Think about it
Bishop Villegas urges officials to reconcile
By Jun Velasco
“Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them,” Publilius Syrus
IT was political fiesta last Friday in our communities.
There was outpouring of warmth, friendship, reconciliation, love and peace everywhere.
Well, we couldn’t ignore a few pathetic overstaying signs of bitterness among the losing candidates and their supporters, but the positive and wholesome forces were overwhelming.
This must be why life still goes on. Hope really springs eternal.
The majority, yes, the thousands comprising the silent majority, including the loud speakers drowned the few whiners.
By whiners, we mean those who still wish their pet peeves dead or overrun by a speeding truck.
It did look like heaven came down on earth the other day.
Great, isn’t it? The positive, affectionate and the jovial images decorated every political activity here and everywhere.
We wished we took a snap shot of reconciled partisans and made it stay longer or more permanently.
At the inaugural of Mayor Belen Fernandez, we saw a touching face of friends coming back.
Vice Mayor Brian’s handshake was firm. We were meaning to ask about his father, former Mayor Benjie, but the sea of humanity crashed on us.
When Mayor Belen declared “tapos na ang eleksyon, magsama-sama na tayo,” the hall exploded with approval the 5,000-man audience applauding lustily.
It was His Eminence, Bishop Socrates Villegas, who set the tone for the brotherly atmosphere. His words were simple, down to earth, meaning, effectively understandable to the common man.
“We should love the poor, we should love the opposition, we should love those who attacked us, those who make things hard and tough for us, because this is God’s way.” (words to this effect).
“You should love the opposition,” he said.
“No one can go to heaven ignoring the Lord,” stressed Bishop Socrates, sounding more Christ-like than his namesake father of philosophy.
All the members of the inaugural cast, including former Speaker Joe de Venecia and his beautiful wife, Rep. Gina de Venecia who gave a short but inspiring speech; and the guest speaker and inducting officer, Civil Service Commission chairman Francisco T. Duque III, and the young singers and dancers; Vice Mayor Brian Lim, and Councilors Maybelyn Fernandez, Karlos Reyna, Alfie Fernandez, Jig Seen, Jess Canto, Marvin Fabia, Red Erfe Mejia, Alvin Coquia, Joey Tamayo and Emong Vallejos, and yes, our old cumpadre Jake Reyes who took his oath as new ABC prexy completed the cast.
Everyone who is everyone in Dagupan was there. We missed a few faces who must have one reason or two for not being there.
There were stellar faces we wished to mention here, but we’d be in trouble if we miss the others, right, Al, Gons, Ope, Manny?
Suffice it to say that Belen’s inaugural oozed with great hope with her charisma setting the tone for unity and reconciliation.
With all the heads of churches from various denominations giving their avowals of support, Dagupan should be in good hands.
SIGUE DAGUPAN!
* * * *
Now, we know why there are more poor Pinoys than their counterparts in other countries: they are poor in financial literacy test.
One of every 5 Filipinos from the middle to upper income groups “perform poorly in a basic literacy quiz.” This was gleaned from a Sun Life of Canada study of lifestyles, attitudes and relationships.
* * * *
We missed Guvnor Spines Part III inaugural.
We thought brod Butch would regale us about it when he comes home.
From Ruben Rivera whom we saw before we wrote this, we were elated to know that Governor Spines — who made history anew for registering an unbelievable election record, promised to make a difference in liquidating poverty in the province.
We think there’s no better program in a province that has scored a consistent “first” in every government program in the region.
More on this next week.
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