A gesture of thanks to the heroes of war

Something edifying and inspiring is happening in the hearts of many Filipinos. Seeing the atrocities committed by the Abu Sayyaf and other extremist groups against innocent and peace-loving people, countless concerned Filipinos are now coming out in the open, to show their full and unconditional support to those who are in the frontlines, trying to defend peace, freedom and democracy.

Last Wednesday, Armed Forces chief of staff, Gen. Angelo Reyes, together with Col. Alejandro T. Escano, president of Meralco Foundation Inc., an institution that provides high-quality technical education to Filipino youngsters, launched the "AFP-MFI Scholarship Cup 2000," a project aimed at providing MFI scholarships to the children of the soldiers who died or who became physically handicapped because of the Mindanao hostilities. The golf tournament is the first in a series of projects designed to raise funds that will be used for the education of the children and other family members of the casualties of war. I have been asked to help oversee the fund-raising campaign, a task which I gladly accepted, as a gesture of appreciation for the heroism of our Filipino soldiers.

The figures of the AFP casualties in the Mindanao war are alarming. As of May 11, 81 soldiers have been killed, 474 wounded, and 21 missing in action. As the guerrilla war progresses, the statistics could go higher. When I visited the AFP Medical Center last Thursday, I felt a pang of pain as I saw the wounded soldiers, with their faces filled with either hope or depression. Most of the wounded soldiers, though, especially the very young, looked as though they yearned to go back to the battlefield, to protect the integrity of the Republic.

I am glad that Alex Escano took the initiative of involving the Meralco Foundation Inc. in the effort to boost and buoy the morale of the AFP casualties. The MFI is known for its high-quality education in the technical field -- and opening up the MFI to the families of these heroic soldiers is a gesture that deserves the nation's appreciation.

There are some unpleasant happenings going on in Cavite -- and these do not include former Cavite Governor Juanito Remulla's acquisition of an alleged reclaimed lot from the Kawit municipal government. That the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee acquiesced to join hands with a Senate colleague, a political foe of Remulla, in an adventure of political vengeance is odd and highly questionable.

The focus of attention and a top priority, insofar as Cavite is concerned, is not Remulla's ownership of the Island Cove and Leisure Park but the rampant distribution, sale and use of prohibited drugs, especially shabu. This is an urgent matter that the Senate should look into, instead of helping beat up a political underdog who has retired from active politics.

Looking back now at the recent political past, it seems impossible that Remulla had the clout to acquire a portion of Manila Bay for conversion into a tourist destination -- if, indeed, the acquisition was illegal ab initio. For remember that the acquisition of the lot in question came during the incumbency of then President Fidel V. Ramos, who was a mortal enemy of Remulla. Had the acquisition been really illegal, FVR never would have allowed Remulla, who was on the other side of the political fence, to get away with it.

Apparently, Remulla is still perceived by his local political opponents to have political clout. For it was during Remulla's time that great strides took place in Cavite's economic condition. The idle lands that became economic zones in Cavite, the improved peace and order condition, the elimination of rampant smuggling -- all these things and many other good things happened during the incumbency of Remulla as Cavite governor. The Caviteños' knowledge of Remulla's achievements is apparently the main reason why his political foes, led by the Revillas, are going after him.

As chronicled in Choices in Healing, a very instructive book about cancer, a wise man told a group of cancer patients: "Above all, never give up hope. According to author Michael Lerner, the truth in those simple words has stayed with him through the years. "It is hard to live without hope. Hope is truly therapeutic. There is always something worth hoping for in the face of a difficult illness," Lerner said.

Lerner added: "Never give up hope. You can fight for your life, even in the face of tremendous odds. Give yourself permission to hope, even in the face of all the statistics that physicians may present to you. Statistics are only statistics. They are not you. There is no such thing as false hope. I saw the truth of this in my father's experience, and in the experience of many other people with cancer who have far outlived their prognosis."

Lerner said that physicians are trained both as scientists and as clinicians. As scientists, they are part of a culture that thrives through the inculcation of doubt. As clinicians, they are part of a much more ancient culture of healing that thrives through the inculcation of hope. Often, Lerner said, physicians are not aware of this dual role. "They do not know the damage they do when they thoughtlessly dash the hopes of a patient facing a difficult cancer," he said.

"Fortunately, there are physician-scientists who have begun to work consciously with the therapeutic uses of hope. They are practitioners of the high art of combining honesty about what they know as scientists with humility and hopelessness about what they do not know as clinicians. In the well-known words of Bernie Siegel, M.D., "in the absence of certainty, there is nothing wrong with hope," Lerner said.

"If a patient with a serious cancer hopes to be the one person in a hundred or in a thousand to overcome the cancer, it is not correct for the physician to propose that this is a false hope. It may be a slender hope, but that slender hope may still provide light as the cancer patients goes through the inner work of learning to live under new and difficult circumstances. The difficult issue of how to balance scientific doubt with clinical hope was one that I wrestled with throughout this book," Lerner added.

Here are excerpts from letters I received recently:

Dr. ZEN UDANI. "Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was sensitive enough to notice that some people unscrupulously ignored the Holy Week and let pornographic films loose on movie screens. I hope that GMA takes this moral cleansing of movies seriously and relentlessly. She should also include in her target list those nasty tabloids, lewd billboards and TV advertisements."

ANTONINO B. DAYRIT: "In the light of the Urban Bank case, it is high time that the Bangko Sentral look into the common trust funds (CTF) and collective investment funds (CIF) of banks and investment houses which are, in reality, borrowing with fixed maturities. When the investments of CTF and CIF fail, the bank is forced to channel or lend funds to CTF and CIF, which is wrong. The trustors or funds owners investing or participating in CTF and CIF are supposed to shoulder the loss, and not the bank. But if the CTF and CIF suffer losses and could not pay the maturing placements, the bank also suffer and can really go down."

JOE HAGEDORN: "Having been in the aviation business for many years, let me enlighten you and your readers on misapproaches. As long as the aircraft, be it a Piper Club or a fully loaded 747-400, is on final approach, there is no reason, bar engine failure, that this aircraft cannot institute a misapproach and go around. Having gears down and locked and with full landing flaps extended will not prohibit the aircraft from instituting a misapproach. In the case of the Air Philippines flight, he was still a few miles away from the runway and a misapproach in this case should have been a very simple maneuver. What actually happened to cause the crash, nobody yet knows. So I suggest that all experts just keep their opinions to themselves until the investigation is completed."

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