Passages

Sanggol Sa Kanyang Sinapupunan

posted by Ruby Ann Kagaoan - Calo @ 9:13 PM 0 comments

Scientists Disproving God's Existence

Science is a mere field of study created by man. God is beyond science. He is even beyond existence. What makes Him God apart from everything else that exists is that He is not bound by time and space. What science studies are all bound by time and space. If we can even experience God within our limited perception, it is only because He allows Himself to be known to us, if we seek Him. To those who do not seek Him, He will not be found. Their limited minds will not be able to fathom an unlimited God.

posted by Ruby Ann Kagaoan - Calo @ 9:09 PM 0 comments

GOD's MATH

by Ruby Kagaoan

posted by Ruby Ann Kagaoan - Calo @ 6:42 PM 0 comments

Why does Jesus allow suffering to happen?

by Ruby Kagaoan 



"If it’s true that Jesus sees all our pain, then why does he allow suffering to happen?"

A friend asked me this question in my blog, after she read my story on my son David. She lost her baby girl. This was my reply.

posted by Ruby Ann Kagaoan - Calo @ 2:19 AM 0 comments

And the Greatest of These is Love

Written May 6, 1990, Sunday at church
Ruby Ann Kagaoan


I got to thinking about love and life and death one night.

I came to conclude that when I die and go to the next life I cannot take anything with me except...

the love which has been given me by people,
and the love which I have given away to people.

I cannot take with me all my worldly awards and achievements,
not the business that I plan to establish,
not the work into which I have poured out so much of my youth and strength.

Only love.

Yes, faith will be with me,
otherwise, my destination after death would certainly be most unpleasant.

Yes, hope will be with me,
hope that I shall finally behold all the splendor of God and His Kingdom,
as God has promised in His Word.

Oh, but the greatest that I will take with me to heaven
is love...

love that I have received,
and love that I have given away.


"And now these three shall remain:
faith, hope, and love;
but the greatest of these is love."

~ 1 Corinthians 13:13

posted by Ruby Ann Kagaoan - Calo @ 12:27 AM 1 comments

IT IS FINISHED!

Tetelestai! Consummatum est!

Ruby Ann Kagaoan – Calo
March 13, 2008 – morning meditation

posted by Ruby Ann Kagaoan - Calo @ 8:27 PM 3 comments

Reading and A Sense of Nation

A speech by Ruby Ann Kagaoan – Calo delivered on the morning of June 25, 2005 to the parents of home-schooled students. On that same morning, the first street rally protesting the results of the 2004 National Elections was taking place in Ayala Avenue, Makati City led by the wife of the late leading opposition candidate, and there was a looming feeling of uncertainty about the Philippines. Amidst the heavy political dark cloud, this message of hope was delivered.


Good morning, parents.

Last night, I spent four hours with our national artist F. Sionil Jose. He’s 81 years old and he’s still writing, and he has been nominated for the Nobel Prize, and mostly likely he will be Asia’s first Nobel Prize winner for Literature, and he’s a Filipino.

So we asked him how did he get into writing, how did he start and how early did he start. His answer was so interesting. He said, “As soon as I started reading.”

He was born in Pangasinan, in a very small town there. He comes from a very poor family. And at that time there was electricity only for the street lamps. So he would go under the street lamp and read, at 10 years old, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.

He said, “I remember crying when I read the story of the two boys.” Then his mother would call him and say, “It’s too late already.” So he could not wait for the morning to read.

So he was reading. And he was reading classics at 10 years old. After Noli and Fili, he read Don Quixote, then My Antonia. And that started him writing.

When I asked him, “What was the most important education that you ever received?” he gave me a vague answer. He said, “I’ve had many.” And I talked to his wife. I said, “What training did he have for him to be a great writer?” And his wife answered, “Just like NVM Gonzales and Nick Joaquin, he actually did not finish college.”

“But how did he become a great writer?!”

And his wife said, “Through reading.”

I asked him to write a dedication on the book for my son, who was with me, a three-year old. He’s here. He’s (over) there. He kept awake for all the four hours that F. Sionil Jose talked to our group of writers. And he wrote – the name of my son is Kairos – “For Kairos, May you be interested in literature.”

The whole point is this – this is what he believes in – he said, “Literature and art have a very important function. They help us have a sense of nation.” He said, “Literature teaches ethics. It’s not psychology. It’s not all of those other courses. It’s literature, because there you can see good and bad and make a decision.”

And when we asked him for an important message for us at this time, he said, “Nation is what its culture has built.”

And what’s important about culture are literature and art.

So he just kept on encouraging us to read, read great classics.

While I was listening to him, I was encouraged, because I’ve been doing Reading Workshops.

And why I started doing Reading Workshops is because some parents in the school where my other child is attending had noticed how my child would just quietly sit down, read a book, and she would finish it quickly and get another one. It’s easy for her to finish three full books in a day just during her spare time, waiting for her dad, or at night.

And a number of parents had noticed it, and they were saying, “Sana gan’un yung anak namin.” (How we wish our child is like your child.)

And I told them, “She’s doing some techniques.”

“Techniques! Meron bang techniques sa reading?” (Are there techniques in reading?)

“Yes, there are.”

And so the Directress of that school asked me to do a Reading Workshop. And that was the first time – last year. I did a 3-hour workshop. I tested on them things that I had done with my children. And, they worked. The techniques worked.

This summer, I was asked to conduct workshops as well, Reading Workshops. And these were with children who were average or below-average. They would read less than 30 words per minute. And if I asked them what they remembered, they could not remember!

They would spend about 20 minutes on one page. That’s how I started the workshop, just to test them. I asked them, “What do you remember?” They couldn’t remember.

