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Sunday, July 10, 2005
Gueco: Our Motherland
By Malu T. Gueco
I LOVE the Philippines.
To-date, we face the crossroads of fragmentation and/or renewal. Wailing calls for a presidential resignation, rotten smells of disunity and the death knells ringing around the Malacañang Palace overwhelm our country. Questions keep bursting forth like a fiery Mt. Pinatubo eruption.
Where did we go wrong?
Why is our leader teetering on the brink of self-destruction?
Do media play a hand in recovery and/or stagnation?
Answers are rather elusive. They even vary in shape and dimension from one citizen to another.
Thereto let me share with you my smoldering insights that keep firing up my viewpoint.
Time capsule
In my lifetime spanning fifty years, I have grown accustomed in being a part of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. This is my land of origin. I feel what our countrymen/women are experiencing. There is no turning back, as this is the only land I belong to.
Now the floodgates of memories are opening up like an old film unreeling from the past.
1970s
Together with my Paulinian college friends, we demonstrated in the streets of Manila, carried placards and marched towards Plaza Miranda. Then, our freedom was smashed with the imprint of martial law. My family talked to me and asked me to stop these provocative acts. Sadly, I said "yes" to their appeal and faded into the shadows of the silent majority.
I let you down, Philippines.
1983
The bullet, which killed Ninoy Aquino, pierced my heart too. Leaving the corral of bleating lambs, I suddenly sprang back to life and roared like a brave lion. Tearing up any yellow directory my hands could pounce on, pouring out tons of confetti, from our 11th floor offices on the rallyists below in Ayala, and voraciously yelling out our protest word "Ibagsak". Unleashing our pent-up defiance for the last 12 years, we stomped on the grounds leading to the Ugarte field to listen to the courageous breed of nationalists spearheaded by our beloved Cory.
Pampanga also rose up on its feet. For the first time in our family, my mom and I walked towards the Nepomart Quadrangle in Angeles City to hear Cory valorously cry out, "Let my people go..." It was a proud day for mom and me.
2005
Today a lamentation song shatters our peace. From the mosques in Davao, the pagodas in Cebu and to the church towers in Pampanga, our voices howl in agony. We see a country of divided leaders, a head of state in disgrace and fingers pointed at one another. Wobbly on our standpoints, dispirited in our emotions and with pain erasing our calm selves, we feel lost in the foggy land of disarray.
Appeal
It is time to uphold the sacredness of the ballot, heal our wounds and begin a new dawn of patriotism.
Furthermore, my dear kabalens (provincemates) and sister/brother Filipinos, let us link arms in rehabilitating our country. We can climb again the mountain of renewal, get involved in binding our national ills and contribute to loving the Motherland.
Let us do volunteer work. Reach out to a needy compatriot and share our services in building her/his house via low-cost construction materials. You can contact Gawad Kalinga for this project. Or you may take a part in donating your time to the Bantay Bata. We did this last April with other volunteers. Even for just one day we held the hands of the kids, painted on paper and acted on a drama workshop with them.
Whatever form it takes, you and I can reenergize the national profile.
Commitment
In times of triumph and in moments of political trials; in days of bliss and in the interlude of sorrow; in this age of 'lapses in judgment' and within the bedrock of truth; we are one. You and I can stand proud beneath the pulsating red, blue and yellow colors of our flag, shed our self-interests and create a land of the heroes/heroines.
With patriotism running in our veins, let us commit to rise up in freedom, transformation and love of our Philippines!
(July 10, 2005 issue)
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