Worthy of national pride

Ending his birthday vacation cum official visit in Singapore, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) flew back to Manila at the crack of dawn last Monday. During his five-day stay there, he spoke at the Asia Summit and watched anew from the sidelines his favorite Formula One race.

Before he left last Sept.13, the First Family along with well-wishers including Cabinet officials and lawmakers of the 19th Congress feted PBBM on his 66th birthday at Malacañang Palace last Tuesday night. Attending were Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri and Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and several other legislators who brought along their respective spouses.

According to one of the attendees, PBBM played to the hilt his “unity” campaign during his birthday party. In a photo opportunity, or photo-op, PBBM made feuding politicians pose together with him. While standing with Senator Alan Peter Cayetano and wife Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano, PBBM asked Senator Nancy Binay to join them. Upon prodding by PBBM, Sen. Nancy gamely went along with the photo-op with the Cayetano couple.

The Binays and Cayetanos are not exactly on speaking terms. The two political clans have been entangled in the continuing “Embo” legal battle. Embo (Enlisted Men’s Barrio) is the collective term for barangays administered in a de facto state by the city government of Makati but de jure of the city government of Taguig after the Supreme Court sided with the latter and denied Makati any further legal remedies.

Sen. Nancy is the elder sister of Makati City Mayor Abby. The sisters, both on the last term of their respective offices, are reportedly at odds over their respective political plans. Their younger brother, ex-Makati City mayor Junjun Binay, is purportedly mulling a return to City Hall. Mayor Abby’s husband, Rep. Luis Campos Jr., is also on his third and last term in the 2nd congressional district of Makati City.

Almost the entire Cabinet attended the birthday celebration of PBBM, except Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno and the other economic team officials, namely Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, and Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman. They were all still in Qatar on a “roadshow” for the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) created by a law signed by PBBM. Prior to Qatar, the Diokno-led Cabinet economic members flew to Tokyo and met with their counterparts in the annual bilateral talks with Japan.

While they were in Japan, Diokno was quoted as saying the economic team was “surprised” to learn about PBBM’s Executive Order 39 that set a temporary price cap on regular and well-milled rice at P41 and P45 per kilo, respectively. After that “surprise” comment, rumors flew thick that Diokno is supposedly on the way out after the Finance chief was a no-show at PBBM’s birthday reception.

“Rumors don’t bother me. I just do my job. Rumors are for idle minds,” the Finance chief quipped.

Similarly grilled in rumor mills is House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, whose critics are always waiting to use any issue as a weapon against him. Citing unnamed sources, Romualdez reportedly donated to Harvard University a substantial endowment to fund the first-ever Filipino language instructor in the University. He has neither confirmed nor denied it.

A release from his office quoted him as saying, “In light of recent speculations regarding my alleged donation to Harvard University, I choose to respect the institution’s gift policy.” This was referring to Harvard’s policy to “not discuss the terms or specifics of individual gifts.”

There’s a reason for Harvard’s confidentiality rule and obviously the Speaker stands by this principle. After all, he received a Certificate of Special Studies, Administration and Management in 1988 from this University, according to the Speaker’s official resume.

It’s unfortunate that instead of celebrating the teaching and promotion of our national language in the global stage, some choose to criticize it. Crab mentality at its best.

It was first reported in our online PhilStar.com that Lady Aileen Orsal, a former faculty member of Cavite State University, made history after she became the first-ever instructor for the inaugural Filipino language course in Harvard University at Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Harvard University Asia Center and the Department of South Asian Studies announced the recent hiring of Orsal after the University launched the new language course earlier this year.

The Harvard Gazette quoted James Robson, Victor and William Fung Director at Harvard University Asia Center: “We are extremely happy to welcome Lady Aileen Orsal to the Harvard community.” Orsal started teaching the Filipino language as a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies in Northern Illinois University in 2018.

Filipino is the fourth most spoken language in the United States, next to English, Spanish and Chinese, according to Harvard University. Orsal is now a member of the Harvard community and will be making a mark because of that endowment. That’s the only news fit to print.

As I’ve gathered, Harvard’s endowment is made up of more than 14,000 individual funds, many of which are restricted by non-disclosure agreements. For the same reason, other universities around the world also follow the same privacy principle.

The obvious political attacks made a big fuss over the alleged “secrecy” of the Speaker’s donation – if he did make one in the first place. They ask angrily: What’s there to hide? Is there anything fishy about it?

But what if Romualdez disclosed the endowment? No doubt the very same critics would have howled: It’s just another publicity stunt. In short, he’s damned if he did and damned if he didn’t.

What’s sad though is that such manufactured issue detracts from the many benefits of the endowment. Regardless who made the donation, it paves the way for Filipino to be taught in Harvard. It’s a milestone worthy of national pride.