THE following is an excerpt from the keynote address I delivered to the Masons on the occasion of the installation of officers of their Maktan Lodge, led by their most worshipful master, Alan Ting, last night:
A few days before last Christmas, two lawyers were killed. Jing Paderanga and his son, Gerick, never had a chance, as the gunman pumped bullets into their bodies, one after the other, without saying a word because, he would later explain, it would only trigger an argument.
Death diminishes us all but the sense of loss is greater when it strikes closer to home. We, the friends of the victims went through a whole gamut of emotions: shock, then grief and finally anger.
Reacting to the incident, a lawyer posted a picture of himself on Facebook, holding a gun while beside him two magazines of ammunition lay on a table. I wish I could empty these bullets onto the body of the killer, he said.
The rash but otherwise human reaction was understandable if viewed in the light of loyalty – the one that we owe our colleagues and friends.
And yet this level of loyalty serves only a very limited and personal purpose.. Beyond the urge for personal revenge and gratification lies a higher and purer degree of loyalty to the traditional and time-honored values that underpin humanity and make possible an enlightened democracy such as respect for due process, and an unshakable belief in a Supreme Being.
I know little about Freemasonry but, as an outsider looking in, I can see loyalty to your revered traditions and the core values that underlined freemasonry’s origins such as belief in the existence of a Supreme Being and in the immortality of the soul and in living an ethical life.
“We believe men are first made masons in their hearts,” according to a literature from the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the Philippines, “and then they ask to join our Fraternity. Freemasonry will take these men, already good men in our community, and help make them better men. Each man brings something different into the Fraternity, as different as the types of men who become Masons. However, each shares a core of common beliefs and dreams; each brother believes that, even in a small way, by every one of his actions, he helps makes his world, his community and himself better."
How I wish it were the same everywhere else. How I wish that every member of society or for that matter, every Filipino, is possessed with that same sense of sharing, of belonging, of caring and of helping each other become better men. How I wish that the thread that has bound Masons together since its creation is the same bond that will unite our community, our country and the world.
In this post-truth era, where propaganda trumps the truth, where institutions are systematically ruined and revered traditions discarded like used tissue paper, how I wish that we could draw inspiration from your loyalty to the Mason way of life and to your rich history and tradition.
In the Philippines, it is a history that is replete with instances of heroism. Masons like Jose Rizal, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Marcelo del Pilar and Antonio and Juan Luna constituted the vanguard of the struggle for independence from Spain.
Through the La Solidaridad, they explained their position:
“Masonry will exist as long as there is tyranny, for Masonry is but an organized protest of the oppressed. And tyranny will prevail in the Philippines as long as the government remains in the hands of the friars at the service of their interests. For that reason, tyranny in the Philippines is synonymous with oligarchy of the friars and to fight against tyranny is to fight the friars.”
The friars are gone but I am not sure if we could say the same about tyranny and oppression.
(frankotherside@gmail.com)