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Burnhams' story retold in docu
MANILA, Philippines -- He was his usual self, wearing his trademark dark shades, black bandana, black long-sleeved shirt and fatigue pants. And he had an M-14 rifle in one hand and a cellular phone in the other.

There was also the unmistakable look on his face -- despite the shades, one could almost see he was enjoying every minute of his on-camera tirades against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and US President George W. Bush.

Once again, Abu Sabaya (real name: Aldam Tilao) had managed to put on a show.

But before any government agents rush in and grab the man, a word of caution: All of it was part of a pre-production "recreation scene" -- or reenactment -- for a documentary being produced by the US-based Wild Eyes Production.

Titled "Search and Destroy," the documentary is about the hunt for one of the most notorious figures in the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf Group, and about the joint US-Philippine operation to rescue American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham from Abu Sayyaf captivity on June 7, 2002.

The filming of the reenactment in the Philippines occurred just weeks before the fifth anniversary of the rescue operation, during which Martin Burnham and Filipino hostage Edibora Yap, a nurse, were killed.

So vivid was the portrayal of Sabaya's role that at times it seemed he had been brought back from the turbulent waters of the Zamboanga Sibugay area, where his body disappeared after he was reportedly killed.

How it began

A natural actor created that illusion -- radio anchor and Malacañang beat senior reporter Rey Mercaral of Radio Mindanao Network-Manila.

I was part of the group here in the Philippines that worked on the recreation scenes for three days last month.

It all began in the first quarter of 2006 when Mark Bowden, author of the book "Black Hawk Down" about the civil war in Somalia, came to the Philippines to interview military and civilian sources about the Abu Sayyaf and the Burnham kidnapping.

Best friend

Bowden had written an incisive magazine article about the Burnham story and the cooperation between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and US intelligence operatives to rescue the Burnhams and neutralize Sabaya, using a civilian-agent close to the ASG bandit leader -- and his own best friend.

The article, called "Jihadists in Paradise" and containing explosive information, appeared in March in The Atlantic Review.

What Bowden wrote for The Atlantic Review, which became the basis for the TV documentary, was very close to what I had witnessed as a journalist since I gained access to the Abu Sayyaf starting in 1993 in Basilan province.

Meeting in a mall

As the Philippine producer for the recreation scenes, I was desperate to find actors to play key roles in the documentary.

An original choice to play Sabaya had one drawback -- he could not swim, and having the ability to swim was an essential requirement for the part.

Then Mercaral appeared. I accidentally bumped into him at a mall and as we stood in front of each other it occurred to me that here was the man for the role.

On top of that, he was actually familiar with the character of Sabaya, who had called the RMN radio stations many times.

Mercaral was excited to have a part in the retelling of a story that to me was really about the human instinct to live and to survive under the direst conditions.

His decision to play Sabaya had the blessings of RMN-Manila's news director Buddy Oberas.

One of the clear instructions from Ryan Spykes, also a producer for Wild Eyes, was that due to budgetary constraints, I should only look for amateur actors to play the key roles for the recreation scenes.

Small talent fee

Which actor could play Martin Burnham, who suffered a lot during captivity but who hung on not just for his sake but for the sake of his wife Gracia, and yet was accidentally killed in the rescue operation?

The only actor that came to mind was Mark Gil.

But would he entertain an invitation to play a very important role on short notice and would he agree to do it for a very minimal talent fee?

"Yes, I will be your Martin Burnham," Mark said on the phone.

An actor's humility

The humility of such a respected actor was overwhelming. He raised no other demand -- except to ask what time he was needed on location.

During three days of shooting, everyone in production was all praise for the professionalism of Gil, a total thespian who was around every step of the shoot, even carrying his own chair.

In one instance, he even did his little share in cleaning the seas of Matain in Subic, Zambales, where the water scenes were done.

The next target was to get Jackilou Blanco to play Gracia. She said she would have loved to play the part had she been told about it earlier.

Perfect for the role

Nonetheless, there was a perfect replacement -- actress Shyr Valdez, Cecile Cobbarubias in real life, eldest daughter of my godmother Cherry, who was also a movie producer back in the 1980s.

As with Gil, the talent fee was never a factor in Valdez's decision to say yes to this very important role -- a role she knew by heart for Gracia's story was a story her mother and I had shared with her many times before.