But within a day, just teaching them some techniques, right away from 30 it became 110. And the next day, 245. The next day, 260, and with a comprehension of 70 to 80 percent.

For each level, lower elementary, upper elementary, I did different techniques. And then for the parents I shared techniques for adults, and their rate was 500 percent improvement, from 200 words per minute to 700 words per minute with a 90 percent comprehension.

These are techniques that I learned over the years.

When I was 9 years old, I had my first poem published and that encouraged me. By the time I was 11, continuing my creative writing, I felt I couldn’t write as much as I wanted to because I didn’t have enough inside. So I said, “I must read.” So I forced myself to read anything – labels…everything.

At 12 years old, my father enrolled me in a reading program. So I had all of those techniques. But later on I realized these were all external techniques. I’m sure you’ve heard of them, these things (demo the speedy zigzag finger-pointing technique), and all of that. These are external.

When I became a parent, my first child, who is a student of TMA, was born three pounds. While she was in my womb, the doctor said she would always be delayed mentally and physically. And I told myself, “That will not happen.”

I prepared for her birth. I read How To Teach Your Babies How To Read. I read many things.

And so at 6 months, I was teaching her doodling. At 5 months, we were teaching her how to swim. At 6 months, I was doing sight reading to her. By the time she started toddling at 10 months, she could read, she could identify words, she could read before she could speak – and it’s possible – and I continued to read to her, read with her, everyday, not knowing that these were techniques, which I will share with you.

By the time she was 5 years old, she said to me, “Mommy, give me a real Bible.”

“Hmm?! You have many Bibles. You’ve read them many times. The Children’s Bible and several versions.”

“No, no, no, I want a real Bible. The one without pictures. Small print.”

Because her imagination was so much, she did not anymore need pictures. Pictures were even a hindrance to her own imagination.

I gave her a real Bible! And she was reading it at 5 years old. She could read like any college graduate at 5 years old.

I read the Bible from cover to cover. It took me actually two years – from age 33 to 35. Two years to read the Bible from cover to cover. It changed my life.

When she was 7 years old, I told my daughter, “Why don’t you also start reading the Bible from cover to cover.” And she read from Genesis to Matthew in two months, at 7 years old.

At 7 years old, my daughter went with me when I had my routine check-up for my eyes, and she said, “Mommy! Mommy! Me too! Me too!” So I said, “Okay.” And there I discovered that all that time my daughter was doing all those feats as a child reading, she only had one good eye.

Because of her premature condition, something happened with her left eye – it did not develop like her right eye.

And so I thought, “If my daughter who has one good eye can read that way, what more a normal child – a child with two good eyes.”

And so I had this thing with reading. My second, she’s a reader – the one who is in the other school. And we have our third – he’s now in Ateneo Prep – and although he couldn’t read like his sister at 5 years old, because he would see in our house we’re all reading, always reading, there’s a culture of reading in our house, he also loves books.

So I’ve seen that this is something that we could share. It’s not all of those “external” (demo the speedy zigzag finger-pointing technique again). It’s something about the heart, and a whole attitude about reading.

Recently, an NGO invited me to share the reading techniques. The NGO is called BASA. It’s just a small group headed by a Jesuit priest, Fr. Ted Gonzales. And their vision is so large scale, nationwide. They want to create a culture of reading in our nation by creating public libraries. And so they asked me to share.

And the first project we had was in a Makati public school near the race station. These are children poorest of the poor who live with horses, because their parents take care of horses. And it was told me later on that the children that I handled were remedial children from Grades 1 to 6, meaning, they’re delayed academically. But that was not my consideration when I taught them. As far as I know, they’re students.

But just the same, the techniques worked on them. That 500 percent, they achieved it within an hour. So the four hours was because of activities, building up, building up, so they know whatever were the obstacles in their minds about reading, they were taken out. And they started enjoying reading.

And so when TMA asked me to share the Reading Workshop with the parents and with the students, it is with great joy that I’d like to share these techniques.

And all the more I was inspired when I heard F. Sionil say, “Literature can help build a sense of nation. And if we have a sense of nation, we will have a sense of obligation to our nation, a sense of sacrifice for our nation so that we can build a strong people.”

Thank you very much.

posted by Ruby Ann Kagaoan - Calo @ 2:03 PM 0 comments

EVANGELIZING PHILIPPINE POLITICS

The CENTERPIECE feature of BIZNEWS ASIA for its January 2007 isue.

New Politics, New Methods, New Fervor

By Ruby Ann Kagaoan - Calo


The late Jaime Cardinal Sin declared, “Politics is not dirty. It’s good. It is ordained for the common good of the people. It is the people who practice politics who make it dirty.”

It was the Cardinal’s voice that called on the Filipinos to go to EDSA in February 1986 to protect the military and government men who were defecting from the dictator. The late Church leader made his mark in Philippine politics.

What is politics, after all? It is good governance and authentic public service – this is its truest definition. It is not a dirty thing to be avoided. It is what we need to put order in our society. “The just ordering of society and the State is a central responsibility of politics,” Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his first encyclical.

The Pope further stated, “A just society must be the achievement of politics, not the Church.” The Pope has called on the laity to take up the cause of a just society by participating in politics. He wrote, “The direct duty to work for the just ordering of society… is proper to the lay faithful.” This is the gospel of politics.

Responding to the call of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines, which urged the Catholic lay faithful “to participate actively and lead in the renewing of politics in accordance with the values of the Good News of Jesus,” a band of ordinary Catholic lay faithful led by Nandy Pacheco and on fire to put their faith into action started a new political movement.

The primary aim of the movement is the common good. The two major components of the movement are political education and political action.

