see, the Bacolod church is actually called the San Sebastian Cathedral and, you know what? San Sebastian was a soldier, Christian and miracle worker; among other things, he prayed for and restored the sight of a blind girl (Wikipedia). This time, San Sebastian will make the eyes of blind Catholics see what they have to do: Campaign for candidates who stand for Life and campaign against candidates who stand for Death.

I understand that the Tarp of Bacolod did not come as a spur of the moment; it was an initiative of lay people in Bacolod, according to Fr Ronaldo Quijano, the diocesan Family & Life Director in that City (Nirv'ana Ella Delacruz, 01 March 2013, cbcpnews.com). He told the story behind the sign of the times during the 4th Episcopal Commission on Family & Life National Conference last Wednesday in Antipolo City. The Tarp of Bacolod actually started when the RH Law, RA 10354, was signed by President Noynoy Aquino. In Bacolod, there were pastoral letters read during the Advent season, on the 24th and 31st of December 2012. Then came wave after wave of seminar-workshops on Catholic teachings on life, human sexuality, and marriage. "The passage of RA 10354 seemed to symbolize a clear demarcation line between pre- and post-RH fervor among Catholics in Bacolod that is re-energizing the Church," Fr Quijano said.

The seminar discussed the reasons behind the Church's opposition to the RH Law. The first batch who attended, whom Bishop Navarra himself called for, included priests, seminarians, and other members of the religious. Teachers followed, liturgical ministers, acolytes, mass collectors, and choir members. Then members of the Bacolod media, doctors and nurses too. Eventually, the seminars attracted the lay associations and the grassroots through the Basic Ecclesial Communities (churches of the poor).

It was also during that time that the diocese decided to put up big red flags in the premises of all churches, signifying the collective Catholic protest against the Law. Today, the Tarp of Bacolod continues that protest.

I'm now imagining the emergence of the Red & Black Mindset as contrasted to the Yellow Ribbon Mentality of those who idolize the Aquinos, from Ninoy to Cory to Noynoy. This coming elections is not a battle between Team Pinoy and Team UNA:

It is a battle between those who wish to spend billions to stop pregnancies instead of spending those billions to stop poverty.

On one hand, Fr Melvin Castro, Executive Director of the Episcopal Commission on Family & Life of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said the Archdiocese of Lipa City and the Dioceses of Tarlac, Borongan and Sorsogon were planning to follow the example of the Diocese of Bacolod in the matter of the tarp (ANN, 27 February 2013, sunstar.com.ph). On the other hand, the Dioceses of San Carlos and Kabankalan in Negros Occidental were not planning to put up tarps similar to that of the Bacolod Diocese (Gilbert Bayoran, 05 March 2013, rappler.com). Social Action Director of San Carlos Fr Jaime Laude said they would not duplicate what Bacolod did because, "We don't want to put some titles as Team Patay or Team Buhay." Kabankalan Social Action Director Fr Eryl Agus said that they will not order their priests to emulate the Bacolod example but instead "empower them, including lay leaders, to educate the people about the RH Law."

I understand that Fr Jaime and Fr Eryl are doing so because they don't want to practice name-calling on those who voted for the RH Bill to become Law. Your Reverends, there is no reason to respect those who have no respect for life. The RH Law does not respect the life of the unborn, and you're talking of delicadeza?!

All the dioceses throughout the archipelago should put up their Team Buhay / Team Patay tarps on the façade of their cathedrals and churches. This tarp will educate the people about the RH Law, and empower the Catholics to do what is right on Election Day: Check those who belong to the Team of Life and Chuck those who belong to the Team of Death!

Indeed, I urge all the Philippine Dioceses to applaud the Tarp of Bacolod; imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

[Anti-RH] Team Buhay 1. JV Estrada. 2. Gregorio Honasan. 3. Mitos Magsaysay. 4. Koko Pimentel. 5. Antonio Trillanes. 6. Cynthia Villar. Party List 1. Buhay. 2. Ang Pamilya.

[Pro-RH] Team Patay 1. Jose Edgardo Angara. 2. Teddy Casiño. 3. Alan Peter Cayetano. 4. Jackie Enrile. 5. Francis Escudero. 6. Risa Hontiveros. 7. Loren Legarda. Party List 1. Akbayan. 2. Anak Pawis. 3. Bayan Muna. 4. Gabriela.

I will describe the Tarp of Bacolod as a dichotomy of conscience, certainly not a dichotomy of which political party to support. If you will notice, Team Buhay includes 3 names from the team of the President who railroaded the passage of the RH Bill into the RH Law, Noynoy Aquino's Team Pinoy: Pimentel, Trillanes and Villar. True-blue Catholics must choose the promise of life over the prescription of death, nothing personal.

There are also exactly 3 names from the opposing team of Jejomar Binay-Juan Ponce Enrile-Joseph Estrada's United Nationalist Alliance (Team UNA): Estrada, Honasan, and Magsaysay. True-blue Catholics must choose the promise of life over the prescription of death, nothing partisan.

As a copywriter once, I myself celebrate the Tarp of Bacolod. The tarp that says Team Buhay / Team Patay is a triumph in communication, as it is a prime example of following the 4 Cs of Communication. In 66 words, including the numbers, it manages to be Concise, Comprehensive, Coherent, and Clear.

The theme is Concise: Conscience Vote: Team of Life, Team of Death.

The body is Comprehensive: It covers the basics. The anti-RH candidates are the following; they belong to the Team of Life; the pro-RH candidates are the following; the belong to the Team of Death.

The substance is Coherent: The titles parallel and build upon each other: [Anti-RH] / [Pro-RH]. Team Buhay / Team Patay. Team of Life / Team of Death.

The message is Clear: Team Buhay? Check! (Throw them in!) Team Patay? Chuck! (Throw them out!)

After this, I am going to contribute a little money to encourage our Saint Louis Bertrand Church in Asingan, Pangasinan to put up its own Tarp of Bacolod on its façade. It would be a wonderful sight. In any case, faith without works is dead.

Team Buhay? Let's Vote In! Team Patay? Let's Vote Out!

MANILA: The world needs a Pope of Hope.

A Roman Catholic, Raymond Arroyo is saying the Cardinals gathered in Rome seem to be looking for "a reformer" and at the same time "a charismatic Pope who will boldly proclaim the Gospel in this challenging age" (08 March 2013, raymondarroyo.com). A Roman Catholic, I insist on a Pope of Hope. I hope we're not avoiding the issue. Now, to anchor on hope, first, we must get our bearings.

Jesus Christ said to his disciples in a gathering, "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13: 34-35, NRSV). Based on the Bible, he was speaking as the Son of God.

Cardinal Luis Antonio "Chito" Tagle said to his listeners in a forum, "The young want to be connected. That is the basic of the faith - connected to God, connected to others, to the Church. We need to go back to that fundamental" (ANN, 09 March 2013, sundayex.catholic.org.hk). Based on what I have read so far in the news, online, it looks to me that Chito Tagle was speaking as the next Pope should be.

And how do we reconcile what the Master says with what the Servant says? Love is the connection. There cannot be any other.

Connected to God, connected to others, connected to the Church: What about connected to the poor? And how do you connect with love?

Professor of Theology Joseph Ratzinger says in 1969: "We are at the turning point in the evolution of mankind. … From this crisis will emerge a Church that has lost a great deal. It will become small and will have to start pretty much all over again. … It will be a more spiritual Church and will not claim a political mandate, flirting with the Right one minute and the Left the next. It will be poor and will become the Church of the destitute" (ANN as cited).

Pope Benedict XVI says in 2011, "For decades now we have been experiencing a decline in religious practice and we have been seeing substantial numbers of the baptized drifting away from Church life." Then he speaks of "a relationship with the world that would keep the Church up to date, so men and woman could see a vision beyond themselves into the eternal" (same source above).

Christ, the Pope says, came not simply to save the world but "to change it." Yes, I say, but change is not a constant; it is an assumption - you have to work at it.

About change, just as the Manila Cathedral is undergoing major repairs, lest an earthquake crumble it, and in fact has been closed since February 2012, does the Roman Catholic Church need massive structural repair? No. I believe not. The doctrines are intact; the teachings are pure. Roman Catholicism is alive and well - it is the Roman Catholic who needs to change, especially the man of the cloth.

Especially the Pope.

Arroyo says, "Benedict’s resignation provided yet another requirement for the job: the man must be robust and young enough to meet the expectations of the modern papacy" (as cited).

At 55, Chito Tagle is the second youngest among the Cardinals. He was ordained a priest on 27 February 1982, became a Bishop on 22 October 2001, an Archbishop on 13 October 2011, and a Cardinal on 24 November 2012. As a Cardinal and under 80, he is automatically a candidate as the next Pope.

"The (popable) talks surrounding Tagle have been fueled by prominent Vatican experts, who see in the boyish-looking cardinal the religious zest, stamina, charisma and communications skills that could energize the church facing crises on many fronts" (Daniel Miller, 07 March 2013, dailymail.co.uk):

He's the singing Cardinal who uses Facebook to spread the word of the Lord, and he's now being tipped as a contender to become the first Asian Pope. ¶ Philippine Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Asia's most prominent Roman Catholic leader, sings on stage, preaches on TV and reduces churchgoers to laughter and tears with his often light-hearted sermons. ¶ With his down-to-earth, personable manner, Tagle, nicknamed 'Chito' by his adoring followers, seems a world apart from the conservative Cardinals and Bishops of Europe and North America.

We must renew the Roman Catholic. Why not beginning with the Pope? "The Year of Faith invites us to listen to the deep cries and aspirations of the people and societies of our time so that we can proclaim Jesus Christ to them with new methods, new expressions, and new fervor" (ANN, 14 February 2013, cbcpnews.com). With a new kind of Pope.

I understand the Africans would appreciate that the next Pope come from Africa, the Yankees from the US, the Europeans from Europe, the South Americans from South America, and the Asians from Asia. I think we Catholics need less a Pope who comes from somewhere and we need more a Pope who wants to go everywhere, that is to say, who has a personal touch with a universal Reach, thinking globally, acting locally. You shouldn't be preaching hope to only a few.

You have to be truly universal in approach and in appeal. From hopeless to hopeful, even from helpless to helpful, you can change people, but first you have to connect to them. Then they will have to change themselves; only they can truly change themselves.

Including the poor. Especially the poor.

