Heroes Anti-Heroes

2006-03-15T09:10:00.000+08:00

Is Bonifacio a hero? He is, and he deserves to be. Does he deserve to be The National Hero? Funny you ask that. Andres Bonifacio would have laughed. He didn't think he was that much of a hero. When he formed the Katipunan with Valentin Diaz, Teodoro Plata, Ladislao Diwa, Deodato Arellano and a few others, he decided that Jose Rizal would in one way or another be the symbol and/or the rallying cry of the Katipunan. If he thought the people believed as much in his own heroism, Bonifacio would not have invoked the name of Rizal for brave men to join the secret society aimed at toppling the 345-year-old Spanish regime.

2006-03-07T19:47:00.000+08:00

How can you tell if your hero is not in fact an anti-hero? If he has a vision of the future and you can clearly see it as he explains it, then he is a hero. If there is no mention of any vision,
ambition is the only thing he has; he is the anti-hero because he is merely a pretender.

A Filipino spying on the FBI!

2005-10-10T20:58:00.000+08:00

So it turns out that the brown race called Filipino can produce a first-class spy who can download computer files from the powerful Office of the Vice President of the United States and from the computers of the mighty Federal Bureau of Investigation without their knowledge and consent. That’s called spying in any language.

The Filipino spy, Leandro Aragoncillo, passed on the documents (files anyway) to another Filipino, Michael Ray Aquino, his friend. And nobody knew, not even the FBI, until the friend tried to help the friend overstay his visa. One lesson here? A visa can be your ticket to hell, as well as that of your friend who owns the visa.

A Filipino successfully spying on the FBI! Is that something to be proud of? Yes, if you’re against GMA. No, if you’re against all kinds of spying. No, if the spying aims to topple a legitimate government, your government.

Now, it may be asked: Is the legitimate government of GMA the government we want? No. That’s because we have not done our part. We have only been complaining, criticizing, marching in the streets, shouting on the radio, posturing on TV, damning in the papers – all acts against the government. Who is the government? It’s not GMA. It’s the people. It’s stupid that it’s the people damning the people.

We need heroes for the people, and they have to come from the people.

Education without understanding

2005-09-02T17:53:00.000+08:00

Caritas The GoodNewsPaper of the Philippine Roman Catholic Church, 2005 March-July is a special issue on education. In this blog I will comment on the opinions of former Education Secretary Butch Abad, Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales, columnists laymen Ricardo Pascua & Harveh Keh, Lourdes Didith Mendoza of the Institute of Church and Social Issues, and Milwida Guevara of the Synergeia Foundation.

Mr Abad says that the education crisis is badder (my word) than the political and economic crises. For instance, senior high school students posted an average score of only 46.80% in the national achievement test and they ranked 41^st out of 45 countries in Mathematics. The teachers themselves rated poorly in Math, Science and Language. So I say: The teachers are to blame, right? You can’t teach what you don’t understand; you don’t understand if you yourself were not taught how to understand.

Archbishop Rosales says, ‘How important is education for the Filipino? I suppose to every human being. It is the belief of the Church and I’m quoting from the teachings of the Holy Father, Pope Paul VI, that there can be no authentic development without basic education. It’s a landmark statement of the Church. If you want to develop, you have to educate the people.’ Amen! I say to that. But basic education for what?

Mr Keh says, ‘The Filipino youth is our hope.’ That is the title of his article; he is involved in the project ‘Pathways to Higher Education.’ I say yes, if we teach them right.

Mr Pascua proposes a voucher system as a project of government. He says, ‘Will the voucher system help the poor? Through the voucher system, the poor will be given the opportunity to get better education and more appropriate skills. They will be empowered.’ I say that that is correct, on the assumption that we are giving them the right kind of education.

Are we giving them Catholic education? Msgr Santos says, ‘Catholic education is that ecclesial experience in a Christian community made available to young people whereby reason and faith are interwoven for them to acquire ‘notions’ (knowledge, concepts and skills) as they grow in wisdom and faith and become both learned and formed into mature personalities who are capable, open, committed to fulfill service of public usefulness.’ Catholic education seems so complicated. If not Catholic education, what are we giving them?

