By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo

 

THE third day is unfolding, 362 days still to unfold in 2025. I look at the dark sky, slowly taking in the light, and realize, I don’t know specifically, what can happen. What’s happening now is that an airplane cuts across the blue, unaware if, at that elevation, it can possibly suck in a flight of birds.

That was harrowing to watch, an airplane swooping down to its deathbed before New Year’s eve. As much in shock as those inside the plane were the birds sucked into it, seeking to migrate to other locations. The collision is called “bird strike (sometimes called birdstrike, bird ingestion (for an engine), bird hit, or bird aircraft strike hazard (BASH)) is a collision between an airborne animal (usually a bird or bat)[and a moving vehicle (usually an aircraft). The term is also used for bird deaths resulting from collisions with structures, such as power lines, towers and wind turbines (see bird–skyscraper collisions and towerkill)”. That is, if it were a birdstrike and not irregularities with the aircraft.

Out of the 181 passengers, 179 were confirmed dead, in a Jeju Air flight crash at Muan International Airport in South Korea on 29 December 2024. A truly tragic event closing the year 2024, in addition to tragedies happening all over the world, such as the unrelenting massacre of children and innocent civilians in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iran and now, Yemen.

In the Philippines, we face our own tragedies, that of a weak leadership interjected with madness and gullible citizens who keep voting for the unqualified, traditional politicians who distribute goods and dispense favors from resources gathered from the citizen’s own taxes, entertainers who know nothing about the responsibilities of the offices they are running for and dummies of big business and drug syndicates. Another tragedy unfolding on 12 May 2025, when the same influential families take on both the Senate and the House, like a shared kingdom, exempted from being accountable in the use of public funds. Except for some, patriotism is dead.

It is imperative to learn to love our country again, for our own survival, a love that draws from the love of our families and ourselves. We must actively engage to educate ourselves and our families on how best to achieve good governance with integrity. We must not allow love to get lost. Always fight the good cause, begin with ourselves.

 

Lost love (written 23 July 2015)

i have not forgotten
how we loved like true lovers
writing love letters

i cannot recall
how we deteriorated
into vile curses

and how words of love
formed themselves eventually
into sharp daggers

we have surrendered
to the jackals, our own hearts
without resistance

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