“Discipleship is a journey that you have to take. Sometimes easy, at other times very difficult. But if our vision is clear of what we want to achieve in our journey, then we have to do our best to be able to surmount all obstacles and be able to achieve whatever we want at the end of the journey.”
Xavier-Ateneo President Fr. Mars Tan delivered that homily for the 5:30 pm Mass at the university’s Immaculate Conception Church on Oct. 18, 2024.
I gotta feeling there’s at least one honest Pinoy political candidate whose goal is to serve the madlang pehpohl, and here’s hoping the homily would inspire him to keep on moving forward. Because in this era of pandemics, viruses, and climate change—which can all be connected with each other, by the way—Pinas needs all the help that it can get.
Typhoon Kristine dropped by Pinas last week, and wreaked havoc on the places it visited. I could almost hear the Phantom of the Opera saying, Christine… Christine… Christine… Wait, that has a different spelling. Kristine, Christine—but they sound the same. Doesn’t matter to the Pinoy voter who is used to listening to political candidates with the same surnames, as the political position is passed on from the husband to the wife to the sibling to the child to the grandchild and so on and so forth.
Even if the daughter is already married, she will use her maiden name that sounds more familiar to the madlang pehpohl.
There’s a Pinoy movie about the Philippine elections that’s now showing at theaters near you. Its title, “Balota,” is already giving hints on what it’s all about. If only Vilma Santos or Nora Aunor were young enough to be a teacher serving as a poll worker, they would have been perfect for the role of Emmy.
Instead, the role went to Marian Rivera who seems too aware of her beautiful face, not wanting to destroy it with the trauma that Emmy went through in the hands of the minions who would do anything and everything to ensure the victory of their respective candidates.
If the surnames of political candidates can sound familiar, the movie’s plot is also familiar. A desperate Pinoy can be paid to kill anyone who’s an obstacle to the electoral victory of a desperate candidate. If your only exposure to that is through gossip, then watch the movie to see how it’s done in reel life.
In real life, though, it could be worse. Kind of like Typhoon Kristine. Or Yolanda. Sendong. Odette. Or even much worse: may require an MTRCB rating that says, Needs grandparental guidance. Since some material may not be suitable for children and their parents.
These are the grandparents who were already around in the ‘70s and now sound like a Philippine history book as they talk about martial law, Ninoy Aquino’s assassination, the yellow ribbons, the 1986 People Power, the Marcoses’ exile in Hawaii, Tita Cory Aquino’s presidency, Tita Cory allowing the Marcoses to come back to Pinas, and it was downhill from there? Hmmm. Not exactly.