Ms Mendoza says, ‘Our schools, most especially our provincial public elementary and secondary schools, have learned to cope with little resources from government, and yet their students have consistently topped national achievement tests. They show that even with little or no resources at all from the national government, quality education is still possible. We need to look closely at how they do it.’ I say more importantly, we need to look at what they are doing, what they are teaching, and how they are teaching it.

Ms Guevara says, ‘Mayors have long been out of the loop of the educational system and did not consider the provision of basic education as their responsibility.’ She concludes: ‘There is hope for public education. The communities, led by their mayors, are climbing every mountain and following every rainbow.’

I say now, it is important to know which mountain they are climbing:

(a) The twin peaks of ‘formal’ as against ‘informal’ education? We are denigrating the ‘informal’ and lifting up the ‘formal’ when we need to climb both peaks. We devalue ‘informal education’ even as we say ‘experience is the best teacher.’

(b) The twin peaks of ‘college’ as against ‘vocational’ education? We are being elitist. What’s wrong is that we look down upon the pursuit of a ‘vocational education’ as a lowly exercise of the intellect; we look at the muscle worker as an inferior human being. We are doing education without understanding.

The cell phone as teacher

Whenever I send an SMS (text message) to anyone, I send always in complete sentences, with proper spellings and grammar and punctuations. To me, it’s good practice in trying to simplify my message in the fewest words possible: you are only allowed so many words per send. By doing so, I’m encouraging you to do it also. If you do it the way I do it, you will learn good English from me. Including bad, badder, baddest – they’re in the dictionary, if you want to check.

You can be my hero

2005-08-26T18:30:00.000+08:00

A friend of mine keeps sending me anti-GMA articles from everywhere, and I keep deleting them from my Yahoo inbox. You are not my hero if all you can do is be negative. I dedicate this to him:

Are You My Hero?

If you can love the unlovable.
If you can be a sheep and not a wolf.
If you can accept that some rain must fall.
If you can honor your culture and traditions.
If you can pay your income tax and not cheat.
If you can think of a win-win situation all the time.
If you can see a bright morning after the dark night.
If you can transform yourself from sinner to winner.
If you can stop throwing stones at other people’s houses
because you can see that you live in a glasshouse.
If you can work abroad and support your family
as much as you should as much as you could.
If you can rise from being critical to the level of being creative.
If you can see that the sum of the parts is not greater than the whole.
If you can follow all The Ten Commandments, not just nine of them.
If you can give to the poor up to the point where you can give no more.
If you can believe in the Filipino when your instinct tells you you shouldn’t.

Then I'm sure you can be my hero!

What to do with Conrado de Quiros & company

2005-08-06T16:43:00.000+08:00

Someone from thousands of miles away from the Philippines keeps sending me emails and they are all anti-GMA, and they agree on what to do with GMA: kick her out of Malacañang Palace. The name of one columnist sticks in my mind: Conrado de Quiros. When he writes well, he is very good; when he writes badly, he is very bad. As far as I’m concerned, when he (and the others) write to bring GMA down, I mean, when somebody sends me emails of them, my only one reaction is displeasure, just a little, and I take only one action: 2 clicks of the mouse and I have deleted them forever. If you have the freedom to speak, I also have the freedom not to listen.

Let’s start with one: MeLet’s start with one: Me

2005-08-06T16:42:00.000+08:00

2005 August 05. Yesterday, Max Soliven, publisher and columnist of the Philippine Star, wrote about the Ateneo Glee Club of his days singing a favorite song with the line ‘Hearts can inspire other hearts with their fire.’ In closing this song, the chorus sang with gusto: ‘Start me with ten who are stout-hearted men and I’ll soon give you ten thousand more!’

I am emboldened by the line that tells me that hearts can encourage other hearts with their courage. We each need each other to sustain us. Yes, like Max said, that’s ‘corny – and glorious.’

