As you read this, our kababayan – John Santiago, lays dying of a malignant form of brain cancer in the Palliative Care ward of Vancouver General Hospital. His case has been brought to the public thru arti­cles in local Philippine newspapers includ­ing PNT. It was a kababayan worker at the hospital, Butch Barbosa, who tipped the newspapers about John’s admission and it resulted in an outpouring of support and help by our people.

The support reminds me of the words of the song Pananagutan by the late Fr. Francisco Hontiveros, S.J. :
Tayong lahat ay may pananagutan sa isa’t-isa Tayong lahat ay tinipon ng Diyos na ka­piling N’ya Sa ating pagmamahalan At paglilingkod kanino man Tayo ay nagdadala ng balita ng ka­ligtasan

Indeed, we are our brother’s keeper and our response to the plight of our brother John Santiago marks us as a caring peo­ple. John’s parents who are here to take care of him at the hospital, are overwhelmed by the support and and say na sila ay “taos pusong nagpapasalamat sa lahat na tu­mulong kahit sa ano mang bagay...”

Of course they can still use any dona­tions in their struggle to be at their son’s bedside and they remain hopeful for a miracle...
Magkapit-bisig tayo para matulungan ang ating kababayan – “tayong lahat ay may pananagutan...”

WHERE HAVE ALL THE FILIPINOS GONE?
As we watch the raging people power surging through the Arab world and Africa we cannot help but harken back to the days of our own ‘People Power’ 25 years ago this month when an aroused Filipino people toppled the Marcos dictatorship.

It was heralded as the first example of the power of the people to mount a so-called ‘bloodless revolution’ to topple cor­rupt regimes and restore democracy. The Philippines got Corazon Aquino whose son Noy is now the current president.

But was it really a change for the bet­ter?
Are Filipinos better off today than they were 25 years ago?
Sadly, the answer is no.
When one sees the streets of Egypt or Tunisia or Yemen and now Libya teeming with millions of people protesting, it begs the question – what are Filipinos doing?
Or more precisely, where are they?

While Aquino’s presidency is yet too young to judge its record, the previous ad­ministration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was condemned as the most corrupt in Philippine history. Yet, there was no People Power to oust her and she now sits as a Congresswoman together with her sons enjoying the ‘fruits’ of her corrupt rule.
During her reign, the opposition could only mount a feeble protest numbering less than a 100,000 – a far cry from the millions who came out during the Edsa Revolution.
Perhaps, Filipinos no longer believe in the power of the masses and are too pre­occupied in searching for oppourtunities to leave the country rather than fight for it. Their leaving diffuses the potential social volcano that could erupt in the if they re­main in the country.

True, there is an organized ‘revolution’ by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) which has been going for the past 40 years to change Philippine society – said to be the longest surviving guerrilla war in the world.

This month, the two sides ( Philippine government and the National Democratic Front (NDF), the political arm of the CPP) are currently in the negotiating table in Oslo to try to come to an agreement in their on -again, off- again peace negotia­tions.

Meanwhile, people from other parts of the world are out in the streets changing their governments.

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