Think about it
The film as national unifier
By Jun Velasco
“Is there a love that is nobler than one’s love for country? Certainly none.” —Andres Bonifacio
THURSDAY, we were drawing up plans with film makers and the media to rally the nation behind local films for nation building.
Our discussions were a continuation of what we had impressed on Press Sec. Sonny Coloma that man’s behavior is influenced by media, more powerfully the cinema.
It was bothersome for instance to watch two responsible officials, Secretary Mar Roxas and Tacloban City Mayor Alfredo Romualdez behaving like irresponsible brats at the height of a national disaster.
Without taking sides, we feel that crucial action in containing a crisis has been sacrificed with such “my – turf” mindset.
FAMAS president Angelo Padua, media stalwarts Danny Fajardo of Panay News Daily and Mindanao Integrated Journalists Assn. president Ben Diansay are now backing a cinema-based nationalist campaign that would integrate the invaluable insights of nationalist-writers the likes of Ambeth Ocampo Frank Sionil Jose, Renato Constantino, Knights of Rizal’s former Supremo Pablo Trillana III, and others.
We suggested that historical films be carefully reviewed by a national board of censors not to awaken adversarial mindsets but a unifying thread for Filipinos’ economic and cultural advance.
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Because of its timely—and timeless—relevance, we are reprinting this, our straight-from-the-heart article.
“In 1990, at the height of the Iran-Kuwait war, a neighbor on Sugpo Street, Blue Beach Subdivision in Dagupan City, came to the house, clearly in deep trouble.
Mama Doming Fernandez, past 75, was choking in measured speech when he confided a grave family’s problem.
For the past three months, he and his wife didn’t know what happened to their daughter, a nurse based in Kuwait. That oil-rich country was embroiled in a war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, and many medical personnel, including Lydia Fernandez, had been dislocated.
The old man said he and his wife had been in deep anguish, desperately seeking for information and assurance that Lydia was alive.
The Cory government then thru the office of Executive Secretary Oscar Orbos was busy placating Filipinos with family members employed in the two war-torn countries who may have been trapped in the war.
Orbos referred us to then Consul Alfredo Rosario, a personal friend from the National Press Club.
To our chagrin, Kuya Fred said Lydia’s name was not in the list of contacted Middle East nurses.
We returned downhearted to Dagupan.
The following day, a Sunday, while biking around the subdivision, our house-help Auring ran after us and shouted: “Kuya, kuya, si Lydia!”
We were dumbfounded. Lydia, the missing daughter, was on the phone talking to teary-eyed Cathy.
How did they get connected? This was the miracle of a great story.
In Kuwait, Lydia was actually dialing the number of her aunt in San Mateo, Rizal. By what strange force, her call landed on our land line.
Lydia asked Cathy: “Saan ho ito?”
“This is Dagupan,” Cathy said.
“Ha, Dagupan? Where in Dagupan?” The voice at the other line trembled with fine shock.
“Bonuan Gueset!”
What happened was so out of this world, it could only be the miraculous work of the hand of God.
On our phone Mama Doming and his wife had a touching reunion—in voices—with their missing loved one who was thousands of miles away.
Later, at the invitation of then Manaoag Mayor Pedrito Garcia to the “Galicayo” festival, we saw our friend — and spiritual counselor — Fr. Jerry Orbos, younger brother of Oca, distributing copies of his book, “Moments,” and told him about the marvelous incident.
He held our arm and said: “It was the Lord that caused the accidental phone patch. Come, let’s pray.”
When word spread, the old man Mama Doming became a neighborhood celebrity.
He would one day come again, to beg us not to write about the astounding miracle that happened to him and his family, having learned that we had planned to send the story to the Readers Digest.
When he died a few years later, we asked Lydia if she would now consent to a write-u on the event.
She begged us not to play it up after 13 years to glorify the Lord on His natal day in sharing with our readers this great miracle of a story.
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NOTES: Despite the foreboding weather (coastal Bonuan residents were fearing a tsunami), the Dagupan Fiesta nite was a success. Many Roy, Ope Reyna’s sidekick was ecstatic.
We’ve glad to re-unite with balikbayan classmates who came to join DCNHS Class 63’s Golden Jubilee.
Welcome home, Virgie Ugto Alarcon and hubby, Pat Bernal-Salvador and hubby Nonoy, Tita Ordonez-Seneres and hubby, Johnny Calimlim and wife, Rey Ticsay and wife, Bert Zulueta and wife, Engr. Mar Dizon and wife, Virgie Phillips and hubby, Cousin Elie Canlas Delfin and hubby Joe, Leo Palaganas and our local hosts headed by Ope and Jaime Siapno.
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