Max went on and said, ‘That’s what we need in this troubled land. Let’s start with ten who are stout-hearted men. And we’ll soon have ten thousand more – then ten million more. But let’s stop flagellating ourselves, bad-mouthing each other, and taking heart, begin to climb up the mountain once more.’

I can’t agree more. I have only one comment: We don’t have to look for ten stout-hearted me to start it all. We don’t have even have for nine, or eight, or seven, or six, or five, or four, or three, or two – we just have to look for one. Me, I will start with me.

Extinct species: Parliament of the Streets

2005-08-01T17:34:00.000+08:00

27 July 2005. I believe that the very succinct and hugely applauded State of the Nation (SONA) of much beleaguered President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on 25 July 2005 inside the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City and the weakly attended anti-GMA rally outside constituted a watershed in Philippine history: At long last, the final nail has been hammered on the coffin of the moribund form of protest: parliament of the streets. I’m referring to the Philippines. They thought they had captured the people’s hearts in a groundswell of anti-GMA feeling. So, days before, the street parliamentarians proudly promised a multitude attending – they succeeded in producing a crowd. They shouted the same slogans and showed similar placards (change the names and they are the same) as those that characterized the rallies during the time of Ferdinand Marcos, the Martial Law mind, who jailed countless of the activists of the 1970s, and during the terms of Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada. There is no love lost between the activists and the head of state. From now on, the eternal activists will be isolated.

Rage not, not against the dying of the light

2005-08-01T17:33:00.002+08:00

Dylan Thomas reads his poem: ‘Do not go gentle into that good night / Old age should burn and rave at close of day / Rage, rage against the dying of the light.’ The poet speaks here of the dying of the body. Today, with all the mass media-based hullabaloo about a cheating Philippine President, a claim unproven, should we rage against the dying of the light of reason? No. Umbrage begets umbrage. Rage begets rage.

Brother Cielito F. Habito

2005-08-01T17:33:00.001+08:00

In last year’s Presidential elections, Brother Ciel, Roman Catholic, was prominent on TV endorsing Brother Eddie Villanueva, Protestant. To me, that did not imply ecumenism, just sharing antagonism against Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a Roman Catholic, who was also running. Bro Eddie lost the election, miserably. Bro Ciel was again on TV recently, again plugging in for Bro Eddie, and now they have both joined the din demanding the resignation of GMA, who has been accused of stealing the last elections. The brothers have judged her, so it seems to me nobody now believes in the biblical injunction expressed in this verse: He who has no sin, cast the first stone! It only shows that some people are good throwers, bad sinners.

Asked what ought to be done to revive the economy, Bro Ciel said something about developing the local economy. Ah, of course, the outsiders have all the solutions while the insiders have all the problems. Bro Ciel was the NEDA Secretary General during the time of FVR, so we can assume that he learned from the experience. If economics is the only problem, why does he want to forcibly change an economist President with a non-economist? (The proposed change is as awkward as ‘to forcibly change.’) Does he and Bro Eddie now assert that only they can bring peace and prosperity to the Philippines? Since when did the progress of a country depend on 2 brilliant people with 22 brilliant ideas, or 22 cabinet members with 2 brilliant ideas each? Their supporters want to change leaders with their own, with their bright stars. The fault, dear brothers, lies not in our stars but in ourselves.

If Cardinal Sin were alive today

2005-08-01T17:33:00.000+08:00

History repeats itself in one generation in the Philippines: 1986, Ferdinand E. Marcos ousted as President in a people coup. 2001, Joseph Estrada ousted as President in a people coup. 2005, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo: A 3rd Philippine President asking to be ousted by People Power? In February 1986 PNP Chief Fidel Ramos asked for People Power and Cardinal Sin called his people and they set themselves free. Ask and it shall be given unto you. If the good Cardinal were alive today, would he call his flock again to exercise People Power? Not so fast. Those two heads of state were as guilty as hell; this one is as guilty as the rest of us. ‘Nobody is innocent,’ the kingpin says in the movie ‘Daredevil.’ Cardinal Sin would have known that none of us has the moral clout.

