I just bid my brother goodbye. He had not been to Manila in 10 years. So ours was a reunion of white hair and overweight bodies. Our father lay in his hospital bed for some time that I summoned him posthaste from America to the land of his birth that he left 43 years ago. It’s been a month and a half now and my father is miraculously healthy, and parting with a brother became the source of our sorrow. He left carrying to his home a lot of good news. Everyone has got ups and downs, but as a mature woman I know one person’s sadness can be another one’s joy. I am very sure that as my brother leaves us and our sorrow subsides, the happiness of my brother’s family begins to ignite, looking forward to embracing my brother again. He’s off to a farm overseas. The vacuum he left here will fill a void there.
When I was taking up anthropological studies, how happily we embarked on a field research first in Pila, Laguna, with my professor, the late Dr. Arsenio Manuel, former Jesuit Fr. Hilario Lim, my classmate Lulu Estonilo from Liliw, Laguna, researcher Roland Bayhon, and my youngest daughter China who couldn’t object to my proddings.
In Pinagbayanan, we found out that our site had previously been dug up and we learned that the hunter left with only a few pieces of shards, affirming that the place was an early civilized settlement. We differ in our reactions. It was extreme disappointment for an elderly anthropologist. A priest who took many things in stride said, “Nada te turbe, nada te espante, todo se pasa, Dios no se muda, la paciencia, todo lo alcanza. Quien a Dios tiene, nada le falta. Solo Dios basta.” It meant: “May nothing disturb you, may nothing astonish you. Everything passes, God does not go away. Patience can attain everything. He who has God within does not lack anything. God is everything!”
All the while, Roland mapped out another site after referring to Prof. Manuel’s history books. Lulu insisted, “Let’s go to Liliw and buy slippers.” China stood bored under a tree, and I was sweating with a towel over my head under the sweltering heat. Still, the persistent Dr. Manuel pinpointed another site to Roland where we again hit stones and the hardest earth. Our efforts yielded nothing, but passing along the road, we stopped in a tiny store with a signage that reads, “Antiques for sale.” We alighted and held tiny blue and white Ming jars in our hands, bought a few and knew by then it was far easier to buy antiques in a store than to dig artifacts on solid rocks with a shovel and a hoe. Returning home sunburned, we treasured the memories of a failed excursion, that filled in every space of frustration.
Attitude, I told my children, makes us persevere … we’ll be surprised by good things that can come about only in the end … like the differences between being fired and having resigned, and the consequences.
“Ma’am, you’re in the news.” I responded, “Gloria, Mickey, and me.” A lot of you must have read about the “resignation” which ironically brought more attention than when I was quietly fuelling an ambition — a duty — in the field of public safety at my Makati office.
Could I have remained where I was working? Legally, yes … because I was appointed by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. In fact, the President may even appoint his relatives to positions such as presidential adviser or presidential consultant, which is confidential in nature, non-career, and co-terminus. Expressly prohibited by the Constitution are relatives to be appointed to Constitutional Commissions, the Office of the Ombudsman, as Cabinet Secretaries, Undersecretaries, chairmen or heads of bureaus or offices, including government-owned or controlled corporations and their subsidiaries. The position of PPSC president is not among the prohibited positions mentioned in the Constitution. In fact, the PPSC is an attached agency of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). But every point I bring up could be subjected to contrary arguments depending on who is thinking and arguing. Nevertheless, the die has been cast. Isn’t life colorful? As long as we believe that at the end of the rainbow there is a cache of gold …
Life is a never-ending succession of opportunities, as long as you have the competence, the will, and passion for hard work, and enjoy solving even simple exam questions. For instance, a police officer approaches an obviously upset woman who reports that her teenage son is missing. The first thing the officer must do is a) check with the hospitals and police stations; b) ask the woman why she thinks her son is missing; c) obtain description of the missing young man so than an alarm can be broadcast; d) tell the woman to wait a few hours and call the police station if her son has not returned; e) advise the woman to seek help from a TV station for possible broadcast for missing persons. If you are in the shoes of the policeman, what would you choose?
Or this. While you are on traffic duty, a middle-aged man crossing the street cries out in pain, presses his hand to his chest, and stands perfectly still. You suspect that he may have suffered a heart attack. You should a) ask him for the name of his doctor so that you can summon him; b) permit him to lie down flat in the street while you divert traffic; c) administer first-aid treatment before bringing him to the nearest hospital; d) help him cross the street quickly in order to prevent his being hit by moving traffic; e) flag down a taxi cab to take him to the nearest hospital for immediate treatment. Fun, isn’t it? To add cheer to national challenges.
Well, if we want to enrich our actions, we must strengthen the field of thought because life is full of action. Planning, doing with a clear purpose, accomplishing things with a minimum time but working for maximum hours. I like my life fired with determination, as it is now. I begin serving PPSC ignorant of the many aspects of public safety. I spent my first few days and months at PPSC like a student researcher wanting to know more about that institution that I am serving. For the past seven years, I have learned to love it, both its accomplishments and remaining challenges. I may have resigned but will remain its primary advocate, to promote its interests for the benefit of public safety services. For the Filipinos, for their safety, I will remain.