hi guys...just needed to share this...
A Filipino of Faith
BY THE WAY
By Max V. Soliven
The Philippine Star 12/19/2005
We keep on paying lip service to the catchword, "Faithin the Filipino." In this Christmas season of hopeand also sadness - this faith and confidence inourselves too often falls short of being justified.However, here's one story which I must tell.This incident took place last Thursday in the lateafternoon. I was rushing home in my car, an X-5, frommy last meeting in Makati - already far behindschedule, since my next appointment, after a change ofclothes, was in Malacañang. My vehicle broke down inthe mounting rush-hour traffic on the Paseo de Roxas,not far from the corner of Buendia. There I was,frantically trying to hail a cab in vain while theavenue was crawled alongside, almost gridlocked. Mydesperation must have been all over my face. I hadfruitlessly attempted calling my Stargate office onAyala Avenue, then my associates and friends nearby. Ineeded a car badly to rescue me from the corner whereI had been stranded. But nobody could be contacted.Then a white Chevrolet Ventura pulled up to the curb.The young man at the wheel leaned over, his windowrolled down, and asked: "Can I help you, sir?"I blurted out, "Yes - my car over there broke down. Imust get home in a hurry! Can you bring me somewherewhere I can find a taxicab?"The fellow smiled and said: "Hop in, Sir I will driveyou home."I scrambled aboard, thankful to the kind stranger, andGod - and for my good fortune. In retrospect, I wonderwhy it had never occurred to me he might be an armedhold-up man. I guess it was the disarming nature ofhis smile, his earnest approach. Yet how could anyonebe so generous as to stop in the middle of traffic,then offer a total stranger a ride all the ! way to hishome? He hadn't even asked how far away I lived; he'dmade the offer without hesitation.When we were underway, I asked to shake his hand andasked for his name, "My name is Alex," he simply said.'I'm Max," I replied, then fished in my pocket andoffered him my card. He peered at it, then exclaimed:"Wow. It's an honor! I read you every day!""Now. Alex, you owe me your card in return." I said.Stopped at a light, he took out his wallet, got oneand politely handed it to me. It read: Alexander L.Lacson, above which was his firm's title: "MalcolmLaw", underneath that, "A Professional Partnership."By golly, I had been rescued by a lawyer.There you are. Somehow, when faith in the Filipinowavers, a Filipino comes along to restore your faith.Restore it? So surprise you with his kindness andgenerosity. This is an experience - and a shininggesture - I'll never forget.
I finally told ! Alex I was headed for Greenhills. Hegrinned. "By coincidence, since I'm taking you there,my destination happens to lie not far away - I'mheaded for Wack-Wack subdivision to give a talk at aChristmas party.""Why?" I exclaimed. "In addition to being a lawyer,are you also a preacher?"He smiled even more merrily and explained that he hadwritten a little book. It was on the car seat besidehim, and I picked it up. It was entitled: "12 LittleThings Every Filipino Can Do to Help Our Country."Alex had his little volume (108 pages) publishedearlier this year by the Alay Pinoy Publishing Housein Quezon City, and it had sold out in its firstprinting within three weeks. The second and thirdprintings were about to sell out, too.No, he wasn't selling it through any bookshop, thebiggest book shop (unnamed here) wanted too big aportion of its possible earnings, but I told them Iwanted the proceeds to go to a scholarship foundationfor the needy."So, Lacson has been selling his book out of his officeand out of his home.The dedication of the slim tome reveals his sincerity.It says: "To my Creator, who has blessed me with somuch, and to my Country, which yearns for love fromits people."As we drove up EDSA, Alex said: "I read your mother'sbook, 'A Woman So Valiant,' too - and I loved it!"Can you beat that?My mama had written that book of hers in longhand, onyellow pad paper not long before she died at the ageof 81 on October 16, 1990 - and belatedly, we hadpublished it last year. Astoundingly, it had been arunaway bestseller, without publicity, and had soldout in the National Bookstores.My sister, Mrs. Mercy S. David messaged me when shearrived from New York that the Japanese were nowplanning to transcribe the autobiography into Japaneseand publish it in Tokyo, as a chronicle of whathappened to a Filipino family in the war years (andduring Japanese military occupation). The proposedJapanese title, "A Valiant Mother and Her NineChildren."But that's another story, far removed from today'sinspiring tale about Alex Lacson's Christian spiritand generosity. One thing Alex said demonstrated hehad really read Mom's book. He remarked that the thinghe vividly remembered in Mama's memoirs was that, inspite of our poverty, she had determined: "I don'twant my children to feel poor." Thus, one of us or twoof us in turn had been taken by her, on her meagerearnings as a seamstress, to eat at a good restaurant.The "classy" restaurant of the time, Alex recalledfrom its mention in mama's book, was The Aristocrat.How lives intersect in this spinning world.To get to the end of the "rescue" saga, Alex Lacsondrove me to my home in Greenhills, and I noticed henever broke a traffic rule. I ! was tempted, in myselfish agitation to get home and get my tuxedo forthe State dinner in the Palace, then dash over toMalacañang, to cut corners, such as push into theopposite lane when stuck not far from the BuchananGate, in order to sneak into the Gate. But Lacsoncalmly awaited his turn in traffic. Obey the law andobey the rules were obviously the bedrock of his "12Things" credo.In any event, getting to Malacañang in the end wasonly the bonus. Meeting someone like Alex Lacson wasthe real miracle.