Fr Nithiya Sagayam, the Executive Secretary of the Office for Human Development of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences says, "It is highly important for the Church not to be like a secular organization occupied with matters of money and power; instead it must heed the cries and the anxieties of people today, in particular the poor and the marginalized" (ANN as cited). For instance, "The Gospel should be translated into action so there are equal opportunities for the African farmer to sell coffee to Europe and get better prices," says Rev Gerald Wamala (Elias Biryabarema, 09 March 2013, ph.news.yahoo.com).

Of the poor and Chito Tagle, Fr Romeo Ner, one of his mentors says, "He was always number one in school. He was very interested in helping the poor even at a young age, and he was very close to the Church."

"He's an effective communicator and missionary at a time when Catholicism's highest internal priority is a new evangelization," John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter says of Tagle (Miller as cited):

Tagle incarnates the dramatic growth of Catholicism outside the West, putting a face on the dynamic and relatively angst-free form of Catholicism percolating in the Southern Hemisphere. He would certainly be a symbol of the Church in the emerging world, (not to mention) his intellectual and personal qualities.

Jim Gomez says of Chito Tagle, "Asia's most prominent Roman Catholic leader knows how to reach the masses" (09 March 2013, news.yahoo.com). "He sings on stage, preaches on TV, brings churchgoers to laughter and tears with his homilies. And he's on Facebook."

The Roman Catholics need to connect more and more, Cardinal Luis Antonio "Chito" Tagle is saying. As a Roman Catholic, am I connecting yet?

With love, we connect with hope.

MANILA: What I didn't know could have embarrassed me.

Today, Friday 15 March, with some trepidation I took the Christian Science Monitor online quiz, "How much do you know about the Catholic Church?" (csmonitor.com), and found out that I answered correctly only 16 out of 25 questions. 64%: Is that bad? Some of my answers were really just guesses. First, let me tell you the questions where I got the right answers, and you can try answering them yourself:

(1) What country has the largest total number of Roman Catholics?

(2) Which of the following is not a requirement to be a member of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, the Pope's personal bodyguards?

(3) In 2007, the Vatican released a document titled "The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die without Being Baptized," which cast doubt on the existence of what place?

(6) In what year was the doctrine of Papal infallibility formally declared?

(7) Which of Michelangelo's famous works of art is not housed in the Vatican?

(8) What is an antipope?

(12) What is the first prayer a Roman Catholic utters when praying the rosary?

(13) What biblical site was the original soil for the Vatican Gardens said to have come from?

(15) Which of these ancient sites was built where Vatican City now stands (across the river from Rome)?

(16) What proportion of the papal conclave is required for the election of a new Pope?

(18) As a sovereign city-state Vatican City may conduct or participate in which of the following diplomatic acts?

(19) What is the most common papal name? Twenty-one popes have adopted it, beginning in 523 AD.

(20) True or false: Vatican City is the smallest country in the world.

(21) Where does the Pope summer?

(23) Which automaker manufactured the current "Popemobile" used by Pope Benedict XVI?

(24) The 2004 John Jay report found that, between 1950 and 2002, about what percentage of priests in the United States had a sexual experience with a minor?

You can view my correct answers in the footnote below.[1]

These questions I didn't answer correctly:

(4) What city is home to the largest collection of holy relics outside the Vatican?

(5) According to the Vatican, what Pope had the longest reign, heading the Church for 35 years?

(9) True or false: The Dome of Saint Peter, completed in 1626, is the tallest dome in the world.

(10) Where do the cardinal electors meet to choose the next Pope?

(11) What color are the sacred vestments during "ordinary time"?

(14) Each Pope has his own coat of arms, but two keys, one gold, one silver are used on every Papal Coat of Arms; what do the keys represent?

(17) True or false: All citizens of Vatican City are Catholic.

(22) Saint Peter's Square is connected to Rome by a grand boulevard called Via della Conciliazione, or Road of the Conciliation, which passes many historic buildings and ends at the famed Castel Sant'Angelo (the mausoleum of the Roman Emperor Hadrian). What famous figure commissioned this street?

(25) What is the Immaculate Conception?

Again, my CSM Score: 16 correct, 9 wrong, 64%, where the Average Reader Score is 48%. The quiz column Expert Score is blank, meaning no one who has taken the CSM quiz has scored high. (There is no tally on how many have taken the quiz.)

Since I'm a teacher and I know my Tests & Measurements, and since the CSM quiz gives only 3 classes for the scores, which means the measure is poorly constructed, I will now create my own 5 measurement classes, to accommodate the 25 test items exactly:

21-25 correct answers, Expert
16-20 correct answers, Knower
11-15 correct answers, Average
06-10 correct answers, Uninformed
01-05 correct answers, Mystified

So, with 16 correct answers, I'm above average, a Knower, not quite an Expert when it comes to knowledge about the Roman Catholic Church - according to my classification based on the results of the quiz created by the Christian Science Monitor. I'm not happy with the results; I certainly thought I was an Expert. So, should I not brush up on Roman Catholicism so that when a non-Catholic like a CSM member asks me, I can answer his questions?

I say, pity the Christian Science Monitor! The CSM doesn't quite know what makes Roman Catholicism Roman Catholicism. Of those 25 questions, 22 (88%) are trivia and have nothing to do with doctrine; only 3 (12%) are basic to Catholicism: Limbo (No), Papal Infallibility (Yes), and Immaculate Conception (Yes) are doctrines. With its score of only 3 proper questions to ask about Roman Catholicism, I rate the Christian Science Monitor as Mystified in my scorecard.

So, for the edification of the members of the Christian Science Monitor and Protestants, for those who are Uninformed and Mystified about Roman Catholicism, let me tell you what I know as to how distinct Roman Catholicism is from Protestantism:

The Protestants believe in the Bible as the source of revealed truth, and the Bible only. Sola scriptura. The Catholics believe in the Bible, but not the Bible only. The Protestants believe that faith is enough: Sola fide. The Catholics believe that faith without works is dead. Ora et labora, pray and work.

The Catholic House is built on 3 rocks: Bible, Magisterium, and Holy Traditions. The Bible is written revelation, Scripture. The Magisterium is the teaching authority of the Church as embodied in the Pope, applying the wisdom of the past to the problems of the present. Holy Traditions are oral traditions passed on to the next generation by the apostles and are believed to be divinely inspired.

Application: A Protestant asks you, a Catholic, "Where is that in the Bible?" Whether or not you can cite a verse either in the Old Testament or the New Testament to support your claim, tell him this:

Let me remind you that the Catholic faith is not based on the Bible alone. If you do not accept the authority of the Magisterium and oral traditions, we have nothing to talk about.

That answer is good for the Christian Science Monitor too!

[1]My correct answers were: (1) Brazil. (2) Members of the Swiss Guard must be fluent in Italian. (3) Limbo. (6) 1870. (7) the sculpture David. (8) A person backed by a significant number of cardinals and kings who is in opposition to the legitimately elected Pope. (12) The Apostle's Creed. (13) Golgotha. (15) All of the above: The Circus of Nero (the site of ancient Christian executions and naval battle reenactments), an ancient cemetery, the garden of Agrippina the Elder, and (sic) ancient highly revered Roman woman. (16) Two thirds plus one. (18) None of the above: establishing treaties, observing the United Nations General Assembly, establishing foreign embassies. (19) John. (20) True. (21) Castel Gandolfo in Italy's Alban Hills. (23) Mercedes Benz. (24) 4%.

SAN PABLO CITY: I write for Life; I also shoot.

I estimated 2,000 of them in this 2013 Walk for Life in this City along Jose Rizal Avenue; compare that to my estimate of 1,000 warm bodies in the 2012 Walk for Life on the same street. "We Choose Life" says a printed placard. I think our National Hero Jose Rizal would have chosen Life - he grieved when Josephine lost her baby because of his prank.

And the enthusiasm of the walk was palpable today. I'm not surprised. We have a new Pope who walks his talks: love for Simplicity, Humility, Life. He will walk for life - if you ask him. From what I've read so far, Pope Francis shuns exclusive and expensive limousines; if he had the choice, he'd rather walk.

Cardinal Bergoglio's motto was "Miserando atque eligendo" (I literally translate that into "miserable but worthy of being chosen"), which now that he is Pope Francis I liberally translate into "Comfortless yet chosen" that has 2 meanings: (1) He sets focus on the poor and disadvantaged and have mercy on them, and (2) He has chosen the life of the deprived rather than the life of the privileged. When we Walk for Life, we choose Life over Law or License.

Today, Saturday, 16 March 2013, at the Liceo de San Pablo Gym on the grounds of the Cathedral of Saint Paul, the talk was "We Choose Life" and the walk outside was "Walk for Life Laguna."

Very interesting. The Cathedral is named after Saint Paul the First Hermit (Wikipedia); hermits are not known for their walk, not even their talk, are they? But if you listen to them, they have words of wisdom.

Before the Walk was the Talk. The Guest Speaker of the seminar was Dr Rene Josef Bullecer, Director of Human Life International Philippines. (Sorry I arrived too late to catch his words of wisdom.) The sponsors of Walk for Life Laguna were the Diocese of San Pablo, Knights of Columbus (I'm a KC, in case you ask), and Commission on Family & Life.

Last year, when Bishop Leo M Drona was still Bishop of San Pablo Diocese, there was a Walk for Life and I wrote about it the day after (25 March 2012, Frank A Hilario, blogspot.com). One of my main points in that essay is that in 2004, twenty-two (22, yes) minds co-authored a single paper "Population and Poverty: The Real Score" (econ.upd.edu.ph); here are the authors alphabetically arranged, take a deep breath:

Ruperto P Alonzo, Arsenio M Balisacan, Dante B Canlas, Joseph J Capuno, Ramon L Clarete, Rolando A Danao, Emmanuel S de Dios, Benjamin E Diokno, Emmanuel F Esguerra, Raul V Fabella, Ma Socorro Gochoco-Bautista, Aleli P Kraft, Felipe M Medalla, Nimfa F Mendoza, Solita C Monsod, Cayetano W Paderanga Jr, Ernesto M Pernia, Stella A Quimbo, Gerardo P Sicat, Orville C Solon, Edita A Tan, and Gwendolyn R Tecson.

I did say it was an overpopulation of authors. Why did I not simply cite "Ruperto P Alonzo et al" as author following a rule in technical writing that I should know because I've been an editor of 3 technical journals? I'm just following the battle-scarred wisdom of Sun Tzu: "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer."