Channel 4 redeems itself as a voice of reason

2005-08-01T17:32:00.000+08:00

In the current circles of chaos converging on GMA, there is only one TV channel that has not participated in bashing the President of her country: Channel 4, the National Broadcasting Network. NBN continues to be a steady boat on a sea of tsunamic troubles. That is expected, of course: NBN is a government station. Surprise, because this government station has been a lousy medium since 1 AD (after the dictatorship of Marcos). In sharp contrast to Channel 2 (ABS-CBN), Channel 5 (ABC), and Channel 7 (GMA7), NBN is not flogging the dead horse, not focusing entirely on the negative, not gathering news and views only to paint a picture of revulsion.

Instead, NBN’s programming continues to elicit the true picture in Metro Manila and in the countryside in the matter of public opinion – not public opinion pollsters with their leading questions.

It’s Thursday, 21 July 2005, I’m watching Tinig ng Bayan, hosted by Mario Garcia; the one being interviewed is Prof Alex Magno of the University of the Philippines. Prof Alex is saying the basic problem is that we Filipinos put too much faith in our leaders and too little faith in institutions, so that we refuse to pay our taxes (for institutions to survive and serve the people) and then blame the leaders when government doesn’t work. The true worth of people comes out in the worst situations.

2nd Propaganda Movement, 2nd Reign Of Greed

2005-08-01T17:29:00.002+08:00

Since the tale of the tapes in early June 2005, in which recorded voices were purported to show that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was constantly following up and pushing for cheating in the last presidential elections (May 2004) to ensure her victory, through much of the mass media, myriads of voices and pens have been trying to create an atmosphere of chaos and confusion leading to confrontations of one kind or another, trying to trigger civil disorder and then to push it to the brink of a civil war. I am not alarmed. What will be will be, Jose Rizal said once. I am reminded of the 1st Propaganda Movement (19th century) by which print media were used calling for the ouster of frailocracy in this country by Mother Spain. Similarly, the 2nd Propaganda Movement in the Philippines (21st century), now being carried out earnestly through TV, radio and print media, is calling for the ouster of democracy in this country by forcing the President, GMA, to resign. My prediction: The 2nd will not succeed where the 1st failed. You can’t institute desirable, sustainable social change by kicking out leaders, even if they are guilty. And, may I ask, who isn’t?

Cesar Torres asks in an email (RP-Rizal Yahoogroups) what would Jose Rizal have advised us through all the hullabaloo? I believe it would be exactly what Father Florentino told the rebel-rouser Simoun, in El Filibusterismo, the sequel to the Noli Me Tangere (from Charles Derbyshire’s translation):

Our ills we owe to ourselves alone, so let us blame no one. If Spain should see that we were less complaisant with tyranny and more disposed to struggle and suffer for our rights, Spain would be the first to grant us liberty, because when the fruit of the womb reaches maturity woe unto the mother who would stifle it! So, while the Filipino people has not sufficient energy to proclaim, with head erect and bosom bared, its rights to social life, and to guarantee it with its sacrifices, with its own blood; while we see our countrymen in private life ashamed within themselves, hear the voice of conscience roar in rebellion and protest, yet in public life keep silence or even echo the words of him who abuses them in order to mock the abused; while we see them wrap themselves up in their egotism and with a forced smile praise the most iniquitous actions, begging with their eyes a portion of the booty--why grant them liberty? With Spain or without Spain they would always be the same, and perhaps worse! Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow? And that they will be such is not to be doubted, for he who submits to tyranny loves it. Translation: We have no right to good government if we do not sacrifice for it, if we are ashamed of our country and do nothing but condemn it, if we do nothing to stop the abusers abusing the abused, if we continue to praise the bad, the gold, and the ugly, if we continue to beg for our share of the spoils. Why should we grant outsiders the liberty to choose themselves as leaders of the country, when the outsiders of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow? Señor Simoun, when our people is unprepared, when it enters the fight through fraud and force, without a clear understanding of what it is doing, the wisest attempts will fail, and better that they do fail, since why commit the wife to the husband if he does not sufficiently love her, if he is not ready to die for her?’

