THE
month of February gives me a feeling of extreme
happiness for many reasons. It is the month signifying
the meeting of the hearts…a good opportunity
to bring joy to someone you dearly love and respect.
This is the month that may be lacking in days but
truly represents the fullness in loving and sharing.
When
I was in the Philippines during my university days,
we celebrated Valentine’s Day with our girlfriends
and schoolmates with either a barn dance or a formal
dinner in a prestigious hotel. Those days, we only
wanted to have fun and make merry and barely thought
of the future, although it was a side thought. But
we saw through the days as in the Willa Cather phrase,
“Oh, this is the joy of the rose; That it
blows, And goes.”
During adulthood, we had a different
meaning of love and respect. The lover in me seems
to think that those who married their childhood
sweethearts may have lesser issues since being together
for many years has created a greater bond between
the two of them. However, those who married someone
they had only met after their college days may start
off with a slightly weaker bond but strengthened
their love and respect through the years. It is
sad that some couples in today’s age think
that love and respect would come instantaneously.
And it gets worse if after a while, they realize
that despite their being together, it still does
not exist in their relationship and may eventually
result in separation or divorce. What remains is
the simple truth that love, respect and sharing
must first be established before getting into a
relationship, and should be a lifetime commitment
with our spouse or mate.
Talakayan
Radyo on its 4th year!
Talakayan Radyo Pilipino is on its
fourth year on air. Through these years, the staff
and I have bonded and established a good relationship.
We share the same commitment and desire to attain
a common goal—na bigyan ng kaalam at kaligayahan
ang Filipino sa Toronto. We continuously try our
best to be proficient in our presentation and to
adhere to the needs of the community. Kudos to Karen
Tan, Nelson Galvez, Karen Pascual-Binaday, Bobby
Achacon, Cecille Chan-Lim, Joe Damasco and May Capobres-Cabrias.
We all strive to improve as we move along.
There are still some who question
our pure Filipino concept, why we play only Filipino
music and use “Taglish” as the main
language and not English so some youths who are
Canadian-born and have limited knowledge of the
Filipino language can also enjoy the program. Some
have also questioned the use of the
English language in our “Bits N’ Issues”
segment and why we refrain from having
a phone-in segment.
We
try to use the everyday conversational Tagalog mixed
with English and conventional Tagalog to reach out
to listeners of all ages. We play Filipino music
to showcase our very talented artists and somehow
introduce to our English-speaking Filipinos the
beauty of our language and music. We have also refrained
from having a phone-in segment due to time restriction.
However, we encourage our listeners to provide us
with their comments and views via email to talakayan@yahoo.com
or by phoning in at (416) 441-2887. We invite everyone
to listen to “Talakayan Radyo Pilipino”
on Saturdays at 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. on 1430AM
CHKT
Fairchild Radio and also read our syndicated associate
ONE PHILIPPINES newsmagazine that comes out on the
first week of each month. We assure you a wholesome
fun and enjoyment as you listen to our program and
read our paper. Please note that the news published
in our newsmagazine comes our colleagues in Manila
who verify and edit the stories.
The Issue that never dies!
I am still quite skeptical about the desire of the
Knights of Rizal (KOR) Regional command to invite
the members of Knights of Rizal Reform Movement
(KRRM) to return to the fold of the KOR. By now,
KRRM should know that they can only be accepted
if they conform to the resolution by the Supreme
council and the Region.
During the January 19, 2008 KOR Commanders meeting,
they invited the KRRM group to attend but only Sir
Voltaire de Leonone showed up. He is not even an
active advocate of KRRM, yet he attended the meeting
and expressed his personal apprehension. Now where
is the seriousness of KRRM to rejoin? Are they waiting
for a new Supreme Commander?
Pinoy Sangguniang BY JESS A. CABRIAS I would like
to clarify some
innuendos that have been circulating around the
community and which I find unfair. What I am about
to say are facts to clarify the situation: I resigned
from Atin Ito; I was not fired. KRRM had suggested
that a libel suit would be filed against me if I
do not stop questioning their integrity in my previous
column. It seems that my previous publisher was
threatened by this suggestion that he refused to
publish the articles I wrote about KRRM. I felt
that the publisher would rather ignore the issues
than publish the truth. In my opinion, this seemed
to be inappropriate and therefore, I decided to
end my 27-year relationship with Atin Ito.
If anyone is questioning my views on the KRRM issue,
I am willing to meet with you and let us discuss.
If you can prove me wrong, I will openly apologize
for what you deem inaccurate information. However,
if I prove you wrong, I expect a written apology
from you as well. My only objective in writing is
to reveal the truth and not hide behind hypothetical
issues and fabricated information.
