Colors From The Fallen Raindrops

Philippine Headlines: Making Marks In History

In the past few years, The Philippines has made some earth-shaking news around the globe. What are the events that made a noise here in our country? What are the moments that made some unforgettable marks in our hearts and in our minds? One of the undying issue in past and continuing in the present is the problem about abortion. We’ve seen over the past years that a fetus is found inside a garbage can, inside an airplane and everywhere else. This incidents are very alarming especially for the Catholic church because it breaks the fifth commandment in the ten commandments that God gave us, which is, “You shall not kill” and abortion is an act that kills innocent lives and yet it’s such a shame because we’re the only Catholic country here on Southeast Asia and yet these causes of abortion is still increasing.

Another horrible incident that happened is the gruesome Maguindanao massacre which happened 2 years ago. Some reporters and mediamen made a coverage to the elections there in Maguindanao and on that day, a terrifying event happened, all the reports and mediamen were killed. The women were raped and killed. No one was found alive. Dead bodies and their vehicles were buried below the ground. The cause of the tragedy was the political battle between the Ampatuans and Mangundadatu. An estimation of 60 people were killed in this massacre and until now, there is no justice for the victims and their families. This is a reminder for us that we don’t have the right to take away anyone’s life because the only one who could do that is only God and I think it’s not rightful to ends one’s life because I believe that life is a beautiful gift from God and we must take care and love that gift that he gave us and I really can’t believe nowadays that just for us to retain power and just for us to survive to the poverty that we are witnessing today, we’re taking away one’s life. Are we that selfish and stubborn? Do these people still have conscience? Is our desire for power and survival really that intense? These issues today are very distrubing and alarming.

We all know that the Philippines is one of the typhoon-prone countries in Asia. During the month of September, Our country was hit by two devastating typhoons, Typhoon Ondoy and Pepeng. Typhoon Ondoy gave an unforgettable lesson for each and every Filipino. The typhoon wrecked and destroyed agricultural farms, livestocks, houses, etc. After Typhoon Ondoy was the arrival of Typhoon Pepeng. The two typhoons left families homeless, killing a hundred of people and leaving cities and provinces flooded especially in the National Capital Region and Northern Luzon. You could see so many things floating outside. Everyone was running, they are trying to save anything that they have. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones because the flood that came from our river did not reach our house. When the heavy rain stop and the flood was entirely gone, I saw that almost whole of our subdivision was covered in mud. Dead bodies of animals that did not survive during the tragedy were all lying on the streets, Cold and had no life at all.  Everyone is trying to revive the items that was affected by the flood but it’s too late to try. But, despite of the bad weather and the sadness, Filipinos became united, helping one another to cope from this adversity. This also left us the truth that anything could possibly happen in just a snap of a finger and could change everything in just a blink of an eye. I think one of the lessons we could get to experience is that we should expect for the unexpected. When the devastation was all over, I just thought of a saying that could portray on what effect the two typoons left, “What goes around, comes around.” We should be careful on what actions we are going to do in future especially in how we treat our environment because it might come back to us in an unexpected way and that experience would be a reminder for us that we should really take care of our surroundings.

We also unexpectedly said goodbye to our former leader and president, Mrs. Corazon Aquino. She died battling from her illness, Colon Cancer. She was the first female president of the country and fought her way through the Marcos regime and she was also the first woman to be in the cover of “Time Magazine”. She made some remarkable moments for the Philippines that made her unforgettable. She is unforgettable because she led the Filipinos to freedom by means of democracy and because of that the EDSA revolution I was made an history all over the world entitling it as “a bloodless revolution”. The whole nation sent its condolences to the Aquino family. Every Filipino participated in honoring “Tita Cory” through watching her necrological mass and burial ceremony and of course offering prayers for her soul. We must just remember the physical presence may be gone, but the memories and her good deed retains in our hearts forever. Also, The whole world including the Philippines received a shocking news when the King of Pop, Michael Jackson passed away. Many people are still wondering what is the truth behind his death and many people were also disappointed because at the time, Michael was preparing from his comeback concert entitled “This is it”. It’s also sad for us because Mj was a great part of our world history and the Filipinos loved him so much. They maybe gone but those wonderful things they did for our country and probably for the whole world will remain and will not be forgotten.