Translation: Granting that the barbarians at the gate are well-meaning and learned, if the masses are led by them to conquer those in power but the people don’t understand what they are doing, the attempted change of rulers will fail. It is better that it does, because the barbarians are not ready to die for their country. Derbyshire translates ‘El Filibusterismo’ as ‘The Reign of Greed,’ which is not correct (it should be ‘The Military Adventurer’), but I’m happy to use it this time anyway: Today we can see plainly the 2nd Reign of Greed in our country. And don’t tell me greed lurks only in the highest places; it lurks in the lowliest places, even at home. Receiving jueteng payola is greed; playing jueteng is greed. ‘Our ills we owe to ourselves alone.’ So, if each one of us want to help save this country, each one of us must save each one of us from our greed. Or, at least, from our delusion of grandeur, our illusion of wisdom. I must repeat what I must repeat: ‘There is no way to peace: peace is the way!’ AJ Muste said that. Jesus Christ said that.

Economists: Think small

2005-08-01T17:29:00.001+08:00

Economist Ramon Tamames is complaining to Bill Bryson about ‘The New World of Spain’ (National Geographic April 1992: 28): ‘We still have 1.5 million farmers, which is far too many. To put it in perspective, Spain has only about one-tenth as much farmland as the United States but half as many farmers. The land simply cannot support that many people.’ Good science, bad thinking. The farmers are the ones who make up the nation, the ones who feed, among others, the economists who think small.

Jose Rizal more than a 100 years since

2005-08-01T17:29:00.000+08:00

What would the Philippine national hero have said about GMA and the politicized People Power that she has been subjected to? What he wrote to his German friend Ferdinand Blumentritt 19 December 1893: ‘The wings of the butterfly have been burnt in the beautiful radiance of light ... and the butterfly now lies on the ground thinking of the rays of the sun, of the flowers, and of the pure and tranquil atmosphere of other regions. ¶ I become melancholy when I think of it a long time. Let time run! ... I am very fatalistic, like an Oriental that I am, and I believe that from the present evil can be gathered much future good – flowers grow in putrid manure. From my present misfortune, I shall get something good some day. I believe I had the seed. What will be, will be!’

Brave New World in the Pearl of the Orient Sea

2005-08-01T17:28:00.002+08:00

David Pearce (2004) writes about Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932): ‘One of the most bewitching and insidious works of literature ever written. ¶ An exaggeration? ¶ Tragically, no. Brave New World has come to serve as the false symbol for any regime of universal happiness.’ Pierce is for such a Brave New World. He also says: ‘Brave New World is a benevolent dictatorship: a static, efficient, totalitarian welfare-state. There is no war, poverty or crime. Society is stratified by genetically predestined caste. Intellectually superior Alphas are the top-dogs.’ That’s what some people promise all the people in the Philippines. Universal happiness, or the pie in the sky by and by. Such a hope springs eternal in the human beast.

Philippine mass media probes Marshall McLuhan

2005-08-01T17:28:00.001+08:00

For the past weeks, June to July 2005, through the mass media, some people in the Philippines have tried to raise the spectacle of People Power to oust President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (gma) whom they allege cheated to victory in the presidential elections of May 2004. Gleefully, newspapers, tabloids, radio stations, TV stations and cell phones have been used to feed the people a steady flow of information (news & views, print, audio, video) in an attempt to raise a tide of indignation, preferably a tsunami. Preachers, teachers, editors, columnists, broadcasters, newscasters, cabinet members, Senators, Representatives, Governors, Mayors, actors, actresses, students, drivers whatever have joined rallies in Metro Manila and in major cities in the Philippines. Thousands of them. But not a million. End result? The power of mass media preached by McLuhan has not been enough to raise the spectre of a negative People Power: ousting a President disliked by oppositionists who have neither credibility themselves. The lesson? People Power is neither Leader Power nor Mass Media Power.

