The return of the comeback!

Today’s voyage of Philippine Airlines to London is “The Return of the Comeback”.

Yes, Philippine Airlines consistent with the goals set by its President Ramon Ang will once again fly to the friendly skies of England particularly into London’s Heathrow Airport. PAL flight PR-720 in the form of a Boeing 777-300 ER leaves NAIA-2 this morning at 7:25 for a 15-hour flight and is expected to touchdown at Heathrow at 2:50 pm London time (10:50pm –Manila). On board today’s flight will be a small group of government representatives, selected practitioners from the print, broadcast and internet based media, as well as travel and tourism delegates all ready to send out invitations to our Kababayans and “Brits” to have “More Fun in the Philippines” by way of Philippine Airlines.

While everyone talks about the “Inaugural” flight, it is well worth mentioning that today’s return to London is a fulfillment of a pledge made by PAL and its President Ramon Ang to gain back what was lost to PAL and the Philippines in terms of its European connections. RSA said we would, and today we do. I remember how many naysayers thumbed their noses at Ramon Ang and how the so-called experts turned prophets of doom when RSA announced plans to buy 100 of the latest commercial airlines to upgrade PAL. They refused to believe that PAL could afford it, and that PAL would benefit from it.

Now, many of those non-believers are quite surprised to see how PAL & RSA’s bold move has turned out to be a 3 in 1 hit where PAL now finds open doors in the UK, higher consumer interest and confidence, and continuously improving operating costs particularly in fuel versus passenger loads. In addition, today’s flight and subsequent other flights into the region is reason enough for all of us to have confidence in our National Flag carrier. Aside from actively operating in the Middle East to service our OFWs and Pinoy Professionals abroad, PAL is busy working out plans to fly to Paris and Amsterdam sometime mid-year of 2014.

This milestone brings to mind an observation reputedly made by Leonardo Da Vinci:

“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things” - Leonardo Da Vinci.

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People who went out town for the long-weekend will certainly be doing two things; regaling people of their awesome fun, or complaining about unpleasant discoveries they made during their vacation. These people go “home” expecting everything to have remained in their idyllic town until they discover that the carabao, like all mortal creatures has passed away, the nipa huts that used to line the highway have all been replaced by imitation villas or Italian inspired bungalows built by OFWs. Some discover how electricity has the ability to rob vacationers of peace and quiet because with electricity comes portable /for rent Videoke machines at P500/day.

But for my friend Dino, the shocker came in a deeper more disturbing way. Considering his discovery came within Halloween & All Souls Day, nothing could have been freakier than to learn that a full-pledged, US funded Satanist Church complete with the inverted cross had been set up in his province. He was so bothered by his discovery that he didn’t care if I was at a retreat, out of the country, or sleeping. To him this needed immediate attention. So he sent me this text/sms:

“The Church of Satan is located in barangay Sta. Barbara, Bacolor, Pampanga. Bishop Aniceto and Mayor Hizon, together with reps from different religious groups in Pampanga went there once to have the inverted cross removed. The group is funded by US-based Satanists. The church (CBCP) and local govt has done nothing about it yet”.

I don’t know if its because people had more time on their hands during the long weekend or if Halloween and All Souls day has the ability to stir spiritual reflection on people’s mortality. But almost the same time Dino was trying to sound the alarm, a number of people on Facebook were also reposting an ABC News item featuring people claiming to be the second coming of Christ or being “Jesus the Son of God”. One guy is in a farming commune in Russia, another a homeless dude lives in a squatters camp outside of London and the third who was prominently featured was none other than one Pastor Apollo Quiboloy living in a sprawling mansion complete with his private jet and helicopter.

Putting all of these “concerns” on the table of public opinion, I can’t help but wonder which is more dangerous; the intolerant zeal of Muslim Fundamentalists who are willing to kill or die rather than allowing infidels like Salman Rushdie or Dan Brown to ridicule or profit from their prophet, or to pay the price of a curse from heaven for tolerating false prophets and agents of hell all in the name of tolerance and religious freedom? With wisdom and with age, I have begun to appreciate the need to love people not tolerate them. I am willing to give direction to the lost, help to the needy, food for the hungry. But don’t ask me to respect the fool, tolerate the liar, or have patience for a mocker especially someone who dishonors or misrepresent “my” God.

Yes I believe in respecting freedom of religion, but that entails having a real legitimate GOD. So far from what I’ve read the GOD of the Christians, Jehovah/Yahweh of the Jews and Allah of the Muslims is one and the same GOD. We simply argue and kill each other on the semantics and details, but there is no discrediting the real GOD is one.

As for Satan and false prophets, anything that was made or imagined by man to be a god is not God. If you don’t have a legitimate GOD, you don’t have a legitimate religion and therefore religious freedom does not even cover it. If you seriously want to argue the point, here’s what my friend Robert Hern suggested on how you could convince people that you are divine: walk on water, stop a typhoon, bring the dead back to life, heal the seek, let the blind see, tell a herd of demons to go jump in the lake, and then come back from the dead. Maybe just maybe, every doubting Thomas might believe.

In the meantime, what should authorities do? Investigate, audit, inspect. Just because someone shouts “Rights” does not automatically mean they are entitled or that they do have such rights.

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