Think about it
Get those stone throwers shot at the plaza
By Jun Velasco
“Everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.” — Ashok V
FRIDAY over breakfast, our youngest son, Youssef, 22, glancing at two Rizal books on the table, asked if the Rizal Law was still being implemented these days. The Rizal Law required the teaching of Rizal’s life and work in all levels of the curriculum in our educational system.
The law was passed through the labor of Senators Jose P. Laurel and Claro M. Recto, two of the country’s foremost nationalists.
Frankly, Youssef’s query floored us.
At a recent Knights of Rizal national forum in Pasig City, our seatmate Prof. Jose David Lapuz, overlord of Rizal La Vanguardia, was blaming the Filipino youth’s increasing loss of respect for our elders because of the Department of Education’s striking out of the subject “Good Manners and Right Conduct” in our grade schools.
Another seatmate, former Assemblyman Rogelio Quiambao, so far the most decorated past supreme commander of the Knights of Rizal, butted in to deplore a sorrier fact – the Rizal Law appears to have been dumped in the waste basket.
What’s the score?
We told Youssef or plain Chip, the family’s political activist who is graduating next month (Public Administration UP Diliman), we’re not sure if the Rizal course has suffered the fate of Good Manners . . . and vowed to check with our DepEd officials (Supts. Au Domingo, Linda Nava, Armand Aquino) or private education stalwarts Ado Duque and Mack Samson about it.
Passage of the Rizal bill had to hurdle the Catholic Church’s stiff resistance and rabid opposition, but Recto and Laurel were skillful debaters and masters of the legislative mill to ensure its becoming law.
For here’s a diminutive Filipino with a heart and mind as vast as the universe, whose life and work were consecrated in service of the Motherland. The mere thought of Rizal inspires because he was shining gold in a stinking haystack. Why did Rizal fail to tame the callous politicians?
We have a strong suspicion some corrupt officials conspired to throw out the Rizal Law to prevent us from knowing the truth . . . so they can continue in their evil and nefarious ways, and consign our countrymen forever to ignorance and slavery.
Rizal, as a young boy, wrote “there are no tyrants where there are no slaves.” How can we kick out the tyrants if we have not enough light on our foreheads, as pre-designed by the despots?
Let us restore the Rizal Law and out with the scoundrels for good.
* * * *
A local university professor lost one of her eyes because of unseen stone throwers hidden in the thick bushes and the shroud of darkness along the highway in Sta. Barbara town.
Latest reports say she might lose her other eye because of the great damage caused by the stoning incident. As a result, all her and husbands’ earnings are almost depleted leaving the family and the children’s education in limbo.
The professor’s tragic fate is just one of the innumerable infernal cases inflicted by these unseen monsters that thrive in the cover of darkness.
The husband of our high school classmate, Emilia Puno-Ang met his untimely death because of a similar stoning incident.
There was a time in broad delight aboard a Victory Liner when a stone whizzed across our eyes along the Tarlac highway. The bus’ window glass of the bus fell like a rain of ice cubes, and in quick action the valiant driver and conductor and some stout-hearted passengers (us included) scoured the stoning origin but the demons had vanished in the dark as expected. Next we went to the local police who were expected to be helpless.
We suggest to the authorities to come up with a law as harsh as to list this kind of crime as heinous crime.
We hope Mayor Jinky Zaplan and other mayors whose municipalities are traversed by national highways will put up, together with the DPWH and other agencies concerned, mechanisms to protect innocent and helpless users of our roads and highways.
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