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.

When Filipinos of my age were the "millennials" of the country we whined and rallied on issues that were happening almost in real time and under real threat from an army ready to pounce ... Although Marcos lifted Martial law 5 years earlier, a lot of political detainees were still in prison and the New People's Army was at their peak! Ninoy Aquino was assassinated 3 years earlier and caused an uproar that were fresh to us like yesterday Marcos called for a Snap Election months earlier Election fraud was exposed by the media days earlier Protests were happening in the news while we studied our lessons in the dormitory Everyone was nervous. Everyone was wondering what was going to happen. Then all of a sudden Enrile and Ramos defected to Cory and Cardinal Sin called on radio for everyone "to protect" these freedom fighters The millennials, along with the rest of the concerned citizens of that generation, filled EDSA to the brim under some real threat of a...

I grew up in Mindanao. Now I live in Metro Manila. I cannot help but see the cultural divide between these two areas of the country. The sooner we recognize AND appreciate our cultural differences, the closer we are to authentic national unity. What I have found since I enrolled as a freshman in UP Diliman are these: 1. When in a huddle, home-grown Manilenos tend to speak to each other in low voice, almost like making sure the guy next to him wouldn't hear a sound. When we huddle in Mindanao, it's a party! We express excitement! We speak to be heard by the whole world! We laugh even louder so it would be heard by Mars! My elder brother demonstrated that by letting me observe how people huddle in the dormitory lobby. Oh, how right he was (and is). I didn't find it very difficult to identify which people spoke Cebuano (the lingua franca in both Visayas and Mindanao).

[I initially published this in my Fatherhood Blog , but heck, this article rightfully belongs here]. The May 9, 2016 national elections in the Philippines that saw the rise of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to power drew the active participation of the electorate in the intense debates, thanks in large measure to social media.  Presumptive President Rodrigo Duterte Photo taken from the video by  Matt Wilkie Exchanges were so passionate at all levels that relationships were strained even among families and friends. When Duterte was vocal to his displeasure to statements from foreign observers, some fear the country's relationship with other countries would be strained as well. But first, who is Duterte and why is he popular?

Let me share this story once and only once. I risked my ass for Cory when I was 17. We were at 'PTV 4' then, which ABS-CBN was able to recover when Cory took power. Fast forward today, I ask, Did Marcos really kill Ninoy? Why was I there? Two years earlier in Cagayan de Oro City, I debated with my high school teacher -- a Jesuit scholastic who taught us about "constitutional dictatorship" of Marcos. I felt very strongly that, given his arguments about how the government effectively became a machinery that was anti-people, the military itself would fight Marcos soon, very soon. My argument was simple: many military officers themselves came from poor families AND ... Filipinos were very family-oriented. How did I know that? My brother was one of them! My young and naive mind could not imagine a Filipino military that could sustain what we were seeing back then. At some point, or so I believed, these soldiers would throw up and say, "Enough!"

Don't know what went into me, but I created this visual, which I then posted in my Facebook timeline . If a principled man fits the bigoted bill, then isn't it then absolutely alright to be called a bigot! Men of principle should take it as a compliment from here on. In fact, this is now what I believe: principled bigotry is a fundamental right! That says it all for now. What do you think?

There is nothing to add to the news about what's happening to Iraq and Syria the past few weeks, especially on how Christians have been displaced there. But I can't help but be appalled. We are talking here about Christians who have been rooted in those areas for the past 6,000 years. That's sad, isn't it? Image from Christian Headlines When jihadists came conquering Europe in the Middle Ages, predominantly Christian Europe fought back through what is now known as the Crusades . Will it come to that?

Street names can be confusing in Metro Manila . Someday I'll understand why they are making a hobby out of changing street names. Maybe they don't want Promdis like me to freely come and go. Image credit: wikimedia.org Finding out which street is which can sometimes feel like a chase. I have come to know a good number of streets during my trying years in Metro Manila as a newcomer. But then, just when I have gotten used to the names, the Lords of street names changed their names. Most of the street chase that I know are in Makati City: BUENDIA (a major street in Makati that intersects Ayala and EDSA) ... they changed the name to Sen Gil Puyat Ave decades back; but people still call it Buendia.