The vision of the movement is a new Philippines as a nation of character, enjoying a politics of virtue, good citizenship, duty, transparency, and accountability, and where every Filipino is living life to the fullest.

Soon, Filipinos of other faiths, like the Evangelicals, joined the movement, and in August 2002, this interfaith, nonpartisan, nonviolent, and communitarian political movement was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as Kapatiran sa Pangkalahatang Kabutihan (KPK).

It is on a mission to evangelize politics and awaken the laity and the rest of the citizenry to their duty to be vanguards of politics and good governance.


New Politics


KPK drew up a list of aspirations, but no political party took up its aspirations. As a consequence, some KPK leaders led by Pacheco formed a new political party adapting the movement’s principles and aspirations as the party’s founding principles and political platform. The party will field candidates that fully believe in and live by its aspirations.

On May 8, 2004, two days before the last national elections, the Commission on Elections accredited KPK’s political party, Ang Kapatiran, as a national political party.

The party’s platform is open-ended and the party welcomes specific proposals that are consistent with its principles and that enhance the common good.

Ang Kapatiran’s new politics is focused more on moral principles than on political expediency, more on the needs of the poor and the vulnerable than on the interests of the rich and powerful, more on the pursuit of the common good than on the demands of special interests, and more on the culture of life and peace than on the culture of death and violence.

The party is anchored on universal moral principles like belief in God Almighty, the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person, preferential option for the poor and vulnerable, the dignity of work and the rights of workers, solidarity, commitment to the common good on all levels: in local communities, in our nation, in the community of nations; rights and responsibilities, care for God’s creation, people empowerment, and peace and active nonviolence.

“There is no way to escape politics,” declares Nandy Pacheco, founder and former president of both the political movement KPK and the political party Ang Kapatiran. “Politics is like air. Without air we will die; unfortunately, we ourselves pollute the air. That’s why people develop respiratory ailments,” he says. Since 1989, Nandy has been fighting for a gun-less society. “Let buy guns be bygones,” was a catchphrase he coined that used to be on a prominent billboard on EDSA.

In 1995, when Pope John Paul II was going to visit the Philippines, a 21-gun salute was planned as a welcome for His Holiness, but Nandy, who was a member of the welcome and arrival committee, opposed that plan and the Vatican’s representative seconded it.

Nandy was a former international civil servant who served in high positions in the United Nations Information Center and the Asian Development Bank. When he opted to take an early retirement in 1990, he was the highest-ranking Filipino in ADB.

Like cleaning polluted air, the task of cleaning up Philippine politics is gargantuan. But Ang Kapatiran is undaunted.

“We are evangelizing Philippine politics,” says Nandy, who now serves as the Secretary-General of the party. He boldly declares, “We are the David’s, the trapos (traditional politicians) are the Goliaths.”

The Ang Kapatiran party may be small like a David, but it charges with a sure aim with its clear and specific platform. It is not intimidated by the political Goliaths with their machineries of guns, goons, and gold.

Indeed, Ang Kapatiran is moving forward fearlessly like a David charging a Goliath. “We will surely topple down the Goliaths if we work together,” Nandy said confidently during the November 4, 2006 General Assembly when the new set of Ang Kapatiran officers and national committee chairpersons were presented and ratified.

“There can be no Easter Sunday without a Good Friday, no resurrection without the cross. Right now, we are at the cross, but we will surely reach the resurrection,” Nandy declares passionately.

One of the original incorporators of the movement and the party, Mario Ongkiko, a prominent law practitioner, is back after taking leave and is now the new President of the party. This is a welcomed development. Mario Ongkiko’s presence puts turbo power into the party as it prepares for the 2007 national elections.

The other incumbent officers of Ang Kapatiran are Manolo Dayrit as Chairman; David Lim as Vice-Chairman; Benny de Guzman as Vice President and Treasurer; Nonet Abellana as Vice President for Western Visayas; Feliciano Perater, Jr. as Vice President for Mindanao; Amador Astudillo and Rafael Enriquez as Deputy Secretary-Generals.

Seventy-three years old and still going strong, Nandy is passionate about the cause of Ang Kapatiran and KPK. “It is for our children, and their children, and their children’s children,” Nandy appeals.

Ang Kapatiran is now on an active search for principled Filipinos who will commit their futures to serving the Philippines and bringing it out of the bottom ranks. It is possible to skyrocket the Philippines and make it catch up with the Asian tigers, but the prerequisite is good governance and a peaceful and just society. “Ang Kapatiran is the antidote,” proposes Nandy.


New Methods


What makes Ang Kapatiran unique?

First of all, Ang Kapatiran upholds a platform-based politics, in contrast to the personality-based, celebrity-driven politics that our countrymen have been subjected to election after election.

Ang Kapatiran’s new method of campaigning includes a built-in education component that will promote basic political education, platform-based politics, and the politics of virtue and of duty, good citizenship, transparency and public accountability.

Ang Kapatiran will accord the highest priority to projects and programs for the underprivileged, the homeless, the indigenous peoples, the elderly, the prisoners, the disabled, the veterans, and the youth. It will support nongovernmental organizations and communities whose projects and programs directly benefit the poor.

Ang Kapatiran is the only political party that will promote progressive disarmament nationally and internationally through the United Nations.

Ang Kapatiran promotes a “respect life” attitude in society and a consistent ethic of life. Thus, anyone running as a political candidate under Ang Kapatiran should not only be against abortion but also against anything that promotes violence in any form, even toy guns and violent movies.

Ang Kapatiran will dismantle the social structures that glorify vices and immorality and the culture of death and violence and replace them with the structures of virtue, peace, responsibility, and achievement.

