Metro Infanta Foundation

By Rudy Arizala
23 June 2010

I. Introduction
On 23 June 2010, we celebrate the 112th anniversary of the establishment of the Department of Foreign Affairs. The basis of such celebration is the letter of Mr. Esteban A. de Ocampo then Chairman of the National Historical Institute dated 06 February 1978 to Foreign Secretary Carlos P. Romulo. In said letter, Chairman De Ocampo told Secretary Romulo that on 23 June 1898, Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo issued a Decree changing the Dictatorial Governent to a Revolutionary Government and creating the Department of Foreign Affairs. He further informed Secretary Romulo: “Your choice of June 23 as 'Department of Foreign Affairs Day' is historically valid and correct.”

Consequently, the President of the Philippines (Ferdinand E. Marcos), issued on 24 February 1978, Presidential Proclamation No. 1717 declaring that “June 23 of every year as Department of Foreign Affairs Day”. Since then, every 23rd of June is celebrated as “Department of Foreign Affairs Day.”10

Continue reading "DFA Foundation Day and "Mabinian" Diplomacy" »

Posted on June 23, 2010

The Philippine Star Editorial of 16 June 2010, points out the old perennial problems of lack of classrooms, books and school supplies, why our youth can neither write nor read, and know the four fundamentals of arithmetic.

But it is not due to overpopulation but due to wrong priorities --- why could we build malls and megamalls; huge, expensive guest houses, bungalows, palaces, etc., and not enough classrooms? Many years ago, during one of my "Balikbayan visits", I went to the Elementary school ground of a town in Quezon province. The "Gabaldon type of school house was gone destroyed by typhoon. The school ground was dotted with three or four classrooms infrastructures of the RP-US school house type donated then by the US Military bases in the Philippines. I noted the Office of the school principal occupies one of the school house structures which could accommodate one or two classrooms. I wonder why the elementary school principal could not hold his/her office in a smaller room or cubicle and let the pupils use the remaining space as classroom.

Continue reading "Problem not overpopulation, but wrong priorities" »

Posted on June 16, 2010

By Rudy Arizala

Today, 12 June 2010, is the 112th Anniversary of the Proclamation of Philippine Independence. May I share with you in recalling the incidents as to what happened on that historic day as written by historians.

Hereunder is a reading from our history on the proclamation of our 1898 Independence.

"In the presence of a huge crowd, independence was proclaimed on June 12, 1898 between four and five in the afternoon in Cavite at the ancestral home of General Emilio Aguinaldo some 30 kilometers South of Manila . The event saw the unfurling of the National Flag of the Philippines, made in Hong Kong by Mrs. Marcela Agoncillo, Lorenza Agoncillo and Delfina Herboza, and the performance of the Marcha Filipina Magdalo, as the Nation's National Anthem, now known as Lupang Hinirang, which was composed by Julian Felipe and played by the San Francisco de Malabon Marching band.

Continue reading "Proclamation of Philippine Independence" »

Posted on June 12, 2010

Editor's note: Below is a letter Amb. Arizala wrote to his cousin Dady. Amb. Arizala poses a great question regarding water problem and conservation in Infanta a beyond. Anyone who has an answer to the ambassador's question is welcome.

Dear Dady,

I am writing you to find out how we are approaching our water problem in our hometown of Infanta blessed by rivers, streams and creeks. We have the big and long winding Agus River coming up from the Siera Madre - the Kaliwa and the Kanan sources which flow down the mountain through plains and valleys of Infanta and General Nakar, Quezon. And this is aside from springs, streams and creeks such as the Tanza, Bukal and
Sala water sources. Do we have no water problem in Infanta? If none, thank the Lord but let us find ways of conserving said water sources. If we have problem of water now, what do we do about it?

Continue reading "Water, water, everywhere and not a drop to drink" »

Posted on April 19, 2010

By Rudy Arizala

Sixty-eight years ago today, we heard the Voice of Freedom announced:

"Bataan has fallen: The Philippine-American troops on the war-ravaged and blood-stained peninsula have laid down their arms. With heads bloody and unbowed, they have yielded to the superior force and numbers of the enemy . . .Bataan has fallen, but the spirit that made it stand - a beacon to all the liberty-loving peoples of the world - cannot fail."

The late S. P. Lopez who later on after the war became Philippine Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, then a soldier in Bataan, wrote said announcement which was read by another Bataan defender soldier Norman Reyes over the radio "Voice of Freedom".

Today, 09 April 2010 is observed as "Araw ng Kagitingan" and rightly so, for the spirit of freedom - "a beacon to all the liberty-loving peoples of the world - cannot fail." We must, despite seemingly unsurmountable obstacles, go on defending and upholding freedom, for the spirit that made our soldiers who "have fallen in the night" stood their grounds and shed their blood cannot fail.

Posted on April 09, 2010

Ni Rudy A. Arizala
17 Pebrero 2010

“Sa alikabok ka galing
Sa alikabok rin ang balik!”
Mga katagang sinambit
Habang ang iginuguhit
Ng Pari ay krus na uling
Sa noo na may kulimlim.
Magsisi sa kasalanan
At manalanging taimtim
Kapatawaran, hilingin
Ito ang ibig sabihin
Ng krus na iginuguhit
Sa araw ng alikabok.

Posted on February 17, 2010