If Graciano Lopez Jaena were alive today…

By Herbert Vego

 

TODAY marks the 164^th birth anniversary of the Ilonggo national hero Graciano Lopez Jaena, who still “lives” in Philippine history because of his work as founder and editor of the fortnightly La Solidaridad which helped trigger the armed revolution against the Spanish government in the Philippines in 1896.

Graciano was born to a poor family in Jaro, Iloilo City on December 18, 1856. His mother worked as a seamstress; his father, a repairman. Poverty, however, did not deter the couple from sending him to study at the Saint Vincent Ferrer Seminary in Jaro, Iloilo City.

While he would like to be a physician, having actually pursued medical studies, he ran short of earning an MD degree. But he went as far as filling the position of an apprentice at the San Juan de Dios Hospital and later came home to Jaro to practice medicine.

It was not for the money; most of his patients were poor and unhappy, enduring subhuman life. Some patients complained of having been beaten and injured by local Spanish officials. Jaena’s immersion with them kindled his desire to speak and write on their behalf.

His first attempt at addressing problems in local society erupted through a story he wrote at age 18, “Fray Botod,” which depicted a fat and lecherous friar who “always had the Virgin and God on his lips no matter how unjust and underhanded his acts are.” This incurred the fury of the friars. Although no one could prove that Jaena wrote the story, the Spanish authorities suspected him as the author.

He sailed to Spain in 1880 to evade potential harm in his own country. There was no turning back. The young Graciano had found his niche in oration and journalism. In a triumvirate with Rizal and Del Pilar, he spoke and wrote to motivate the masses to demand independence from Spain.

It was there where the three met and laid the foundation of the Propaganda Movement through the La Solidaridad, which first broke into print on February 12, 1889.  Its mission was to galvanize the pliant Filipino masses into fighting for independence from Spain.

Believing that “the pen is mightier than the sword,” he personally conveyed his demand for freedom in a speech before the Spanish officials in Madrid, Spain.

Lesser written of Graciano was his love for a woman named Elena, to whom he promised marriage. Unfortunately for the woman, Lopez Jaena had to indefinitely postpone it “sa tamang panahon.” That opportunity was not to materialize. He got very sick and died young at age 39 on January 20, 1896 in Barcelona, Spain.

A few descendants of the hero and their rich friends in Iloilo organized the Dr. Graciano Lopez Jaena Foundation in 1983 to perpetuate his memory and to support present-day journalists.

Sad to say today, not even the said foundation replicates the advocacy that Graciano Lopez Jaena exemplified – as in exposing and condemning graft and corruption in present-day government. Well, at least it is capable of paying “lip service” to the hero’s ideals.

As in Lopez Jaena’s time, however, dissenting Filipinos today abhor abusive government officials who would jail and even kill people on planted evidence.  Worse, these rulers are no longer foreigners but our fellow Filipinos.

Worst, we have become so inured to abuses of power by public officials today – as in malversation of public funds, extrajudicial killings and red-tagging —  that we tend to embrace subservience to them in terms of self-preservation.

And so, to the question of how Graciano Lopez Jaena would respond if he were still alive today, your guess is as good as mine.

In death, he must be turning in his grave.

 

-oOo-

 

MORE TIP: STAY SAFE AND EMPOWERED

IT’s not for nothing that MORE Electric and Power Corp. intentionally shuts off electricity for an hour or two at pre-scheduled areas in Iloilo City. There is always a reason aimed at keeping the community safe from fire or any accident that could harm or kill its own customers.

Last Tuesday (Dec. 15), for instance, MORE’s response team did a two-hour job of replacing rotten cross-arms and dilapidated poles at Ortiz Street in City Proper.

There are times, however, when we power consumers must do our share in protecting ourselves from electrical hazards. Most home-made fires are caused by electrical faults.

Too much current in your wires can lead to electric overloads. An octopus wiring can massively contribute to this.

MORE shares with us a safety tip on this aspect:“Avoid octopus wiring or multiple connections on a single outlet.”

Octopus wiring is basically jampacking an electrical outlet with lots of extensions and junctions. The problem with this is that electrical outlets are designed to cater only to a certain amount of load, depending variably on how many sockets an outlet has. Some home appliances consume bigger loads of electricity compared to others.

Therefore, it would be safest to plug each air conditioner, refrigerator or any other high-end appliance into an outlet with one socket.

Using extension cords in houses  may be tolerable where outlets are designed to handle bigger load, but not advisable in those with faulty or old electrical systems.

What happens when your outlets cannot handle the load?

Your fuse may blow up.

Your wires can burst into flames.

If you’re unlucky, you might even end up burning your house.

Therefore, when in doubt with your household wiring, avoid “octopus connections”. Always remind yourself to plug appliances with caution, or better yet, have your home wirings checked by a master electrician.