Si Titus Brandsma: Isang Pagninilay Panlipunan

Sa isang baliw na lipunan, ang mga tahimik na naghihirap na mamamayang nagnanais ng tinapay ay binigyan ng bato. Ang umaasam ng isda ay inaabutan ng ahas at ang mga munting bata na humihingi ng itlog ay binibigyan ng alakdan. Ganyan ang panahon natin ngayon at ganyan din noong panahon ni Titus Brandsma sa ilalim ng pamamahala ni Adolf Hitler at ng Nazi noong Ikalawang Digmaang Pandaigdig.

Si Titus Brandsma ay isang pari at martir na ang Feast Day ay ipinagdiriwang ng mga Katoliko ngayon, ika-27 ng Hulyo. Si Blessed Titus ay isinilang sa Bolsward (The Netherland) noong 1881, naging pari noong 1905 at ginawaran ng parusang kamatayan sa pamamagitan ng lethal injection noong Hulyo 26, 1942 sa isang piitan ng mga sundalong Aleman sa Dachau, Germany.

Noong panahon ng pamumuno ni Adolf Hitler, lahat ng sasabihin nito ay utos. Kapag sinabing ipasara ang ganitong establisemyento dahil sa hindi ito umaayon sa kanyang ninanais, kahit maraming mga nangangailangan ang tatamaan ay ipinapasara ito ng kanyang mga sunod-sunurang sundalong alipores. May parusang kamatayan noon, oo nga pala. 

Napabilang sa Order of Camelite ang batang pari at nang lumaon ay masidhing bumatikos sa idolohiya ng Nazi at naging maingay na kritiko nito. Tinuligsa niya ang pagmamalabis ng rehimen bago pa man magka-giyera ngunit kanya rin naman ipinanalangin ang mga tumurtyor sa kanya nang siya ay makulong sa concentration camp. Noong siya ay tanungin kung bakit nagagawa pa niya ito (ipagdasal sila), sinabi niya, “Matutuwa ang Diyos na kahit saglit at hindi buong isang araw ay maipapanalangin natin ang mga nagkasala ay nagmalabis sa atin.” Kagaya rin marahil ng panalanging iginagawad nina Father Flaviano Villanueva, Father Albert Alejo, Father Robert Reyes, Bishop Honesto Ongtioco, Bishop Teodoro Bacani Jr, Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, at Bishop Socrates Villegas kay Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra at kay Lieutenant Colonel Arnold Thomas Ibay ng CIDG.

Kung si Blessed Titus ay Pilipinong Katolikong mabubuhay lamang sa bansa ngayon, tiyak akong muli ay gagawa din siya ng kabanalan. Kabanalang sa mata ng mga panatiko ay pang-gugulo, pamumulitika, pag-aalsa laban sa gobyerno. Malamang mapagbibintangan din siyang "Dilawan" o Komunista ng mga mala-kulto kung sumamba sa tao na mga Katolikong kagaya niya, nang mga kapatid niya mismo sa pananampalataya.

Si Blessed Titus ay isang propesyunal na mamamahayag. Noong panahon niya ay naglipana din ang fake news mula sa makinaryang pampropaganda ni Hitler. Kagaya ng mga nababasa natin ngayon na hindi mula sa mainstream media at hindi gawa ng mga totoong journalists ngunit mas higit pa sa mga mga talata sa Bibliya tungkol sa kung papaano manalangin, nila ito kung paniwalaan. Mas kapani-paniwala pa sa bisa ng dasal na “Ama Namin” kung ituring nila ang mga ito kung minsan.

Kahit ang mga Katolikong imprenta ay tinuligsa rin ni Blessed Titus dahil sa paglilimbag ng mga ito ng mga propaganda at fake news ng  Nazi. Hindi niya maunawaan kung bakit natatawag pa ng isang Katoliko na Katoliko ang kanyang sarili habang tuwang-tuwa, palakpak na palakpak ito sa mga pagpatay at pagsisinungaling na nagaganap sa tungki ng kanyang ilong.

Ang panahon ni Blessed Titus noon ay panahon din natin ngayon. Sa ating pagwawalang bahala para kalingain ang kapwa ay ginagamitan natin ng palusot. Kung may kaibigan tayong nasa gipit na kalalagayan,  humihingi ng tinapay, kung may kapatid tayong nangangailangan ng hustisya dahil pinatay na lang basta, sinasabi natin na wala tayong tulong na maibibigay kasi, “Sarado na ang ating pintuan at natutulog na ang ating mga anak.” Mga palusot na sa katunayan ay pag-iwas para tumulong dahil alam naman natin na alam ng taong nangangailangan na madali naman buksan ang pinto at ang mga bata ay mahimbing kung matulog. Papaano ka maituturing na kaibigan o kapanalig ng mga taong ganito?

Si Blessed Titus Brandsma ay isa sa mga banal na pwede nating gawing inspirasyon sa ating atubiling panahon ngayon. Batid niya kung ano ang kaibhan at layon ng mga bagay-bagay kaya hindi siya malilinlang. 

Alam niya na ang ahas ay hindi isda at ang nakabalumbong alakdan kahit hugis itlog ay hindi itlog, na ang kasinungalingan ay hindi katotohanan, na ang una ay nakamamatay at ang pangalawa ay nagbibigay buhay…

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(Reference : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_Brandsma

Photo: Order of Carmelite)

Coaching and Officiating: There Lies The Big Difference

As I write this blog entry, five basketball coaches from our province are attending the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas Coaches’ Summit at the Meralco Fitness Center in Ortigas, Pasig. They will be there until tomorrow.