I choose Life; if I asked them, I'm sure those authors will choose Non-Life, in this case the enemy of Life. They write in that paper:

Poverty is a complex phenomenon, and many factors are responsible for it. Rapid population growth alone cannot explain poverty. Bad governance, high wealth and income inequality and weak economic growth are the main causes. But rapid population growth and high fertility rates, especially among the poor, do exacerbate poverty and make it harder for the government to address it.

Before I comment on that excerpt, let me tell you about those co-authors I'm most familiar with: Arsenio M Balisacan, Professor of Economics at UP Los Baños and who is now NEDA Director General; Solita C Monsod, Professor of Economics at the University of the Philippines, Convenor of the Philippine Human Development Network and who has always been a soldierly scholar; and Gerardo P Sicat, with an MA in Economics from UP and who as first DG set the tone of NEDA, that is, mainlyeconomics for development.

Do you see? The economists of UP will tell you, as any Keynesian economists will, that a country cannot develop except under economic terms of reference. They know, and you don't. If the economists say we are over-populated, then we are; if they say our birth rates are too high, then we are producing too many babies too fast for them to count in peace! They are the bean counters; they would rather count beans than human beings.

Today I'm counting the ones who matter: babies. I've counted 13 babies of my own, if you didn't know.[1] A zygote is a life, count 1; a fetus is a life, count another. A child in the womb is a life; count your blessings!

In the United States, they call it "March for Life" and do it 25 January every year; this year, the March commemorated the 40th anniversary of Roe vs Wade, the landmark case that legalized abortion in the United States. At the DC Archdiocese's Youth Rally & Mass for Life at the Verizon Center, Bob Rice said, "In the United States today, one of the most dangerous places to be is in the mother's womb" (Patrick B Craine, 25 January 2013, lifesitenews.com). Life is what we make it, or take. "Because they can't speak and they can't march, we can and we will."

March for Life! Today I'm counting the days of March:

02 March, Sunday: At 71, we learn that Bishop Drona had applied for early retirement for health reasons, and Pope Benedict XVI had approved it; so this year, we have a new head of the San Pablo Diocese, Bishop Buenaventura Malayo Famadico. The name augurs well for the Walk for Life Laguna, his first in this diocese: Buenaventura means Good tidings. God be with you (babynames.com). He became Bishop just 2 weeks ago, on 02 March (Fr Romy O Ponte, 01 March 2013, cbcpnews.com).

13 March, Wednesday: At 76, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio is elected the new Pope for the world's 1.2 billion Catholics. He has chosen Life. Even as a Cardinal, he has spoken against the "Culture of Death" (Steven Ertelt, 13 March 2013, lifenews.com). To him, abortion is a "death sentence" to the unborn. I say the American and Filipino liberals talk about human rights but deny the right of life to the baby in the womb. Women talk about their rights to their bodies but deny the rights of their unborn babies to theirs. Life is what we make it, or take.

16 March, Saturday: Did you know that today is "For God So Loved the World Day?" (forums.catholic.com). God chose you; He chose Life; you are His gift to you. Your gift to God is your choice: If you truly love God, choose Life!

[1] 1 died of a fever of unknown origin, at 10 years of age.

MANILA: With a little bit of imagination, it's easy to become a creative writer - it's not easy to be good, better, best.

I'm talking of Creative Writing, Nonfiction, especially PC-based writing of articles, essays, columns, book reviews, lectures, presentations, sharings, seminar papers, speeches, even sermons. And the writing of auto/biographies, manuals, textbooks, even coffee-table books. And writing in Sci Language (my coinage), that is, writing science in popular, people-friendly, even charming English.

If you ask me, creative nonfiction is more exciting than fiction. More challenging and, therefore, more fulfilling when you master it.

Knowing better, one of these days I'm going to visit the campus of UP Los Baños (I'm an alumnus), teach them a handful of secrets in Creative Writing, and with them found a club of writers and would-be-writers young and old. Yes, including the old. Don't forget I'm 72. As in any art, age doesn't matter, gray matter doesn't age - when it's creative.

Of course you can form a writers' club without me. A writers' club is a blessing without a disguise. With a club, you have a TEAM: together, each achieves more (not my coinage). Still, you can have me as adviser; since I'm freelance, among other things I'm always available for a half-day free seminar. But I wouldn't mind a free cup of coffee, or a free lunch. The one who said there is no such thing as a free lunch was either not a Catholic (who says, if you give, give freely), or not an Ilocano (who feels free of any obligation afterwards). I should know; I'm Catholic and Ilocano.

As a club, if you want a 2-day sleep-in workshop by me, you can easily look for sponsors for the event, including take care of lunch, dinner & breakfast.

Why me? Because I'm a self-taught creative writer and therefore practical, not theoretical. I probably have done all the uncreative things, like:
aiming too low
aiming too high
plagiarizing
not observing enough
not reading more than enough
not reviewing many times
not spell-checking
not grammar-checking
not consulting
not asking questions
not taking notes
not building my vocabulary
not learning from the best
not trying my own best
not opening my mind to many other possibilities.

I've learned my lessons, and if I want to multiply them, I have to share them. Don't count your blessings: Share them! and then when they multiply, you can't count them at all. I'm 72 and look at me: I'm still the most creative writer in the world online or offline - and this is nonfiction. If you don't believe me, visit my one-stop blog, The Creattitudes Encyclopedia (blogspot.com), or my very long author's page as an assiduous correspondent of the American Chronicle (americanchronicle.com). I have uploaded to the Internet about 2,000 essays of an average 1,000 words or totaling about 2 million words; at 100,000 words to a book, that is equivalent to 20 big books of 200 pages each, all text. In fact, I have published 5 books abroad. And, truth to tell, I started blogging only in 2006.

So? Any young brash fellow, or any old fool can learn from me!

All in English. Why English? Because I believe this: "The Filipino Advantage is not Filipino but English" (see my essay published last year, on 17 June 2012, The Creattitudes Encyclopedia, blogspot.com). As a people wanting themselves and their country to prosper, why should we write in Filipino when it is not to our advantage? If you aren't convinced, answer me this: "Why are our best-selling magazines and newspapers written in English?!"

In free seminars, I want to share some secrets of writing that you can learn easily, like how to brainstorm productively and alone even when you know next to zero about the subject matter. (Some other secrets you can't learn easily, like how to organize content for maximum impact.)

In fact, I want to found writers' clubs all over the country with English as the language of choice - because it's our competitive advantage over other countries, including Australia and India, perhaps even the United States. Here's a Reader's Digest joke I memorized 40 years ago to drive home the point:

Question: Do you know why they teach English in American schools?
Answer: To teach them a language other than their own.

The Americans speak bad English too, you know. From the worst American speakers, you will hear these (examples from Karen's Linguistic Issues (Karen Bond, telus.net):

He don't care about me anymore.
I never would of thought he'd behave like that.
I'm not speaking to nobody in this class.
He has took the train.
I should have went to school yesterday.
What's that? I can't remember it's name.

You're not alone!

What about spelling? The worst Americans would commit such blunders as these:
appearence
beacuse
can't of been
challange
deatils
embarass
frends
giveing
harnesing
immediatley
independant.

Yes, but grammar & spelling are the least of your worries in Creative Writing, believe you me! Find a good editor and be done with it. If the editor of a publication rejects you because of your grammar, he's a bad editor anyway. If an editor rejects you because of your bad spelling, you're a bad writer anyway - always use the Grammar & Spelling Checker!

Creative Writing is an unmapped territory, and I've been exploring it for more than 50 years already, and enjoying myself much of the time. I didn't enjoy those many years when newspapers and magazines rejected my articles. Either they didn't like my style, or didn't like my politics, or both. But when I discovered blogging in 2006, with the egging of my son Jomar, I discovered the paradise of writing, and wrote with much conviction: "Blogging is the revenge of the unpublished writer" (07 April 2006, americanchronicle.com)

If you aren't yet, you should be out there blogging yourself; I can teach you and create a blog for you free in 5 minutes. So, I'm going out there and give free 3-hour lecture-demos to any group of 20 people gathered in one place and with LCD projection show how anyone can become a creative writer, whether or not you're a manager, housewife, teacher, student, professional, or priest (fair warning to other preachers: I'm a Roman Catholic and will preach you Catholicism - creatively of course.) If you're interested in my seminar, email me: frankahilario@gmail.com.

If you're not a writer in English, why should you be one? If you already are, why should you learn from me? Because English is intelligent, impassioned, and inexhaustible. Because I'm very creative. Because I taught myself, you don't have to repeat the same mistakes I made.

Creativity is like this: I'm thinking of calling the Los Baños group Maquiling Writers' Club Los Baños, and here is the meaning of
M-A-Q-U-I-L-I-N-G:
Mastering the Art of Attaining Quick & Useful Insights with In-Stock Information & Lucubration, Ingeniously.

MAQUILING. If you attend my free seminar, then you will understand the language. If you attend my pay workshop, then you will learn how to do it yourself.

In any case, I will not insist on Maquiling, but on English I will. When we write in English, we can more easily sell the idea of development to our countrymen, whether they are Cebuanos, Tagalogs, Ilocanos, Ilonggos, or Muslims. To insist on developing the Filipino language is to reinvent the wheel; why don't we use English as the wheel instead?

When we write in English, we have the biggest library in the world: widest, longest, deepest, and highest. And, with the Internet, the mind becomes the real zone of competition. With the information superhighway we can travel at warp speed, the lack of a dictionary or library or personal knowledge or an expert to consult with is not a hindrance anymore. Lack of imagination is.

MANILA: With her death, it's clear to me that instead of University of the Philippines, UP means Unconcerned People. Hamlet knows Death, the unconcerned country, from whose bourn no traveler returns. I'm concerned, people, because UP is my alma mater. More than that, a life is a life.

At around 3 AM on Friday, 15 March 2013, college freshman and 16 years old, Kristel Tejada drank silver cleaner at their home in Tondo, Manila; finding out later, her parents rushed her to the Metropolitan Medical Center, but it was too late to save her (Edu Punay, 16 March 2013, philstar.com). On forced leave of absence from school, she took her life, despondent over the fact that her poor family could not pay the PhP 10,000 (about $250) tuition fee she owed the University of the Philippines Manila where she had been pursuing a course in behavioral science. Her adviser, UP Manila Professor Andrea Martinez said, "The girl had been depressed since going on forced leave."

Bad behavior for a girl?
Bad behavior for UP Manila! also
Bad behavior for the President of the Philippines, as I will show you in a little while.

