Not the cry, but the flight of the wild duck
that makes the rest of the flock to follow…
— An Old Indian Proverb
HABAGAT, the Southwest Monsoon, has thumped its initial blow the other day in San Miguel Bay and into its surrounding villages signaling its takeover from the Eastern winds and the Northeast Monsoon (Amihan), as its warm dry air reeled off into its scheduled or routine sortie into Philippine atmosphere for the next 4 to 5 months normally beginning in the second half of June up to the end September every year. This monsoon wind usually signals increased fish catch for offshore fishermen in San Miguel Bay even as its airstream coming from the southwest direction (thus opposite the amihan which comes from the northeast) sharply changes the billows and turbulence of sea waves and the undercurrent streams. Like a gigantic wrench turning around sea streams from top to bottom, it affects all kinds of fish species to adjust their emergence into the surface level and sea-bottom habitats, because their microscopic food such as phyto-planktons, zoo-planktons, including benthic organisms are also affected by the change of the season from summer to spring.
This short prologue to my topic in this issue indicates how these powerful forces of nature on air and on the seabed and the various animals therein faithfully observe discipline and environmental parameters. A Supreme Being made them so. We, too, human beings are governed by social tradition, by culture, by our acquired civilization, and national discipline. Man was able to invent government to enforce the so-called laws, rules, and regulations.
But on June 12, 2014, one week from now, the country will observe her 116th Independence Day celebration breaking long established customs and tradition—thus bereft of any sense of history. Our peripatetic president PNoy Aquino, according to reports, will commemorate this grandest event of the country at Plaza Quince Martires in Naga City where he will raise the Philippine Flag to venerate the heroism and martyrdom of Filipino revolutionaries led by General Emilio Aguinaldo who seized political power from Iberian aggressors. A throng of people in the urban areas, political allies and supporters, and some freedom-loving Bicolanos, and probably militant organizations, are expected to attend.
I pity the young generation who shall witness or learn about the anthropological rottenness of this presidential act which is devoid of the long established customs and traditions of Filipinos where our past heads of state had revered this most important national event at the historic spot where the independence of our country was officially declared.
Commemorating the occasion at the wrong venue, or at intrinsically off-beam setting, is full of hunch and notion that PNoy is actually running away from the Metro Manila mammoth crowds with upraised hands and placards denouncing the “intrinsic dry rot” of his Administration. He thus would like to use the monument of the 15 Martyrs in Ciudad de Nueva Caceres as refuge and retreat asylum against the onslaught of political discontent nationwide. He surely would place inside his backpack his Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, his henchman tagged by Pork Barrel fairy Janet Lim Napoles as her guru in the multi-billion-peso PDAF scams. All this act of stupidity was first noted when PNoy brought the celebration of EDSA People Power in Cebu last February.
This annual grand celebration was much more colorful and stirring in the past years when it had been traditionally held in Kawit, Cavite where the country’s independence from foreign dominion was actually founded—and where staring at the historic scenes from the terrace of the Aguinaldo abode would keep the bonfire of history alive. Holding the event some 500 kilometers away from where it happened, you certainly cannot recall with your hearts the torches of Philippine Revolution being brandished ablaze by our freedom fighters. To be sure, the observance this year would be anathema to the surging up of nationalism especially among the youth now that the country and people are filled with widespread and phenomenal discontent and pandemonium. Almost countless number of still undisclosed rip-off and swindling allegedly undertaken by the Budget Department itself of government, particularly this PhP200 billion DAP funds distributed by Malacanang as gratuity and bribe money during the impeachment trial of a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, is continuously shaking the nation in chaotic state and phenomenal turmoil. The best option for you Mr. President, to make my day, and to best serve your country, is TO RESIGN on June 12, 2014!
Jesus Christ Himself, our Lord and Almighty God, has assured us:
Have no fear of them, for nothing is covered
that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
With some degree of pain and sting of angst over my opposition to this Presidential decision to use Plaza Quince Martires in Naga City as venue for the Independence Day celebration, I believe it is much better if we honor Bicol Martyrs on its most appropriate date with the presence of a new head of state. The date, January 4, 1897, was the date of the execution by musketry of eleven Bicolanos at the Luneta; “the four others died in prison and in exile in a lonely island in Fernando Po in Africa.” Being a Bicolano with bleeding heart to properly honor the memories and martyrdom of our heroes without selfish and political motives, such as earning mere publicity stunts, or running away from egregious scandal, I certainly cannot just allow this misuse of Plaza Quince Martires as refuge from the social and political outcry of Filipinos over the current uproar against the non-stop graft and corruption in government.
POSTSCRIPTS: At the time of the entrance blitz of Habagat, as stated earlier, members of the San Andres-Saavedra clan were celebrating the 81st year of the Katapusan of the month-long novena for our Blessed Virgin Mary known as Flores de Mayo, probably one of the oldest in the Archdiocese. Led by my aunt, Rosalia San Andres Villaroya, and my sister Ofelia S. Acuña, the more that 160 singing children who had strewn fragrant flowers onto the altar, had been treated to candy showers, parlor games with prizes and with sumptuous merienda cena of spaghetti and pancit canton brought along by my nephews Clemente Manaog (Prov’l chief of the NCSO), Mariano Manaog, a DepEd official in Naga Central School, who are brothers of another nephew of mine, Niño Manaog, the current Editor of the Capiz Times in Visayas, and by my niece Donna Bella S. Villamil, a teacher. My email address: (emilmaa@yahoo.com)