Do you remember Marcos, the Philippine dictator? In the end, he tried to reimpose his waning control over that country by bringing his troops to surround and defend him at his palace compound in Manila. Cardinal Jamie Sin got on the radio and TV and called the people to come en masse to that palace. Bring a flower, be peaceful, but surround the palace. They did – two million of them. The troops refused to shoot. Marcos abdicated and flew away.
That same Cardinal Sin, still the chief prelate in the Philippines, which is a Catholic country, has become increasingly concerned about the attempts by the United Nations, by Clintons USAID people, the World Bank, International Planned Parenthood, etc., to subvert his people. Huge amounts of money and personnel have been funneled into the Philippines for purposes of radical sex education, contraception, agitation to legalize abortion and other methods of population control. The Philippines is a poor country but is rapidly becoming modernized and industrialized. It hopes to join the “Asian Tigers” of the Pacific Rim in the prosperity that has been generated in Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, etc.
But the increasingly aggressive invasion of the Philippines by these anti-life, anti-family people has troubled him and all other pro-family groups. A recent attempt to introduce and pass a law allowing abortion on demand and literally forcing contraceptives on his people was the last straw. As a result of this, an invitation was extended to present two one-week seminars. Attending them were top pro-life, pro-family representatives to be trained to help counteract the increasingly intensive anti-life propaganda and activity being foisted upon these good people.
Responding to this request for the International Right to Life Federation was its president, yours truly, and his wife Barbara. Joining us was the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child from London which sent its founder, Mrs. Phyllis Bowman, and Executive Director, Mr. John Smeaton.
We proceeded to put on a one-week seminar in Central Luzon. The four of us had to provide our own plane fare to get to the Philippines, no small item. But from the time that we stepped off the plane until re-embarking, we were given generous, unfailing hospitality and offered far too much of the excellent Philippine food. There had been a fifth, the well known Dr. Margaret White from England. Leaving early, she had stopped in Bali and picked up a bug which disabled her and required her returning to England. So instead of a team of five, we did it with four.
We knew that these excellent and qualified “pupils” would soak up ideas and carry them out in their own districts. Words alone can only do so much, however, and we felt the need to supply them with considerable amounts of educational materials that they could take back with them, distribute, reproduce and use in helping to bring our ideas to fruition in their own areas. Accordingly, your author, after considerable effort, was able to acquire almost $9,000 worth of educational material and have it shipped ahead to our destinations. These materials proved of immense usefulness to us and are being skillfully put to use at this time.
Our first seminar was in the Pampagna area in the city of San Fernando. This is an area familiar to many US servicemen, as it is next door to Clark Air Force Base which has now been turned into a busy, duty-free commercial hub. It is near, but was not affected by the volcanic eruptions several years ago of Mount Pinatubo.
Our second seminar was in the South Island of Mindanao. We flew to Cagayan de Oro and were driven up into the interior plateau area which is the major pineapple-producing area in the world today. Our seminar was held in the town of Philips which lies in the very center of Del Montes 30,000 acres of pineapple fields.
In addition to this, we had a number of leadership meetings in Manila with civic and government officials, clerics, etc.
The International Right to Life Federation is divided into eleven international divisions from which each of the eleven regional board members are selected. The seat representing the Pacific Rim had been vacant. As a result of this visit, we were able to evaluate, to ask and to receive the nomination of a prominent Philippine senator, the Honorable Kit Titad, to represent that region on our International Right to Life Federation board. He will be attending his first board meeting with us at our annual meeting in October in Rio de Janeiro.
Was the trip worthwhile? Without question, we feel it was a great success. We have watched with increasing distress the anti-life juggernaut that the United Nations has become. We have fought it valiantly at Cairo, Beijing, Istanbul, Rome and New York, and have held some of the worst excesses in check. But the overwhelming money and power of the long arm of the Clinton administration, of Canada and of the European Union nations is slowly, insidiously destroying the families and the morals of underdeveloped nations throughout the world. We have hopes that the Philippines may be the exception. We have hopes that here the juggernaut may be stopped and reversed.
The Philippines are a very religious country, deeply Catholic, very devotional and very loyal to their priests and bishops. Unlike some other titularly Catholic countries, this nation has an extraordinary set of bishops headed by this remarkable Cardinal Sin. To a significant extent, they have been alerted to the anti-life, anti-family, anti-Christian thrust of the international agencies.
Hopefully, we have contributed one small, but significant part of firming up their resolve and helping them organize so that this nation can present a united front to the corrosive impact of the United Nations and its formidable array of evil, auxiliary international organizations.
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