Takbo Maharlika Run ends

Rejoice with us in praising God! At 7Am today Takbo Maharlika team reached Zamboanga City Port ending a 7 month run of 2,387 km (83% of Maharlika highway allowed to TM) covering 11 regions, 30 provinces, 13 chartered cities outside Metro Manila with EDSA from Valenzuela to Muntinlupa.

Visit to Fuente Street Kids

A fun afternoon with our friends in Fuente. :) Enjoy your weekend! :)

Takbo Maharlika in Cebu

TM's Cebu Run with the CPNP. A run jived with PDG Nicanor Bartolome's call to Bishop Joe Palma. About 500 PNP, AFP and civilian runners started at 3 different ppints merging at the finish line, the Mandaue Sports Center.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Fr. Melo Speech during RAFI Triennial Awards


“PASSION AND EXCELLENCE: YOUTHFUL HEARTS FOR THE FILIPINO NATION”

RAFI Triennial Awards for Outstanding Individuals and Institutions
6 March 2009, Casino Espanol, Cebu City



Distinguished trustees of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI), other members of the very dedicated RAFI family, cherished guests from various sectors in Cebu and other parts of the country, members of the media, and last, but certainly not the least, past finalists and winners of the RAFI Triennial Awards for Outstanding Individuals and Institutions, good evening. Maayong gabii kaninyong tanan.

When Mr. Robert Aboitiz called me up several weeks ago, I thought I was finally going to have coffee with one of Cebu’s luminous leaders. When he started talking about the awards night, I braced myself to give a customary short invocation. Instead, he gave me this unexpected privilege and challenge of sharing my simple thoughts before an august assembly in this very rare affair. I am indeed humbled and grateful.

Life is full of irony: someone tasked to offer inspiring thoughts is really the one being inspired. I have soared on the wings of an eagle man and drank in the life-giving waters of literacy in the marshlands. I have seen the faces of peace in Mindanao. I have met scientists, doctors, and educators with golden, pulsating hearts and rubbed elbows with indefatigable community leaders.

I have befriended public officials who are truly worthy of public trust and have been awed by the sense of urgency and resourcefulness of individuals and groups organizing our most vulnerable sectors.

These leaders embody what the surrealistic Triennials trophy seeks to convey: a heart transformed into a benevolent hand reaching to others in need. They understand St. Paul’s words to the Romans: “We know that affliction makes for endurance, and endurance for tested virtue, and tested virtue for hope. And this hope will not leave us disappointed, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts” (Rom 5:3-5).

This is truly a wonderful gathering of leaders, indeed a gentle implosion of hope. I see glimpses of what the Filipino poet Rafael Zulueta da Costa wrote many years ago in the poem, “Like the Molave”:

The glory hour will come.
Out of the silent dreaming,
From the seven thousand fold silence,
We shall emerge, saying, WE ARE FILIPINOS,
And no longer be ashamed.

Leadership for meaningful change, characterized by passion and excellence, is the call of the day.

This call starts in a youthful heart. I am reminded of some unforgettable lines from the pen of American author Samuel Ullman (d. 1924) from his work entitled “Youth”:

"Youth is not a time of life - it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees. It is a temper of the will; a quality of the imagination…
Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over a life of ease. This often exists in a man of fifty, more than in a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years; people grow old by deserting their ideals…
You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear, as young as your hope, as old as your despair…

Tonight, I stand before a very young crowd indeed!

Yet, this youthful spirit gestates in the womb of greatness only when coupled with adversity, even failure. Credible leadership is molded in the crucible of testing.

Someone once told me that one’s vocation, one’s calling, is where one’s deepest wounds intersect with the world’s needs. After all, is not our passion for change and transformation the result of our own experience of limitation and failure, and of our own need for change and transformation? As the ancient Greek writer Plutarch puts it: “What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.”

Failure allows us to empathize with others and our imagination “enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared,” as the noted author J.K. Rowling shared before Harvard graduates.

But this brokenness is not limited to the person. It comes from our connectedness with other Filipinos and with our beautiful land, and comes as a clarion call from the depths of our souls.

