May Duterte shift to governance with prayers to protect us from impending calamities

On the eve of his presidential inauguration may Rodrigo Roa Duterte hold true the pledge to strengthen a government of the people, by the people, for the people as he recites the oath of leadership before the Bible. Out of nowhere Mr. Duterte, a former mayor of Davao City was elected president, garnering about 16,000,000 votes double that of the more popular and favorite candidate Grace Poe. Did God destined him to be? Then he must be beholden to Him. His presidential pledge will represent a moral standard to which he must strive, for Filipinos to have faith in him.

No other Philippine president have dared to confront the drug mafia and the corrupt police force. Not only did Duterte dare criticize judges for selling TROs, but also media people who are on the payroll of people in power. He is determined to make the government serve as civil servants to help people get things done, setting deadline of 72 hours for every transaction.

3 shrines mystically installed for each national disaster

The governance of former Presidents Ferdinand E. Marcos, Corazon C. Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos were marked by major disasters. The one and a half decade of Marcos dictatorship was a scourge to the country when martial law caused the arrest and disappearance of dissenters, the curtailment of freedom of the press. The irreversible ruinations caused Ninoy Aquino to remark to his cellmate, my husband Max V. Soliven, “The one who will succeed Marcos cannot help but fail,” not expecting it would be his wife Corazon.

As a housewife, unfamiliar with the mechanics of the reins of government, her administration was plagued with unstoppable brownouts and numerous labor and school strikes, making the major business investors flee the country. Anti-American and anti-oligarch sentiments were stirred by the leftist elements. Burning of sugar plantations and massacre took place in Negros. Then came the earthquakes.

By the time Fidel V. Ramos took over the presidency, the catastrophe of the explosion of the Mt. Pinatubo volcano occurred, a public upheaval of unparalleled violence. The lahar streamed down to Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales covering towns and rivers and causing the closure of Clark Field US Airbase and the US Subic Naval Base. To recover from this and reverse the situation became President Ramos’ major task.

In the middle of the above disasters heaven came to the rescue. Through a mystically gifted haciendera (plantation owner) Punay Kabayao Fernandez in Negros, the holy ones requested a mystical ecumenical shrine to rouse the hope of the poor farmers from their bereavement and losses during the Marcos regime. The Faraon - Cadiz shrine features the beautiful statues of Our Lord and His Mother Blessed Mary with St. Francis of Assisi, the saint of the poor.

The EDSA Revolution signifies the inner transformation of Filipinos

The second site celebrating the EDSA Revolution was the Operation Brotherhood Montessori Center bounded by the Shrine Avenue (“where divinity descends while humanity ascends”) on the corner of Eisenhower and Annapolis streets of Greenhills. Just across Club Filipino where the presidency of Corazon Aquino was launched is the school with its 23 Michelangelo-like statues: by the front gate is the Holy Family, the Lord of Love astride a white stallion, a gigantic Angelique Victoria, the grotto of the World Mother and the Lord of Sacrifice on top of which is the golden Angel with the Pointing Hand, the fresco of St. Francis and his Magic Garden with 200 animals and St. Claire in the school restaurant, the healing prayer room with the Lord of Wisdom and Compassion and Our Lady of Liberty, smiling Dr. Jose Rizal, and the busts of Ninoy Aquino and Dr. Maria Montessori.

The latter’s discovery of the “new child” alongside the “new teacher” has been replicated by the OB Montessori schools and its outreach of 156 Pagsasa-rili Preschools for the poor in the past 50 years. This phenomenon fulfills the constant message of the trinity of shrine: to gain national unity Filipinos must undergo an inner transformation.

The third shrine, the Hidden Temple Shrine of Mt. Pinatubo marks the 1992 catastrophic volcanic explosion in Zambales covering rice fields, fruit orchards and cattle ranch 18 meters deep of lahar fronting the 60-foot high Palan, San Marcelino hill designated as the “altar of the nation” pointing towards the volcano 20 km away. Standing on the altar is the four-ton, 13-foot-tall statue of Our Lord of Love and Redemption and below Him is the Praying Blessed Mother with their wind-blown 14 karat gold capes.

The Praying Blessed Mother of Mt. Pinatubo: ‘Never fear’

All the way from Sta. Barbara, California, through the mystic Elizabeth Huffer, the Praying Blessed Mother of Mt. Pinatubo spoke these words to the author Preciosa S. Soliven, Philippine STAR columnist, last May 1992 when she traveled to California with Punay Kabayao Fernandez:

“It is with much pleasure that we come to you on your land for it is not only a sanctuary in the visible, but a magnificent sanctuary in the spiritual. It covers much  ground than what shows in the physical. As you add to this each day with who you are and what you pray, this extends very far out spreading across much more land.

