"The Unforgettable Ramon Magsaysay"

Ramon Magsaysay y del Fierro was born on August 31,1907 in Castillejos , Zambales. He was a guerrilla leader and an intelligence officer during the Japanese war. After the war, he was appointed military governor of Zambales on February 4,1945. He was elected the congressman of Zambales in 1946. He was appointed by President Elpidio Quirino as the Secretary of National Defense on August 31, 1950. In 1953 , he won with a landslide vote in the presidential election at the age of 46; the youngest president ever.

As a Congressman, he worked to secure benefits for war veterans.Through his efforts, the U.S. Congress passed the Rogers Bill that provided for "G.I. Bill of Rights" for Filipino veterans. The Rogers Act also provided hospitalisation benefits for war veterans and their widows , and for the construction , equipping and maintenance of what is now called the Veterans Memorial Hospital in Quezon City. He also initiated reforms in the armed forces that made the Philippine military an efficient fighting force for the protection of the national security that time.

As a Defence Department chief, he annihilated the Huk rebellion with the surrender of over 9,000 Huk rebels. He resettled the surrendered Huks in Koronadal Valley in Mindanao and provided them farms.

As President, he had a high concept of "delicadesa", for he never appointed members of his family and close relatives to government offices and prohibited the naming of plazas, roads, bridges and towns after him. He insisted to be called simply "Mr. President". he popularised the use of barong Tagalog and named the buri wine , the basi, as the national drink. Corruption was never an issue against him and his administration. There were no cronies either. In terms of integrity, he was totally beyond reproach.  He possessed the straightforwardness and hatred for lawlessness of Quezon,  the valour of Washington, the brevity and humility of Eisenhower and the firmness and kindness of Lincoln.

Ramon Magsaysay was the first President to improve the conditions of the barrios through the construction of barrio roads, bridges, schools, artesian wells and irrigation systems. He prohibited the indiscriminate slaughter of carabaos. He created the National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration ( NARRA) which resettled almost 22,000 in 1957. He made sure that the Huks who surrendered and retired military personnel were accommodated in the resettlement areas of economic development  corps ( Edcor).

During Magsaysay's term , the SEATO was established in Manila on September 8,1954. This was an anti-communist organisation composed of Australia, France , Great Britain, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines,Thailand and the United States. On December 15,1954, he signed the Laurel-Langley agreement which provided for the abolition of free trade between the U.S. and the Philippines from Jan.1,1956 to July 3,1974. On May 9, 1956, he signed the Reparations Agreement with Japan in Manila. It provided that Japan would pay reparations for destruction made by the Japanese forces in the Philippines during WWII, totalling $300,000,000 for 25 years.

When Magsaysay died in an air plane crash in Mt. Manunggal , Cebu on March 17,1957, the Filipino people from all walks of life grieved as if they have lost a beloved member of their own families. From then on, he was known as the Huk fighter, Idol of the Common Man, The Beloved, The Guy, "The Savior of Democracy of the Philippines", The Champion of the Masses, The Man of the People and The Father of Land Reform. He was featured in the Readers Digest as "The Unforgettable Ramon Magsaysay", with his portrait as the cover.

References:Remembering 'The Guy', by Nestor Mata ,  the Privilege Speech of Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. ,and My Guy, Magsaysay, by Jess Sison

Note: The compensation for his services as a soldier who served both the Philippines and the United States was placed by his family in a foundation , The Ramon Magsaysay Award, counterpart of the Nobel Prize Award. When his family stepped down from Malacanang, they returned to their dilapidated home in Zambales. When the laborers and stevedores in Manila learned about this , each of them contributed a piece of tile for the former First family's  house. No one solicited from them.They did it out of love. I read this from the School News Review when I was a high school student.

An ignoramus politicianin our town once asked, "what has Magsaysay done in this town to deserve a monument?"kindly read my answer through my post entitled, "Ginasagap Ko".

A True But Forgotten War Hero

A brilliant Filipino general named Licerio Geronimo is not among those remembered during national commemorations, such as Independence Day. The Filipinos of today do not know Licerio Geronimo, the battle-scarred general of both the Revolution of 1896 and of the Philippine-American War, neither nor of the Battle of San Mateo... "Maybe because he was poor and unschooled ",said his daughter in an interview. He was taught how to read and write by friends .His only intellectual fare was the awit and corrido which he read while lying on the back of his grazing carabao  in Montalban.

General Licerio Geronimo had been with  Andres Bonifacio in the attack on the munitions depot in San Juan del Monte , the first battle of the Revolution of 1896 .With the outbreak of the Philippine-American War, General Antonio Luna appointed him Commanding General of the "Tercera Zona", comprising Manila and its adjacent provinces including Morong (now Rizal). Gen. Aguinaldo designated him  Division General of the Revolutionary Army for Morong with his station at San Mateo town. In defense of Mt. Puray camp, Gen, Cerio and his force fought the Spaniards for six hours and triumphed.

At dawn of December 19,1899, at one side of the Marikina River, stood Major Gen. Henry W, Lawton ,the enemy in the Philippine-American War and responsible for the death of many Filipinos. He was the captor of the fearless Apache chieftain who held the U.S. Army at bay for 40 years. Gen. Lawton had with him two battalions of infantry and two squadrons of cavalry. On the other side of the river were Filipinos who had been strategically deployed in trenches by Gen. Cerio. His force was a team of sharpshooters ,the legendary "Tiradores de la Muerte", who had been trained by an English soldier.