In the Philippines today, we find a people of hope threatened by creeping despair. Sadly, it seems we are not getting our acts together. Many of our leaders are leading us nowhere. Many feel powerless, even among the chronologically young. Again the words of da Costa ring true:

Not yet, Rizal, not yet. Sleep not in peace;
There are a thousand waters to be spanned;
There are a thousand mountains to be crossed;
There are a thousand crosses to be borne.

Let me suggest that today the biggest factor for Rizal’s insomnia is graft and corruption. A play on words reveals that “corruption” is actually a “broken heart” (cor + rumpere). It is a psycho-spiritual and cultural reality before it is socio-economic and political. We are a nation of broken hearts. We have become our own enemy, as Atty. Alexander Lacson, a noted author and speaker, poignantly writes. Corruption makes peace and development elusive.

This fragmentation exposes deep social wounds. Individuals and sectors tend to keep to themselves and blame one another. This leads to inbreeding: we keep within the boundaries of our groups afraid of venturing beyond our comfort zones. The result is further distortions.

Nearly two years ago, I had dinner in Manila with 8 bishops, two ranking police officers, two lady volunteers of Dilaab, and the former Ombudsman. It soon became apparent that the two police officers were gentlemen and believers of the highest order. They were soon given nicknames by a bishop: one became “Bishop Tucay,” the other, a Protestant, became “Monsignor Binag.” The lone priest became “General Diola.” Well, better late than never.

This experience deepened my realization for the need of individuals and sectors to exchange places. I have vigorously embraced this truth in my relationship with some policemen and some politicians in our journey together towards integrity for the common good. This journey has made us better human beings and better Filipinos. And, wonder of wonders, our collaboration has resulted in a fruitfulness that goes beyond human explanation… When we are united in faith, hope, and love, wonderful things begin to happen.

Some say we need to build bridges between our islands. Yet, as a friend puts it, when we go deep enough and reach rock bottom, we realize we are really a single land mass. Faith in and love of God and country are our common denominator. We only need to put out into the deep.

Elections 2010 is an opportunity for our various networks and for us as a nation to put out into the deep. We realize that behind development is good governance, and behind good governance is principled politics. We need a united front of believers who are also citizens and who will face head-on the original sin of graft and corruption begun and perpetuated during elections.

The youth and the young at heart will play leading roles in turning Elections 2010 into a watershed event. After all, the youth, who will comprise at least 60% of all voters, including 9 million first time voters - if they are registered - are not just the future. They are already the present. They will take the lead role while the young at heart will mentor and make room for them.

We are all part of a birthing process: our nation is a woman groaning in labor pains. We are called to the noble task of giving birth to the city, as the term “politics” implies. While we groan, we also dream of a transformed nation that is peaceful, prosperous, and positive - and we ask ourselves what kind of leaders and citizens are needed in order for us to get there.

Let me end by sharing with you a two-minute video featuring a very remarkable man whose evident passion and excellence inspire the young. We see ourselves in him, as he tries to inspire others even as he himself struggles. Isn’t this what leadership is all about? Isn’t this what building a nation is all about?

Click this link: http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=gqantZJ6WwM&feature=related


Daghan kaayong salamat. Mabuhay ang Pilipino!



FR. CARMELO O. DIOLA
(Overall Coordinating Steward, Dilaab Foundation Inc.: “Igniting Spaces of Hope”)



P.S. INTERESTED IN DOING MORE FOR OUR COUNTRY COME 2010 ELECTIONS? Contact me (Fr. Diola) at frmelodiola@dilaab.net or call 09173248388)




Monday, March 2, 2009

youth seminar





Last Monday 2 March 2009 we organized and facilitated a meeting of representatives of groups from different parts of the country trying to promote registration of first-time voters. This effort deserves the help and collaboration of as many people and networks as possible. Consider this: by 2010, voters from ages 18-35 will comprise around 60% of all voters. Of these, 9 million will be first-time voters, if they are registered. At the present rate of registration, only from 4 to 5 million new voters will be registered for 2010.

The youth represents the swing vote during the elections. They are not just the future; they are already the present. They need to take the lead role during elections 2010 while the young at heart make room for and mentor them.