Fruits

There is something about eating fruits that is so delightful and I had been wondering about what it is but could not get it until this morning. I woke up and I was so hungry but I do not like what is on the table–fried egg, rice, and bangus cooked in tomato sauce. I wanted something light and refreshing. I was thinking about watermelon and melon. But there was none in the ref. I ended up sitting on a couch and reading the news. And since nothing about reading the news could fill my hunger, I looked out the door and saw the guava tree. I climbed the tree and took out three yellow-green fruits, bit one and understood that it was exactly fruits I was craving to eat today.

So what is it about fruits that is so delightful? It is watery, it is sweet, it is light in the stomach, and it is refreshing.

Out of the three guava fruits I picked, I was able to eat only one because the rest were maggot infested. I could not have the full satisfaction I was hoping for. So, I had someone buy me a watermelon and a melon but she ended up buying only watermelon. And the price is so prohibitive.

The need for a human body for fresh fruits could not be overemphasized. Doctors advise to always eat fruits, aside from vegetables. People will be healthier if we eat more fruits. Of course, almost every body wants and loves to eat fruits but could not do so in a regular basis because the price is beyond what a basic salaried employee, like me, can afford.

In the past, the duties of the state to its people does not include providing them with decent housing. But with more and more people populating the country and less and less land there is available for people to own, rent or build their house on to, providing its citizens with a decent housing in the form of housing loan has become a necessity. In the same vein, addressing the health issues of the citizenry requires, among others, that my beloved Philippines create a program for each local government to have a garden where each can plant and sell farm products, like fruits, at prices affordable to the masa.

Taksi should be recognized as a national sport

Taksi is a local game which can be likened to ten pin bowling (“bowling” for short). Whereas bowling needs a bowling lane, taksi needs only a dry and solid ground; whereas bowling needs ten pins and a special ball to knock the pins out, taksi needs only coins and a cue coin with which to take the bets off. Needless to say, taksi  requires much lesser space than the area used for bowling.

The players agree on the value of the coin bet, draw a square on the ground, place the bets at the center of the square, draw a big letter “H” with a long horizontal but with shorter vertical lines few feet away from the square. Each player stands as near as the bets and toss the cue coin to the letter “H”. The player who can land his cue coin (ball) at or nearest to the center of the vertical line of the H will start the game by throwing at the bets in the square to remove  at least one coin (pin) out of it. The act of successfully removing a bet (pin) from inside to outside the square with the use of a cue coin (ball) is called “punggit”. The usual rule is, when a player shoots out a bet from the square at the start of the game, he gets all the bets. Game over for that set. The players would again put bets on the square and start the same process.

The player who starts the game aims to punggit the bet. The next players have the option to either punggit the bet or hit the first player’s cue coin to eliminate him from the game.

When the second player, for example hit’s the first player’s cue coin, the 2nd player eliminates the first player, removes the 1st player’s bet, and starts punggit-ing the bets even before other players have not started yet. This time, the second player can get close to the square and therefore has a more accurate shot at the bets, and the freedom to choose whichever direction he wants his cue coin to go to. Players however may agree on the rule that each player may only approach the square and attack the bets from the direction of his cue coin.

Any player may not aim at the bets in the square or at the other players’ cue coin. Instead, he may toss his cue coin in a spot where the cue coin of a player who could not hit and remove the bet from the square would go.

Like any other game, taksi needs accuracy and planning. Because it is a game played by children who cut classes, or by drop-outs, taksi has become associated with them and earned its notoriety as such. But as taksi become known it will also someday have the respect it deserves. Like Billiards. Before Efren “Bata” Reyes, it used to be a game played only in stalls inside wet markets.

‘Oath of the new Katipuneros’

I was there once or twice many years ago. There, were courage, loyalty and integrity are inculcated and carved into the being of the very few and the very privileged people who will someday defend the territorial integrity and political independence of my beloved Philippines. I mean, the Philippine Military Academy.

I really have no idea how life as a cadet is lived in the PMA, although the movie Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick), the HBO series Band of Brothers, and my experience as a son of a strict father and as an ex-seminarian give me a glimpse.

There is a unique sense of pride of being a part or having been part of an organization people look up to and consider elite. On your shoulders lies the responsibility of living the ideals that reflect the nobility and the tenacity of the human spirit.