Valdez has no American features but she soon transformed into the character of Gracia, shedding real tears in one river scene and not complaining about having to play a dangerous ravine scene, where she was required to fall.

( www.inquirer.net )

The Filipino is Worth Living For

Antonio Meloto
2007 Commencement Speech
University of the Philippines Mindanao
Delivered on April 18, 2007

Coming to Mindanao is always exciting. You have the best fruits, the
biggest eagle, the most beautiful tropical blooms that overwhelm the senses with
the reality that this is a country of great beauty and abundance.
Opportunities for a great life stare us wherever we look fertile soil, a great climate, seas and forests teeming with animal and plant life in the country
considered as the richest in bio-diversity in the world opportunities that many of
us do not see or make the most of. We would rather endure the desert heat in
the Middle East and the 50-degrees-below- zero winters in Alaska to pursue
our dreams of a better life. While this is admirable, it is also lamentable.
If the same sacrifice, hard work, and perseverance were also offered for our
native land for the good of many, there would be peace and prosperity for our
people.

Life will be better in our country if only we see opportunities instead of
problems, hope instead of despair, fight instead of flight in facing the
giants of poverty and corruption.

I am here today as your graduation speaker to honor your destiny to become
not only the best professionals who will be globally competitive but to be
great patriots for our country wherever you make your mark in the world. Let me
repeat that great Filipino patriots, not just world-class professionals.

I hope you are ready as intelligent Filipinos to hear straight talk about
our country without being cynical, defensive, frustrated, or condemning. I
believe UP is radical enough and you are young enough to be new wine skins open
to fresh even crazy ideas like your predecessors who lit the fire of
freedom in the campuses of the UP system before you were born. They fought for
freedom from the dictatorship then, you will fight for freedom from poverty
and shame now.

Please do not be afraid to be different from our generation. Succeed where
we have failed. Look for solutions where we have stopped to simply argue
about problems. Honor our traditions, but build a new tradition of honor.
Demand from one another that your generation will be more honest than ours; that
this country that you will build for your children will be better than the one
you inherited from us.

Today I want you to see yourself as a great Filipino. Not just a successful
businessman or a top professional or a popular politician but a great
Filipino. I want you to dream not just of living in a beautiful house in an
exclusive subdivision and raising beautiful children studying in exclusive
schools but I want you to dream of a country where there are no more squatters
living in ugly slums and no more hungry out-of-school children begging in the
streets.

Be the new breed of graduates who will not forsake the dream that the
Philippines can be a great nation, who believe passionately that this country is
worth loving and saving, that the Filipino is worth living for.

You can be the new Filipino who will live with honor and provide quality of
life for your children through honest hard word in this land of opportunity.
Or if you choose to leave, enter any developed country as visitors or
migrants without fear of rejection of discrimination because you are respected and
your talents recognized, admired, and desired.

Leave if you have to, but do not abandon us. Leave, but do not forget the
poor who were left behind in your towns and barrios. Succeed and prosper, but
come back and pay back, and live a life of grace.

Whether due to design, drive, or destiny, there is a clear pattern of
Filipinos emerging as the new elite in many of their adopted communities abroad
after having started out from pit-bottom, for many of them, as TNT (tago nang
tago), mail-order brides and plantation workers. Some professionals initially
accepted down-grades in capacity and self-esteem like doctors who became
nurses, accountants turned mailmen and garbage collectors â€“ not that these jobs
are less honorable. These heroic Filipinos take on jobs that others reject,
some even two or three at a time, combating loneliness and boredom with long
hours of hard work, driven by the hope of a better life for their family.

They eat stress for breakfast, find every occasion to celebrate, laugh a
lot, fight a lot, and eat a lot without getting fat. Depression to them is a
state of the weather, not an emotional problem.

Their ambition and perseverance will eventually pay off and raise them to a
higher social status. Some make it to the very top. They move on to
beautiful mansions, go around in expensive cars, send their children to Ivy-league
universities where they excel and enjoy the sun during winter break in their
vacation homes in Florida or aboard luxury cruises in the Mediterranean.
They know how to live it up as part of their healing process.

Every time I see this, I must admit to a little personal indulgence. I take
delight in Filipinos who are bosses of foreigners, especially Caucasians,
perhaps because of the scars from our colonial past no offense of course to
all great white people I know, my son-in-law included. It is my pride and
joy to tell everyone whenever I can that the Filipino in America has come of
age he is earning more than the average American and enjoying the fruits of
his sacrifice. He has now realized his American dream and just knowing this
is uplifting for my soul even as a Filipino who has chosen to remain in his
native land.

