I AM ADOPTED

I AM ADOPTED

AKO’Y INARING ANAK

EFESO 5:1–21

1 Dahil kayo’y mga anak na minamahal ng Diyos,tularan ninyo Siya.2 Mamuhay kayong puno ng pag-ibig tulad ni Cristo; dahil sa Kanyang pag-ibig sa atin, inialay Niya ang Kanyang buhay bilang mabangong alay at handog sa Diyos.

3 Kayo’y mga hinirang ng Diyos, kaya’t hindi dapat mabanggit man lamang na kayo’y nakikiapid o gumagawa ng anumang uri ng kahalayan o pag-iimbot.4 Huwag din kayong gagamit ng anumang malaswa o walang kabuluhang pananalita at pagbibirong di nararapat, sa halip magpasalamat kayo sa Diyos.

EPHESIANS 5:1–21

5 Alam na ninyong walang bahagi sa kaharian ni Cristo at ng Diyos ang taong nakikiapid, mahalay, o sakim sapagkat ang kasakiman ay isang uri ng pagsamba sa diyus-diyosan.6 Huwag kayong padaya kaninuman sa pamamagitan ng mga pangangatuwirang walang kabuluhan, sapagkat dahil nga sa mga ito, ang Diyos ay napopoot sa mga suwail.

EPHESIANS 5:1–21

7 Kaya’t huwag na kayong makikisama sa kanila.8 Dati, kayo’y nasa kadiliman, ngunit ngayo’y nasa kaliwanagan na, sapagkat kayo’y nasa Panginoon. Mamuhay kayo ngayon nang nararapat sa mga taong nasa liwanag.9 Sapagkat pawang mabuti, matuwid at totoo ang ginagawa ng namumuhay sa liwanag.

EPHESIANS 5:1–21

10 Pag-aralan ninyo kung ano ang kalugud-lugod sa Panginoon.11 Huwag na kayong makikisama sa mga taong gumagawa ng mga bagay na walang ibinubungang kabutihan. Sa halip ay ibunyag ninyo ang mga iyon.12 Kahiya-hiyang mabanggit man lamang ang mga bagay na iyon na ginagawa nila ng lihim.

EPHESIANS 5:1–21

13 Ang lahat ng nalalantad sa liwanag ay nakikilala talaga kung ano mga iyon,14 at nalalantad ang lahat dahil sa liwanag, kaya’t sinasabi, “Gumising ka, ikaw na natutulog, bumangon ka mula sa libingan, at liliwanagin ka ni Cristo.”

EPHESIANS 5:1–21

15 Kaya’t mag-ingat kayo kung paano kayo namumuhay. Mamuhay kayong tulad ng matatalino at di tulad ng mga mangmang. 16Samantalahin niyo ang bawat pagkakataon na kayo’y makagawa ng mabuti sapagkat punung-puno ng kasamaan ang daigdig ngayon.

EPHESIANS 5:1–21

17 Huwag kayong maging hangal . Unawain ninyo kung ano ang kalooban ng Panginoon.18 Huwag kayong maglalasing, sapagkat mauuwi iyan sa magulong pamumuhay. Sa halip ay dapat kayong mapuspos ng Espiritu.19 Mag-awitan kayo ng mga salmo, mga himno, at mga awiting espiritwal;

EPHESIANS 5:1–21

buong puso kayong umawit at magpuri sa Panginoon.20 Lagi kayong magpasalamat sa Diyos na ating Ama dahil sa lahat ng bagay, sa pangalan ng ating Paninoong Jesu-Cristo.21 Pasakop kayo sa isa’t isa bilang tanda ng inyong paggalang kay Cristo.

EPHESIANS 5:1–21

BILANG ISANG MANANAMPALATAYA, TAYO AY INAASAHANG MAMUHAY NG AYON SA

LIWANAG.

PAMUMUHAY SA LIWANAG

Tularan ang Diyos. Mamuhay ng puno ng pag-ibig. Pag-aralan kung ano ang

nakalulugod sa Diyos. Mamuhay ng matalino, hindi

mangmang.