Ang Kapatiran is for strict gun control in public places except for law enforcers who are in uniform and on duty. It supports the abolition of the death penalty. It is the only political party that is committed to abolish “pork barrel” and gambling, which discourages honest work and promotes poverty, fraud, and deceit.

Ang Kapatiran is for the immediate liquidation of cash advances of public servants. Un-liquidated cash advances in the Philippine government already run in the billions. It is against the unwholesome practice of setting up billboards in public places naming the public officials responsible for the project. It will disallow elected and appointed public officials from writing regular columns, acting in movies, anchoring on radio, and appearing on television, commercials, and billboards.

As a preventive measure against corruption, Ang Kapatiran will do away with laws, rules, and regulations that give government personnel, like the BIR, the discretion to allow or disallow certain tax deductions and exemptions.

Ang Kapatiran will limit future government borrowings within the growth levels of our exports, OFW remittances or GDP. It will create micro-finance facilities harnessing OFW remittances and will encourage the development of new export products.

Ang Kapatiran is committed to protect God’s creation, the most important of which are people. To protect people, Ang Kapatiran will promote a safe, clean, and wholesome environment – and that is environment in the broadest sense, which includes not only physical but also the social aspect.


New Fervor


A new fervor is rising for a new way of doing politics in the Philippines. KPK and Ang Kapatiran will go to the parishes and the dioceses to educate the laity about their responsibility to ensure the just ordering of society and to inject moral sense in the political process. It is now creating chapters all over the country and even abroad, wherever there are Filipinos. As long as there are at least 10 members meeting regularly in a locality, that will comprise a chapter.

Ang Kapatiran calls on all Filipinos, regardless of religious affiliation, to support its campaign for a new politics and help bring the good news that a new Philippines is possible. Don’t give up on the Philippines just yet. It is time to stop complaining and for those with moral courage to step forward and run for public office.

Consider the platform of Ang Kapatiran, and if you support it, join the party, help evangelize Philippine politics, and if you know anyone who wants to run under the banner of Ang Kapatiran, encourage him/her to contact the party. Website: http://www.angkapatiran.org/ Telefax: (02) 635-27-96 Email: angkapatiranparty@yahoo.com Mobile: 0917-8826700.

posted by Ruby Ann Kagaoan - Calo @ 12:56 PM 0 comments

Return From Heaven

My dear friends,

In May 2006, my 6-year-old son David suffered the fatal Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever. David suffered beyond what any human can endure and he reached the point of death, but God powerfully intervened.

The events surrounding David's story are dramatic. On June 8, 2006, 20 days after David crossed over to Heaven and then was brought back by the LORD to his mortal life, I made a synopsis of what took place and mentioned that there was more to the story that led to the miraculous revival of David.

I burn with the desire to write the miracle story of David into a book, for it is a story needed by our generation, which has been thrown into confusion with claims against the divinity, the holiness, and the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah.

David was about to be wrapped by the nurse-aid with a post-mortem blanket, but I stormed the charity pedia ICU where David laid white, frigid and lifeless and I stormed the gates of Heaven, fell prostrate on the ICU floor, and declared the power and might of God with violent prayers and impassioned cries of worship. I did not stop praying and worshipping with loud acclamations until I felt that I had saturated the heavenlies with prayers and God was about to bring David back to life. As soon as I thanked the LORD for bringing David back to life, David came back to life - his first breath came with such force that his torso was lifted up as though a machine lifted it, but all that time he was being pumped by hand by a resident while the attending resident did "ambu-bagging" and another resident and two nurses assisted. No machine was used to revive David. That first breath came after at least 45 minutes from the time I stormed the ICU. If there were no miracle, David would have been brain-dead if he were revived after 5 or 6 minutes. But David is fully alive, completely healthy, back to Ateneo, in Grade 1, and very energetic and gregarious again! Dear friends, he did reach death, and he speaks about his experience of Heaven, angels, and the LORD Jesus Christ. What David has now is a totally brand new life recreated through the resurrection power of the LORD Jesus Christ.

On September 21, 2006, David will turn 7, a birthday he almost would not have had. Please remember our dear little David in your prayers on that very special day. David asked me just some weeks ago, "Why didn't Jesus take me?" I was touched by his question. It was as though he was trying to tell me that he was already happy in the presence of the LORD and there was no need to have come back to earth. I hugged him tightly and answered him, "Because you still have a purpose to fulfill on earth, David."

Whatever that purpose is, I know that it is precious and significant in the plans of God.

I also know that my firstborn son came back to life because I asked the LORD for his life. I asked knowing that WITH GOD NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE. HE is the Resurrection and the Life. God answered a mother's fervent prayer. In life, I experience not being heard, not being minded, not being taken seriously. But the EVERLASTING GOD, HE HEARD ME. HE listened to my cries. HE did not turn HIS face away from me. HE believed me when I uttered my praises of HIM. I totally trusted HIM and HE moved according to my level of faith in HIM which is complete. I completely trust the LORD, and HE proved Himself to me worthy of my complete trust. I held on to all the truths written in the Holy Scriptures about GOD and called forth these truths about His NAME, and HE demonstrated that HE IS everything that HE ever said HE IS.

I will never stop thanking God for giving David back. Just to be able to love David still, converse with him, look at him, embrace him, laugh with him, play with him, do his Ateneo homework with him, carry him ... such moments I cherish with unspeakable awe. And having experienced nearly losing a child, I have learned to cherish even more every moment with my four other children. How blessed I am to have all my five children still with me, and I am still with them. God is good.

