Sunday, October 22, 2006 12 things you can do for summit
FOR starters, follow traffic rules. Dispose of your garbage properly.
These are just two of the 12 things every Filipino can do, lawyer Alexander Lacson said in his book “12 things I can do for my country.”
Cebuanos who want to help create a good impression during an international summit this December can start by reading the book and doing the 12 things it prescribes, said the Catholic church-based movement Dilaab.
At a forum Dilaab hosted yesterday on “heroic Christian citizenship,” Lacson explained what each thing can accomplish. The third and fourth items on the list, for example, demonstrate nationalism and patriotism: “Be proud of your country” and “don’t buy smuggled goods, buy Filipino.”
During his talk, which attracted parents and parish representatives, Lacson also encouraged helping the country by “paying taxes” and “asking for an official receipt.”
The seventh and eighth things are “voting” and “respecting authorities.”
The book also promotes “adopting a scholar or a poor child” and “paying employees well.”
The familial duty of “being a good parent to your children” and vice versa allows one to be a heroic citizen in the household, Lacson said.
Finally, the book promotes that every citizen should “support his or her church.”
Lacson said he wrote the book to provide the public with tools that one can use in helping the country. “Imagine if each one of us becomes a carpenter for our nation...we can build a better nation,” he said.
He recalled that he and his wife once considered going abroad to escape the poor economic situation of the country.
But then they realized that there are in fact some things, 12 to be exact, that they can do for the country.
So he and his family opted to stay and help Filipinos recognize that the answer to the country’s challenges “lies in us as a people; that hope is in us as a people.” (JGA)