PAMUMUHAY SA LIWANAG

Samantalahin ang paggawa ng mabuti.Puspos ng Banal na Espiritu.Buong pusong umawit at magpuri sa

Panginoon.Laging magpasalamat sa Diyos.Magpasakop sa isa’t isa tanda ng

paggalang kay Cristo.

1. INARING ANAK NG DIYOS AMA

Ang Diyos ay ating Ama at tayo’y kabahagi ng Kanyang kaharian at sambahayan.

2. INARING ANAK NA MAY BAGONG PAGKAKILANLAN

Dati’y sa kadiliman, ngayon ay sa kaliwanagan na.

3. INARING ANAK SA PAMAMAGITAN NI JESU-CRISTO, ANG PANGANAY

Tayo’y ginawang kabahagi sa lahat ng pagmamay-ari ni Jesu-Cristo.

4. INARING ANAK UPANG SUMAMBA

Ang pagsamba ay bunga ng pagkilos ng Banal na Espiritu na Siyang kasiguraduhan ng ating pagkalipat sa kaliwanagan.

MAY BAHAGI KA SA KAHARIAN AT SAMBAHAYAN NG DIYOS:

PANANALANGINPAGBIBIGAY

PAGLILINGKOD

The Rohingya and the Port of Last Resort

We know our place in the world. We are the port of last resort, and have little to offer the

Rohingya beyond a separate peace. Yet I write this with pride, in the hope that there will

always be a cluster of islands southwest of the Pacific, where no ship in need is called

unwanted.

THE UNWANTED. A Rohingya migrant eats food dropped by a Thai army helicopter after he

jumped to collect the supplies at sea from a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman sea on May 14, 2015.

Photo by Christophe Archambault / AFP

They said there were knives and ropes. They said there were riots over scraps. They said they were

stabbed and beaten, and that there were days when their throats were so parched they drank their own urine. Some of them were hanged,

others thrown overboard.

There was a risk of mass casualties, said aid groups. Drifting boats were turning into floating

coffins. Ship decks were little more than a confusion of shoulders, ribs, and bony

elbows. Rohingya refugees waved signs as navies towed rickety boats out to sea. The crisis had

become a game of human Ping-Pong, with lives in play as countries took turns slamming the

paddle.There was a standoff, until early last week, when

news broke that the Philippines had offered shelter to 3,000 boat people.

“The Philippines,” wrote The Telegraph, “has offered refuge to the thousands of migrants who

have been stranded for months on boats after being repeatedly rejected and towed back to sea

by Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.”

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima announced that refugees “cannot always be expected to obtain

travel documents particularly where the agent of persecution is the state.” The United Nations

High Commission on Refugees saluted the country’s "strong humanitarian tradition.” Post after repost streamed down timelines, prefaced

with messages shared by aid workers and international protection officers and the

occasional old friend from Australia.

There are some truths I know. The drowning season will begin in June. The bribes will appear

before the campaigns roll. The malls will fill in the sweaty noon, the clowns will dance with the

corrupt, and the ports will open for refugees, wherever they are from.

The people nobody wantedThey are the Muslims of Northern Rakhine state, more

than a million strong, born in Myanmar with family going back generations. They call themselves the

Rohingya.Myanmar denies them even their name. They have,

instead, been called Bengalis, identified by Myanmar as natives of a Bangladesh that disclaims them, marked as foreigners and illegal immigrants, subject to abuse and

deportation.

The Rohingya have been called the most persecuted in the world, a Muslim minority whose mosques were

burned by nationalists seeking "to protect Buddhism.” Most have been denied citizenship and evicted from

their homes. Although they have been discriminated for decades, ethnic violence came to a head in 2012 when

thousands of Arakan men, “armed with machetes, swords, homemade guns, Molotov cocktails, and other

weapons descended upon and attacked Muslim villages,” torching villages and killing residents.