God proved Himself true to the name that we gave David, a name derived from God's manifold Names. David's full first name is David Elyon Shammah, which means "Beloved of the Most High Who Is Always There." GOD made good HIS powerful Name to David and our family. And HE can do the same for you, my friends. He is our loving God, whose power is above all powers in heaven and on earth, and HE wants you to know that HE is always there for you.

Ruby

posted by Ruby Ann Kagaoan - Calo @ 1:05 AM 0 comments

Public Administration in the Philippines

In Dire Need of A New Public Management Model



By Ruby Ann Kagaoan - Calo


Different Levels of Public Administration in the Philippines

The Philippine Government is a presidential form with a Senate and a Congress and departments that rely on elected officials, i.e., the politicians, for their budget allocations.

Pork barrels have not been abolished; thus, public administration in our country is subject to whatever is the prevailing political climate among the Senate, Congress, and the Chief Executive’s office.


Market Segmentation of Philippine Consumers

My people, the Filipinos, are mostly poor. Only 1% of our population are rich, or what marketers call Class AB. Among the rich, there are three sub-classes, namely, the Established Rich like the Ayala family who owns the Makati Business District – the financial hub of the Philippines, the Smart Rich like rags-to-riches Manuel V. Pangilinan who rose from being poor to becoming an Asian oligarch through diligence and scholarships and a successful climb up the corporate ladder, and the Nouveau Rich who suddenly become rich usually through corrupt means or through large winnings like our phenomenal world champion boxer Manny Pacquiao, who used to be a bakery worker.

The Upper C or Upwardly Mobile Middle Class, that is, those among the middle class who have received good education and have landed in occupations that may enable them to climb out of the middle class segment and possibly join the smart rich sub-class of Class AB, is only 9%.

The Broad C Class, who are characterized as downwardly mobile, meaning, they are getting poorer and poorer as a result of the economic and political instability in our country, is a big 45%. They are the ones who rely on luck to better their lot. Their class are the ones who queue in long lines to make lottery bets and who give the television networks their big bucks as those networks present game shows that thrive on the hopes of the majority of the Filipinos to become sudden millionaires and end their downwardly mobile lives.

We, thus, have a thinning middle class, which is supposed to be the backbone of an economy.

Low-income families and the poor, also called Class DE, comprise the remaining 45% of the Philippines’ consumer population. Class D are the families of salesladies and domestic helpers. Class E are the ones seen on international television features as living off garbage dumps. They are also found living on the precarious sides of railroads and squatting on unused lands.

No longer counted in the consumer classification of the Philippines are the hundreds of thousands of extremely poor who cannot anymore purchase anything. They beg in the streets, rely on the wastes of fast food restaurants for their meals, and live and sleep under bridges or on pavements in sub-human conditions.


Feasting on the Masses as a Revenue Source

The consumer behavior of the Broad C, Class D, and even Class E segments have been fully exploited by the private sector and even by the Philippine Government. After all, these segments comprise 90% of our population.

The Government, for example, has made betting a way of life for the Filipinos through lotto, where winnings can go higher than the winnings of world champion boxer Manny Pacquiao.

Even the controversial illegal numbers game called “jueteng,” which has been a major source of campaign funds of several political candidates in the country since the last century, has recently crossed over to becoming legal since it cannot be stopped anyway and it is a sure moneymaking machinery for the Government.

Thus, on a significant scale, our Government earns for its upkeep from feasting on our nation’s poor, low-income, and downwardly mobile citizens whose sheer number in a population of 82 million can turn habitual bets of ten pesos or twenty pesos into millions and billions of pesos.

Our Government and economy are also kept afloat by the billion-dollar remittances of our Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), many of whom are doing servile tasks in difficult situations in other nations. Again, sustaining the operations of public administration in our country are sourced from those who are already poor, oppressed, and desperate.


Cost for Public Service

Nationwide, there are public elementary schools and public high schools and public hospitals, but the state of public education and public health services in our country is pathetic in most areas.

Only 2% of Grade Six public school students pass the national exams for entry into high school and only 1% of public high school students pass for entry into college.

Our poor die unnecessarily in public hospitals because of inadequate hospital equipment and medical materials. A typical scene in public pediatric wards, for example, are two to four sick babies or children in one dilapidated pediatric bed with the parents sitting on a wooden bench side-by-side watching over their young ones. And this scene happens in infectious wards where there should be quarantined areas and sanitation.
Thus, there may be free education and free hospital service in our country but the high cost is on the lives and futures of our citizens, who suffer bleak futures because of poor public education and unnecessary deaths because of inadequate public health and hospital service.


National Debt

The figures vary depending on the sources, but all things considered, our national debt figure has gone as high as 6 trillion pesos (US Dollar to Philippine Pesos currency exchange rates these days fluctuate between Php 51 to 52 to US$ 1).

Much of what our Government earns, thus, goes to debt servicing, with little left for public education and public health services.

We have come to a point wherein debt pardon is necessary, at least for the debts incurred dubiously, for example, during corrupt administrations, just so we can channel our budgets more for public service rather than for debt service.


Main Problems

From the point of view of the citizens, the main problem is the dirty politics of traditional politicians. There is no end to election fraud and accusations of election fraud. Until now, the Commission on Elections is unable to get a clean contract to computerize elections, and so vote rigging is rampant. Then there are also politicians in power who bicker and accuse endlessly. Thus, our nation is in a constant mode of being destabilized from all sides – from those in power and those who are not in power.

From the point of view of entrepreneurs or the market, the main problem is graft and corruption in government offices. It has become abnormal not to pay “under-the-table” to get a business permit or a government clearance.

From the point of view of politicians, the main problem is a personality-based politics wherein celebrities without any platform nor preparation for public service win by a landslide at the polls and end up mismanaging their public office and public funds.