I look up to the men and women who graduated from the Philippine Military Academy. They are very proud people whose “upbringing” is to make the country and its people safe from harm, and their motto says it all: courage, integrity and loyalty.

The oath of the new Katipuneros

1. I am willing to lay down my life in the pursuit of the Vision
2. I will be loyal always to the National Interest
3. I am willing to be a catalyst of change of an oppressive and unjust society into one that advocates equality and social justice
4. I will respect human rights
5. I will not commit any acts of corruption
6. I will live a modest life commensurate to my legal means
7. I am willing to be punished should I betray any decree of this oath
8. I am doing this supreme act of sacrifice for God, Country and People with no promise of reward, compensation or recognition

There is the Magdalo group whose leader Senator Antonio Trillanes IV is still incarcerated. He was later joined by General Danilo Lim–the two walked out from Makati Regional Trial Court all the way to Manila Peninsula Hotel. I called them The free people in jail.

But before the Magdalo group, there is another less known PMA graduate who laid down his life for his country–Philip Andrew Pestaño.

I heard about him only through an email that was forwarded to me. The email says:

Philip Pestano Memorial
Justice at 3 A.M.
by Fr. James B. Reuter, S.J.

*Note: This is the e-mail prayer brigade initiated by Fr. Reuter for Phillip.

Phillip Andrew A. Pestaño graduated from the Ateneo de Manila High School in 1989, entered the Philippine Military Academy, and became an Ensign in the Philippine Navy in 1993. He was assigned as cargo master, on a Navy ship.

He discovered that the cargo being loaded onto his vessel included logs that were cut down illegally, were carried to the ship illegally, and were destined to be sold, illegally. Then there were 50 sacks of flour, which were not flour, but shabu – worth billions. Literally, billions. And there were military weapons which were destined for sale to the Abu Sayyaf. He felt that he could not approve this cargo. Superior officers came to him and said: “Please! Be reasonable! This is big business. It involves many important people. Approve this cargo.” But Phillip could not, in conscience, sign approval.

Then his parents received two phone calls, saying: “Get your son off that ship! He is going to be killed!” When Phillip was given leave at home, his family begged him not to go back. Their efforts at persuasion continued until his last night at home, when Phillip was already in bed. His father came to him and said: “Please, son, resign your commission. Give up your military career. Don’t go back. We want you alive. If you go back to that ship, it will be the end of you!” But Phillip said to his father: “Kawawa ang bayan!” And he went back to the ship.

The scheduled trip was very brief – from Cavite to Roxas Boulevard – it usually took only 45 minutes. But on September 27, 1995, it took one hour and a half. When the ship arrived at Roxas Boulevard, Ensign Pestaño was dead. The body was in his stateroom, with a pistol, and a letter saying that he was committing suicide. The family realized at once that the letter was forged. They tried desperately for justice, carrying the case right up to the Senate. The Senatorial Investigation Committee examined all the evidence, carefully. Then they issued an official statement, saying among other things: Ensign Phillip Pestaño did not commit suicide. He was murdered. He was shot through the head, somewhere outside of his stateroom, and the body was carried to his room and placed in the bed. The crime was committed by more than one person. In spite of these findings by the Senate, the family could not get justice. The case is still recorded, by the Navy, as suicide. For 12 years they have been knocking at the doors of those in power, to no avail. Now they realize that they should knock on the door of HIM who said: “Knock, and it shall be opened to you. Ask and you shall receive. Seek, and you shall find.”

Phillip Pestaño died at the age of 24. He was scheduled to be married in January of 1996, four months after he was murdered.

In these people lie the contradiction of hope and despair. The Magdalo group has no more hope for the corrupt military leadership sanctioned by the Arroyo Administration to become clean. So the members initiated the bold move. Yet, they are also hopeful that this country will someday have a great military and an exemplary leader, the same reason why they initiated the bold move.

The PMA will continue to produce the men and women who are changing this country. The new graduates will correct and straighten the obnoxious ways of the fellow alumni who made it possible for elections to be defrauded, public funds to be used for personal pleasures, and make a business out of the misery of people trapped in a war zone or addicted to drugs.