Alexander Ledesma Lacson, it turned out, modest as hewas in bearing, was a graduate of the University ofthe Philippines College of Law, 1996, and took upgraduate studies at the Harvard Law School inCambridge, Mass. (Good old Harvard Yard, by gosh). Hiswife, Pia Peña - it turned out even more amazingly -is the daughter of an old friend, Teddy Peña fromPalawan! She, too, is a lawyer - U.P. 1993 ! - a legalcounsel for Citibank. They established a foundationtogether to help underprivileged children throughschool, and are now subsidizing 27 young scholars indifferent public schools in Alex's native NegrosOccidental.The reason Alex had been headed for Wack-Wack was thefact that the officers and employees of a companynamed Resins Inc., after buying 1,000 copies of hisbook had invited him to give the "homily" at theirChristmas party. This was not a small group - thecompany had 600 employees, waiting for his "word" thatnight.Alex, it struck me from our conversation, is an eloquent and devout Catholic. He believes God musthave destined our people for some great role - why, inall history, he reasoned, were we Filipinos the "onlyChristian nation in Asia?" One thing is certain: Heand his wife Pia practice their Christianity - andlive it.Four years ago, he and his wife had a seriousdiscus! sion about migrating to the US or Canada becausethe Philippines, as a country appeared hopeless sincethings only got worse year after year. They wanted toknow if their children (they have three, one boy andtwo girls) would be better off staying in our countryor abroad in the next 20 years.Pia and Alex had asked themselves the question: "Is there hope for the Philippines to progress in the next20 years?"They reasoned: If the answer is Yes, then they wouldstay. If it was No, they would leave and relocateabroad while they were still young and energetic.There were long discussions. One day, the realization,Alex recalls, struck them: the answer to that questionwas in themselves. The country would improve, Pia andAlex finally understood, if they and every otherFilipino did something about it. Leaving the Philippines was not the solution. As Lacson put it in his book: "The answer is in us as a people; that hope is in us as a people."
When I read the book afterwards, I discovered thatmany important people had endorsed it.But these encomiums are not needed. Alex laughed whenI quipped that he must be one of the wealthy Lacsonsfrom Negros Occidental, like my classmates andschoolmates in the Ateneo. He cheerfully, and proudly,said that he was "a poor Lacson." His mother, hepointed out, had been a public school teacher inCabangcalan.No, he's not poor - his richness are in his friends,and in the heart.
Here are, in outline, his 12 commandments:
1) Follow traffic rules. Follow the law.
2) Whenever you buy or pay for anything, always askfor an official receipt.
3) Don't buy smuggled goods. Buy local. Buy Filipino.(Or, if you read the book, he suggests: 50-50).
4) When you talk to others, especially foreignersspeak positively about us and our country.
5) Respect your traffic of! ficer, policeman andsoldier.
6) Do not litter. Dispose your garbage properly.Segregate. Recycle. Conserve.
7) Support your church.
8) During elections, do your solemn duty.
9) Pay your employees well.
10) Pay your taxes.
11) Adopt a scholar or a poor child.
12) Be a good parent. Teach your kids to follow thelaw and love our country.
These are the 12 things every Filipino can do to helpour country. At first blush, they seem simple. Whenyou study them more closely, they are difficult to do.But all of us, together can do them.
posted by ganda @ 2/27/2006 05:01:00 PM
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