From the point of view of public administration employees or civil servants, the main problem is low pay such that they need to earn extra from extortions and sideline-selling to adequately provide for their families.


Relevant Government Statements about Planned Reforms

In the President's 2006 State of the Nation Address (SONA), she said that the Expanded Value Added Tax (EVAT) has allowed the Government to make medium-term plans of building more roads to connect the many islands of the Philippine archipelago and thereby enhance commerce nationwide. Her reforms have been more in the area of tax collection and public works and highways.

However, the Government still plays an imposing role on the Filipino citizens with the EVAT reform, and this reform is more a stopgap measure rather than a total transformation in public service with a long-term effect.


Successful Example

I have seen an exemplary city, Makati City, which is well run by its mayor, lawyer Jejomar Binay. But because he is vocal about his issues against the incumbent President, he is painted more as an opposition leader rather than a stalwart public servant whose public administration should be emulated.

I have researched on the public school system of Makati City and have encountered up close the management of Mayor Binay's office and the Makati City Hall, and I can say that the Makati public administration is a beacon in public service.

The Makati senior citizens, for example, are called “seniorito citizens” as they are given more privileges than other senior citizens in the Philippines, like free movie viewing in any theater in Makati City. For Mayor Binay to think of serving in a special way the least of his constituents, the elderly, “the least” in the sense that they are no longer economically productive, shows the mayor's intent to use his public office for genuine public service.

Top in the priorities of Mayor Binay is public education.

The Makati public schools are laced with IBM computers and audio-visual rooms and are actively involved in community development and the promotion of good citizenship in their respective communities. Also, the Makati public schools are regularly engaged in citywide academic competitions that challenge both the students and the teachers to strive for academic excellence.

So important is public education in Makati that there is a public city college, which has now evolved into a university. Note that this is not a state university but a city-initiated public college. Makati, under the leadership of Mayor Jejomar Binay, is a trailblazer in public education and has not allowed the national state of public education to bring down its own standard in public education.


Key Success Factors

A key success factor in Makati City is a no-nonsense mayor who engages the thriving business sector of his city in sponsoring the development of the Makati public schools, who immediately stamps out corrupt police and engages media in his campaign to rid his city of corrupt civil servants, and who immediately rehabilitated and renovated the Makati City Hall so that it can serve his constituency with the same professionalism as the business sector that operate in his city.

Most importantly, Mayor Binay does not make the poor his main source of city funds and revenues. His city earns enough from the city taxes of the business sector and the rich residents. Instead, he genuinely serves the poor in his city by giving them the best possible public education so that they can have more success climbing out of poverty when they enter the labor force.

posted by Ruby Ann Kagaoan - Calo @ 7:58 PM 0 comments

Public Administration in the Philippines:

posted by Ruby Ann Kagaoan - Calo @ 7:58 PM 1 comments

David's Story

My 6-year old son David came out from the hospital on May 25, 2006, miraculously surviving the worst state of Dengue 4, also called Dengue Shock Syndrome, which is the terminal stage of the hemorrhagic fever and which only a handful survive. The miracle that David received is a story of the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ who rescued David from death in an extraordinary way. I cannot put the event into a few words. I must write a book about it and a film script to capture the incredible drama that only the Author of the parting of the Red Sea and Author of life itself can weave.

As God rescued David, HE mobilized an outpouring of help in funds and blood donations and non-stop mighty prayers and vigils from the Christ Commission Fellowship and its home school The Master's Academy from where my eldest child Nicole just recently graduated, from the Ateneo community and the amazing networks of people connected with the Ateneo Grade School and Ateneo High School parents in Metro Manila, in the provinces, and in other countries, from Centro Montessori where my husband Syd is the P.E. Coach and our second daughter Jireh is a student, from WordCom - the church to which my husband's friend Jojo Lastimosa and the pediatrician who attended to David in Cardinal Santos Hospital belong, from the families and coaches of the Alaska Basketball Power Camps and the players and coaches of the Alaska Aces PBA team, and from close relatives. Jojo Lastimosa played a most crucial role in the rescue of David, and this I will fully relate in the book and the film script. David was a Prep student of the Ateneo Grade School in the last school year and incoming Grade 1 this June. Cardinal Santos Hospital was overwhelmed by the number of visitors and blood-donor volunteers that went to aid David during the days when he was in the Cardinal Santos ICU.

On May 23, my birthday, David finally came back to full life, after having been in the ICU for several days. David's life is the greatest birthday gift that I had ever received. Yet, God still granted me one more wonderful birthday gift --- one Ateneo High School co-parent generously offered us her vacant house in Xavierville I so that David could have the best environment to recover well and be near the Ateneo de Manila University. We brought David home to Xavierville I in Loyola Heights, Quezon City on May 25.

In the morning of May 18 when David died and was resurrected by the LORD, Metrobank took over our home in Cubao. My husband left David and me the night before David's unexpected death to evacuate our four other children who were left by themselves in our Cubao home. I was all alone in the first hospital to which a colleague in a political movement that I was part of took us. Only when I was walking on the Ateneo soccer field where David and his little brothers and older sisters where happily running and enjoying a wonderful late afternoon, as they had always done, did I understand the role this man played in the whole dramatic rescue of David from the grave. Not having funds to have David hospitalized, we went with this rich colleague when he offered to bring David to the hospital not knowing that he would bring us to the charity hospital Quirino Memorial Medical Center until it was within my sight from his chauffered car, which we were riding in. After he left us in that hospital, the agony of David began. By our second early morning in Quirino, David had a cardiac arrest and was about to be wrapped in a post-mortem blanket when I stormed into the charity ICU and fell prostrate on the floor, facing David and the three residents and two nurses who were attempting to revive him, and I stormed the gates of heaven. "I WILL STORM THE GATES OF HEAVEN, LORD!" I declared and wailed with all my might and I prayed like I had never prayed before, declaring who God is and all His miracles in the Bible and His Will for David, which I knew was for a full and long life on earth.

