We Need Modern-Day Heroes In The Philippines!

Ramon Yedra’s Facebook sharings are many and multi-dimensional; sometimes they are out of my world, but I still admire him for being forthright as well as civil. They don’t make them like they used to anymore!

31 August 2021 is the 114th birth anniversary of PH President Ramon Magsaysay. Here is Mr Yedra on Mr Magsaysay and “Rebuilding A Nation,” which is the essence of his 1953 presidential inaugural speech: “We have a glorious past. Now we must build a future worthy of that past.”

This is from “Inaugural Address of President Magsaysay, 30 December 1953[1]”:

All too often, however, we speak of Rizal – and of Del Pilar, Bonifacio, Mabini, and our host of heroes – as if their work were done, as if today their spirit had ceased to have any meaning or value to our people. The truth is that we need their spirit now more than ever. We need it to complete the work (that) they began.

If you ask me, an Ilocano writer-thinker, PH’s National Hero Jose Rizal was for Filipino independence of thoughts under the rule of the Spanish crown. Why did he write his valedictory poem in Spanish? Because he wanted the Spanish rulers as well as the educated Filipinos to understand and appreciate that if the Philippines were under Spain as a province, we Filipinos could rule ourselves to greatness! (Friendly warning: This thought is from me, not any illustrious historian of the Philippines, Filipino or foreigner.)

“We need their spirit now more than ever.” I take that to be “the spirit of nationhood, one nation moving forward in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

We need men of integrity and faith like Rizal and Del Pilar; men of action like Bonifacio; men of inflexible patriotism like Mabini. We need their zeal, their self‑reliance, their capacity for work, their devotion to service, their ability to lose themselves in the common cause of building a nation.

Rizal and Marcelo H Del Pilar wrote in favor of the Filipino; Andres Bonifacio and Gregorio Del Pilar fought for the Filipino. Apolinario Mabini guided the revolutionaries with his Roman Catholic if revolutionary thoughts. They were zealous in what they did; they relied mostly on themselves; they worked hard, very hard; they were devoted to service to country – they lost themselves “in the common cause of building a nation.”

2021 is the “Year of Filipino Pre-Colonial Ancestors” by virtue of Proclamation No 1128, s 2021. Also in this year, we commemorate the Philippine part in the achievement of science and humankind in circumnavigating the planet for the first time. Central in this commemoration is the 500th anniversary of the Victory at Mactan on 27 April 2021. These and more are collectively known as the “2021 Quincentennial Commemorations in the Philippines” by virtue of Executive Order No 103 (2020).

But we must move on! Like, the poor are still mired in poverty – in spirit & economic justice. We need more heroes today. How do you become a hero, whoever you are? First simple-complicated rule: “Love your enemies!”@517

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[1]https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1953/12/30/inaugural-address-of-president-magsaysay-december-30-1953/