But what is more uplifting is that many of them are starting to come home
after years of absence to crown their success by starting to build their
Filipino dream for their countrymen who have lost their capacity to dream.

A similar pattern is emerging in Europe with second-generation Filipinos
including children of domestic helpers. They are more self-assured, fluent in
the local language and ready to succeed in a society with equal opportunities
for all. In time, they will populate Europe as the white population ages
and decreases. In time, they will gain respectability like Filipinos in
America who are now professionals, businessmen and political leaders after years
of inferiority and discrimination. Right now they are breathing life into
empty churches, bringing the laughter of children into barren homes and
building caring communities in cold, impersonal, and functional climates.

Filipino migrants in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, while relatively
new, will rise faster and make their presence felt in their new territories
because they are mostly professionals and ready to compete with the locals.
In time, they too will come home to help rebuild our broken walls, heal our
wounded people and heal themselves as well.

The vision of the Filipino as the new elite in a first-world setting is
difficult for us to grasp given our long historical conditioning as a
second-class citizen of the world. But it is an emerging reality. As an ethnic group
in America, Filipinos do not only have a higher income and lower poverty
index â€“ least likely to go on welfare, hardly anyone begs â€“ they also have
lower crime and suicide rates. In short, they are hardy, healthy and happy and a
great asset to their adopted country.

Filipinos are the new elite because they dream bigger, they work harder,
they pray longer, they love more and sacrifice more for family and even kin back
home who are in need.

Through Gawad Kalinga and other worthy causes, they are now raising the bar
of heroism by helping the poorest of their countrymen whom they do not even
know. The new elite is not just becoming the hero of their family but the
hero of their country. The former brain drain are becoming todayâ€™s brain gain
as they bring back to the country their hard-earned resources and their
world-class expertise to complete their journey, to pay back, to regain their
pride, to heal their souls and finally find peace in the motherland that they have
not stopped loving. The patriot in exile has come home not as a balikbayan
anymore but as a BALIKBAYANI.

The phenomenal success of the GK Movie Paraiso abroad is another evidence
of the nostalgia to reconnect and help rebuild our broken land. Premieres
in US cities according to published reports attracted big crowds and raised
huge amounts in donations and pledges for our disaster and war victims. With
many more openings to go, the resources to be raised will be staggering,
bringing more of our people out of landlessness, homelessness and hunger.

What is causing the floodgates to open? The nobility of the work, the
heroism of the workers, the transformation of poor communities and historic
timing are contributing to the growing confidence that there is hope for our
country.

Many of those who give generously will come home to help build their model
GK villages, plant trees, mentor the children and start to discover what life
is really all about. That it is not only about money it is about love.
Love for the poor. Love for the children. Love for God and country.

It is also about hope. They are coming home because there is a flicker of
hope for our country hope that they can see and touch, happening on a
massive scale in over 1,200 GK communities to date and counting. Transformed
slums, street children in school, men working instead of drinking, proud mothers
welcoming visitors to their beautiful homes and gardens. They will keep
coming back, bringing others with them to help address the social problems that
forced many of them to leave the country. Today they number a few thousands;
tomorrow they will be millions coming home not as donors but as nation
builders, not as volunteers but as heroes.

Your generation will be there to welcome them home. You will match their
renewed fervor for the motherland love for love, sacrifice for sacrifice.
They will see in you, the new Rizal, who will risk your future here to build a
just and prosperous nation, willing to endure every pain, overcome every
frustration rather than live with the shame of poverty and corruption as your
people heritage.

You will be the new Filipino who will be shamed by poverty because it
insults your intelligence and destroys your self-respect. You will not accept
that garbage and scavengers, Payatas and Smokey Mountain will remain the face of
the Philippines to the world.

You will be shamed by the corruption because you do not want to be known as
a country of hypocrites who do not practice what you preach. You will show
your love for God by fighting corruption and injustice following Jesus path
of peace. To be holy is to be a hero to the poor that Jesus loved, to bring
them out of hell in this life, not just promise them heaven in the afterlife.
Walk more, talk less. Practice first, preach later.