Looking back, Philippine basketball legend Caloy Loyzaga's career also took an extra recognition when he coached the Philippine Team called The Dirty Dozen, to regain the ABC (Now called FIBA Asia) title in 1967 from South Korea. Loyzaga, the greatest Filipino cager the world has ever known was born in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, in August of 1930. This is a trivia to our province-mates who think that anything beyond Barangay Ginebra and the NBA are not basketball!

But sad to imagine, aside from him and Nelson Asyatono, who was born actually in Oriental Mindoro but raised in Mamburao and the PBA's The Bull, there are no other Occidental Mindoro-born basketeer that ever hit the big time, so to speak, and followed the footsteps of the late Carlos “The Big Difference” Loyzaga. But wait, there is a another San Jose-born hoopster now playing for the Bicol Volcanoes in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) named Chris Lalata. The young ring slammer now gaining recognition in MPBL via what I call his “rooster dunks” for he flies like one.

Occidental Mindoro basketball coaches, John Harold Gabriel of Santa Cruz, Joel Rivera of San Jose, Lexer Samson of Rizal and Rodel Benedicto and Jhyson Daingdingan of Sablayan joined the rest of the coach-participants from all over the country and some Asian countries for the event. Also among the attendees are UAAP coaches including coaches from Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand.

The pool of speakers consists of Damian James Cooter and Dean Vickerman of Autralia, Gilas-Pilipinas coach Joseller “Yeng” Guiao and the SBP Coaches’ Summit Director Joseph “Jong” Oichico, among others. Jokingly, Cooter called the event as the “Filipino-Australian Friendship Days” in allusion to the brawl occurred between players of the Philippine and Australian men's national basketball teams during a match held on 2 July 2018 at the Philippine Arena. The match was part of the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian qualification process.

According to Coach Jhyson, “Basketball truly evolves and never ends.” He added that they are hoping that the coaches of our province would participate and learn in such skills development both in gaining strategies in offense and defense. “We look forward for the SBP to help us develop our officials or referees. Good coaching and good officiating breed good basketball players,” concluded Daigdingan, coach of the MIMAROPA Men’s Basketball Team in the Davao Palarong Pambansa…

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(Photo: Jhyson Daingdingan Facebook Account)

Baptism by Fire at the SP

My sympathy goes with Diana Apigo-Tayag and Eleonor Barrera-Fajardo, the two neophyte women provincial legislators of Second District of Occidental Mindoro for they, at first glance, may have been victims of the so-called tyranny of the majority. That is if what I’ve just heard from the grapevine is true. If they were amazons, it was their first exposure to combat.

Seemingly, each member of the Provincial Board will chair committee except for the two first-timer and minority SP members Tayag and Fajardo of San Jose and Magsaysay, respectively. Without a committee to chair in their own, their hands are handcuffed and their power and authority have been clipped therefore they cannot move as free as they like. They will just become a second-class citizen in the august body. H0w could change and unity be harmonized this way? With this, the “politics is just one day” rhetoric is just what it is - rhetoric. But one has to move on. 

The general criteria of what a committee for a legislator to chair are normally or usually given according to his or her capacity and advocacy. Unaware of the SP’s Internal Rules, I think the legislative body has a lot of explaining why Tayag and Fajardo, an accountant and a doctor of medicine respectively, did not get any chairmanship. Is “equity of the incumbent” becomes the rule of the thumb when they decided for such leadership in committees? Is there another newbie who got a chairmanship?  

Well, the phrase “tyranny of the majority” was first coined by French historian and political theorist Alexis de Tocqueville and memorialized by John Stuart Mill. A tyranny of the majority occurs when a majority takes action to thoroughly subjugate the minority.

I expect that in their Internal Rule, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan emphasized the balance of majority rule and minority rights. True, the will of the majority must in all cases must prevail and for that will to be rightful must be reasonable and must possess equal rights that the law or rule must protect, as US President Thomas Jefferson expressed it in 1801 in his First Inaugural Address.

Majority rule must be limited in order to protect minority rights, because if it were unchecked it probably be used to oppress persons holding unpopular views. I expect that this tenet is part of the SP’s existing internal rule.

I think Tayag and Fajardo are now automatically members of major committees.  They are not after the perks relative to the chairmanship I am sure. What is important is they can still draft ordinances and resolutions, have salaries and budgets for their staffs  and can still render speeches and other functions as legislators, both oversight and otherwise. And the general fullfilment of their campaign promise.

One does not need a committee to perform well in the Sanggunian and come up with good resolutions and ordinances. Besides, such are one of the ugly faces of politicking. Time will come a Sangguniang Bayan is up through an election and become a part of the new majority and ultimately chairing a committee of his or her choice. In the next election, s/he may still be elected but will not have the number and stay in the minority, maliban na lang kung siya ay babaliktad.  

To be frank about it, at least to me, committee chairmanships are not a matter of life and death. Charge that to experience. Kung ayaw nila, wag nila. At any rate, Tayag and Fajardo could always chair the “committee” of genuine commitment and exemplary performance. They just showed what they are made of.

Baptisms, of water or by fire, always result to purification…

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(Photo: SP OCM)