How Fil-Americans can really help us
By ANTONIO M. REYES

I’m in Denver, Colorado, right now on a month long sabbatical to visit my daughters Hannah, Apolonia and Mena, and to reflect on how I can improve as a writer and as an advocate for relevant changes in our country.

My first stop was Chicago, Illinois which has a very large and close knit Southern Leyte community. The people I talked to there seemed anxious to help their kababayans but were not sure what type of assistance they should focus on. Most have taken part in medical missions, or have provided scholarships for destitute but deserving students and have assisted in the construction of a class room or two. These efforts I felt were helpful but had little impact on the country’s overall development.

What I felt they could do was concentrate on policy advocacy, not aimed at our leaders back home, but on their own decision makers in Washington D.C. For it’s the decisions made there which could decide whether we become a First World country, like Singapore, or remain the “Sick Man of Asia.” I am referring of course to the “Debt Trap” we are in and cannot escape from without Debt Relief.

Today we own the World Bank and its affiliate financial institutions 13 trillion pesos. Since we cannot afford to retire parts of the total loan annually we pay only the annual interest rate penalty of say 10 to 15 percent. This means the original loan itself remains the same as the day the loan was concluded.        

About one-third of the government’s P1.9 trillion annual national budget is spent for debt payment. What’s left is barely enough to cover the maintenance and operation expenses of our bureaucracy and there is little or nothing left for infrastructure projects and R&D which we must again borrow for or stagnate even further.

The Filipino-American community in the US is large enough to influence its politicians. If they could unite and lobby their senators, congressmen and governors to give us “debt relief” we would immediately have an additional 600 billion pesos annually which could be spent for more schools, hospitals, infrastructure and research.

There’s no shame in admitting we cannot repay the loans we have incurred irresponsibly. More developed countries like Brazil, Iceland, Ireland, Portugal and Greece have done so and their debts were either “written off” completely or modified to give them better terms of repayment.
If our kababayans in the United States could convince their political leaders to give us “debt relief” it would really jumpstart our economy and give us a chance to join the tiger economies of Asia.   

My original plan was to wangle an invitation to speak before the Southern Leyte Chicago Association in Illinois (which was headed by my wife’s sister Oriel Carillo) but we had to leave for Colorado a day before their scheduled meeting so it didn’t push through. But I will send her a copy of this column so she could discuss it with her association officers. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Special Sports Commentary:
Great role model

The most popular man in Colorado and possibly the United States today is the handsome, self confessed 24 year old virgin, Tim Tebow - the quarterback of the Colorado Brancos football team.

Described as “God’s quarterback” he has driven his team to a string of miraculous victories and America’s young and old are now “Tebowing” and bending down on one knee, as he does, in prayer position each time he throws a touchdown pass.

Broadcasters here claim the National Football League came to Jesus this fall thanks to this miracle working quarterback, whose one-kneed post touchdown poise has become a full blown phenomenon. Many are predicting a political career for the outspoken evangelical, although Denver fans would be happy with just more epic wins. 

I watched the Broncos win last Monday in overtime against the heavily favored Philadelphia Steelers who won the Super Bowl just a few years ago and witnessed another of his “miracles” on TV. It was overtime and the score was 23 all and needed a sudden death play off.  The Brocos won the toss of the coin and Tebow (as quarterback) decided to receive. Seconds later he threw an off-balanced bullet-pass to his end receiver who ran a season high 63 yards for the game winning touchdown.  The fans went wild and people from all walks of life here are still talking about Tebows latest “miracle.”

The Broncos (who are the play off underdogs) will still have to win three more games to become the Super Bowl Champions. Almost all sportscasters think it would take a miracle for them to win. But with “God’s quarterback” leading them on – who knows.

Manny Pacguiao may be the second most popular sportsman here, but as role model for our youth, I am afraid he will have to “Tebow” to the 24 year old, self proclaimed virgin, and “God’s quarterback – Tim Tebow.

For our readers information, Tim Tebow was a frequent Manila visitor during his pre-NFL days, when he represented an Evangelical Foundation that assisted poor communities in the Philippines.   

Most Pinoys here not interested in RP

WOOD DALE, ILLINOIS, USA – Since we arrived here a week ago, I was surprised to learn that most of our kababayans were not interested in the latest developments in the Philippines, which was understandable because of the severe recession which has hit the United States.

The question I hear most often is “why have you chosen to remain in the Philippines, when you can live here?” And my polite answer was that it was too cold.

So far the two gatherings I have attended were “All Flipino affairs.” Except for a few caucasians who were married to Filipinas all were Phil- Americans who kept asking me the same question. It was just like living in the Philippines except for the thick winter clothes you had to wear (and believe me they are heavy).

The dialogues were much better at Ithaca, New York were my sister Tessie lives. Probably because it’s the site of Cornell University. My niece and nephews and the people I met here wanted to know more about our country, and where they should go when they visit there.