My friends, the story is much more. Pray for me as I write this true story of God's resurrection power. I am the only witness who can tell the story as it fully happened, particularly those 45 minutes when David laid lifeless on a three-and-a-half foot bed, his legs sticking out of the bars of his tiny bed, his whole body lying on a thin cushion white and frigid, and his eyes protruding out of their sockets and those 20 more minutes when a mechanical vent was forced into his throat to aid him in breathing after his first breath finally came out. The CPR was done by hand by the residents. There were no equipment used to help bring David come back to life except for a green plastic bag connected to David through his nose and manually pumped by the attending resident to supply air into David's lungs. Quirino denies that David had a cardiac arrest and was given CPR. Why the Quirino residents who attended to David are denying, I can only speculate, giving them the benefit of the doubt that perhaps they are thinking that they cannot report something which they cannot explain, for what happened during those 45 minutes and the 20 minutes that followed right after David had his first breath was supernatural. Or perhaps their reason for denying is different and selfishly ignoble, like the fear of losing their residency and their chance to be doctors. I will leave that to the medical community to handle, for I will also furnish the exemplary doctors of Cardinal Santos Hospital my narrative of David's story for them to be able to act on the state of medical services that Quirino, which is a government hospital, renders its patients, many of whom, as I witnessed, die unnecessarily, including my beloved David.

My friends, God has honored all my "widow's mite" and has opened the floodgates of heaven to bless my family right now. The LORD did not allow us to be homeless, and HE turned my sorrow into joy, my mourning into celebration, when HE gave David back to me, back to this world among the living. In our family's new life, I now have this chance to write a book and a film script to permanently record the magnificent power of God over death. Please continue to wrap us with your prayers. We are living on the grace of God, who is supplying our needs faithfully as we live out our new life.

David is back to full life, and even a greater life than he ever had. There is no damage to his brain, eyes, heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, and any other vital organ nor to his senses. This is the answer to my cry to God when I was on the floor of the Quirino ICU violently pleading God for David to come back to life, and not only life but full life and a greater life than he ever had. If you see David now, it is as though nothing happened, but he still has his "nail marks" like peeling skin because he bloated with blood and water which escaped from his cells at the height of his Dengue 4 - his torso from scrotum upward and his brain had water and his skin was stretched to the maximum, he still has wounds from the needles recklessly stuck into him at Quirino and a slightly bloated abdomen because the base of his lungs still has water. On June 5, 2006, I walked David to the Ateneo Grade School for his first day of Grade 1 class. He was the first to stand in the Grade 1 line. He arrived in school early, and full of new hope. His Prep teachers, who saw him in the Cardinal Santos ICU, were so happy to see him back to the Ateneo. By the time David turns 7 years old on September 21, 2006, he will be fully well. Oh, my son, when I look at him, I remember his lifeless body, his lifeless face with his eyes staring upward, and the immense suffering his body underwent in Quirino, but when I see his face now, his smile, his beaming innocent eyes, I can only praise God, and I will praise HIM forever for my son was dead and now he is alive again, and he is living life to the fullest!

When I write the book, the title that I have in mind is the very first statement spoken to me by David's attending physician at Cardinal Santos Hospital when she arrived in ICU # 12. She did not know what I did at the ICU of Quirino six hours earlier nor, as I came to know later on, was it reported to her by Quirino that David arrived in Cardinal Santos post-arrest. While standing beside David, who was unconscious and was lying on a large push-button ICU bed getting the best ICU care with high-tech equipment attached to him but whose vital signs were all at the edge of death, pediatrician Dr. Dolly Bustamante said to me, "WHEN YOU STORM THE GATES OF HEAVEN, HOW CAN GOD NOT ANSWER!" When she said this, I knew that David was already in the very hands of the LORD GOD Almighty, and HE Himself had just answered me. It was as though God Himself said to me, "WHEN YOU STORM THE GATES OF HEAVEN, HOW CAN I NOT ANSWER?!" The hours and days ahead were full of miracles, moment by moment, each improvement was a miracle, and David's speedy recovery amazed the doctors and the medical staff of Cardinal Santos. When David was finally out of danger and the role of the intensivist, who took care of David for four days at the Cardinal Santos ICU, was over, I thank him repeatedly. As I held his hand, my tears flowed, and his eyes also turned bleary, and he pointed upward and said, "The LORD!" For truly, David surviving was all in the hands of God, even when he was finally placed in the care of the best doctors and one of the very best hospitals in our country. I asked God while in Quirino, when David came back to life, "LORD, give David doctors who fear You," for I knew that the little amount of life that David had when God restored him in Quirino had to be nurtured with compassion, so when I heard Dr. Dolly speak with faith and saw how skillfully the intensivist Dr. William Bayhon handled David, I knew God answered my prayer. And even when the intensivist said to me that David had less than 50% chance to survive, I took that "less than 50%" with hope, for I had seen David come from zero - from no life - and I knew that through the mighty prayers and the continual storming of the gates of heaven by the many who had come to know about David's condition, God would answer and make David recover miraculously. In Quirino while lying prostrate on the floor lifting up my voice to God with violent passion, I had a vision of the Spirit of Jesus carrying the spirit of David back toward life, but I saw only the LORD's footprints as HE walked on the sand. It was Jesus, the Son of the living God, who was in-charge now, and HE was using every one who came to David in the Name of the LORD to restore David to full life - this I knew.

