After continuing days of rain and clouds where we are in Japan, the sun finally came out brightly Friday, November 27th. The clear blue sky allowed many to view the snow-capped Alps from a distance. For sure, the famous Mt. Fuji will delight many more viewers as well as mountain climbers today.
Three days before this month of November ends, we are reminded that soon, colorful autumn will give way to cold winter. Soon, November will give way to December. Then this old year will end and a new one coming!
For Filipinos, November is our month to honor and remember our dead just as August is for the Japanese. As we all once again lift up our prayers to God for His eternal rest and peace for all our departed, on a personal note, allow us please also to honor and celebrate our dear Papa Leoncio's November 27th reunion with the Lord and with all our other dearly loved departed , especially Mama Mater, our sister Len and our in-law Eddie Boy.
As November says goodbye, soon December will be here, and then,it will be CHRISTmas Day- a beautiful reminder for us that the birth and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and His death on the Cross meant redemption and salvation for all of us who believe.
Christmas may have come earlier to the farmers of Hacienda Luisita. Finally, the Supreme Court redeems the farmers and restores to them the rightful ownership of their lands that they have long been denied of. May this legal victory herald the emancipation of more of our tillers from now on. We congratulate our Supreme Court for opening this legal avenue for the empowerment of our farmers to own what is rightfully theirs and which history and a still-entrenched elite system have continued to deny our tillers for centuries.
Genuine agrarian reform has long remained elusive in this country. With leaders coming from landowning families, legislation and implementation have not favored our farmers at all. The Supreme Court ruling, we hope, opens up more doors for rightful redress for our disadvantaged sectors. Lands utilized for export crops have so millions of farmers awaiting the day they will finally own the lands that they and their ancestors have long tilled. Lands for subsistence crops (rice and corn) have smaller areas but with many landless, tenants, and amortizing owners awaiting their genuine ownership of their lands. Our coconut farmers are still crying out for justice to be rendered to them and for ownership of their lands that they have tilled for decades.
Among our other tillers are our indigenous peoples who continue to lose their ancestral territories to abusive resource grabbers. We have in mind the Lumads as well as other indigenous groups in Palawan and elsewhere in this country- may our indigenous peoples also be allowed their rightful and peaceful ownership of their ancestral territories.
Mindanao, the home of the Lumads, has long been a hotbed for resource ownership for contending parties. The final announcement of Duterte to run for President is viewed by many as very meaningful, especially for Mindanao. Will a Duterte presidency change the resource ownership situation in Mindanao especially?
Will the entry of a presidential candidate from the South finally end in the victory and prominence of Mindanao in the political history of our country? Visayas, like Luzon, has had Presidents. Mindanao still has to produce a president, not only of the South but a leader for the whole nation. This recent entry of Duterte is worth watching in terms of its meaningful significance not only for Mindanao but for Philippine political history.
If the Visayas, especially Cebu, had continued to complain about the dominance of Manila, Mindanao continues as well to look forward to equitable and sensitive service delivery and attention from the political seat of power located in Luzon.
Still, there are some months more to go before election time. Like the seasons changing, like the weather moving from rainy to cloudy to sunny days, like everything else experiencing change and stability, which way will our voters go?
We look forward to more meaningful developments through the days, through December, and the new year! And we continue to look forward with joy, gratitude, love, hope and faith that all will work out better for our people and our country and the whole world.