Think about it
RP is ‘weakmen’ country
By Jun Velasco
THE scorching weather is over, and now the rains.
Rains should be welcomed by our sun-beaten souls, as a little rain reminds us of poems penned by the window divining the cool droplets as spinner of tales and memories.
But Gonzalo’s warning straight from the sight of Dagupan tycoon Tony Manas getting waist-deep in floodwaters at his Di-Or Village should grimly give us an idea of what the months of June to September could do to Dagupan’s life.
Also, the news release from Urduja on Governor Victor Agbayani renewing tree-planting activities should be a wake-up call. Tree planting should be an everyday, all year round affair.
And why did some people laugh when Speaker Joe announced his bill, now a law, about carpeting the islands with one billion trees? But they stopped laughing when the overly hot weather was making their lives miserable!
Grand-daughter Chiki opened our eyes to this awesome fact when strolling in our tree-lined garden, she pulled our arm and asked, “Lo, totoo ba na gawa ng Dios ang mga puno?, her eyes lit up on the fruit-laden Duhat tree. Yes, we said almost by instinct, her query calling back Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees:”
We recited the poem to her. Though only five years old at the time, she described the poem, “very nice.” In case you’ve forgotten the words, we are reprinting it here, straight from memory:
“I think that I shall never see
a poem lovely as a tree,
a tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
against earth’s sweet flowing breast
a tree that looks at God all day
and lifts her leafy arms to pray
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair
upon whose bosoms snow has lain,
poems are made by fools like me
but only God make a tree.”
Every time we passed by the Quezon City Circle, our eyes feasted on Joyce’s poem with each stanza written on a white board. We called up Roger Quiambao who lives nearby to verify if the poem was still there. He didn’t notice, which should mean Mayor Sonny Belmonte, a former journalist, might not be keen anymore on poetry.
We heard there are towns and cities in some parts of the country that decorate the highways and streets with the poem, a stanza installed a kilometer apart.
Why have we given up the habit of tree planting? Because it’s too common place. Human nature dictates that we only remember when the ones we love are no longer there, or when death or destruction strikes, and it’s too late.
* * *
We learned in a chat with Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez and Councilor Michael Fernandez, Farah Decano, Joey Tamayo and Alex de Venecia that the girls outnumbered the boys in the selection of boy and girl officials to run the city affairs for one week.
Does it show anything?
Farah, who must have felt differently about the un-natural turn of events drove her point harder when she related about a TV footage on our friend Tony Meloto, respected czar of Gawad Kalinga, saying the decline of the country is due by and large to the fact that Filipinos are by nature “weak men.”
We told Farah Meloto’s view must have a philosophical backbone being a serious thinker himself. And judging from what we see all around us with boys and men at the helm, can we dispute him? Time to wake up, machos and macho-nurins!
* * *
Correspondents Conrad and Cory Bactad from Rosales, Pangasinan sent us this text: “Bosing, please flash in your column that PNP Chief Art Lomibao got a rousing welcome from both sides of the political fence in Rosales when he came here with Director Freddie de Vera and Provincial Director Allan Purisima as town fiesta crowning guest, and honoree at the inauguration of the country’s l00th new police station.”
Top businessman Rosendo So, president of Eastern Pangasinan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was with the entourage of Board Members Eskimo Estrella, Danny Uy, Mayor Ricardo Revita, town police chief Ernesto Abuan and SK Federation president Jimlo Olegario to welcome the pride of Mangaldan.
* * *
Two outstanding councilors Em Cabangon and Al Parayno of Sta. Barbara town would make a good mayoral team, what with their intellectual gifts and moral leadership.
Reports from the town say that after Mayor Lito Zaplan and pretty wife Jinky who have spruced up the town with new infrastructures and a spanking public market, the next best thing for the town to do is put up this ideal team of Al and Em.
The two gentlemen are pillars of political strength and charisma. Alex Tulao, a barangay kagawad, says “if they join forces, they are unbeatable.”
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