Warlords still exist in this unitary nation

When this column comes out, I will be in Barcelona, Spain for my first ever visit to what many Filipinos often call the Motherland, including my own family. Indeed my great paternal grandfather was a priest named Fr. Manuel Rubio Fernandez of Asturias, Spain. He was a friar who at the turn of the century was assigned parish priest of the town of Carcar, 40 kilometers south of Cebu City and sired my grandfather Don Jose Avila.

How did I come to know this story? Way back in 1974 my late father Atty. Jesus “Lindong” Avila (he counts Johnny Litton and Mother Lily Monteverde as his close friends in Manila) brought me to the San Agustin Church in Intramuros, Manila and he walked directly to the place near the pulpit and pointed to a small square tile with the inscription, “DOM Fr. Manuel Rubio Fernandez.”

Of course I pretended to be unaware (but it has always been a family secret talked about in hushed tones) of the story and then my father pointing at the grave said, “This is my Papa’s Papa!” I retorted, “But Dad, we are Avila and the name here is a Fernandez?” In a higher tone of voice, my father declared to me, “Like what my Papa did to me, he brought me here at this very spot and told me, “This is my Papa!”

Of course I didn’t argue anymore when my own grandfather, Don Jose Avila brought his only surviving son (his other son, Benjamin was lost during the sinking of the SS Corregidor on Dec. 17, 1941) to the Intramuros Church to convey the truth about his own father, a priest and therefore a shame and scandal in the family.

Incidentally yesterday on our way to Barcelona, we took Emirates Airlines and yesterday I was totally surprised that their ground staff didn’t even know about Schengen Visa! Worse, their ground staff was ultra strict about our slightly overweight bags, which normally isn’t a problem in international flights. I thought Emirates Airlines wasn’t a budget airline? In Mactan Airport yesterday, the ground staff sounded like it is!

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Yesterday was the late Philippine STAR publisher Sir Maximo V. Soliven’s 88th birthday. On Nov. 24th, the family of Sir Max would be observing the 11th year of his passing into eternal life. I was greatly affected by the passing of Sir Max, after all, since we became great friends in 1985 he became my mentor and even gave the title of this column Shooting Straight as he knew I was into practical combat shooting at that time.

Sir Max also gave the title to my 17-year-old talk show in Cebu dubbed “Straight from the Sky.” He told me that since you are featured in SkyCable and your column is Shooting Straight, then it is appropriate to call your show Straight from the Sky. Such is the impact of the late Max Soliven to my journalism career, which is why he is always in my prayers and I call myself lucky that for 20 years of my life, I was able to walk with Sir Max who is literally a giant in Philippine journalism.

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Last Aug. 7 the Inquirer came up with an article written by Joel Ruiz Butuyan entitled “Federalism is warlordism in disguise.” The author starts his article by saying, “Considering our current political reality, the Duterte Administration will bring the Philippines back to the Middle Ages if it changes the form of government to Federalism.” It is articles like this that give so much misinformation to Filipinos because the Inquirer allowed this article to be printed. It is a total fallacy to say the least.

Using his logic, we ought to ask the question whether the United States of America, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Malaysia etc. etc. have gone back to the Middle Ages? I think not! Mind you, the present unitary system of governance that we have been living in the past 82 years since we adopted the 1935 Constitution have allowed warlordism to flourish in the Philippines. Perhaps you folks never asked… why the Philippines has 80 provinces when China, a very huge country, has only 23 provinces and a billion people? That’s because of too much politics!

Today, so many islands or provinces are under the control of political families. Just to name a few, we have the Ecleos of Dinagat, Surigao or the Ampatuans of Maguindanao. What about the Island of Siquijor that has its own Congressman, Governor and Mayor, yet Barangay Guadalupe in Cebu City has more people living within their barangay than the entire island of Siquijor? I can name many more, but I’m running out of space. I just hate how people try to sow so much disinformation when the reality on the ground is that the dream of the ordinary Filipino even today is to line up at the US embassy and get a green card or a US visa in the hope that they too can share in the American dream, a very federal country!

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