Middle of August, my stomach pain began which I just considered as recurring gastritis. My wife urged me to see a doctor. Still I ignored her and continued with my work (I am a workaholic). But my stomach pain persisted and became more painful. That’s when I went to the husband of my wife’s cousin who’s a doctor. He ordered me to undergo an Ultrasound which I also followed. The Radiologist saw two masses in my liver. I was ordered again for more tests when the doctor saw the Ultrasound result.

I was admitted in a hospital when tests results turned out bad. The doctors who handled my case identified the liver masses as Liver Abscess. They aspirated it and cultured it to find out what causes the abscesses. But the culture turned out negative. No bacteria and whatsoever.

I was discharged and given antibiotics which I’m going to take for fourteen days. But still, my stomach pain persisted. My best friend was alarmed, she brought me to another hospital and right there I repeated the Ultra Sound and the CT Scan. The doctor who handled my case in that hospital ordered for immediate operation since I am already in an emergency case. The Radiologist found a mass obstruction in my colon which was the cause of all the stomach pain I felt.

My operation was successful and the mass was biopsied. I have a Stage Four Colon Cancer. I took the doctor’s pronouncement just as Cancer is just an ordinary sickness. I was not shocked. I did not panic because deep inside of me I am confident that my life is in the hands of the Lord whom I served and loved. Whether I live or die I am His.

I know many people will ask why “me”? I may ask the Lord “why me”? But all we can do is asked. It is not God’s obligation to answer immediately because He is God. So what I did was submit myself to His Sovereignty and trusted Him for this phase of my life.

One thing for sure, during the course of my hospital hopping He did not leave me. He supplied me financially and sustained me physically.

When the Lord told me August last year that “I am going to die.” I did not bargain for more years. Unlike King Hezekiah of the Old Testament who asked for more years I accepted the message with mixed emotions. I was glad that I am going to die because I can now worship face to face the Lord Jesus Christ whom I served and worship here. But on the other hand, I was saddened because I only spent nine satisfying years with my wife and my children are still too small. I accepted my fate and bowed down before the sovereignty of my God who is in control of my life.

“Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.”

Psalms 90:12 (Paraphrase)

“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

Psalms 90:12 (NIV)

It just dawned on me that my life is numbered. Just have few days to spend here on this earth. I was drawn between seeing my Master & Lord Jesus immediately and still staying with my little children and wife here on earth.

Of course I would be glad to just go where my Master lives, worshipping Him not from a distance but closer…. much closer which is my ultimate goal. But it saddened me also to leave my family at this very moment. I can’t imagine leaving my two years old and six years old sons under the lone care of my wife. I want to enjoy their presence as much as they do to mine. And I can’t even imagine leaving my wife – my better half just for now. I want to see her hairs turned to gray and mine falls off leaving me balder and balder everyday. (Bald is great….. it suits me. I have tried it. Bwahahahhh…)

But who can tell if at any moment my God calls me home? Do I have the courage to say “not yet my Lord?” Of course not.

So, I have decided to realign my priorities (my family is first), and to do what pleases my Lord while still living here on earth. Counting each day as my last and enjoying God’s goodness allotted to me day by day. Throwing all life’s garbage to where it belongs and embracing the gift of life as it presents in every divers ways.

One attendee of our Bible study meeting every Thursday shared with the group what she read in a book about the role of a Christian in a work environment. The writer, she said asked this simple question: Have you taken the time to pray for your employer and company?

Whether the companies where you are in today is smoothly sailing or have some little ruffling environment Christians are expected to pray. But since prayer is only directed towards God Christians’ actions are expected to direct a positive impact too towards those whom he interacts.

Christian must react wisely then. Not too loud as to offend others nor too slow that would be considered as nonchalance.

Three blogs with same entries is so boring for the readers….. So I decided to post spiritual related stuffs here while my other two sites would run in different courses. One will bear my adventures and misadventures (bwahahahh). That’s my itchy feet site (www.phileagle69.blogspot.com). The other one “life in abstract” (www.phileagle.bravejournal.com) will show forth some personal stuffs, political views and maybe some informative materials that would help the general public.

Since melamine contamination in milk products manufactured by China leaked in the media the whole world panicked. Nations pulled out not only milk products but all food products made in China for positive testing of melamine. Since the public has been aware of these products there is a possibility that businessmen would never put the identity of the manufacturers in these products again. That would leave us in the dark and if we are not cautious we would end up consuming all those poisons in melamine contaminated foods manufactured by China.

Don’t misunderstand me please. I’m not saying that all foods manufactured in China are melamine contaminated. But how do we know its not? So just to be so sure we consumers would refrain buying those China made products regardless whether its contaminated or not.. But how do we know if the products we are buying are not made in China since we would not be seeing the “Made in China” identity? Simply look for the barcode. The first three digits (others just two digits) identify the country where the product is made. The first three codes for China made products are 690, 691 and 692 barcodes. Taiwan is 471 while USA and Canada are 00 to 09. France bears the codes of 30 to 37 while Germany is identified through 40 to 44. Japan is 49 and United Kingdom is 50.

Our responsibility is to save ourselves from contaminants. Let us educate ourselves.

During my college days I became fascinated with different architectural designs found in those glossy magazines I loved to collect. I vowed to myself that I’m going to build one similar to those model units albeit I would introduce a touch of simplicity to it.

When my wife and I decided to build our own house I want to implement what I dreamt. But when we did the accounting of the cost of materials we fall short of our budget. So I told her why not we go native which is within the limits of our budget? Then we began deliberating on what materials would we use as medium of our house? After so much deliberation we decided to use bamboo because of its sturdiness and thriftiness. Below are some pictures of our new bamboo house.