Manila imperialism & republics of the Philippines

2005-08-01T17:28:00.000+08:00

They are going to set up an Ilocano Republic, a Visayas Republic, and a Mindanao Republic, not to mention a Muslim Republic. From the temper of the times, I know they are not joking. They know that for so long, the imperialism of Manila, or the hegemony of the super-nationalists based or aligned with Manila, some inside and some outside the circle of national power, has prevailed one way or the other. These intentions surfaced when, again, some megalomaniacs got out there somewhere and began trying to grab power in broad daylight and with the full attention of mass media, especially TV and print. The megas are busy devising ways and means by which they can magically make People Power appear with just one magic word, Harry Potter-like, or, Pied Piper-like, by which with a little music they can summon a million people to take to the streets and bring down the government. Since People Power I (1986) and II (2001) happened somewhere along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, or Edsa, People Power and Edsa have become synonymous. Fortunately, as Manila Mayor Lito Atienza put it to Mario Garcia of Channel 4 a few days ago, ‘You cannot orchestrate an Edsa.’ Funny how many people you can’t stop from trying. They’re laughable.

Walden Bello & the Temptation of Church

2005-08-01T17:26:00.000+08:00

I don’t subscribe to any newspaper, the issue and its stand on issues. Since I do not agree much with what the journalists are saying, or portraying, I don’t go out of my way or pocket to read the papers. It’s been like that since 1983. But I do read my emails, all of them, even if I don’t subscribe to any emailer’s view. Today, Saturday, 23 July 2005, I am reading Gil Fernandez’s email from INQ7.net dated 21 July, written by Walden Bello, a Filipino civil society activist of international renown, a Professor of Sociology at the University of the Philippines Diliman, and Executive Director of the Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South. Bello writes about ‘The theocratic temptation.’ A good title, a good bit of a slap on the theocratic face. He claims & blames the power of the Church to influence public action, or inaction, on global and local concerns, including ‘women’s reproductive rights’ (population control, I say). Church here refers to the Roman Catholic Church. He does not explain it, but I take it that his essay of about 650 words really refers to two temptations: one, the temptation of Church, that is, the predilection of the Catholic Church to make major political pronouncements and, two, the temptation of the churched, that is, the penchant of millions of Catholics to respect such declarations. I am a Roman Catholic and I encourage millions more of such exercise of churching.

You see, I don’t believe in the division of Church and State – it’s like separating your mind (or soul, if you believe in God) from the rest of your body. The Constitutional provision of the separation between the Church and the State is a mistake copied from the Americans (no, the Americans are not always right); the original intent or spirit of the lawwas to prevent influential church leaders (not Catholic), from exercising political power. Don’t amend the Constitution in this, but such separation does not mean moral values must be separate from governance – that is why you can complain with impunity about the immorality of the Arroyo government. I’m not complaining about that. I’m complaining about Bello commending the exercise of persuasive power of the Catholic Church to lead two successful bloodless People Power movements against two blatantly disgusting administrations of two Philippine Presidents, Ferdinand Edralin Marcos (1986) and Joseph Ejercito Estrada (2001), and Bello’s complaining that the exact same power is being exercised to plead that due Constitutional process be observed in the case of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who is under attack from the left, right and center flanks, not to mention her behind. Is Prof Bello implying that Church Power is acceptable if it is in effect to oust an unloved President but not acceptable if it is in effect to defend an unloved President? (Prof Bello, churched or unchurched, you would know that it is impossible to love the unlovable – but the Church can.)

In the first place, a million warm bodies trooped to Edsa during People Power I (February 1986), and I was one of them (as God and Celeste Legaspi is my witness), upon the call of Jaime Cardinal Sin, much-loved and much-respected Archbishop of Manila; and a million warm bodies demonstrated during People Power II (January 2001) – this time, July 2005, a half-million lukewarm bodies are demonstrating against another Philippine President who is portrayed in the mass media as a scandal and a cheat. (What Bello calls People Power III was a scandal and a cheat.) What explains the lower temperature of protest? Lack of the fire of conviction. In their slight fever, those half-million know in their hearts that in a democracy (nay, in a theocracy), the accused is assumed innocent until proven guilty. Give me such theocracy all the time!

