Give us a break from another Mendiola!

Take another look at the front pages of our national newspapers over the weekend and you’ll see photos of personalities belonging to the opposition: misguided bishops and priests and the leftist groups being "cannon-ized" by water hoses courtesy of the anti-riot police. Cut one of these photos and paste it on the front page of an old Manila Times or Chronicle newspaper and it would fit perfectly to the story written below… only the personalities changed.

If you did that, I’m sure that you would realize that our politicians and political saboteurs, like the communists, have placed this nation on deep freeze. How many Mendiola incidents have happened from Marcos to Cory to GMA and what have they brought this tired and weary nation? Nothing!

But while we’re sobbing over getting wet in that Mendiola incident, all our ASEAN neighbors have grown and economically developed, especially Singapore, which was a backwater place 40 years ago. Look at Singapore or Malaysia now, while the Philippines is still stuck on Mendiola St.! Now they plan more rallies in Mendiola na naman. Please give this country a break!

Blame the politicians or press? I believe the blame should be pinned on the provocateurs who want to further destabilize this country. Yes, they are the opposition, the communists and their allies, including some misguided members of the clergy, who cannot distinguish a prayer rally from a protest march! Gads, even the stories printed in the other newspapers have changed colors like the chameleon. The other day it was a prayer rally… now they call it a religious procession. What a pack of lies! Now these provocateurs even want to dictate to our editors what gets published in The STAR.

Let me say it here again that having the President resign (though I’m sure she would never do that) isn’t going to change this country into a better one. It is the attitude of the people that should be changed first and let’s start with those who always go to Mendiola to provoke more trouble with the anti-riot police so that they would be dispersed and the press would print that!

Perhaps this time, the police should stop using clean water, which they can give free to the poor. Why not use water from the Pasig River? That ought to teach those provocateurs a smelly or toxic reason to avoid the fire hoses this time around. I dare say that most of us, who live outside Metro Manila, don’t really care what happens in Mendiola!

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Over the weekend, the New People’s Army (NPA) struck again up north in Bo. Sumon, Tuburan, Cebu where some 50 NPA rebels under the command of a certain Roy Ericre killed three non-combatant soldiers from the 78th Infantry Battalion. The problem here is that this happened just when police intelligence got hold of a report of a potential NPA raid that could happen within the week, hence, a call for a red alert was sounded.

If those soldiers were there for civic duty but wore their uniform, the NPA would still kill them! The whole trouble with this country is we’ve been on red alert status for so long… our soldiers have become so complacent about this. Here we are, calling a red alert for potential Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorists, but the military can’t even find 50 NPAs in Tuburan! Something is wrong with the intelligence of the Central Visayas Command (CentCom).

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There is no doubt that the eradication of poverty begins with the education of our people. So how can we do that with a cash-strapped government that can’t give enough to the Department of Education (DepEd)? Last Monday morning, I attended what looked like a graduation ceremony at the Ecotech Center, but it really wasn’t a graduation ceremony. I saw first hand what the Aboitiz Group Foundation Inc. (AGFI) has been doing all along… in a program they dubbed "Intervention in Education." They were giving out scholarships to children, fixing schools and giving new computers.

AGFI apparently partnered with the DepEd to assist it in building schools and classrooms, giving out scholarships and computers to public schools. For instance, under the foundation’s Infrastructure Program, they have constructed 115 classrooms all over the Philippines that are used by more than 8,000 students. This year, they expect to turn over another 16 classrooms. They have built four libraries, including a mobile library for the City of Cebu, and gave out 507 computers, including printers.

In his speech, AGFI president Erramon I. Aboitiz said, "The greatest legacy you can leave your children is a good education. We, in the Aboitiz Group, believe now more than ever it is incumbent on us to prepare the next generation of Filipinos if we expect our country to progress and increase the general standard of living in our country. I say now more than ever because we are experiencing a brain drain as our doctors, nurses, teachers and engineers leave the Philippines to seek greener pastures in other lands."

How true. Not only are nurses being hired abroad, I just learned that we will soon lose all our pilots and instructors in the aviation industry, including, would you believe, high-tension wire linemen, who are offered jobs and green cards for their families if they work abroad like in the United States.

Erramon Aboitiz added, "The Aboitiz Group of Companies, through its social development arm, the Aboitiz Group Foundation, has been implementing various education-related programs that would help prepare our youth for their future. One of the core values of the Aboitiz Group is SHARING. It is ingrained not only in the Aboitiz family, but also in our business organization. We believe in sharing with the less fortunate, especially with our host communities, i.e. the communities where our business enterprises are present. We do not believe in doleouts, in purely giving and not expecting the recipients to participate in one way or another. We believe in working and assisting people and communities in uplifting their quality of life and well-being by helping them help themselves. To put it in more practical terms, we teach people how to fish, rather than just feed them." Listening to Mr. Aboitiz and looking at the more than 200 school kids, including former street children, getting their scholarships from Mrs. Margot Osmeña’s Task Force Street Children, I said to myself, if only the top 500 corporations in this country have the same heart and attitude of the Aboitiz Group, we surely can get rid of poverty!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.