Think about it
Poverty is still the issue
By Jun Velasco
“Before we conquer the world, we must conquer the self, “ J. Oswald Sanders.
WE last saw childhood friend, the former Conchita Carvajal-Deloso, 66, at the reenactment of Christ’s Crucifixion play in San Fabian town on April this year.
School days in Malued, at Dagupan City High, UE and MLQU topped our chat, a heartwarming albeit nostalgic subject. We inquired about her surgery in Beijing with a snappy boast that we had see how the Great City has grown into a mega-polis. We were careful not to cause anxiety on a health subject.
Chit was the type of person who did excellently in everything she did. As a loving wife to Ed, doting mother and grandmother to Alvin and Judith, Adrian and Alexie, Jake and Bing and Miggy and Janina and Mike and Guevarra and Red, Jake would say “wala ka ng hahanapin pa.”
Her passing should be a wake-up call to the living to always be on the lookout for one’s time is anytime.
We have to refer to our Lord every second of our lifetime, because, as they say, life is short, and therefore yield to our Savior for protection, guidance and salvation, even while we are here and beyond.
May our friend rest in peace in God’s kingdom where peace and joy are endless.
* * * *
In a recent visit to Barangay Bonuan Binloc – home barangay of former Speaker Jose De Venecia Jr., and wife, Rep. Gina (congrats for being chosen one of the country’s Top Ten Solons!), a shocking news greeted us Thursday evening: a friend from way back they called Odong was killed by anti illegal drugs operatives. By their description, we thought this man they got was not the one we knew, who was carefree and innocent.
Another man in that barangay was collared by the anti drug squad also on drug use and pushing.
A lot of things have changed there. Months back, the pretty daughter of a relative – a former Japayuki – was nabbed in an apartment owned by Kapitan Ped Gonzales, apparently also on drugs.
The Binloc episode, we think, is a microcosm of Philippine Society for its vast drug network which, in case you were not looking, could later descend on you. The menace has reached alarming levels, and it’s a curious thing it has not decimated a bit.
An intelligence report is trying to connect the Muslim community’s uneasy neighborhood, with a pathetic record of drug cases lodged at the Hall of Justice.
We are not to take the crime problem for granted. No less than our peripatetic Gov. Spines listed criminality on top of his concerns. The Dagupan City government has just declared an all-out war against it.
In a recent chat, we caught a thread of wisdom from new Provincial Police Chief’s dig on the issue: “it’s still a poverty issue.”
His thesis: our failure to feed thousands of mouths inevitably sends them to out-of-school ranks; they are ill-fed, later end up as criminals: thieves, burglars, scavengers, robbers, killers, and drug addicts/pushers. They go to shabu to forget sordid reality.
We get the argument that even police work is merely reactionary work. We are zeroing in on the effects of evil, and not stamping out the root.
As J. Oswald Sanders, author of Spiritual Leadership, would put it, “Jesus was not so much concerned over wicked people and their deeds as with the forces of evil that caused these people to sin.”
Let’s make this drive succeed, by striking at the root of evil, even if it would go up to the most fundamental of all, that we are doing it because it’s the right thing to do, for one’s s elf, for brother, and for all.
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