There are 5 children in the Tejada family. Kristel's mother is a plain housewife; her father is a taxi driver. Curious long before this, I have gotten many taxi drivers to talk about their earnings, so I know they are lucky if they can net PhP 1,000 within 24 hours; given that they have to skip another 24 hours before they can drive a taxi again, that means they are earning PhP 500 a day or only PhP 15,000 a month, max. In the boondocks, earning 15K a month, the Tejadas are rich; in the city, they're poor. Taxi driving is not a moneymaker.

Before the suicide, the Tejada family asked UP Manila for a tuition loan and were denied; they asked to pay installment and were refused; they offered a promissory note and that was rejected. Then Kristel's mother "knelt before UP Manila Chancellor Manuel Agulto and begged that her daughter be allowed to continue attending her classes" and that fell on deaf ears. To be or not to be reasonable, that is the question. So, Kristel was forced to file a Leave of Absence (LoA) and, feeling hopeless, took an LoA on life.

Is Chancellor Agulto happy that he has been unflinching in strictly following rules and regulations at UP Manila? As Hamlet asks, "Does conscience make cowards of us all?"

In any case, Kristel Tejada's LoA is another story in the fight for poverty in the Philippines. There is another and deeper lesson to this, aside from the need for all the unconcerned people within the UP System to each take an LoA. The typical Filipino family thinks that education will lift them out of deprivation into a state of profusion. They think education is a good moneymaker. Now then, I offer 2 lessons out of that UP student's suicide over the family's failure to raise money to pay her tuition at UP Manila:

1, You can't eat a diploma.
2, Education can kill you.

UP is educating the people, starting with the high tuition fees, on true values: Education is expensive even when it's subsidized by government. That is because UP doesn't have a single moneymaker, so to raise funds, it raises tuition fees instead - if students can't raise the money, they can raise hell, but that's all. Kristel raised that silver cleaner and ... Don't they raise  good managers in UP?

I'm sorry about the suicide, but I like it that my alma mater is now educating parents that education is for the rich parents, so that the poor parents should now start thinkingout education as the solution to a better life. Because it is not a moneymaker.

Mariz Zubiri, Chair of the UP Manila Student Council, said the Council was condemning "to the highest degree" the "anti-student policies" of UP Manila and the Aquino Government "for forcing students to stay out of school and take their own lives" (Punay as cited). She said, "Kristel is just one of the hundreds and thousands of UP and Filipino students who are pushed against the wall by the high cost of education and the Aquino administration's abandonment of Philippine education."

Funny that Mariz condemned Noynoy Aquino for abandoning Philippine education. She probably was thinking of more and higher government scholarships at public colleges and universities, which is within the presidential power of Aquino to declare.

Personally, I would encourage those who can afford, to go to expensive schools, so the graduates will then compete against each other looking for a limited number of jobs available in the country. Isn't competition great?! If you lose and your family is rich enough, you're entitled to your own excuses. Duh!

Now, let the Noynoy Government help those who cannot afford the expensive private schools, and UP, to become entrepreneurs instead. Moneymakers.

I'm a certified teacher, so I shouldn't be writing that? But I won't be a good teacher if I weren't writing this: Education is not the solution. If you go around the country, you will read painted on the walls of elementary schools this: "Education is the solution - Jesli Lapus." That was when he was Secretary of Education. I forgive him; he did not study to be a teacher. He was not thinking above the Filipino family's mediocre Diploma Attitude: "Kid, get yourself a diploma, and then you can help your siblings get their education too. And you will lead better lives, guaranteed."

Not only the old and new parents, the old and new Secretaries of Education need education; all the Chancellors and Presidents of Universities need it too, and so does the current President of the Philippines when it comes to solving The Problem of Poverty, and I repeat as a teacher: Education is not the solution. You can't eat a diploma! And education can kill you.

The RH Law is not the solution either.

UP student leader Mariz Zubiri was right about Ateneo-graduate-and-now-Philippine-President Noynoy Aquino: He would rather distribute free condoms and contraceptives than distribute scholarships to intelligent but poor students. His mathematics is good, his economics is bad. The expensive RH Law will not solve the problem of poverty, because "too many people living badly" is not the cause of poverty; it's "too few people thinking goodly."

Now, economics over mathematics. What's the budget for the new RH Law? An additional PhP 21 Billion! given to the Department of Health (DoH) (11 February 2013, ph.m.yahoo.com). Senator Tito Sotto protests; too much, he says; in the 2013 budget, already the DoH has PhP 9.1 B allotted for maternal and infant health care whatever.

I'm thinking: Do you realize what PhP 21,000,000,000 means? If you distribute as student loans to high school Juniors and Seniors an average amount of PhP 7,000 to set up their own little moneymakers, PhP 21 B means you will be creating at least 3 million (3,000,000) young entrepreneurs while they're still in school. At a success rate of only 50%, you will be producing 1.5 million moneymakers in a year, so many young ones with their paying jobs in their back pockets, instead of free condoms and contraceptives in their backpacks!

So, condoms or moneymakers? Condoms are free, moneymakers you have to conjure and help yourself. Still I'd like you to choose, to help yourself with this analogy I've just conjured from thin air:

The condom stops the moving finger.
The moneymaking finger writes and, having writ, moves on!

MANILA: Thinking of the death of a UP student, today the Oblation has a different message for me, a UP alumnus: "Death, where is thy victory? Death, where is thy sting?"

I mean, will the suicide of Kristel Tejada be lost on UP? Judging from all the news, I can see that if UP Manila Chancellor Manuel Agulto resigns, it will be to his Honor. If he doesn't, it will be to his Horror.

He belongs to the new UP with its new charter and new policies that have proven deadly to the interests of poor students. In fact, UP must die! To itself, to its old self be true.

In Act 1, Scene 3 of Hamlet, didn't Polonius say to his son Laertes as advice? "This above all: To thine old self be true / And it must follow, as the night the day / Thou canst not then be false to any man." If I misquoted, I say it to UP as my advice anyway!

I am not actually blaming Manuel Agulto for the suicide of Kristel Tejada but, it's there; like Philippine President Noynoy Aquino and the Sabah Crisis, he can't just wish it away; he has to own up to it like a man.

If there is someone to blame, it must be the President of the University of the Philippines who, last I heard, had the bright idea of pumping UP tuition fees by 300%, so that instead of PhP 5,000, you have to pay PhP 15,000. Highway robbery! And it has been happening for the last 6 years.

For all that, better late than never, when I think of former UP President Emerlinda Roman and current UP President Alfredo Pascual, and recall that it was The Lady Who Was The Tiger, the one who had the audacity to increase the tuition fees times 3 (x3) in the State University in 2006, I think of them as a female/male Robbin' Hood, because they have been robbin' the poor to give to the rich. When the poor families pay the high tuition fees at UP, the fees rob the poor of their little wealth, and the fees from the poor benefit equally the sons and daughters of the rich who are enrolled in UP, when the rich could very well take care of themselves. UP used to be for the bright and poor; now it's only for the bright and rich.

I'm not asking for the rich to pay more at UP; I'm challenging UP President Alfredo Pascual:

Be a dragon slayer, slay the new UP, and come up with a new policy that UP education be absolutely free to those who are bright and poor. UP must die!

Kristel Tejada did not have to die. "She loved studying," Kristel's mother Blesilda said (Erika Sauler, 18 March 2013, newsinfo.inquirer.net). "She loved UP. She believed that financial limitations shouldn't be a hindrance to education. She didn't expect that the system implemented last year would defeat her." She was forced to take a Leave of Absence (LoA) for the next semester when she failed to pay tuition; 2 days after the LoA, she committed suicide. Kristel Tejada had a dream for her siblings; that died with her.

I ask: What triggered the suicide? "She loved studying." I believe that when she was told to surrender her student ID, something snapped. "She loved UP." Her adviser Andrea Martinez said, "The ID was symbolic of her holding on to UP." Holding on to her dream. "I'm the eldest child," Kristel had told her adviser. "They have high hopes for me and I'm studying in UP."

There is a published (online) statement of the faculty and staff of the Department of Behavioral Sciences of the College of Arts & Sciences of UP Manila with an intelligent title and reasonable demands; here are excerpts, all in italics (from "Let Kristel Tejada's Death Lead to Meaningful Changes!" published by Zak Yuson, scribd.com):

The death of Kristel should be an occasion for University officials to thoroughly examine and institute meaningful and pro-student changes in policies, structures and mechanisms related to tuition payments, scholarship and financial assistance programs and services, within the UP System, particularly in UP Manila, and to revoke all policies and programs that run counter to students' welfare and interest.

Kristel's death should not be just another statistic added to the increasing number of Iskolar ng Bayan who are unable to pursue and complete their UP education because of insurmountable financial burdens that their economically disadvantaged families have to face in the midst of limited opportunities and elitist educational policies.

Her death gave us a human face to the long-standing struggle against state apathy and neglect of the education of our youth.

I say: Amen to all that!

We demand that justice be served for Kristel Tejada through the implementation of meaningful changes in UP policies and programs to enable the marginalized Filipino youth like her greater access to UP education!

I say: Like a caterpillar, UP must die into an imago so that it can transform itself into a butterfly, and not remain a worm that eats up every poor leaf it chances upon.

We hold UP Manila Chancellor Manuel B Agulto and Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs Marie Josephine de Luna largely accountable for the deprivation of Kristel's right to education that cost her life.

We call upon the UP community to demand and uphold democratic governance from our University officials! We appeal to the conscience of Chancellor Manuel Agulto and Vice Chancellor Josephine de Luna to show their solidarity and humility to the aggrieved family of Kristel Tejada and other victims of their repressive policy by rendering their irrevocable resignation!

I say: So, Chancellor Manuel Agulto and Vice Chancellor Marie Josephine De Luna, it's your choice:

Honor, or Horror?

The staff and students will not stop hounding and haunting you.

But in fact, Mr Chancellor and Ms Vice Chancellor, your resignations and the abolition of policies against delayed payments of tuition fees are only parts of the total solution to the problem of UP education being against the interest of poor families with intelligent sons and daughters. The meaningful changes that the UP Manila faculty and staff had in mind were these:

Sufficient State support and subsidies to State colleges and universities like UP, expanded scholarship and financial assistance grants, student loan programs, study now pay later schemes, installment payment plans, student employment programs, are some of the strategies which can be explored and instituted to increase access to tertiary education particularly by poor but deserving students.

I say: If you support those demands, you are not hopeless cases.