Lawton exposed his bulky frame in plain sight of the Filipinos, because his perception was,the Filipinos had just learned to handle a gun. Although in one of his reports, he wrote :"With the disadvantages they have_ no artillery, ammunition , power inferior, shells reloaded until they are defective ,they are the bravest men I have ever seen."

General Cerio Geronimo shot Gen. Lawton in the Battle of San Mateo which lasted for a furious three hours on December 19,1899. Thus, the man who conquered the Indian Geronimo 13 years earlier beside the Yagui River in Arizona near the foothills of the Sierra Madre in Mexico , was killed by another Indio also named Geronimo, beside another river close to the foothills of the Sierra Madre in Luzon.

Six months after the battle, Gen. Cerio received a letter from the bereaved wife of Gen. Lawton asking him for the picture of the man who killed her husband. Gen, Cerio sent his picture with an inscription of regrets :"Ayaw ko mang gawin,.ay aking ginawa nang dahil sa bayan ."

(Reference :from the article of Lilia Ramos de Leon, Philippine Panorama, June 7,1981)

Gen. Geronimo died on January 16,1924. His memory had been buried  by perception pervading in a country whose mind is clutched by a distorted history. Geronimo, the Nemesis of Gen. Lawton was a true hero who deserves to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani  ,instead  of a self proclaimed war hero whose name is not found in the list of Philippine Scouts, the USAFFE or the Guerrillas during WWII.

Kinaray-a: "Mother Tongue" kang Tigbauanon

Ang Kinaray-a, sangka Austronesian nga pulong nga ginahambal sa puod kang Antique kag sa kalabanan nga mga banwa kang Iloilo. Dya may mapag-on nga sadsadan kang mga binalaybay. Ang "binalaybay", pangkabilugan nga panawag sa matam-is,maduagon kag mabulakon nga panghambal. Ang tinaga nga "binalaybay" naghalin sa Kinaray-a nga tinaga nga "balay" nga kon sayudon,.pagpasad ukon pagtukod. Dya nga tinaga nagakahulugan kang sinadto nga paagi kang pagpatok ukon pagpasad kang purulungon nga nagakinahanglan kang nagasirinanto kag pat-od nga takos kag  tunog kang mga tinaga.

Ang binag-o nga paagi kang pagdihon kang binalaybay ginatawag nga hilwalaybay sa Kinaray-a, katumbas kang "free verse" sa English. Raku nga manogbinalaybay   ang naghimurat nga mapalapnag ang Kinaray-a nga pulong paagi sa paggamit, kag pagtib-ong, pagtipon, pagtipig kag pagtago kang tanan nga makabig nga Kinaray-a nga literatura.

Isara sa mga mahuyugon sa Kinaray-a nga literatura amo si Maria Luisa Tejero nga nagapanuigon it 78 anyos kag sangka retirado nga manunudlo sa Tigbauan, Iloilo. Si Maria Luisa ukon Malu, natao kang  Agosto 28, 1944, sa Napnapan,Tigbauan, Iloilo.Bugtong tana nga bata kang mag-asawa nga Jose Arevalo Acupan kag Marina Gonzales Tejero. Ginkasal tana kay Eugenio Terania Torrento Jr, kag may apat sanda ka kabataan,nga amo sanday:Genee Marie, Eugenio III, EM, kag Ma.Luisa II.

Si Malu nagtapos kang elementarya sa Tigbauan Central Elementary School kang 1956, kang sekondarya sa Tigbauan High School kang 1960, kag kang BSEED sa University of San Agustin kang 1964. Nangin Elem. Grades Teacher tana sa District of Tigbauan halin kang 1964  asta sa pagretire na bilang Master Teacher II kang Enero 5, 2005.

Mga apat pa lang ka tuig si Malu, nalingaw ron tana sa mga binalaybay, sirinanto, palato, kansyon, komposo, luwa kag mga hurubaton nga ginapabati kana kang ana apoy, lola, nanay kag mga tiya. 

Isara sa mga manunulat sa Ilonggo nga nakaganyat kay Malu sa pagsulat kang binalaybay amo ang bantog nga feminista nga si Magdalena Jalandoni nga mabasahan ang sinulatan sa Hiligaynon, nga sangka semanal nga magasin sa Ilonggo.

Natukiban ang kinaadman ni Malu sa literatura kang pagmaestra na, gani, nahimo tana nga manogsulat, manoghanas kag hurado sa mga literary-musical contests. Sa sulod kang malawid nga panahon, nagsulat tana sa English, Filipino kag Ilonggo, pay ginapasulabi na gid ang Kinaray-a ay indi na gusto nga malubong sa limot ang kaugalingon nga kultura kag literatura kang ana banwang tinubuan.

Pira sa mga sinulatan ni Malu sa Kinaray-a amo ang:Ramona, Hamtong ron ang Mariposa, Hilway ron ang Binukot, Paalam sa Kinagot, kag Ang Bataan Boy nga Tigbauanon. Ang pagsulat, pasyon ni Malu. Wara tana nagasulat para sa kwarta, kundi para lang mapautwas na ang ana hunahuna kag baratyagon, kag labi sa tanan, sa pag-ulikid na nga buhion ang panghambal nga namat-an na sa ana mga kamal-aman.