My impressions of most of our kababayans here is that they are so pre-occupied with seeming to be happy with their live here, when in fact most admit to someday retiring in the Philippines

Amazing Christmas Dinner

Last Christmas we had dinner at the Seminary of the Vocationist Sisters at Ichon, Macrohon. It’s an occasion my kumpadre Oging and I look forward to each year. For its hostess is its charming Mother Superior, Sister Racquel, who prepares authentic Italian food for her guests who this year included Bishop Precioso Cantillas, Congressman and Mrs. Luz Mercado and their immediate family, Mama Mary Movement head for Southern Leyte Mirasol Tan, SLSU President Gloria Reyes, our son Wowie and his wife Shiela.

It’s an annual reunion of friends who discuss familiar problems over freshly cooked pizza, spaghetti, baked chicken, Italian salami, marinated olives, and an assortment of cheese. And of course excellent Italian red wine, champagne, espresso coffee and “Grapa” the Italian liquor which is pure dynamite.

It usually takes about two hours to finish dinner there and during that time everyone at the table (now mellowed by the good spirits amply provided by our host) began animated conversation with one another.

While our charismatic Bishop, who had lived in Rome during his seminarian days, described the different dishes we were eating like the connoisseur of good food he had become.

With the congressmen and her colleagues support in Italy, Sister Racquel has practically transformed the seminary into a self-reliant community with its own poultry, goat and hog farms, vegetable gardens and livelihood programs.

Among her pipeline projects is an Italian Restaurant to be located right beside the seminary which she said would generate jobs for the destitute women in the area and also provide fine dining experience for Southern Leyteños who want to taste genuine Roman cooking.

We all agreed that if the food at her dream restaurant was as delicious as the entrée and spaghetti we had just consumed, it would succeed, and convert even the most die hard “shoot-to-kill” fanatics here into spaghetti eating machines.

We also learned from Bishop Cantillas of his work with Filipino migrant communities abroad. This responsibility which was assigned to him by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in 2002 keeps him abroad 50 percent of the time attending to the spiritual needs of our countrymen who are working in isolated areas where communication with the locals is difficult to reach.

He said he was traveling so much that when his jet-lag finally disappears, he is at the NAIA International Airport again, waiting for his flight to Mongolia or thereabouts.

The occasion was truly blessed for every guest arrived home safely high in spirits and ready for the new year’s challenges.

Until then, I wish every Southern Leyteño, an exciting and productive New Year!

When will Binay take over?
by Jess G. Dureza

The Mindanao Times editorial  board  decided that I should write a year - ender on the Pnoy presidency. Truth to tell I am a bit hesitant to do this since I belong to the previous administrations and my view of things will be through the prism of those years I serves former President Ramos and President Arroyo. 

President Aquino came into office on the crest of public sentiment for reforms and change. The Arroyo administration had been demonized (rightly or wrongly) and Pnoy’s campaign slogan “walang mahirap kung walang corrupt” was flavor of the moment. He fine-tuned it later to “daang matuwid”.

Early on there were reservations about his ability to tackle the rigorous requirements of the presidency, taking into account his limited  experience and his much-commented  work ethic, and his   preference for privacy during his holidays. Of course those who  were  used to the FVR and GMA working habits found Pnoy not up to the job. Even reference to his reported penchant for electronic games and mocked him.

Then factor in the much-ballyhooed sports car, sports- shooting hobby  and his seeming propensity for pretty ladies (not surprising  for a bachelor like him), He painstakingly implores for privacy but in the same breath traipses gingerly with the subject inviting, intentionally or otherwise, further comments that he seemingly disdains.

His tendency to seek the comfort zone of personal friends of like mind  as his   workmates stands out. His core of officials  is composed of those who personally don’t like PGMA .

All of these  border on the negative. To a point that  I heard several “yellow army” members saying they regretted voting for Pnoy since he was not up to the standards of his heroic   father; the late Senator Ninoy Aquino and the iconic President Cory.

Factor in the incidents and tragedies that happened where the president’s personal action were found wanting. Standing out as opening salvo was the hostage-taking incident and the comical and tragic  assault-rescue operations on the hijacked tourist bus in Manila that made Filipinos red in the  face for such an embarrassing episode for the whole world to see.

But the most tragic was the sudden dive of the country’s economic growth rate to almost half from what it was under PGMA which unless reversed could lead to trouble. His almost a year of starving the nation of pump-prime funds to get the economy going had its clear backlash. Then the complaint about lack of clear policies from the Palace  on vital economic-related issues resulting to mix messages and therefore tentativeness of investments.

His propensity to take  matters personally is also generating reactions. I recall in one speech where he said his fight against  grafters was a personal crusade.   His lack of presidential finesse  in insulting Chief Justice Renato Corona to his face who was seated near him in a speech is a glaring example. Another is his avowed mission to send PGMA to jail at all cost. Even boldly predicting “before Christmas.” Personalan ito,” he was quoted as saying.

In the wake of all this - it’s not seldom that some who carp about the president end up asking a rhetorical question: “how long will he last?”  or “when will Binay take over?”

Other editorials

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Unbeleivably firm

No Place Like Home

Macho

Is Mindanao Typhoon free?

Louis XIV Syndrome

Partial Redemption

Sprinters in a marathon

Is Noynoy supporting mining?

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