In the meantime, the UP alumni can do something big if they wanted to. In an email forwarded to me, Josie Aliwalas said, "We should not miss out the lessons that the Kristel Tejada's case has proffered towards educational reforms." She said that a group of State Scholars, reuniting after 35 years, "lamented the fact that the program was abolished by the (government)." She challenged the group, her husband being a member, "to revive it by being the scholarship benefactors. Giving back to society is a step towards a better country. I know that if we adopt the Big Brother principle of helping indigent students, we can educate more needy but financially disadvantaged people."

May Josie's tribe increase!

Still, the major burden lies on UP itself. To be true to its old self, UP must become what it was conceived to be long ago, to paraphrase Pope Francis: Not a Poor University but a University for the Poor.

And how will that happen? What I have in mind is for the whole UP System, at the top, to change management style, even managers. I was a UP freshman in 1959; I have not lost touch with UP since then, and I have yet to see a UP President who is a good manager. At least a good fund manager, whether he comes from ADB or not. By fund management, I mean not only planning, leading, organizing, coordinating, and controlling in the matter of available funds but, more than that, making funds available even when there are no funds!

Does that require magic, or a PhD? No, it requires only that the UP President and his cohorts be able to raise funds from outside UP - such as from successful alumni like Josie & Her Pussycats - and not from inside, especially not from the poor families. Relying on trebling the tuition fees and depending on the national budget instead of expanding the imagination to source big & small funds elsewhere suggest an embarrassing level of management IQ of UP heads. I blame neither Emerlinda Roman nor Alfredo Pascual; rather, I blame the Board of Regents who made them President.

In memory of the anguish of Kristel Pilar Mariz P Tejada and her poor family, UP must die! For the new UP to die, it is not necessary for the UP President to resign; rather, it is necessary that the entire UP Board of Regents resign and be replaced with good people who know good management so that, next time, they will select a President and Chancellors who are good in raising funds, not good in raising fire & brimstone when staff and students raise hell and demand their resignations - and not good in raising excuses.

Raising my eyes, as I look at it again, it seems to me that there is another message from the UP Oblation with its arms rising to high heavens, and it's a question as well as a plea that rises in crescendo and echoes all over the archipelago:

"Horrors, where are the Donors?!"

MANILA: Sometimes learning comes when you're not going after learning.

Yesterday, Saturday, 23 March 2013, my wife Amparo and I attended the 2013 Lenten Recollection sponsored by the Marriage Encounter Foundation of the Philippines (MEFP West Cluster) held 7 AM to 6 PM at the Cuneta Astrodome along Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City. The theme was "Marriage & Family in the Year of Faith." Of course this is a subtle Catholic reaction to the passage of the RH Bill into Law, which in essence is anti-life, anti-marriage, and anti-family.

The 4 main speakers scheduled were Bro Chito Jongco, Head Servant of Beloved of the Lord Community; Sister Eppie Brasil, Founder, Dominican Sisters of the Regina Rosarii; Msgr Esteban Lo, Chaplain, Chapel of the Eucharistic Lord at SM Megamall; and Bishop Emeritus Teodoro Bacani of the Diocese of Novaliches. We arrived late and left early, so we caught only the tail end of Bro Chito's talk; since he didn't summarize his preaching, I didn't catch his drift. We listened to Sister Eppie in full; we didn't get to hear Msgr Lo, but we heard Bishop Bacani throughout.

The Bishop's talk was memorable in that part where he spoke of love in 2 senses (he didn't use that term; I'm the one calling them "senses"): eros and agape. "Love is eros," he said. "Akin ka." You are mine. You want to get, get, get. "Love is agape," he said next. "Ako'y iyo." I am yours. You want to give, give, give. It should be both. Nicely put, Bishop!

Sister Eppie's talk was more memorable as, among other things, she spoke of Ho'oponopono, a Hawaiian concept of healing. This was the first time I heard of it. She spoke of the 4 parts of healing (she didn't use that term either; she spoke of healing but I'm the one calling them "parts," which explains the image above), and they consist of these 4 declarations:

(1) I love you.
(2) Please forgive me.
(3) I am sorry.
(4) Thank you.

I was struck by those 4 parts of healing, as they resonated with my own spiritual growth in the last 22 years. And over the last 6 years, I realized that when I was able to get rid of my spiritual baggage, when I was able to surrender my weakness and admit God's strength, I could now breathe easier and my mind was much more creative.

Having first met Ho'oponopono with Sister Eppie, I went to the Internet to search for more information, and I'm glad I did.

Ho'oponopono originated from Hawaii, was rethought and taught by Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona who was so successful in using it as a healing & transformation method with small and large groups, even to United Nations staff, that in 1983 "she received a great honor by being designated as a living treasure of Hawaii" (Gleb Esman, idreamcatcher.com). Ho'oponopono is a cleaning process, as "you clean yourself from subconscious garbage - programs that run your life without your participation." He means cleansing. As reinvented by Joe Vitale along with Ihaleakala Hew Len, to cleanse yourself via the Ho'oponopono process, you repeat the following phrases as your mantra (Wikipedia):

I love you.
Please forgive me.
I am sorry.
Thank you.

In other words, these are mantras all for yoursake. "These phrases repeated will ignite the self-transformation process." They're about giving love, asking for forgiveness, being sorry for hurting someone, and giving thanks. All in your favor.

"If you want to improve your life, you have to heal your life," Vitale says (mrfire.com). You keep saying "I'm sorry" and "I love you" and that's it. "Turns out that loving yourself is the greatest way to improve yourself."

I understand. Now then, acknowledging its power, I see that in the 4 sides of healing (the 4 mantras of personal cleansing) in the way of Vitale's Ho'oponopono, I find 1 major objection:

(1) With those Ho'oponopono mantras, you say you are addressing God, but in fact, you are merely addressing whatever you consider "a higher power" (ho-oponopono.org), not necessarily the God that I'm familiar with, the Christian God. The God that my Roman Catholic faith describes is fine with me, thank you very much!

But in fact, I have 2 other objections:

(2) The 2nd and 3rd sides actually belong to each other, as you will naturally say, "I am sorry. Please forgive me."

(3) Given (2) above, and assuming as I do that there are 4 sides of healing, now then, there is a missing 3rd part of Vitale's Ho'oponopono.

What do you think is the missing part?

For you to get the correct answer, consider the fact that you are sorry and are asking for forgiveness, which means you realized finally that you have hurt someone and you are now asking to be forgiven by that someone. Now, what about the other way around? That's the answer to the question.

If you still don't get it, I'm telling you now; the 4 mantras should read like this:

(1) I love you.
(2) Please forgive me.
(3) I forgive you.
(4) I thank you.

Healing is not all about you. Just as you want to be forgiven, so should you forgive! The Christian God commands us so: "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" (Matthew 12: 7 NRSV). The original 4 parts of healing in Vitale's version of Ho'oponopono is incomplete; you cannot completely heal even if now you truly love, even if now you truly have been forgiven, even if now you are able to say "Thank you" sincerely, if you have not forgiven others, you are not yet completely healed, not yet!

How goes the prayer of St Francis again, which talks also about forgiveness?

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

"Where there is injury, pardon." This is not part of the original mantra of Ho'oponopono, hence it is much the less. Forgiving is the most difficult part of all if you want any healing. I know, been there, done that! Not for want of trying, but it took me at least 10 years to forgive my wife even as she would not forgive me, not yet. Double jeopardy, double the victory. I've seen it, and I continue to see it: Forgiveness is the magnificent double door: (1) To healing; oh, how sweet it is! (2) To creativity; oh, how doubly sweet it is!

So, after I have reinvented Ho'oponopono, definitely factoring in God, I will now rearrange the 4 parts of healing like this:

(1) I forgive you.
(2) Please forgive me.
(3) I love you.
(4) I thank you.

You notice that my version of Ho'oponopono has 12 words, because I like the number 12, such as 12 days of Christmas, 12 apostles of Jesus, a day measured in 12 hours, 12 months in a year, and 12 function keys in a computer keyboard.

And then again, if you didn't notice, the declaration "Please forgive me" can be restated as "I beg you to forgive me," so to be consistent, I will now revise the list into this, starting with forgiveness:

(1) I Forgive You.
(2) I Beg You.
(3) I Love You.
(4) I Thank You.

Still 12 but now all are "I" and "You" statements; all beginnings of words capitalized, as the action words are equally important. The "You" is as important as the "I." In other words, in my version, healing always starts with the "I" and ends with the "You." Unlike in Vitale's Ho'oponopono, the "I" is not the "You" in my 4 I's of Ho'oponopono.

I think I now have the right to claim I have completely reinvented Ho'oponopono and wish to call my version
The 4 I's of Ho'oponopono.

Having said that, I have a mind to use my 4 I's of Ho'as a formula for Creative Writing. Because you are able to ask for forgiveness, you are able to announce your love, you are able to give thanks, and you are able to truly forgive, your mind becomes truly creative since it's free of any spiritual or emotional or intellectual baggage; there are no ifs and buts that impede the continual flow of creative thoughts. I'm a living proof of that. At 72, with 6 books published abroad in the last 6 years, among other intellectual outputs, and being the first and up to now the one-and-only recipient of an award from the University of the Philippines as the "Outstanding Alumnus for Creative Writing" in 2011, in a field other than my own discipline, which is Education.

There's more to my 4 I's of Ho', but you'll have to attend one of my Creattitudes workshops to find out. In fact, I just finished designing a free Creative Writing Workshop for high school students based on the 4 I's. You also want free for your professional group? Email me at frankahilario@gmail.comfor a free 3-hour work-in, your place, not mine.

The resignations of UP Manila Chancellor Manuel Agulto and Vice Chancellor Josephine De Luna would have brought to them high honors, but their logical reasoning got the better of them. They thought it was a choice only between this, holding on to their positions as an explicit statement that they did nothing wrong, and that, resigning as an implicit admission of guilt. A limited view. UP did not teach them how to think out of the box. Now they have to think out of the box that carried the body of Kristel Tejada, their student who killed herself because of UP Manila's killer policy on delayed payments of tuition fees. The old lesson for those old school heads? Better late than never!

Does UP want another Kristel Tejada? She was buried Saturday, 23 March 2013, at the Manila North Cemetery after 4 PM, after a Mass was held for her at the Immaculate Conception parish church (LBG, 23 March 2013, gmanetwork.com). Some upbeat music in the background followed her cortege, as was her wish. The marchers weren't so cheerful, thinking that the poor girl's life didn't have to end in tragedy because of failure to pay tuition, that a government school like UP didn’t have the right to deprive any bright student to education precisely because she was poor. So that the good don't have to die young.

