Part II of the “International Society of Rizal's Advocates (ISRA)” Series

The stories told by Brothers Sirs Peter, Manny and Dennis represent the parable that is the Philippines and not only the tragic tale of the Order of the Knights of Rizal (OKOR).

Life in the Philippines has not changed much even after the lapse of almost 112 years since the martyrdom of Jose P. Rizal, the 13 Bicolano rebels executed at the same place a week after his execution and the deaths of countless Filipino freedom fighters and civilians as results of, and collateral damage from, the fight for independence against Spain and the following Filipino-American War. Life has not changed much because while the foreign colonizers are gone, an Imperial Manila has taken their places. This is the reason the same oppression, corruption, racism, gender bigotry, exploitation of woman-and-child prostitutes and what not ad infinitum continue.

Brother Sir Dennis perhaps has given the best rhetorical answer to Brother Sir Manny's own rhetorical question: "Would we not, in good conscience start to wash the plates before we put the food we offer to the people?" Brother Dennis asks, "Shall we wash the dirty plates with murky, stinking water?"

The Philippines is not only running out of clean-and-potable water, in fact there is also no more water -- stinking or not -- in many of the country's springs, brooks and streams because of wanton deforestation caused by illegal logging and burn-and-slash farming. Please read my essay,  The Filipino "Silent Springs" (With Apologies to Rachel Carson) for more details.

So, if there is little water -- whether clean or murky and stinking -- washing the dirty plates and public linens may be just begging the question.

There is no easy and quick or immediate answer to the parable that is the Philippines. Even if Jose Rizal were to be resurrected tomorrow and comes back to the Philippines accompanied by Jesus Christ, Filipino leaders -- along with the alleged-illustrious members of the OKOR Supreme Council -- will probably just dismiss them as impostors. Or worse, the Imperial Manila may not even put to death (again) Rizal and Jesus Christ by firing squad or crucifixion -- for the duo may just be picked up by rogue cops or military personnel and they would disappear forever from the face of the Earth.

The forerunner of an Overseas-Filipino Worker (OFW)-led political party has offered medium- to long-term solutions for the problems and evils in the Philippines are found in this manifesto,  The OFW-led Political Party's "Vision RP 2021" Master Plan. We have to go back home and fight to get back the motherland, starting with the May 2016 elections. This will be the first time in the history of Philippine politics that a party will field a socioeconomic platform and a program of government based on the ideals of Jose P. Rizal and other national and regional heroes of the Philippines. But to have to implement pilot projects in 2014 -- two full years at least before the elections, so that voters will see the reforms and believe in them. Actually, "RP" in the title stands for "Rizal's Philippines" and not "Republic of the Philippines."

Perhaps the best solution (for reforms in the OKOR) is to simply ignore the OKOR Supreme Council, stop sending dues (read, tributes) and donations to it and totally ostracize the bad eggs in it. Pretty soon, these not-so-grand knights will be like the emperors without clothes. They will have their sashes and medals but the public will see them naked and bereft of any respect.

Perhaps the most-viable solution is for all of us to join in this campaign to turn our little towns and barrios in the Philippines into the resurrection of Rizal's Dapitan (and/or in the style of the Kibbutz of the Hebrews) and complete our national hero's unfinished business of providing vertical housing, vertical farming, socialized medicine in the style of a Health-Maintenance Organization (HMO), organizing cooperatives, putting up better schools, lighting up the streets from green sources of energy, protecting the environment, engaging in fishing by first saving the bays and other bodies of water, etceteras, etcetera. Yes, and in so doing, we oust by and through the ballot the Filipino traditional politicians who are really the modern-day versions of the Spanish bureaucrats and colonizers and their new Fray Damasos (read some members of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines), their version of the Guardia Civil and all the evils of the Imperial Manila. But it is easier said than done.

To read the details of turning Filipino towns into Rizal’s Dapitans, please go to   Launching a Rizal Advocacy (ISRA) Today

But if we all believe in the man that was Jose Rizal and his ideas and his ways of changing peacefully the homeland, The OFW-led Political Party's "Vision RP 2021" Master Plan may be the most-viable and practical way to obtain reforms. Unless readers have a better plan, in which case they should send their ideas to editor@mabuhayradio.com . . .

To read Part I of the series, please go to  Launching a Rizal Advocacy (ISRA) Today # # #