I am Catholic and Filipino. These are two identities I am proud of and
wish to honor always. Two years ago I stopped eating pork to show my friendship
and respect to our Muslim brethren. While I treasure my being a member of
Couples for Christ, I desire to be a brother to those of other religion and
creed. To build a holy and peaceful nation, we need to unite not divide, love
not hate.

Next month is election time again. Every three years Filipinos declare war
on one another. It is open season to kill your political enemies, to sell
your soul, to cheat, to make promises that will not be kept. And we will
elect leaders who will most likely disappoint us because weak leaders are the
choice of a weak people. The poorer our country becomes, the more corrupt our
leaders will be, the more powerless we are in changing the system. But we
must engage government and help it to succeed, not fail help it to solve
problems with concrete action and not just complain and be part of the problem.

Yes, vote wisely from the limited choices that you have and guard your
ballot well but unless you help make the weak become strong, you will never break
the pattern of hopelessness and helplessness.

Our people are trapped in what many call the vicious cycle of poverty. I
call this the 5 of sustainable poverty squatter, shanty, slum, survival,
subsistence. No security as a squatter, low standard and quality of life in
a shanty, no pride in a slum, predatory behavior in a survival environment,
low productivity and little motivation to work in a subsistence economy â€“
isang kahig, isang tuka (one scratch, one peck). We must break this pattern.

You are coming of age at a time when ordinary Filipinos here and abroad are
starting to light a fire in the midst of darkness. Philippine Daily Inquirer
calls it the dawning of the age of a radical optimism and has identified
Gawad Kalinga as one of its concrete expressions. Philippine Star features GK
every Sunday in the front page because it is good news and good news,
contrary to certain mindsets, sells if it inspires hope on a massive scale. Media
friends in the US and Canada are fuelling the hope among Filipinos with good
news about Gawad Kalinga making it a channel for their collective goodwill
and generosity. To them this is about the heart, not the pocket this is about
integrity and honor, not about charity.

You are maturing at a time when heroism is becoming a lifestyle. Poveda
students last year decided to build homes for the poor with their prom dates
rather than go to a 5-star hotel, as is the usual practice. Nobility is
becoming fashionable. The new status symbol for the rich is no longer gems for
self but homes for others, no longer 10K but GK. We are redefining what it is
to be the new Filipino elite those with the most giving the best of
themselves to the least of our countrymen.

Ninoy Aquino said, The Filipino is worth dying for. And he did. He died
to set us free. Dylan Wilk, the white Filipino from England, said it
another way: The Filipino is worth living for, and also made good his word. He
left his affluent lifestyle in his rich country to serve the poor in the
Philippines.

If we love our country with all our heart and thank God always for the gift
of being a Filipino we will be out of poverty in no time and there will be
great rejoicing among our people. Everyone will live life to the fullest in
this land of plenty. We will breathe the sweet air of freedom, walk our
streets without fear, look at our people no longer with shame or pity but with
great pride and joy.

Can you be the new David who will drive out the Goliath of poverty and
corruption so that Filipinos and foreigners alike can enter our gates with joyful
abandon no longer afraid of the giants that roam the land? There will be
dancing in the streets as the giants leave never to return.

Your children will not know a squatter because there will be none. They
will not know what a beggar looks like because there will be none. They will
not know a corrupt politician because there will be none.

Do not be afraid to dream of a country that you can be proud of. Claim the
promise of our great God to build you a great nation and to make you a great
people.

Godspeed to you and our young dreamers and heroes. Your parents are proud
of you and our generation will finally find our peace because our beloved
country is in good hands.

Mabuhay ang lahat na nagmamahal sa Diyos at sa ating bayan.

Tony Meloto,
Gawad Kalinga (GK) WorkerLet Us Choose Nobility Let Us Choose Nobility
GLIMPSES
Jose Ma. Montelibano

Filipinos carry a constant sense of shame, beginning with being a
conquered people for almost four centuries and being among the most
impoverished and corrupt in recent history to the present. Persistent
hunger incidence hounding millions of our poor aggravates the shame,
what with the natural abundance of our land and two great religions,
Christianity and Islam, used as the fundamental belief systems that
pastor most of us.