The Roman Catholic Church was kinder to the soul of Kristel Tejada as UP Manila was unkinder to her spirit when she was still alive. The Church said Mass for her even if she committed suicide. Caritas Manila Executive Director Fr Anton Pascual said this was out of compassion. Which brings to mind this thought: UP is long in control and short in compassion.

Of state universities and colleges (SUCs), Team PNoy candidate for Senator Edgardo "Sonny" Angara said, "It is the mandate of the SUCs to provide affordable college education" (ANN, 22 March 2013, liberalparty.org). "It is clear in their charters." Affordable, yes, but I prefer rewardable: Reward with free education the bright but poor, from nursery to college. To encourage the good, and prevent another Kristel Tejada. Suicide is not painless, now we know.

The name Kristel Tejada should be indefinitely in the conscience of UP Board of Regents Chair Patricia Licuanan, and Members Alfredo Pascual, Edgardo Angara, Juan Edgardo Angara, Ponciano Rivera, Reynato Puno, Magdaleno Albarracin, Ida Dalmacio, Cleve Arguelles, and Jossel Ebesate. And UP President Alfredo Pascual, and UP Diliman Chancellor CaesarSaloma, and UPLB Chancellor Rex Victor Cruz, and UP Manila Chancellor ManuelAgulto, and UP Visayas Chancellor Rommel Espinosa, and UP Open University Chancellor GraceAlfonso, and UP Mindanao Chancellor Sylvia Concepcion, and UP Baguio Chancellor RaymundoRovillos, and not to forget UP Cebu Dean Liza Corro. To the rest of us, Kristel died in pain; to the UP heads, did she die in vain?

"UP must die!" I said (20 March 2013, blogspot.com). Student Regent Cleve Arguelles said, "The government's policy of pushing state universities to be self-sufficient served as a death sentence for Tejada" (Reinir Padua, 21 March 2013, philstar.com). And so Chancellor Agulto, through Vice Chancellor De Luna, tightened his grip on the receivables so much that out came gore. In Shakespeare's A Merchant Of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1, Agulto would be Shylock, the one who would have his pound of flesh extracted, which is in the contract, without considering that it would draw blood, which is not in the contract. What fools these mortals be!

"Instead of resorting to victim-blaming, the UP administration should take steps to ensure that we are not hindering qualified and intelligent students from receiving quality education," Professor Ramon Guillermo said, speaking for the Concerned Teachers and Educators for Nationalism and Democracy. UP Manila was blaming Kristel Tejada and her family for failing several times to meet the payment deadline. UP Manila didn't realize that they were adding salt to injury.

UP Diliman Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Marion Tan said the inability to pay tuition fees on time is a problem not just of Kristel Tejada's family but also of those of other poor UP students. I say that is because the University of the Philippines has become no longer a University for the Poor as it was before 2006 and instead has become a University for the Prosperous. That story began when the first and only Lady UP President Emerlinda Roman had the bright idea of raising tuition fees by 300% no matter who got hurt! Only the poor got hurt.

Professor Danilo Arao said the Justice for Kristel Alliance wanted the scrapping of the Student Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP) and was campaigning for full state subsidy for UP. I understand Kristel was under the STFAP and it didn't work out in her favor. Bureaucratic procedures for those literal-, not liberal-minded: Too many rules spoil the bright.

I'm also strongly for full government subsidy for UP, because strong-willed President of the Philippines Noynoy Aquino cannot say we have no money in the treasury: If Noynoy Aquino can allot this year to the Department of Health an additional budget of PhP 21 Billion, that is, 21 followed by 9 zeros (ph.m.yahoo.com) to distribute free condoms and contraceptives, why can't he bully the Budget Department to give UP at least 10% of that, or PhP 2.1 Billion to distribute free tuitions? To do that, I hope he is bully enough.

In any case, Noynoy Aquino will have to think out of the box: Will he? Only if he has creative will. At this time and in this case, political will wins elections; creative will wins hearts. It takes a hero to have a heart.

Migrante International, an OFW group, said they sympathized with the family of Kristel Tejada. "Her tragedy is also our tragedy because we know all too well how it is to strive hard for (poor) families to survive." Migrante thought Aquino can actually do something about schools raising tuition fees and traders bringing up prices of commodities, "if only he has the political will." I know he has, but he may have misplaced it.

Second thought about full state subsidy: Let's make sure the bureaucratic procedures don't kill more poor students! What did UP Manila Student Councilor Adrian Sampang say? (ph.news.yahoo.com): "One death is one too many."

Still, the best solution I think is for the entire UP System to, first of all, reforest its own bald mountains and hills so that it can breathe in fresh air, so that it will have the energy to pan for its own gold and dig for its own oil - not to beg from a government that prefers plastic to paper:

Billions for condoms & contraceptives and not one cent for tuition!

MANILA: Have you heard? Kris Aquino, celebrated & controversial actress & TV host and complicated sister of Philippine President Benigno "Noynoy" Cojuangco Aquino III, she has quit all her shows and is in Europe right now taking a 2-week vacation with her sons Josh and Bimby, alone together (ANN, 25 March 2012, femalenetwork.com). Doesn't she know when you're lonely, you're lonely anywhere you are?

What's she up to now, nobody knows. Everybody knows the boys have different biological fathers. Josh was born out of wedlock; at the moment, Kris is out of wedlock, as her marriage to James Yap was annulled February of last year. So, she is a single mother also to Bimby, James' son too. Is Kris out of luck? I say there are no bad lucks; there are only bad choices.

The Kris Aquino I love is one of the daughters of idolized, once-Senator and martyred Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. It was 7-year old Kristina Bernadette Cojuangco Aquino who spoke in rallies in her father's behalf as a candidate in the 1978 parliamentary elections. The father lost the election but the daughter won our hearts. The whole world was so smitten that she appeared on the front page of the New York Times and TIME Magazine (Wikipedia). Good choice.

When Kris grew up, she travelled the highways and byways of love, from one heartthrob to another, from one heartbreak to another. The boy Josh (Joshua) is her son from a relationship with Philip Salvador, who was married at the time. The pretty and popular and good girl gone bad. "Kris Aquino, how could you?!" was what we all said. Well, she could. Not content, she also had an affair with Joey Marquez, known to be a playboy, from whom she got STD and the scare of her life when he pointed a 9mm gun at her, she said. Cut! Next scene. The boy James Carlos "Bimby" Aquino Yap Jr is her son with James Yap, one of the basketball stars in the country, whom she married in 2005 in a civil wedding. The marriage lasted 7 years, until the stars went out of the sky. Bad choice?

The marital woes have lasted up to today. On Saturday, 23 March 2013, a Makati court was reported to have forbidden both parties of Kris Aquino and James Yap from "making further public pronouncements about their ongoing family problem" (Kapuso Online, blogspot.com). Kris had earlier sought a temporary protection order (TPO) against James getting near their son. The TPO was granted. The shut-up order came with James' plea for the issuance of a hold departure order (HDO) against Kris. The HDO was denied.

Cut! Next scene. After talking about her, let me talk to Kris herself, in a monologue:

After all is said and done, Kris, you can escape to Europe and escape from the present, but you cannot escape from your past.

Your journeys of love have got to stop; please stop taking another first step to another journey of another thousand heartaches. You're not only hurting yourself; you're also hurting many other people.

Kris, you said, "I was born to be a mother, not a wife" (Pilar Mateo, 15 January 2013, interaksyon.com). For lack of practice, Kris. Being a mother needs practice, years of practice, and if you are married, being a wife needs years of practice too. If you are a Roman Catholic, just because your husband is not a good husband is not a good reason for not being a good wife.

If you think God is punishing you, think again. You're punishing yourself - and your innocent boys. You were named after St Bernadette, who is known for the apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes (interaksyon.com). You will be seeing other kinds of apparitions if you don't still your mind and you keep travelling the roads of life without direction.

Kris, did you or did you not drop a veiled threat to James Yap to whom you said, in an argument, "Baka nakalimutan mo, three years pa yung brother ko" (DVM, 22 March 2013, gmanetwork.com)? "Lest you forget, my brother has 3 more years." Kris, everyone knows what you mean, as you have only one brother and he happens to be the Philippine President.

So you want to take up Law (Maridol Ranoa-Bismark, 25 March 2013, ph.news.yahoo.com). Kris, you told your manager Boy Abunda in "The Buzz" on Sunday, "I keep telling Atty (Frank) Chavez that I should have been a lawyer … recently, I realized kung gaano kahalaga ang tamang batas para sa Pilipinas" (I realized how important are the right laws for the Philippines). If you're worried about the right laws, Kris, you don't need to become a lawyer; all you need to do is run for Representative or Senator in the next elections, in 2016, when your brother will run again for President. You will make a pretty strong endorser for his second candidacy. And you will win too.

But, you should take up Love Kris, not Law. You must travel the road of true love now. You were born on a Love Day, on Valentine's Day in 1971; you are only 41; if you live to be 82, you have another 41 years to make up for love.

You think you were stupid to have fallen in love with James Yap? Of course! You cannot fall in love unless you're stupid. Been there, done that! It's not love if you don't fall. But you're really stupid to fall out of love when things don't go the way you want them.

Kris, you don't know what true love is. Here, let me recite to you one of the most loved prose poems in the world. It fits your life like a T. For once in your life, listen!

Kris, if you speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, you are a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if you have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if you have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, you are nothing. If you give away all your possessions, and if you hand over your body so that you may boast, but do not have love, you gain nothing.

Kris, love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Kris, love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When you were a child, you spoke like a child, you thought like a child, you reasoned like a child; when you became an adult, you put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now you know only in part; then you will know fully, even as you have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Kris, please read 1 Corinthians 13 in the original and cry. You make us cry.

MANILA: I writer am interested in healing because I know that healing leads to much creativity. Age doesn't matter because gray matter doesn't age in creativity. I have a mind of a 72-year old to prove that! Among other incontrovertible pieces of evidence, in October 2011, when I was 71, I received from the University of the Philippines Los Baños Alumni Association the first-ever award "Outstanding Alumnus for Creative Writing." There was no such awardee in 2012. Great!

The old Polynesian (OP) Ho'oponopono was oriented to family & tribal or village healing. "Ho’oponopono has been used for centuries by the indigenous people of Hawaii and other Polynesian islands to heal illnesses in individuals and even wounds within the family and the tribe" (ANN, processcoaching.com). Excellent!

