On Villaruel

People are still talking about the late former Air Transportation Office chief Panfilo Villaruel with some branding him a hero, and others, a man with a lost cause. Among the emails I received was this letter from a good friend from Los Angeles, California, Perry Casapao. I mentioned him in my column last Thursday, but an error in transmission led to the deletion of quotation marks from his statement, his statement appeared to be mine. Perry’s conviction was that Villaruel was killed unnecessarily; I hate to grab the credit for his ideas. So I reprint his thoughts on the slain Villaruel, which is as follows:

I deliberately use the word killing because that is what it is. The only reason the assault started was that ‘operations are due to resume’ and they needed to get the airport back in service. For everybody’s info, Colonel Villaruel started the ‘take-over’ at midnight when there were no aircraft operations – not until 0400 in the morning anyway. He knew and he cared. He was thinking that in the four hours that the airport was idle, he had enough time to send his message – and then surrender. No shots were fired by him or his companion, nor were there warning shots from his killers, not even a ‘freeze’ or whatever is the term in the vernacular. Just a methodical, efficient slaughter. Some of us will label him as a nut, some a patsy in a conspiracy gone awry. Others like me would like to think of him as a hero who in his sacrifice managed to make people think, the people, not the politicians, the latter are beyond hope.

In 1976, the movie Network‚ (four nominations, three Oscars) presented us with a TV anchorman who was about to be fired. He went nutty and took over the TV station and announced that he will die in two weeks. He announced the now famous phrase, ‘I am as made as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!’ Well, with the situation in our country being what it is, would you not go ‘mad as hell?’ Would you not do what Colonel Villaruel did? No, we will not, we are level-headed family men and women with a secure future. So was the colonel.

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An important figure in the Philippine literary landscape Aida Rivera Ford was the honoree and guest lecturer at the 9th Paz Marquez Benitez Memorial Lecture held the other day at the Ateneo de Manila University’s social science building. The annual event was organized by the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings (ALIWW).

Aida spoke on her life and times as a writer, educator, and pillar of culture and the arts in Davao. She is known for her short stories, The Chiefest Mourner, and Love in the Cornhusk, which formed part of a collection titled, Now and at the Hour, that won the Jules and Avery Hopwood major award in fiction at the University of Michigan in 1954. She was the first Filipino to win the award.

In 1980 Aida funded the Center of the Arts, now known as the Ford Academy of the Arts, the first school of fine arts in Mindanao.

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Today being a Saturday, I’m fulfilling a vow made to friends that I would be cheerful and forgiving. I will print an episode earlier sent me by e-mail.

My friend in Seattle, Washington, Divina Himaya, sent me this item. Children from a Catholic elementary school were asked questions about the Old and New Testament. The answers which appear below, show how much or not at all, children know about the Bible. I bet they know more about science and high-technology computer games. Here are their answers:

1. Lot’s wife was a pillar of salt by day, but a ball of fire at night.

2. The Jews were a proud people and throughout history they had trouble with the unsympathetic genitals.

3. Moses led the Hebrews to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread which is bread without any ingredients.

4. The Egyptians were all drowned in the dessert. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten amendments.

5. The seventh commandment is thou shalt not admit adultery.

6. Moses died before he ever reached Canada. Then Joshua told his people to stand still, and they obeyed him.

Have a good weekend.

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