Reaping what it sows

The Macapagal-Arroyo adminis-tration can show that it is not spineless if it is able to deal firmly with Nur Misuari, who has declared war against the Philippine government itself. After receiving billions of pesos from the national treasury and after being pampered by all administrations starting with President Ramos, Misuari has shown his true colors. Yes, he is not really sincere in bringing peace and development to Muslim Mindanao. All that he is after is political power, and oodles upon oodles of the Filipino people’s money. He got all of that — and now he is at war with the government that nourished him.

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Misuari fiddled while Southern Philippines burned. He was expected to lead in uplifting the lives of the Muslim Filipinos after he was proclaimed by the Ramos government as head of the ARMM or the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao. But apparently, he did nothing in attaining this end. And the irony of it all is that the Philippine government played deaf, dumb and blind to Misuari’s ploy, hardly doing anything at all to push him to do what he should do as ARMM chair. Now, the government will have to reap what it has sown.

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It is very apparent that where the American economy goes, so go the economies of other countries. Thus, when the United States economy goes on a slump, expect the economies of other countries either to go on a slump or even slide downward. The welcome news, though, is that by the second quarter of year 2002, the American economy will be able to recover from the September 11 terrorist attack. That means that other countries of the world, like the Philippines, whose economies are closely intertwined with that of America, are going to be resurrected.

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Nowhere is the American presence in the economy of other countries more pronounced than in the field of tourism. Where Americans travel by the thousands, to hundreds of tourist destinations around the world, there are where US dollars are spent with almost wild abandon, enabling local economies to get a big push. Now, until Americans lose their fear or reluctance to travel — something that will happen once Osama bin Laden is captured and prosecuted — the rest of the world will just have to pray and keep their fingers crossed that travel time for America will begin anew.

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Now that world attention is focused on Muslims, it seems proper to take a look at the things happening at the Mindanao State University in Marawi City, the country’s largest institution of higher learning in Southern Philippines and the only state university with the mandate to integrate the Muslims and other cultural minorities into the mainstream of national life. According to Roger Saldia, an IBM official who lives and works in the US East Coast, my student at the Asian Institute of Journalism many years ago, and a graduate of MSU, the MSU played a vital role in the peace process and development through strong educational programs in Mindanao.

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MSU’s track record is something that Filipino Muslims can be proud of. Roger Saldia, who visited his alma mater several weeks ago, said that the MSU obtained a 100 percent passing mark in the National Electrical Engineering Board Examination and occupied first, sixth, and eighth places in the Top Ten. MSU-IIT, its external unit in Iligan City, also obtained first place in the National Mechanical Engineering Board Exam.

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Saldia attributes MSU’s excellent academic record to the leadership of Dr. Camar Umpa, a professional academician with Ph.D and MA degrees from the University of Hawaii. Dr. Umpa rose from the ranks, and he is the first MSU president to be appointed after a rigorous search process conducted by a top-level search committee created by Malacanang. "With his solid record of accomplishments, Dr. Umpa gained support not only from local MSU alumni but also its large international alumni community now residing in the USA, Canada and Europe," said Saldia.

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One of the alumni groups that supported MSU and the Umpa was the Mindanao Foundation International (MFI), a large nonprofit organization based in Washington, USA. MFI is headed by Saldia, a young IT executive and, as I said, my former student at AIJ. Driven by the desire to fulfill its goals, Roger Saldia recently returned to MSU to deliver professorial chairs and scholarship grants worth hundreds of thousands of pesos. Roger also donated a P400,000 Garbage Compactor/Truck and promised to refurbish and equip MSU’s rundown Science Lecture Hall with modern audio-visual equipment.

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If I gave a big playup to MSU and the MFI, it is my form of saying "so sorry" to Roger Saldia, whom I saw for the last time in 1991, after he finished the course I was teaching at the Asian Institute of Journalism. He was flying back to the US and had expressed a wish to meet at EDSA Shangri-La or Manila Midtown, just to renew old ties. But then, I had to be rushed to the hospital -— and my appointment with Roger did not push through. And I did not even have the chance to call him up to tell him I was struggling for life at St. Luke’s Medical Center. So sorry, Roger, and I hope this write-up about MSU, your alma mater, will somehow partly atone for my lapse.

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Thanks a million, and God bless the following people for lending a helping hand to the Good Samaritan Foundation:

* An anonymous lady with the initials SVP, of Ayala Alabang Village, Muntinlupa City, P2,500 (BPI 0086633)

* Dr. Max Walsh of Australia, $100 (Chase Manhattan Bank)

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There are other donors to the Fr. Arnel Demegillo Fund, to underwrite the expenses for the scheduled kidney transplant of the 31-year-old diocesan priest from Ipil, Zamboanga del Sur. The funds were directly sent to the Christ the King Parish Church in Greenmeadows Avenue, Quezon City, where Fr. Arnel is temporary billeted in the Priests’ Residence. The donors are:

* Participants in the Holy Mass celebrated by Fr. Arnel at the Cotton Community Hospital at the Meralco compound, P2,900

* Anonymous from Pampanga, P5,000

* Letty Lacson, P1,000

* Dr. Concepcion Sta. Cruz and daughter Christine, P8,000

* Iluminado Margarita de Guzman, P5,000

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Thoughts For Today:

God makes us brave when we are afraid,
He makes us strong when we are weak.
Most of all, God teaches us to hold on to Him
when things keep falling apart.

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No one can go back and make a new beginning,
but anyone can start from now and make a happy ending.
Hope you’ll have a day that starts right and ends happy.

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My e-mail addresses: <[email protected]>. and [email protected]