Despite a rather high percentage of Filipinos believing that politics
is dirty, and or that most politicians as a whole are dishonest and
exploitative, encouraging signs are visible on several fronts.
Bautista, Sison and Paredes of the Ang Kapatiran Party languish with
very low campaign statistics; no one gives them a chance to win but no
one is laughing at them anymore. Their message is simple - to promote
and uphold all that is noble and sacred to us. Filipinos have yet to
translate the message so that can they give it form and light, but
their hearts not only wish for the ideal but are more willing to reach
it.

A recent survey shows that the popularity and acceptability of
senatorial candidates must reach 30% or more so that they can have a
chance to win a senate seat. The Ang Kapatiran candidates are nowhere
the winning zone, but they are gaining respect and admiration. With
two more weeks to go, I expect that more Filipinos will vote for them
knowing the odds against winning are almost nil. If any or all three
of them can go beyond 5 percentile points, that would be a powerful
affirmation that a paradigm shift could be developing and may become a
majority sentiment in the near future.

That people are the greatest assets of any nation is an established
truism. What is not so clear, but true nonetheless, is the our poor
represent the key to development and progress because they compromise
the majority, the poor represent the untapped potential of a market
that can grow exponentially. But what is even more critical is the
youth of the motherland, whether rich or poor. The youth are natural
agents of change, and natural repositories of idealism. And more than
representing the future of the nation, our youth are our most
strategic bet to be the trigger of societal change and reform.

Whatever excitement that the Ang Kapatiran candidates stimulate
especially among the disillusioned indicates that there is a great
iceberg beneath a visible tip. Pro and anti administration bets defend
or attack Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, but the cause of the Ang Kapatiran
candidates pit noble values against the immorality of politics and
politicians. Filipinos who are on personality oriented, and they make
up the vast majority, will not vote for values, only politicians.

Change, however, is just around the corner. It will not come easy, but
it will come. In fact, the first wave has arrived. The Ang Kapatiran
candidates are not the first agents of a fresh wind that is rushing to
Philippine shores. Outstanding initiatives in community development,
in the environment, in technology and arts, and the spirit of
volunteerism itself usher in our brighter tomorrow.

When foreign business executives were asked to rate corruption in
Asia, they rated the Philippines as the worst. But in that same
rating, they had good words for the private sector which was
apparently must honest than government. While I do not have the
statistics from previous surveys, I am led to believe that the ratings
of the private sector were not as good as the most recent one. I also
believe that the ratings of the private sector will continue to
improve on a collective basis even when we still have our share of
carpetbaggers and greedy opportunists.

It used to be that pragmatism reigned supreme in our society, just as
it does in many other societies. It remains dominant, of course, and
will continue to do so for as long as materialism is the bedrock of
societal existence. Materialism is not capable of measuring heroism,
generosity and sacrifice; that is why it does not appreciate nobility.
Money has become the only currency and the premier value of many
developed countries. Its weight in gold can often override the
parameters of good and evil, of right and wrong.

Nobility sneers at pragmatism, and even more so at materialism. Where
pragmatism and materialism focus on what one can get or accumulate,
nobility seeks to help others and share with them our time, talent and
treasure. But when a people are poor and marginalized, materialism
represents not greed but need, even when what is higher is compromised
for what can be eaten. Poverty, then, must be a special target of
nobility because poverty robs the poor even of their sense of right
and wrong.

In turn, poverty is caused by corruption. Global poverty affects two
thirds of the human population and the Philippine setting is roughly
representative of that ugly anomaly. Colonialism and a lingering
feudalism are perpetuating poverty, but worse is the way that the
exploitative nature of masters who infected their local subjects with
the deadly virus of divisiveness. Only a divided people can be ruled
for long, and divisiveness has become the worst trait of our people.

Filipinos are populating many countries of the world. Poverty and
corruption have driven most of them away from our shores straight to
the arms of more developed countries who needed services at much
cheaper costs than what they were paying their own citizens. Millions
of Filipinos are spread around the globe, divided physically and even
more so in other respects. No matter how successful they become,
Filipinos abroad cannot yet shrug off the historical patterns of
divisiveness that kept them weak before their foreign masters.

It is divisiveness that threatens our evolution towards a future full
of hope, because it is divisiveness that feeds poverty and corruption.
Divisiveness is born from the primacy of personal interest over the
collective good. Its antithesis must be the spirit that gives, that
shares, that sacrifices. It must be nobility, the capacity to see the
other as an integral necessity for one's own well-being, the courage
to give when one can take, the faith that higher values are more
important than material goods.***

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