Then Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona reinvented Ho'oponopono; Hew Len and Joe Vitale in turn reinvented that and made it personal; so I'm going to call it the Simeona-Len-Vitale (SLV) Ho'oponopono. It isn't that great.

In my previous essay, I myself reinvented the SLV Ho'oponopono (see my "Healing reinvented by Vitale. Eppie Brasil's & my Ho'oponopono," 24 March 2013, Frank A Hilario, blogspot.com). This essay explains how the OP Ho'oponopono has evolved from being family-based to person-based to village-based healing. Yes.

Vitale says, "If you want to improve your life, you have to heal your life" (mrfire.com). You keep saying "I'm sorry" and "I love you" and that's it, he says. "Turns out that loving yourself is the greatest way to improve yourself." Yes?

So, Joe Vitale is selling the idea that this SLV version of the old Polynesian Ho'oponopono is the secret to personal healing, which is the secret to personal health and wealth. About personal wealth, maybe, but I'm not interested. About personal health, I don't doubt it; if you get rid of some of your emotional, psychological, spiritual baggages, you become healthier. I'm speaking from experience of 22 years with the Bukás Loób sa Díyos (Hearts Open to God) Catholic Charismatic Community in the Philippines.

But total health from the SLV Ho'oponopono? I doubt it very much. SLV healing is Selfish, Limited, Vulnerable. SLV Ho'oponopono is self-absorbed, self-centered, and does not really care what happens to the world outside oneself. There is no village included within SLV Ho'oponopono; there is only a person, a very healthy & very successful person - not caring about a very healthy & very prosperous village. I take care of myself; you take care of yourself.

Ho'oponopono as espoused by the SLV version is getting rid of spiritual baggages, not requiring the participation of anybody else. That is against the spirit of the ancient Hawaiian healing practice. If not Simeona herself, then Len and Vitale have hijacked the concept for themselves. They now prescribe it for personal success, health and wealth. Very personal. It is clear that you are not compassionately connected to society if you go after its wealth for your own sake only.

How can it not be selfish when those 4 phrases in SLV Ho'oponopono are centered on you and you alone, to make you feel whole and good? You're not talking to someone; you're just saying to the air, to your Divinity, "I love you" and "Please forgive me" and "I am sorry" and "Thank you."

If instead you told someone and not only to the air around you, "I love you" and "Please forgive me" and "I am sorry" and "Thank you," you would have started a village on its way to healing. That's Forgiveness Healing. In SLV Healing, you're interested only in yourself. Joe Vitale says, "Suffice it to say that whenever you want to improve anything in your life, there's only one place to look: inside you."

Catherine Strang says Love is expressed in "I love you," Humility in "I'm sorry," Responsibility in "Please forgive me," Gratitude in "Thank you" (thewholeofyou.com). Good, Catherine, but not good enough. There is no true forgiveness there or, which is the same thing, "Please forgive me" is only half of forgiveness - you have to give the other half, you have to forgive: "I forgive you."

Thus, in my version of the Ho'oponopono, forgiveness is the crucial element of healing, half-half in the phrases "I forgive you" and "I beg you" to forgive me. When I tell others "I forgive you. I beg you. I love you. I thank you" over and over again, those magic words are designed to heal a lot of people directly involved in my life so far; it's a wheel and so it goes round and round and round until it covers the entire village. I shall now call my village-oriented version the Double Forgiveness (2F) Ho'oponopono (see image).

Listen to me You, You, You, You, You and You! I'll say it once, I'll say it a thousand times. I Forgive You. I Beg You. I Love You. I Thank You. I Forgive You. I Beg You. I Love You. I Thank You. I Forgive You ...

If you talk to the Divinity in you as SLV Ho'oponopono requires, it would be wrong to say "I forgive you." In 2F Ho'oponopono, it would be right to say it to someone alive, someone who has hurt you. If you say "I forgive you" without demanding that the other person ask for forgiveness before you give it, you are healed! And the other person is healed! This is what the SLV Ho'oponopono misses, which is what my village-building 2F Ho'oponopono aims at. Which is what the old Polynesian Ho'oponopono aimed at.

R Makana Risser Chai says, "Traditionally, Hawaiians know that conflicts, guilt and holding grudges caused disease. They practiced Ho’oponopono, a system for recognizing conflicts, forgiving the people involved, providing for restitution, and making things right" (hawaiianinsights.com). Thus, the original idea of the Ho'oponopono was as a family & village keeper. For commercial purposes, it was reinvented because the original was not designed for self-healing like SLV Ho'oponopono, so it couldn't be a consumer product. Thus, it has been redesigned to be a moneymaker as it can be sold as well to individuals as to groups; but then, the SLV version forgot the other-people-healing part. My 2F version restores the family and village, even as it is a self-healing process.

"I forgive you … and you, and you, and you!"

As I said as much in my earlier essay ("Healing reinvented by Vitale," blogspot.com), SLV Ho'oponopono as practiced ignores the most difficult part of the healing process, which is to forgive, so that others share in your healing. I started healing when I started to forgive myself and others. SLV healing is selfish - you forgive only your own self. Matthew B James says, "I wanted it for myself" (29 March 2011, psychologytoday.com). This brand of Ho'oponopono is very selfish.

One other thing. I have visited at least 50 webpages and I note that almost all believers of Ho'oponopono talks of "the Divinity" that is within each of us, that Divinity being either God, Source, Spirit, the Universe, your Higher Self, or your inner mind. Now, who put that Divinity in there? What kind of Divinity; is it as I define it, as I describe it, as I sense it? In that case, I am the master of that Divinity. OMG!

The SLV Ho'oponopono does not give you the basis for that Divinity, except that it is within you. Now then, that whatever-you-consider-it-to-be-Divinity Divinity is already different between a Roman Catholic and a Protestant and a Jew. I am a Roman Catholic; I opt for a Ho'oponopono that defines within what I know to be a Catholic Divinity and not the other way around! If your concept of Divinity does not require that I forgive, then you can have your Divinity and I'll go ahead and hug mine.

Ho'oponopono is "a process of letting go of toxic energies within you to allow the impact of Divine thoughts, words, deeds and actions" (hooponoponoitalia.it). Now, what is divine to you? I prefer as my source of Divine thoughts the Christian God, as the Roman Catholic sees Them, the Trinity, as revealed in the Holy Traditions and Holy Bible and as interpreted for modern times by the Magisterium or the Teaching Authority of the Church.

Karolina says, "It helps you clean the unconscious where all your blocks are" (releaseyouremotions.com). Yes, SLV Ho'oponopono makes you feel better and more creative. But since it's more complete, my 2F Ho'oponopono is better than better!

Maui Jungalow says, "Do what is best for you, and for what feels right in your heart" (mauijungalow.com). Yes, but be careful with "what feels right in your heart" because it becomes anarchy if your ultimate basis is your feeling, as it is in SLV Ho'oponopono.

Tony Pann says, describing SLV Ho'oponopono (22 February 2013, examiner.com):

Ho'oponopono is a sacred way of living. Today, its usage extends to unlimited applications and, although the word itself might be Hawaiian in origin, its meaning is universal. The foundations of the teachings are: Love, Compassion, Forgiveness and Gratitude. Ho'oponopono, as it is translated, beautifully expresses these teachings in four simple statements: "I love you." "I am sorry." "Please forgive me." "Thank you."

Unlike you, Tony Pann and Catherine Strang, I do not separate Love from Compassion, Forgiveness, Humility, Responsibility, and Gratitude. Read if you will 1 Corinthians 13 (New Testament). Yes, your Ho'oponopono is inexplicably redundant. No, "I am sorry" is not Forgiveness; rather, it is the same as "Please forgive me" - it is Asking for Forgiveness by Someone, not You Giving Forgiveness to that Someone. Giving Forgiveness is the neglected better half of Asking for Forgiveness. My Double Forgiveness - "I forgive you" and "I beg you" - in fact calls for Complete Forgiveness. All, or nothing at all.

Now then, if you insist on practicing Ho'oponopono according to Joe Vitale? You're selfish, limited, vulnerable, hardheaded and rich, but I forgive you!

MANILA: Summer is here. And best of all, it's free!

I'm also free. Anywhere your group, club or association is in the Philippines, you may invite me to give you a free 3-4 hours of a Creattitudes Workshop in Creative Writing, Nonfiction. It's all in your attitudes. At the very least, you'll enjoy it, and so will I. And why wouldn't you, when I will show you on the big screen, using your LCD projector, how I inspire myself, how I write and rewrite, and how you can be like me. Wouldn't you want to find out when you learn that, would you believe, I'm 72?

You can do it! Like I like to say, age doesn't matter because gray matter doesn't age when it's creative. Among other things, 2 years ago, 2011, I received the first-ever award, "Outstanding Alumnus for Creative Writing" from the UP Los Baños Alumni Association, with Pids Rosario of Madecor as Chair, the result of an international selection that included alumni abroad. You can say this was practice winning over theory; the main criterion was excellence in writing by any alumnus who did not study to be a writer. I did not even study DevCom, or Journalism. I studied to be a teacher. I have written 6 books published abroad by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics as a consulting writer (ICRISAT is based in India). I am a self-taught writer, so you can say that I teacher have taught myself extraordinarily well, thank you very much!

So, with me as Workshop Head, if you are young, you will learn from the wisdom of the young once. If you are adult, you will learn from the experience of a self-tutored man. If you are old, you should be so inspired! One of my author idols, the British radical & wit George Bernard Shaw, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925 at age 69, was still writing wonderfully the year before he died at 94 in 1950.

In the photograph, I'm looking out on top of the Carmen bridge in Rosales in Pangasinan, the bancas rowing into the noonday sun along the mighty Agno River. When your mind is creative, the thoughts will flow as the waters flow in the expansive Agno River. Attend my free workshop and you'll see!

All the more so now that my Creattitudes Workshop just had a rebirth, literally a renewing of the mind, to borrow from Romans 12. I'm excited to tell you today that in the last few days, I have had another creative awakening of the conscious and subconscious.

It started last Saturday, 23 March 2013, when I first heard about Ho'oponopono, an ancient practice of repairing broken relationships by the Hawaiians and other Polynesians. I have since written 2 essays on it. When first I heard it, at once I knew how valuable it was, because I knew from personal experience that healing your hurts enriches your mind.

