It's time to pray
The cool weather at night tempts me to say our world is undergoing a metamorphosis. Our 2000 period in history will be a remembrance of calamities as in Japan last month. I read that in 1995 alone there was an earthquake in Kobe, Japan, which claimed about 5,000 lives, followed within days by milder quakes in Hokkaido, then in Colombia, South America. The ring of fire was circling the earth. Another earthquake hit Sakhalin, Russia, which flattened the town of Neftegorski killing nearly 2,000 followed shortly by another quake in Greece making America recall that Los Angeles quake the year before.
Just two weeks ago, our country experienced an after-shock from Japan. Thank God we were spared and held our composure, and prayed! Reading through my history books, Manila was visited in the year 1645 by a terrible disaster, a frightful earthquake. The city of Manila alone counted 600 victims buried under the ruins of their houses, and of all the public structures, only the convent and the church of St. Augustine, and the Jesuit Church remained standing. The Spaniards made a distinction between two kinds of earthquake then. They called one a “terremoto,” an earthquake whose shocks were vertical and the other was “temblor,” wherein the shocks were horizontal.
A warning was aired last week for evacuation of the lower towns surrounding Taal Lake. One will recall in 2011 that aside from earthquakes, there were disastrous volcanic eruptions several times in Taal, Batangas. That tiny volcano has generated awe from God’s creation. It is small but terrible. She erupted in 1634, 1635, 1696, 1698, 1705, 1701, 1731 and 1749. Francisco Pingaron, a Lake Taal missionary, recorded that four days of eruption occurred near Lipa, Batangas with huge waves in 1917, lashing against the Batangas shore sweeping away some 60 feet soil from the coast. The eruption that finally destroyed the Lake Taal towns such as Taal, Lipa, Tanauan and Sala (now a barrio of Tanauan) was on May 15, 1754. Taal’s most gruesome killer eruption in the 20th century was in 1911 when she set a world’s record for seismic activity. The US Army Burial Corps and Red Cross compiled statistics. In most catastrophes, about 10 were injured and one killed. But in 1911, Taal reversed the proportions: 1,335 persons were killed and only 1,999 injured, many of who died later.
Then there was the massive flood in the American Midwest in 1994, repeated in Florida and California in 1995. In 1995 the Philippines experienced, in Ormoc, Southern Leyte and our neighbor China, floods of the century. The Filipinos take quakes and floods in stride. Resilient we are, with our smiles. In Jolo, floodwaters are chest-deep from man-made ills and their disposal of trash while seawaters enter the town contributing to mud and germs, Atty. Laisa relates. In Northern Samar, the palay is unable to dry, Congressman Emil Ong informed me. We pray we don’t have a rice shortage.
Disasters and conflicts are brought about by natural causes but we even have in the Middle East today the annihilation of life due to human intervention. What disastrous effects these conflicts for power have inflicted on men. It was time to pray and go visita iglesia with Fr. Heintje L. Cañete. Fr. Cañete is a police chief inspector from the religious Ordinariate under Bishop Leopoldo Tumulak and our Police National Training Institute Command Chaplain. He was our guide to several churches. They were Magdalena, Laguna to the Church of St. Mary Magdalene Parish to recite the first and second 1st and 2nd Stations of the Cross. And then in Majayjay, Laguna at St. Gregorio Magno Parish we prayed the 3rd and 4th Stations of the Cross. In Liliw, Laguna at St. John the Baptist Parish we recited the 5th and 6th Stations of the Cross. In Nagcarlan, Laguna at St. Bartholomew Parish we prayed the 7th and 8th Stations of the Cross. The 9th and 10th Stations of the Cross would be in Sariaya, Quezon at St. Francis of Assisi Parish. After lunch we proceeded to Tayabas, Quezon to the Basilica Minore de San Miguel Arcangel for the 11th and 12th Stations of the Cross and finally in Lucban, Quezon at Kamay ni Jesus Shrine for the 13th and 14th Stations of the Cross. Finally, “home sweet home” to quote Fr. Cañete.
I drove to Liliw, a town founded in 1571 by Gat Tayaw at the foot of Mt. Banahaw, and named after a bird. It was said that Gat Tayaw and his followers decided to erect a bamboo pole and name the town after the bird that first alighted at the top of the pole. Within four days, a crow did precisely that but it was a bad omen. So, Gat Tayaw and his men moved south and put up another bamboo pole from whence a beautiful bird alighted on the pole and sang, “Liw, Liw, Liw.” Thus the town became Liliw. Chinelas, shoes, sandals were aplenty. My fellow employees went store to store. Filipino hospitality was again at its best. We had no place to eat with our baons but were welcomed to a little kitchenette where we spread our lunch. Embarrassed, we ended up ordering some food from the lady of the canteen to compensate for free lodging and good company.
Nagcarlan came next. Nagcarlan was headed by a valiant datu named Gat Lakilaw. Its conversion to Christianity began in 1578 through the efforts of Fr. Juan de Placencia and Fr. Diego Oropesa, both Franciscan missionaries. In 1517 in Nagcarlan, Fr. Plasencia wrote the first “Disccionario Hispano-Tagalog.” Ten years later, he wrote the manuscript of “Costumbrez de los Tagalog,” which according to Franciscan documents, served as a guide for the Alcaldes Mayores for effective and righteous governance. The historic pact of Biak-na-Bato was first planned by Pedro Paterno and Gen. Severino Taino of the “Maluningning” command during their secret meeting in this cemetery in 1897.
The underground cemetery was the burial place for the Spanish religious priests. How terrible to live away from the land of your birth and never see home before death. How historic that the City of Tayabas was when in 1578 Fray Juan de Plasencia and Fray Diego de Oropesa, two Franciscan missionaries from Spain, founded the town of Tayabas to spread Christianity to its natives. We chanced upon the first Mass of Fr. Archie Jasela, so young and good-looking with 26 priests in attendance. We witnessed the proceedings from a tiny canteen and quenched our thirst with Coke. How simple life seemed there. The real love in my life is research without sophistication, and appreciating the joy of being alive.
Where there is no love of man there can be no love of life. As long as one sees his fellowmen as existing essentially to be mistrusted, there cannot be peace on earth. Unlike natural disasters, like earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, both give rise to a new land formation such as the appearance of an island in the middle of the sea. But man must come first. He is irreplaceable and made in the likeness of God.