“There will be a day when another sphere of activity takes place, for the earth will turn on its side. But never fear that land will hold the light and all that you hold dear will rise again. You see dear one, you are setting not only what is right in the eyes and heart and the mind of God. You are setting the stage for future civilizations. It is a mighty task to where your conscious mind cannot really conceive of what you’ve done, but will flower many, many thousands of flowers will grow from there before this earth, this world is done.”

Blessed Mother assures us that with prayers we shall overcome all adversities she prophesied since 1992, which has been going on with US hurricane Katrina, Sendai, Japan tsunami, Yolanda tsunami of Tacloban and recently the earthquake of Ecuador.

Lessons we can learn from the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906

An earthquake measuring 8.25 on the Richter scale preceded the fire that first shook Northern Californians from their beds at 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906. When the deadly San Andreas Fault lurched that morning, it sent terrifying jolts through an area 210 miles (338 km) long and 30 miles (48 km) wide, from San Juan Bautista in the south to Fort Bragg in the north. Other towns, like San Jose and Point Reyes Station near Drake Bay, suffered more from the initial shock than San Francisco. San Francisco’s new City Hall crumbled. In 48 seconds, it was all over but the city lay in ruins. The subsequent fire destroyed 20,000 buildings over an area of more than four sqm (7sqkm). It killed 315 people; the bodies of 352 more were never found.

Although the awareness of the mighty San Andreas Fault extended back a dozen years, there had been no prior warning of, or preparations for, this major upheaval. With its alarm system destroyed, the fire department lacked coordination. When the brigades arrived, they found mangled mains lacking any water supply. The situation was worst in the area south of Market Street where expert demolition work might have prevented the fire from spreading. Experts were lacking, and improvisations by the commandant of the Presidio, Brigadier General Frederick Funston – who had leaped in unauthorized to fill the gap in authority – served only to destroy scores of beautiful mansions and to spread the fire still further.

Hundreds were dead or still trapped in smoking ruins, 500 city blocks were leveled and a handful of people had been shot or bayoneted by Funston’s inexperienced militia who had poured into the streets to keep order and prevent looting. Golden Gate Park became the home of as many as 300,000 people for at least the next few weeks. Cooking inside the tents was banned, sanitation was rudimentary, water was in very short supply and rats (and therefore threat of the bubonic plague) a dark lingering menace.

The Committee of 40 on the Reconstruction of San Francisco

A Committee of Forty on the Reconstruction of San Francisco was formed to define the tasks to be undertaken and A.P. Giannini’s tiny Bank of Italy, making loans to small business intent on rebuilding, was at the forefront of those determined to revive the city’s fortunes. The bank was later to become the Bank of America, the country’s largest.

Aid poured in from all over the world, $8 million worth within the first few weeks. Even the much criticized Southern Pacific Railroad pitched in generously, freighting in supplies without charge, offering free passage out of the city and putting heavy equipment and cranes to work on the enormous task of clearing debris.

While the ruins were still smoking, on top of a heap of collapsed walls, a sign would announce: On this site will be erected a six-story office building to be ready for occupancy in the fall.” San Francisco’s renaissance was inevitable.

The predicted earthquake of Metro Manila, Duterte’s  debut in governance?

The O.B. Montessori school building complex in Greenhills is surrounded by 18 30-story high-rise condominiums. More highrise buildings more than 50 stories are still being constructed in the Ortigas Shopping Center. A few years ago I interviewed the Civil Defense Director General Melchor Rosales about the Metro Manila earthquake faultline. On the map we traced it from Marikina where houses are sinking in some villages, Quezon City, Cubao, running along EDSA and ascending to Corinthian Garden Village cutting cross to Laguna until the Tagaytay Ridge.

I wonder if the numerous investors of these multistory edifices give a thought to the impending earthquake that could make their structures crumble in a few minutes. Constructions of clusters of high-rise condos keep going on unabated spreading along Aurora and Quezon Boulevard and across in Pasig, San Juan, Mandaluyong, Makati, Taguig and Pateros. The new president better leave Davao and come down to Manila to prepare the strategic succor system for the 12 million residents of this congested metro city.

A prayer for the newly inaugurated president

Lord of Love, may our new president Duterte and the new officials of his administration listen to Your voice and use the power you gave them unselfishly, and in humility to seek continually your face, your absolute strength and wisdom.

Dearest Praying Blessed Mother, the personal intercessor of Our Lord, pray for our new President Duterte, that he may continually follow God’s will. You predicted, “There will be a day when another sphere of activity takes place, for the earth will turn to its side. But never fear that land will hold the light and all of you hold dear will rise again.”

(Reference: Insight Guides California, 7th Edition)

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