Marvin Isidore "Sid" Macatol Weblog

I listened to an hour-long talk last night in our parish about Servant Leadership. It is a popular topic that stems from this passage in the Bible... To me, the core message of the talk was... "HUMILITY is the key to effective servant leadership". The speaker spent no less than 10 minutes emphasizing that point.

Dear Silent No More PH, ito po ay sagot sa comparison nyo betwen Mamasapano and Marawi. Kinumpleto ko lang po ang information... With this more complete comparison, I hope it's now very clear how STUPID it is to just even think of comparing the two.

To the yellows, if this is any consolation, while clearly I've totally lost respect for P'Noy as a leader, I have not totally lost my respect for his father Ninoy Aquino. After all, there are things he said that's really worth quoting. One of them is... drum roll.... this one: "The great 'legitimizer' of government is the ballot not the bullet" If Ninoy Aquino were alive today, I wonder what his message will be to the Liberal Party. Then I wonder what his message will be to PDU30 who's the only leader we have today who, not by words but by actions, says the same thing as Ninoy said about Filipinos... that we're worth dying for. Lastly I wonder what his words will be about the COMELEC, the Constitutionally mandated body to take care of the ballot, and about former COMELEC Chair Andy Bautista.

Sa ngayon, ang ultimate na "Feudal Lord" ay ang mga naghahari-harian sa Manila at ang tingin sa mga taga-probinsya ay mga tanga. Source: Rappler When I was in government (specifically from an ad hoc office based in Malacanang), I was sent to speak in behalf of my boss in a training program for local leaders in Mindanao.

PISTON had their say, their spokesman claimed to represent the interests of drivers, operators AND ... believe it or not ... commuters. Now, what do we - the commuters - have to say? Here's my piece of mind...

CBCP has not made any condemnation about the deaths of terrorists in Marawi. What they've issued though is a denial that they condemned the campaign, which is fair. I call on everyone to stop spreading fake news about this. But neither did the CBCP officially laud the government for the success of the campaign against the Maute group (well, not until the fake news became viral, that is). So, I can't blame people for noticing this. I too find this unfortunate. Anyhow, far in contrast with the silence we see in CBCP, at least two bishops in Mindanao rejoiced... "Bishop Edwin dela Peña is hoping that the death of the terrorist leaders will finally bring an end to the hostilities in the city that erupted since last May." (http://j.mp/2hKOffH) "Archbishop Martin Jumoad of Ozamiz said the death of the key terror is 'victory for peace and order in our society'." These bishops are directly affected by the war in Marawi. If you must listen to any Bis...

My weekend's been busy and I'm buried deep under piles of work... so allow me to just share random thoughts about everything under the flag today. 🇵🇭  Salutes to the all the soldiers who fought in Marawi in the last 6 months. Every soldier's dream is to have the honor among his or her peers of going courageously deep into battle... and then coming out of it alive to tell the tale. You have that distinction... and more: the country's proud of you. Army PFC Reymart Carloto receives a posthumous hero's welcome 🇵🇭   To those who died among the government forces and the civilian victims, may you rest in peace and may your families move on. You are heroes, and we are grateful for and humbled by your sacrifice. I don't know what else to say.

Regarding Duterte's term as President, I hear people say, "Honeymoon is over". Oh really? What honeymoon? Detractors didn't want him to sit from Day 1 and unceasingly mocked him and exerted efforts to unseat him. What honeymoon? The truth is, there was no honeymoon... at all!

My wife and I took a bus from Melbourne to Canberra in early July. It was an 8-hour overnight bus ride, which taught me lessons about how law-abiding citizens of a first world country behave. Trust me this isn't boring. The driver was a lady. She was wearing overalls and was a bit chubby. Not that it mattered, but it would help you visualize the driver. All by herself she inspected each one's tickets, which were mostly just SMS messages with numbers from the bus line. Then she assigned seat numbers to each one, which everyone followed without question. She was nice and helpful.

The level of discourse at the Senate hearing was frustrating. The President already signed the law to increase penalty against false news (RA 10951, amending penalties in RA 3815 Art 154). So, why not just charge Mocha, Nieto (Thinking Pinoy), etc. in court if the yellows actually have solid issues against them? Huh? Tell me.

There's a nasty exchange between President Duterte and Bishop Bacani lately. You must have read about it already, so let me go straight to my thoughts. As a Catholic who avidly supports Duterte, I can see where each of them comes from. But who's right? or who's wrong? We can argue all day long about that. One thing for sure, such a debate won't help the country reach its goals. Neither will it help the Church. Jesus argued with Scribes and Pharisees, never with local authorities who lived during His time. I'd rather keep my eyes on Jesus on this issue.

Logic is good (we see this in arguments all the time) . . . but we need a greater appreciation of human nature. How are we designed by our Creator, really? It's an unending question, for who can fathom the mind of our God? To me, at the end of every argument, is the question, does this please God? We don't like the answer most of the time. Still, it's a question I ask every time I pause and watch whatever is in front of me... and, trust me, it reduces me, each time, to a round-eyed toddler.

I'm writing this as a reaction to this article, which I saw float in my Facebook Newsfeed... For many Catholics there is no conflict between their faith and their support for President Duterte. Prove me wrong.