If I communicated with you by text or conversation, or a text about David's condition reached you during those days in May, or you visited David at the ICU and/or donated blood and hospital funds for him, please write me back. Let me thank you for being part of God's miracle in David's life and let me know your end of this amazing story. I want to reconstruct those days in the book and the film script. I know that many, many people were involved in this miracle. David's story is also a story of the unity of the Body of Christ. Please email me at rubycalo@yahoo.com or rubycalo@gmail.com. Let your stories be woven into this story of the resurrection power of the living God and together let us testify to the whole world that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and HIS resurrection was for real, and HE reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords.

Ruby Ann Kagaoan - Calo
Mother of David Elyon Shammah Calo (David's name literally means, "Beloved of the Most High Who Is Always There")

posted by Ruby Ann Kagaoan - Calo @ 10:32 PM 2 comments

Not Personalities, But Character and Platform

Not Personalities,

But Character and Platform

By Ruby Ann Kagaoan - Calo

A CALL FOR SERVANT-LEADERS willing to run for national and local public office has been launched by Ang Kapatiran.

Ang Kapatiran is a national political party accredited by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) on May 8, 2004, two days before the last national elections. “I see it as God’s protection,” says Ang Kapatiran founding President Nandy Pacheco, who is known for his tireless campaign for a gun-less society. “We are able to start clean, free from any moral blemish, and not affected by the controversies of the last election.”

What exactly is a “servant leader”? Pacheco likens a servant leader with Christ, who washed the feet of His disciples. Pacheco explains, “To lead, one has to serve.” He echoes the teaching of Christ, “He who is first must be last.”

“This servant-leadership is quite unlike the behavior of many of our politicians today,” Pacheco continues. “There is so much wanton greed, so much lording over one’s followers, so much vanity, arrogance, deception, and hypocrisy. Moral principles are set aside in pursuit of power. Corruption and unethical practices abound.”

What makes Ang Kapatiran a different kind of political party?

“In Ang Kapatiran, principles and platform come first before personalities,” Pacheco states. “This is not so with traditional political parties, which promote personalities, patronage, and pay-off. The people have grown accustomed to focusing on celebrity politics or the politics of personality resulting in the wholesale failure of the people to express their collective aspirations, what they want to become, the kind of society they want to have, and how to move from the present condition to the condition they want to reach.”

Pacheco continues, “With common good as its ideology, Ang Kapatiran is founded on ‘rock’ made up of universal principles such as the dignity of human life, solidarity, preferential option for the poor, rights of workers, dignity of labor, peace, active nonviolence, and progressive disarmament. Ang Kapatiran plays the role of catalyst and broker for the people’s aspirations. The Filipino should be a stakeholder in the party and not a mere onlooker.

“Ang Kapatiran promotes the politics of virtue, duty, good citizenship, transparency, and public accountability. Our party believes that the cultivation of virtue makes individuals happy, wise, competent, and courageous. The result is a good person, responsible citizen, and trusted leader. Without a virtuous people, society cannot function well. Without a virtuous society, individuals cannot realize their own or the common good.”

"Ang Kapatiran is the antidote to trapo-ism,” adds Pacheco.

For those unfamiliar with Philippine politics, the coined term trapo-ism has a double meaning: trapo is a nickname for traditional politics, but at the same time trapo is a Filipino word that means dirty rags, a phrase that connotes all the negative aspects of traditional Philippine politics.

At the core of the tenets of Ang Kapatiran is the belief in non-violent change. “We want to change the politics of guns, goons, and gold. Non-violent change also means elections, whether snap or regular. A snap or special election may happen. No one is certain what'll happen,” Pacheco says, referring to the current volatile situation in the Philippines.

The vision of Ang Kapatiran is a Philippine society where everyone can live life in its fullness; its mission is to build a nation of character. In Ang Kapatiran, the moral, intellectual, and physical fitness of the candidates and a platform with clear and specific policy objectives go together. “One without the other is useless,” states Pacheco.

The party is now actively recruiting members from which servant leaders will emerge. Individuals interested in joining the party and running for public office may log on to www.kpkcommongood.blogspot.com to know more about the party. Party membership is a condition precedent to becoming a candidate. A candidate must be a registered member of Ang Kapatiran, have all the qualifications required by the Constitution and the laws, believe in and live by the founding principles of the party, accept and pledge to implement the platform in its totality, accept the notion of servant-leader, be morally, physically and technically fit to serve, have a university or a college degree, have not been convicted of any crime involving moral turpitude, and observe the party’s code of conduct, rules, and regulations.

Interested potential candidates for national office (for the positions of President, Vice President, and Senator) are requested to submit their bio-data together with a recent photograph to the Qualification Committee of Ang Kapatiran at the following address: 377 Columbia Street, Greenhills East, Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila. For inquiries, call or fax 6352796, or e-mail alliance_commongood@yahoo.com.

Those applying must indicate on the cover letter of their application the region they are from and the office(s) they are interested in ranked according to preference.

Ang Kapatiran invites all Filipinos of goodwill to become its members and make a difference. Pacheco states, “There is no socio-political transformation until the people themselves say what kind of society they want and how to pass from their present condition to the condition they want to reach.”

Pacheco appeals to every patriotic Filipino, “We can’t rebuild this nation without you.”

Ruby Ann Kagaoan – Calo is a freelance writer, author, and book editor. She is a charter member of Ang Kapatiran. Email her at rubycalo@yahoo.com

posted by Ruby Ann Kagaoan - Calo @ 8:31 AM 5 comments