It was, as Human Rights Watch called it, “a coordinated campaign to forcibly relocate or remove the state’s

Muslims.”An estimated 140,000 fled into refugee camps, where

conditions are difficult and food is scarce. Although they have not been permitted to leave, The Economist

reported that in the first three months of 2015, 25,000 Rohingya, including those living on the borders of

Bangladesh, bought their way into boats in an attempt to reach friendlier shores. At least 300 have died. Some

of those boats drifted into the waters of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand – and forced the crisis that is now testing the convictions of the international community.

One boat in particular, abandoned by captain and crew, packed with swollen-eyed passengers, drifted into Thailand waters after an interception

off Langkawi and Penang islands by Malaysian authorities. Passengers said they had been at sea

for over three months. The ship, said The New York Times, “flew a tattered black flag on a

bamboo mast,” with the words, “We are Myanmar Rohingya.”

The Thai navy repaired their engine, gave them provisions, and pronounced them ready to

travel.Thailand's Lt. Cmdr. Veerapong Nakprasit said

the navy had trained the passengers “to navigate on their own,” adding that it was “so they can

reach their dream destination.”For the Rohingya, the dream has

become anywhere but home.

In pursuit of the dreamIn 2014, according to the UNHCR, 9 Rohingya

migrants were allowed into the Philippines "to be free from fear that they're going to be sold again.“

"They were allowed to come into the Philippines while their processing took place, and regained a few kilos,

regained their health, regained some dignity, and proceeded onwards to reach their resettlement

countries," said Bernard Kerblat, country representative of the UNHCR.

The Philippines was a temporary home, where the Rohingya stayed 5 months “to recover.”

"What was needed at that time,” said Kerblat, “is to find a sovereign state ready to accept them

even for a short time."

This is the Republic of the Philippines, pearl of the orient, cradle of the brave, ringed by fire and

drowned by storm, where the disaster season begins in July, lasts until Christmas, then staggers into a rehabilitation period that ends when the

next typhoon decimates another province

Welcome to the last country outside the Vatican without divorce, the third most dangerous country for journalists, whose airport was

celebrated for rising to fourth worst instead of first, whose road traffic maintains its place as the ninth worst in the world. This is where a doctor

can be jailed for removing a fetus to save a mother's life, where most live under the poverty line, and where it is possible, if you know where

to go, to buy unmarked abortifacients in the back alleys leading to the Church of the Black

Nazarene.

And yet, according to the UN, it is also the country that in 2012 became “the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to establish a procedure to protect both refugees and stateless people."

Of the many and varied ways we define ourselves, we are also a people who will open

our ports to the very desperate.

It is not the first time. On September 8, 1937, a steamship named Gneisenaucarrying German

Jews escaping the Holocaust arrived in Manila, and was given official welcome by the Quezon government.

World War II did not just bring in more Jews, but also Chinese refugees and residents of the British colony of Hong Kong. The Philippines remained open to refugees until December 8, 1941 – the day the Japanese arrived with their bayonets and burned cities to the ground.

"We would not be alive today if not for the Philippines,” said 84-year-old Lotte Hershfield. “We would've been

destroyed in the crematorium."

In 1949, the International Refugee Organization made an appeal to the international community for safe refuge on behalf of thousands of White Russians whose lives were endangered by civil war after the Bolshevik Revolution. Only one country offered protection – the Philippines,

whose government granted temporary shelter to an estimated 6,000 Russians in the former naval base of Tubabao Island in Guiuan, Eastern Samar.

In 1975, the mounting massacres by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia as well as threats from

Vietnam’s new communist government sent thousands of refugees into exile. Many were

provided with food, shelter and education by the Philippine Refugee Processing Center.

In the 20 years the center was in service, over 400,000 Indochina refugees passed through

its doors.

'We will take him home'I write this in an attempt to understand, if only for myself, what seems to be a national impulse in a country that can barely support its own. It is a compulsion we have rarely questioned, but is now thrown into sharp relief by the crisis in the

Andaman Sea.

There is no easy explanation. It may be little more than the practicality of living in an

archipelago with porous borders. Or it could be another inheritance from the American

occupation, much the same as free speech, secular governance and a great and abiding love

for imported spam.

