For Filipinos, love is sacrifice

MANILA, Philippines - If "love is sacrifice" is a cliché, it might just be the most real cliché, and even Filipinos would agree.

Asked what they can do for love, online Filipinos in the country and across the globe said they are ready to face love's consequences.

Whether it be spending some money and time, foregoing one's profession and personal preferences, they confess giving those up for their loved ones.

These were just a few heroic examples of love in the challenges of day-to-day living collected by the philstar.com team through the hashtag #PHlove.

Basketball enthusiast Janro Brillo, for one, is in a long distance relationship with a writer working in Singapore. To express his commitment to her, he had an illustration of her face permanently tattooed on his arm.

An Iglesia ni Cristo follower, Guillermo Garay, also recalled that his wife not only accepted their religious differences but also converted to be under the same church as him for them to be married.

Garay said they both have an "acceptance of each other's imperfections," adding that he "accepted her love child and willed to become the father."

Cavite resident Joy Merced, meanwhile, joins online contests such as philstar.com's promos as a hobby. A few years ago, she gave up her profession to attend to her husband and children.

"I chose to stay a fulltime mom and wife so i can take care of what matters most--my family!" she said.

Even when the average marrying age is pushed older through the years, Eliza Oco Utulo said yes to be with the man she loves as a 16-year-old young lady.

"I married my husband at 16 while finishing my studies and at the same time raising our (four) children," she said.

Utulo's spouse has also suffered from two stroke attacks and took care of him through the ordeal. "By God's grace he is still with us, and I'm still his ever faithful and loving wife and a dutiful mother to our children," she added.

Eigh Tiu's husband is a seafarer who would frequently be away from home to sail across the world. As a wife, Tiu admitted that accepting this set up is among the most trying challenges of their marriage.

"(I) sailed with him across the oceans of challenges making memories, taking the best of time," said Tiu, who calls herself "a work in progress." She also keeps a journal of her memories with her husband in a blog.

Student Leonore Joyse Lacson said she is also willing to spend a whole week doing all her parents chores to show them her love and respect.

"(I will) treat them queen and king without giving them expensive gifts," she said.

Typhoon Ondoy victim Fernando Angeles recounted what he had to go through to his the safety of his family during the onslaught of killer floods that ravaged his village.

"What will I do to be with my loved one? I will swim, walk, climb and run to reach her just like what I did when Ondoy separated us by miles of flood waters," he recalled.

Angeles remembered braving the murky waters alone to reconcile with his wife who was stuck in an area in Cainta, Rizal while on her way home from work due to the rising water.

"Nagalit ako sa kanya dahil hindi siya nakinig sa akin when I asked her to stay sa office niya and made me risk my own life while leaving behind our children. But deep inside, alam ko that I am willing to do what I did that day over and over again just to be with her. I hugged and kissed her and thanked God," Angeles said.