RAIN OF FIRE

Cesar G. Bonilla
Rising violence in Ilocos Norte

LAOAG CITY -- The sickening rise of violence in the province poses an alarming situation for it seems no one is safe even if someone is within the confines of his or her own residence. This is a threat to all of us if our public officials and law enforcers will not unite to combat this menace.

Our economic survival is at stake if our political stability is not well.

Former Association of Barangay Councils president of the town of Dingras, punong barangay Joefrey Saguid was shot by two men using a motor vehicle but fortunately, he survived. The guy was accommodating and hospitable to this writer when he visited their residence at Barangay Guerrero before the local election of 2007.

His family showed warm friendship. With this incident being under investigation by police, let not injustice be served but fairness in accordance with law.
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The word Gandhi is universally associated with non-violence. Yet, Mahatma Gandhi died at the hands of an assassin. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was murdered by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984. Her son former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was also a victim of an assassin.

Political assassinations seem to be becoming a tradition in India that is known for Mahatma Gandhi’s satyagraha, meaning truth, force, or passive resistance against injustice. Political assassinations are oversimplified solutions to political problems. In the United States, we had the assassinations of Presidents John F. Kennedy, William Mc. Kinley, Abraham Lincoln, and James Abram Garfield.

Martin Luther King, a great advocate of non-violence was also a victim of an assassin. It was Mahatma Gandhi who said: “I can imagine a fully armed man to be at heart a coward. Possession of arms implies an element of fear, if not cowardice.”

It seems as if things have not changed much since the Mahatma’s time. There are still people who go for violent solutions to political problems. Violence used to be attributed to the law of survival of the fittest. But as

Mahatma said: “Non-violence is the law of our species as violence is the law of the brute. The spirit lies dormant in the brute and he knows no law but that of physical might. The dignity of man requires obedience to higher law, to the strength of the spirit. Target of political assassins are generally people who enjoy popular support.

Since the assassin cannot do away with the people, he goes after the person who he believes will implement the people’s will. But you cannot destroy ideas. Political assassinations are usually counter-productive. The classic example was the murder of our hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, which marked the beginning of the end for the abusive, cruel, and despotic Spanish regime. ***
November 16 is a great day for the Ilocanos because President Elpidio Quirino, who was Ilocandia’s first contribution to the presidency was born in 890 in Vigan, Ilocos Sur. His birthplace was the second floor of the provincial jail of Vigan, where his father worked as the warden. His father, Mariano Quirino, a native of Arayan, Ilocos Sur was a commissioned officer of the Spanish Army, and his mother, Gregoria Rivera, of Agoo, La Union, was a pretty girl who studied at the exclusive Santa Rosa College of Manila.

He was the third in the family and the second son of that happy couple. Interested in painting, he drew sketches of the Filipino patriots, Jose Rizal, the national hero; Juan Luna, the famous painter; and Antonio Luna, the noted general. He was also an excellent debater and orator.

Inclined to the legal profession, he finished his law degree at the University of the Philippines.
He was appointed as law clerk in the Philippine Commission, the upper chamber of the legislative set-up at that time, after passing the bar. He was elected as representative of the province of Ilocos Sur. Not long after his election, Quirino married charming Alicia Syquia, a scion of the wealthy family of that name in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, on Jan. 16, 1921.

By their marriage, five children were born: Tomas, Armando, Norma, Victoria, and Fe. Three of them including their mother fell victims of Japanese massacre in February 1945 at the height of the Liberation Campaign in Manila leaving only their father and Tomas and Victoria (Vicky) as lucky survivors. Quirino was designated delegate to the International Bar Conference in Peking, China in 1921.

He was elected senator at the comparatively age of 35. In the election of 1938 he launched his candidacy for representative in his district but he lost to Benito Soliven, an equally promising lawyer-politician. His electoral defeat was attributed to Quezon’s intervention in that fight in favor of Soliven.

A man easy to forgive and understand, Quezon soon reconciled with Quirino. Quezon had him appointed as Secretary of Finance during the governor-generalship of Frank Murphy. Later, he became Secretary of the Interior, dean of the Adamson College of Law and president of the Philippine Economic Association.

He won, together with President Manuel A. Roxas, as Vice-President under the newly formed Liberal Party. When President Roxas died on April 15, 1948, after delivering a speech at Clark Field in Pampanga, Quirino succeeded to the Presidency. He was elected as President of the
Philippines in the 1949 Presidential election with Fernando Lopez as his Vice-President.

He was the Father of Philippine Industrialization. His two major goals as president were: restoration of the faith of the people in the government and total economic mobilization program. He died of heart attack peacefully on Feb. 28, 1956 in Novaliches.

Years after his death, it seems that people are recognizing his virtues and qualities as a man and leader as well as the significance of his contributions to his country’s progress and stature as an independent nation.
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I would like to greet the readers of Northern Philippine Times especially Sky cable TV Laoag like: Jojo Cumlat, Joey Diculen, Jr., Arnold Reynon, Alpha Tolentino, and Maebel Dahilig.

I would also like to greet the employees of St. Joseph Drugstore like: Juliet, Sheng, Lilibeth, Juvy, Rexy, Macel, Lemerie, Blesie, Jenn, and Valerie. All of them are gifted with noble hearts. More Power!