A metaphor for prayer and determination

Yesterday I wrote on a strange experience I had when we went through the deep flood water and the events of the following days. In retrospect, I realized that I was being sent a message about how to live and work. The lesson was the power of prayer and human will. The two must go together if we are to see good accomplished. On that night of the flood, it was how to reach home by wading in deep water, but it was also a metaphor on how to live.

The question was how do you decide when faced with danger and obstacles are present to stop you from doing what is good. One has to take a decision quickly and stick to it no matter how difficult it may seem. That is why I found that going through deep waters is a metaphor for the work we are doing to change the country’s political system to one that is just and caring to millions of Filipinos in the marginalized sectors. We could not continue with a system that allows so much suffering because of the corruption in the system that affected our lives. A decision had to be made and we stuck with it through hell or high water.

BayanKo began as a crowd sourcing movement following the Icelandic model on how to gather as many opinions as possible to decide policies that would solve the problems brought about by the international banking crisis. It encouraged people to think and act, to find solutions that would avert disaster to the country. I have always recognized that Iceland was different from the Philippines and that any crowd sourcing had to be done differently because most Filipinos were politically illiterate. Still I gambled with the risks that come with an innovative solution to make politics and government work for the people.

My prayers were answered when in faraway Spain a friend, Jose Alejandrino, in Facebook wrote to say BayanKo was a brave effort. As I was not experienced in the ‘ways’ and ‘arts’ of politics, he offered to return to the Philippines to help me. Politics is a jungle, he said, where only the fittest survive. He was right. At times I found it fraught with difficulty that I thought of giving up, thinking it was not possible to change the country.

But like going through deep water, I had to take a decision, and once taken, it had to be pursued relentlessly without giving up. This is the story of how BayanKo started from a crowd sourcing movement to give birth to a political party. That, too, will demand much by all those who have taken up the cudgel. Time and again when I thought it was an impossible task, things did happen that I did not expect. Again at times, there was a certain helplessness that sapped my courage. I asked myself, would people follow the route to a more just, kind and free society we could leave to our children? But by then, my friend and I were already midway through the deep water and the only alternative was to continue ahead and accept the consequences whatever they may be.

We did not know how many of our countrymen would accept the challenge, but before long, we met people with the same spirit and determination for reform. Still, there were some things unforeseen, something coincidental that helped the movement for change. We called them coincidences, like the sudden surge of friends and helpers.

To me, the most important have been the marginalized sectors themselves, and, of course, the organized labor groups of Ernesto Herrera’s Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, which is the biggest aggregate of organized workers. Armed with the cause to empower them, we met many believers. They were saying things like why should we sell our votes to politicians that are only detrimental to the good of the many.

That was how the Katipunan was formed. We were pleased that the name ‘Katipunan’ was adopted because it is historically meaningful to Filipinos. Just like BayanKo was named after the song of Gen. Jose Alejandrino, the Katipunan was co-founded by another granduncle Pio Valenzuela y Alejandrino of our BayanKo adviser. Pio was the close friend of Andres Bonifacio. When the house of Bonifacio burned down, he and his family stayed at the house of Pio.

After this experience, I am now totally convinced there is an Unseen Power at work. The experience of the flood and the process of forming a political party for marginalized sectors may seem unrelated, but I believe it is God’s way of speaking to us in symbols and metaphors.

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When I go to the ICAPP meetings in South Korea from Sept. 16 to 19, I will represent the Philippines both as a member of media and as a member of the Katipunan party. The media forum was approved by the ICAPP board. I had proposed a resolution during the meeting in Nanning, China in 2011 after meeting with journalists from Asia. They said it was important for the world to know what ICAPP stood for and what it was doing to promote a more peaceful and just world.

The invitation to me read, “We are pleased to inform you that the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP), which is now composed of more than 350 ruling and opposition parties from 52 countries in Asia, will officially launch the ICAPP Media Forum, which was formally proposed during the ICAPP Special Conference on Development and People’s Access held in Nanning, China last September 2011 and which was adopted by the ICAPP members.

In this regard, we are pleased to invite you to the Launching and First Meeting of the ICAPP Media Forum to be held in Seoul, Korea on Sept. 16-19, 2015 under the theme, ‘Cooperation to Build an Asian Community.’

With your wealth of experience as a journalist/columnist, may we also invite you to become a Member of the Working Group that will discuss how to set up the ICAPP Media Forum? The main purpose of the media forum is to promote more interaction between the ICAPP and peoples in the region through wider coverage of ICAPP activities.”

The invitation was sent by Jose de Venecia, chairman of the founding committee and chairman of the standing committee, and Chung Bui Yong, co-chairman of the standing committee and secretary general and former chairman of the foreign relations committee of the Democratic Party of the Republic of Korea. In his letter of Aug. 4, Chung proposed to nominate me as the first chairperson of the Media Forum.

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Although it is a society page item, I would like to help the Philippine Cancer Society for its charitable work to assist poor patients suffering from cancer. It is raising funds through an event to name the best-dressed women and most influential men in the Philippines.