Looking for a hero, again

A couple of weekends ago, I found myself riding LRT 1 from Taft Avenue in Manila and then LRT 2 to go to Katipunan Avenue, in Quezon City. Green Archers and Blue Eagles would automatically understand that to mean that I was headed for Ateneo de Manila University, from De La Salle University country.

I only mention this because the Green Archer in me—one who isn’t green enough just yet, as I’ve yet to graduate from, er, graduate school—found it rather amusing to be flushing bright blue water, never to be greened by even the Greenest Archer’s yellow urine, down the toilet of the Ateneo’s Henry Lee Irwin Theater.

But I also mention this because changing trains at the Doroteo Jose station meant walking through a long, metal-screened footbridge traversing a really densely populated squatters’ area. My companion, Jenny, kept cursing as we walked, saying things like the anti-squatting law shouldn’t have been repealed, the government’s not doing its job, and other such refrains that we’ve all uttered one time or another. I don’t live in luxury either, but the sight of such resigned poverty is enough for you to just throw in the towel and scream at the heavens, “I give up!”

Thank God for what was in order for that evening. Jenny and I watched a moving, hilarious, inspiring musical called Rizal is my President. This musical satire is a project of the OCCI Fullness of Life Foundation, which seeks to awaken the leader in each and every Filipino. It is based on the book Rizal is My President, 40 Leadership Tips from Jose Rizal by Napoleon Almonte, adapted for the stage by Joshua So and directed by PETA’s Raffy Tejada. De La Salle University’s Harlequin Guild students star in it (“It’s part of the healing,” quipped OCCI’s Besol Lopez), performing original, heart-stirring songs by Noel Cabangon.

In the musical, as well as in the book, there is a place in heaven where our noble heroes still continue plotting for the betterment of the country. Imagine them all there—Apolinario Mabini, Andres Bonifacio, Antonio Luna, Marcelo H. Del Pilar, Gabriela Silang, Tandang Sora, and Ninoy Aquino—convincing our greatest hero, Joze Rizal, to return to the Philippines and run for president!

Understandably, Rizal has second thoughts. If there’s anyone who can claim he gave his country his all, it would be him who devoted art, love and life for his dream of a free and beautiful Philippines. Not even the guy who famously said “The Filipino is worth dying for” can convince Rizal to do it all over again.

So how does one convince a reluctant, already-martyred patriot? You tap into the force that made him a martyr in the first place: Love. Rizal’s journey from heaven and back to nuestro perdido Eden starts with a memory of his mother’s unconditional love, to which he relates love for this country that generously blesses us with so much beauty and bounty.

And so Rizal goes back to the Philippines armed with the wisdom of a hundred years—and gives to the Filipinos his life, this time, in another way: Use the lessons from my life, he says, and be your own hero.

Rizal is my President is also a movement that seeks to help pave the way for Filipino leaders, not just in 2010, but for the rest of history by keeping the heroic spirit of Rizal alive in all Filipinos. In this era, we don’t need heroes who are willing to die; we need heroes who know how to live!

The musical will move on to different schools, first in Manila, then, as the movement grows, who knows, maybe in other parts of the country as well.

It’s time we all remember we don’t have to look too far to find our hero.

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