Brainstorming on the concept by myself, I saw that Joe Vitale's 4 phrases of the reinvented Ho'oponopono needed reengineering itself, as it could not complete the healing process (see my essay "Healing reinvented by Vitale. Eppie Brasil's & my Ho'oponopono," 24 March 2013, blogspot.com). In your contemplation with Ho'oponopono, your healing is only half-healing, because you are supposed only to heal yourself, not also heal the wounds you have inflicted on others. I hope Sister Eppie Brasil knows better with her Regina Rosarii Institute for Contemplation in Asia in Tanay (reginarica.org). "We have become a center for healing," she said the first time I heard her.

Analyzing further, I found that Joe Vitale's version of the Ho'oponopono is less powerful than the old Polynesian model, and that my reinvention of his reengineering returns the original power of healing not only individuals but families and even the whole village (see my "Healing Without Forgiving. Joe Vitale's Selfish, Limited, Vulnerable Ho'oponopono," 26 March 2013, blogspot.com).

Hearing about Ho'oponopono for the first time from Sister Eppie, immediately I saw that it could be turned into a powerful device to open the mind to infinite creativity - because I already knew from years of personal hurts that healing is the St Peter's key to the door of Creativity Activity Heaven.

To recapitulate: Joe Vitale's 4 phrases for healing are "I love you" and "Please forgive me" and "I am sorry" and "Thank you." Alone, you are supposed to meditate using those as mantra, speaking them one after the other to nobody (see image above). Repeating and repeating and repeating. Gleb Esman says, "These phrases repeated will ignite the self-transformation process for the practitioner" (idreamcatcher.com). In meditating, repeat the phrases enough and the feelings become real and liberating. Esman says, "(To whom) do you say these phrases? Essentially you just say them. No need to feel anything special, imagine anything, or otherwise to complicate this process." Say them to the wind.

Very powerful phrases. But then I saw that meditating on those 4 phrases leads only to incomplete healing. Alone and saying them to no one in particular, "I love you" and "Please forgive me" and "I am sorry" and "Thank you" lead you to mend your broken heart - but not your broken relationships with other people! You're a new man but only half a new man. So I thought of a new group of 4 phrases: "I Forgive You" and "I Beg You" and "I Love You" and "I Thank You" (see image here).

More than that, unlike in Joe Vitale's Ho'oponopono, your affirmations are told to actual people, alive, those with whom you wish to feel good and whole again. It would be next to impossible, but if you mean what you say, each personal encounter would truly be a liberating and complete experience for both you and the other person, and not a selfish one like Joe Vitale's.

If you look at the images here that I have drawn, they both actually reflect a cross, a triumphant cross, with that of the 4 I's even more victorious, because of the overall message of complete healing. The cross with a circle is known as the Bolgar cross or Sunwheel, representing the great Medicine Wheel of Life (Wikipedia). The cross was intentional - after all, I am a writer who happens to be a Roman Catholic. The triumphant cross is the triumphant Christ.

Now then, what I called The 4 I's of Ho' in my 24 March essay is what I'm going to use from now on to conduct my free or pay Creattitudes Workshops for Creative Writing, Nonfiction. Now you ask, how in the world can the phrase-sentences "I Forgive You" and "I Beg You" and "I Love You" and "I Thank You" be used as devices to generate more creative ideas in a Creative Writing Workshop? That's what I'm going to do and that's what you're going to find out if you attend my workshop.

Which Creattitudes Workshop? I have the Creative High for high school students, Creative Call for college students, and Creative Yes for professionals in any field of theory or practice. I want to encourage you. In Creative High we will work on faith; in Creative Call we will work on hope; and in Creative Yes we will work on love and hate. Actually, if you're creative, you can work on all of those anytime at all.

Why am I doing this? Because nobody has a mind to do it, and I have. And yes, it is all in English, because English is the competitive advantage of us Filipinos over many countries in Asia, including Australia and Africa.

If you are in Luzon, there shouldn’t be any problem. I love to travel by bus, and will come to you as far North as Laoag City or as far South as Legazpi City.

So, if you have a group, club or association, email me at frankahilario@gmail.com. Email is free, and so is any one of my 3-4 hour workshops to fit your field or interest, to turn your sluggish minds into summer minds where the sun is always shining!

MANILA: It is Good Friday! 29 March 2013 and I have just invented a process whereby you, whoever you are, are guaranteed to become creative, to generate more ideas where you had none before. I Filipino educator and social mind reformer call it Creativization, a new approach to creative thinking. You can do it!

Are you following me? Creativization is actually a new name for an old practice of mine. How else do you explain how I have blogged as well as uploaded to the American Chronicle online at least 1,200,000 words (1,200 essays of an average of 1,000 words each) in the last 7 years alone? That's at least 3 essays a week! And each of those is tightly written, yes, with a beginning, middle and end, not simply rambling thoughts as in hundreds of thousands of run-of-the-mill blogs.

I have also come to realize that Creativization is in contradistinction to Conscientization, which is the creation of Brazilian educator and social reformer Paulo Freire (1921-1997), which is based on critical thinking.

I can't blame him. Freire's family suffered during the Great Depression of the 1930s; later, he said that "poverty and hunger severely affected his ability to learn" (Wikipedia). He said, "Experience showed me once again the relationship between social class and knowledge." In 1967, he published his first book, Education As The Practice Of Freedom. His most famous book contains his approach:The Pedagogy of the Oppressed (first published in Portuguese in 1968, translated into English and published in 1970). I am a certified teacher, graduate of the University of the Philippines in 1965, so I should know what pedagogy is all about.

Paulo Freire's Conscientization is Liberation Pedagogy, and Pope Francis would not have approved. It teaches: "Liberate your self." The phrase comes from me, but I think I have captured in 3 words what Freire fought for his whole life. Oppressor and Oppressed, Conscientization is your approach to advance to Critical Consciousness, so that you will learn to liberate yourself from the oppression of the upper class in society.

Conscientization vs Creativization is Critical Thinking vs Creative Thinking. There is a world of a difference, an entire universe of thinking. Paulo Freire would say, "Liberate yourself from poverty." Frank Hilario would say, "Liberate yourself first from the poverty of your thinking." Freire is referring to the world of the Oppressor vs Oppressed, which is the world of the one-track mind. Frank Hilario is referring to the world of Critical Thinkers vs Creative Thinkers, where social classes cannot be erased overnight but social thinking can be.

As processes for learning, both Conscientization and Creativization can utilize the same images and metaphors as aids to understanding and yet come up learning differently. How differently? Like this: Conscientization will describe The Universe, while Creativization will describe Parallel Universes. One is mind-limiting, the other mind-expanding.

Oppression, oppressors and oppressed are metaphors; they can be modified or even changed as they are not objective but subjective. Slavery is not a metaphor; it is a reality that you may not accept but, if you are the slave, you are owned by somebody and he can use you the way he likes. What Freire refers to as oppressors are not masters; the oppressed are not slaves - they can think their way out of the situation if they want to. That is the whole point of my Creativization.

Freire said, "To speak a true word is to transform the world" (Pedagogy of the Oppressed). That is confrontational. It is also delusional. We cannot transform the world; we can only transform ourselves. And that begins with creative thinking. Creativization.

Conscientization is a limited "practice of freedom" that Freire talked about; it is confined within the reality described in the world of the Oppressor and the Oppressed and is not intended as a leap of faith to the world outside, out of that limited history-of-class-struggle universe. Creativization is that leap of faith.

I first met the concept of Conscientization in 1985 when I worked as an extension specialist for the Farming Systems & Soil Resources Institute (FSSRI) of the University of the Philippines Los Baños. Ms Virginia Cardenas, the head of our extension division, introduced us to the concept in an FSSRI seminar. At first blush, I thought it was a great way to teach the illiterate in an informal way or in a non-classroom about the realities of Oppressor and Oppressed classes of people. Some 27 years later, at 72, in my creative attempt to come up with a name for a technique of opening the mind to alternative ways of thinking, I remembered Freire's Conscientization and in parallel, I came up with Creativization. Except that their names are similar, the concepts are the exact opposite of each other.

Frank Hilario's Creativization is Liberation Ecology, where ecology refers to the study of the totality. It's holistic. It teaches: "Liberate your mind." Learn to liberate your thinking from the oppression of the so-called higher thinking in society. Creativization is your approach to advance to Creative Consciousness, so that you will learn to liberate yourself from the oppression of limited, Black or White, Yes or No Thinking.

Conscientization is based solely on, no matter what name they call it, critical thinking: logical, vertical, serial, sequential, or hierarchical thinking. Critical thinking can come out only with either a "Yes" or "No" and never the "Maybe" of fuzzy logic. On the other hand, Creativization is based on creative thinking, and can come out with many possibilities, many kinds and any number of Yes and No and Maybe answers you can choose from.

Not only are the differences quantitative; they are also qualitative:

Conscientization constructs one reality, always of an Oppression, and stops there; there is only one interpretation and only one way to get out of that situation. Conscientization is sure of itself, so it cannot graduate to being creative. If Conscientization were to be summarized in 2 words, it would be, "Not right." Or, "Not this."

Creativization constructs one reality, always of an Occasion, a realization, and then considers many possibilities with it, not necessarily to avoid that situation but more to improve on it. Creativization is unsure of itself, and that's why it's so creative! If Creativization were to be summarized in 2 words, it would be, "What if?" or George Bernard Shaw's famous "Why not?"

In Conscientization, the battle is between the Oppressor and the Oppressed, and your critical mind limits you to fighting. In Creativization, there is no battle; instead, there are choices of action, and your creative mind generates them. Conscientization imprisons you; Creativization liberates you.

Education is the practice of freedom only if it is creative. Conscientization instructs on a limited scale; Creativization inspires on a very wide latitude. Conscientization is limits to thought; Creativization is limits to naught.

Liberate your self, Paulo Freire says. Liberate your mind, Frank Hilario says.

For your education, whoever you are, this educator has just invented 4 different passwords to open 4 different doors of creativity anytime. To see is to believe!

Creativization is what I am prepared to demonstrate to anyone who cares to learn beyond his biases and prejudices, beyond his exalted position, or ponderous credentials, or prized possessions. So, if your group, club, society or association care for a 3-4 hours of a lecture-demo of "Creativization: How To Liberate Your Mind," email me at frankahilario@gmail.com. All I need is your LCD projector and my cup of coffee. Your place, not mine. That is where I will teach you the 4 passwords. Yes, it's free. Liberate your mind!