Will the Earth survive us?

2005-08-01T17:25:00.000+08:00

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts says of him: ‘F Sionil Jose’s writings since the late 60s, when taken collectively can best be described as epic. Its sheer volume puts him on the forefront of Philippine writing in English. But ultimately, it is the consistent espousal of the aspirations of the Filipino – for national sovereignty and social justice – that guarantees the value of his oeuvre’ (2002, http://www.ncca.gov.ph/). United, we stand; divided, we fall. We are one with the earth, or we are alone. The way we are going, I do not think that the Earth will survive us. I think of Earth Sovereignty that guarantees the value of man and society – or we are all dead.

Lost in translation: A country called the Philippines

2005-08-01T17:22:00.000+08:00

The thought was majestic, the thinker a small boy. Jose Rizal was the first to think of the Filipino as Filipino; he was only 7 years old when he wrote that patriotic, nationalistic little poem; I present it here with my translation. I would like to point out that I improved on the original – in the rhyme scheme, where Jose Rizal is a monotonous a/a/a/a and Frank Hilario is an interesting a/b/b/a.

To Kids Of My Own Time Translation by Frank Hilario (2005)
Sa Aking Mga Kabata Jose Rizal (circa 1868)

If the people naturally love its tongue that is a gift from Heaven, pawned freedom too it will seek to gain as the bird that flies the sky above.
Kapagka ang baya'y sadyang umiibig sa kanyang salitang kaloob ng langit, sanlang kalayaan nasa ring masapit katulad ng ibong nasa himpapawid.

Since language is an estimation of kingdom, town and community, and man is like, a match to any creature who has been of freedom born.
Pagka't ang salita'y isang kahatulan sa bayan, sa nayo't mga kaharian, at ang isang tao'y katulad, kabagay ng alin mang likha noong kalayaan.

His native tongue who does not treasure is worse than a beast or smelly fish; 'tis right that on our own we nourish like a mother who bestows favor.
Ang hindi magmahal sa sariling wika mahigit sa hayop at malansang isda; kaya ang marapat pagyamaning kusa na tulad sa inang tunay na nagpala.

Tagalog language is like Latin, English, Spanish, and angelic tongue, because God who has the wisdom is He who gave, to us did assign.
Ang wikang Tagalog tulad din sa Latin sa Ingles, Kastila at salitang anghel, sapagka't ang Poong maalam tumingin ang siyang naggawad, nagbigay sa atin.

Our own language, like any other, had alphabet and letters, its own, now vanished since by waves overthrown like bancas in the lake long before.
Ang salita nati'y tulad din sa iba na may alfabeto at sariling letra, na kaya nawala'y dinatnan ng sigwa ang lunday sa lawa noong dakong una.

Most historians think of this poem as about love of national language. That is the obvious meaning; you get that from the 1st two lines of the 1st stanza. No need to think about it some more. I used to entertain that thought myself, but I had an epiphany when I translated the poem – after I had a vague feeling that something was lost in the translation I saw. And the insight is this: Language is a metaphor for country. That’s what the 2nd stanza is trying to say. ‘Language is an estimation of kingdom.’ Language is country. ‘If the people love their country, they will seek its freedom.’ That is what the 1st stanza is saying. ‘If you do not love your country, you are worse than a beast or smelly fish.’ 3rd stanza. ‘The Filipino is like the Roman, the Englishman, the Spaniard, the friar – they are all created by God.’ 4th stanza. The young Jose Rizal is talking less of his Tagalog language and talking more of his country, our country. A poem is never literal, or it isn’t a poem at all. More to the point: ‘Language’ in the poem is not the Tagalog language; otherwise, the last stanza is wrong, as it describes a lost language, and Tagalog has never ceased to exist. In Rizal’s time, what had been lost? The country, because it had lost its freedom. In our time, what has been lost? The meaning of a little boy’s poem.