And yet it’s difficult to believe all this is nothing more than a result of habit and circumstance. It is the same impulse that has a barber who lost his shop in a typhoon offering jobs to the two barbers who lost their homes. It is an impulse

that lives in the aftermath of disaster – the widow and her children surviving on looted

goods dropped off by tattooed men, the father wrapping the corpse of his neighbor’s

daughter just after he lost his wife, the displaced mother insisting on feeding journalists out of her

meager store.

In 2012, after Typhoon Pablo ripped through Compostela Valley, I was sent to New Bataan to

cover the survivors. It was 5 days after the storm, and the evacuation center smelled of sweat and corpses. I remember a woman in her late fifties,

a grandmother who had travelled 8 hours by jeep with her miner husband. They had come for

their daughter, and were told she was dead. Their two grandchildren had survived.

They were all going home, she said, to the house near the mines where the children would be

raised as their own.Her husband walked in, trailing a 9-year-old boy. The boy was an orphan, said the miner, and had

been snatched by a neighbor from the flashfloods in time to see his parents and older

brother drown.If no one claimed the boy, said the old man, they

would bring him home.

The port of last resortToday, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand have

committed to the rescue of what may be thousands of refugees still at sea. Indonesia and Malaysia have already offered temporary refuge.

A number of countries, including the United States, have promised resettlement assistance.

“It may be conceivable,” said the UNHCR’s Kerblat, “that the reiteration of the government

of the Philippines to uphold their commitment to asylum may have contributed to encourage other

member states to positively reconsider their position.” HRW Deputy Director for Asia Phelim

Kine offered the same thought, calling the Philippines’ initial offer of asylum “leadership by

example.”

I’d like to believe the Philippines had some influence in the sudden reversal of positions, but

I'm also well aware it could have just as well been a function of timing and

circumstance. Aceh’s fishermen were rescuing boat people even before Indonesia officially

allowed the Rohingya to disembark. Thailand and Malaysia, before their crackdown on

refugees, have themselves given shelter to tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees.

The truth is that we’re not all that different. It is only that we took a stand, at a time when everyone else

had decided they had done enough.I suspect it is at these moments when we are at our best, when we realize there is no one left to stand

but us. I don’t believe there's any irony in a Catholic country welcoming Rohingya migrants, in much the same way as there was no surprise when Jews and

Protestants sailed into our ports. Our Muslim south is just as vehement in their demand we offer aid, promising land and protection to the Rohingya.

This is not about religion, as much as it is about memory and necessity and pride. We know what it is to live as underdogs. We have fought losing

wars, have marched unarmed and singing towards a tyrant’s loaded cannons, and still

stood cheering as our pound-for-pound national hero lost what may be recorded as the most monotonous boxing match in sports history.

Many of us recognize the reckless courage it took for the Rohingya to smuggle their children into tilting boats. It is the same sacrifice we’ve seen in millions of our own, who have risked abuse

overseas for the sake of future and family. We know what it is to beg. We've stood at the receiving end of charity and contempt. Maybe this is why so many of

us will look past political cost and practical consideration to the reality of bone and muscle and

beating heart.I don't have the answers. All I know is that if the cost of generosity is high, the price of our refusal will be

much higher still.

The crisis is not over, but the Rohingya are now welcome in the countries they sought.

Thousands have been rescued and are now under the care of Malaysia and Indonesia. The Philippines, many miles distant, will have little

need to prepare its coasts. The Rohingya's imagined future has never been this country – a nation big on dreams and short on reality, torn

by conflict, wracked by disaster, whose own people look to the distance for greener pastures.

We know what we are. We are the port of last resort, and have little to offer beyond a separate

peace. Yet I write this with pride, in the hope that there will always be a cluster of islands

southwest of the Pacific, where no ship in need is called unwanted.

There are many days – when the thousands stand sweating at midmorning waiting for trains that do not come, when another toddler dies of

piss-poor conditions in Zamboanga, when a chinless senator howls about the Muslim

scourge, when another scandal and another charge and another whistle-blower takes over

the headlines – when there is cause to be ashamed of who we are.

It is not today. Today, it is a grand and marvelous thing to be born a

Filipino. – Rappler.com

I AM ADOPTED