All glossy outside.......

...and inside too.

We may herald the positive effects of this Housing Loan Condonation Bill endorsed by House Speaker Prospero Nograles as very beneficial to delinquent borrowers since this Bill will condone the penalties and interest accumulated due to non-payment of its monthly amortization. Who would refuse such opportunity when it’s beneficially offered? Who would refuse when foreclosure in this Bill would be suspended giving the borrowers another chance to save their house of abode?

Who can blame the House Speaker in endorsing such bill to the Congress when this Bill would really benefit thousands of housing loan borrowers? Who would blame other political leaders in riding the same bandwagon just to be noticed when the national election is coming soon? Who would blame the media in hyping the same topic over the airwaves just for a higher station rating without consulting the affected agencies first and doing some research to give light and fairness to the tackled topic?

But do they really took the time and evaluate the Bill’s negative effects?

BORROWERS LEARNING IRRESPONSIBILITIES

Penalties and interest is a vehicle to pressure housing loan borrowers to pay their monthly amortization. Remove this pressure and they will delay their payment in their monthly amortization. Execute this scheme and they will prioritize in their budget their due.

Let me take for example the case of Pag-IBIG Fund. Loan borrowers of this housing institution are charged with two interest rates in their loan availment. A lower interest rate is charged when payment is made before the 15 days grace period after the due date. And they called this a discounted rate. But when payment is committed after the 15 days grace period the same loan availment will be charged with a higher interest rate.

A borrower whose loan availment amounting to Three Hundred Forty Four Thousand (P344,000.00) for example will be billed Two Thousand Two Hundred Fifty Nine Pesos and 61/100 (P2,259.61) a month if he will pay his amortization before the 15 days grace period after the due date. This is under the 6% per annum interest rate (lower rate) of his loan availment. But if he fails to pay after the grace period his amortization will jump to Two Thousand Seven Hundred Twenty One Pesos and 30/100 (P2,721.30). This is under the higher interest rate of 8% per annum (higher rate). This method is effective in their collection effort.

If this Condonation Bill pushed by House Speaker Nograles will become a Law do you think these borrowers will prioritize their monthly amortization? I don’t think so. In fact, even now that this Bill is still a bill some housing loan borrowers choose not to pay their amortization dues waiting for this Bill to become a Law. In other words they choose to be irresponsible.

BORROWERS FACES FORECLOSURE

Housing loan borrowers put all their stakes to this Bill since they are so willing to lag their amortization. Good if this Condonation Bill becomes a law as soon as possible for all their penalties and interest will be cancelled. But if not their housing units will be foreclosed. Who is then on the losing side? Isn’t the housing borrowers? For sure housing agencies both government and public alike will initiate foreclosure as a last resort to recover funds if delinquencies are already so high.

BANCRUPCY OF HOUSING LOAN AGENCIES

One of the inclusions of this Condonation Bill is the suspension of foreclosure proceedings. As an effect the collection of the housing loan agencies will collapse and eventually will cause their disbandment. Take for example National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (NHMFC). Their Unified Housing Loan Program (UHLP) which was created to be a continuous self-sustaining program through repayments of its borrowers was a failure due to high delinquencies. To recover these delinquencies NHMFC sold to Balikatan Housing Finance, Inc (BHFI) these highly delinquent accounts.

One agency that would surely be hit by this Bill is Pag-IBIG Fund. Considering that a member is just to have a fund of Four Thousand Eight Hundred Pesos (P4,800.00) (total contribution of employee with employer counterpart for two years) in his membership to avail a loan of up to Five Hundred Thousand Pesos (P500,000.00). Now where did Pag-IBIG Fund get the money? Of course, from the other members of the Fund. If this sole borrower will not pay his amortization and these members where the funding comes from will withdraw his membership/funds where would Pag-IBIG Fund get the money to release to these members? Now multiply the number of delinquent members, what will happen to the agency?

There are more other negative effects that I have not explored. But for the sake of arguments I have enumerated what are very obvious. I pray that these might become an eye-opener to the author and supporters of the Bill. And if we are not keen enough to learn what transpired around us this Bill might pave the way for economic collapse like what happened to United States. This time it will be the Philippines.

By God’s grace I learned what forgiveness is all about.

When my ex-bestfriend and his wife started coming over to join the church service where I’m also attending I said to myself they are just visiting the church. They will not stick longer because they have already asked the pastor’s release before they left the church some years ago. But when they keep coming back for succeeding Sundays I began to have some doubts.

Some years ago they asked our pastor’s blessing and release to join a church near their house which of course is the very practical thing to do. But after some time, I learned that they have maligned our pastor and our church. Good that some church members had the nerve to ask me if what they heard were true. Since I knew the real story I defended the pastor and the church. But what they did made me so angry that when they visited me again they sense my distance. They made an issue out of that incident too without asking me or themselves why I reacted that way.

Now that I can see them every Sunday I am checking myself if that same anger still present in my heart. I’m a little bit surprise in what I discover: there’s no trace of it left. In fact, I cannot even recall the details of the slander made nor the people who informed me about it. The only thing I recall is that they have done something slanderous that almost divide the church but as for its detail none.

Someone might dare say that I still don’t forgive them. Well I dare say also that I have forgiven them long time ago. It’s not me to dwell on bitterness against someone. You see if I have remained bitter I am giving them power over my life. I would have keep dwelling on what they did even in my idle moments leaving me angrier and bitter while they on the other hand would have enjoyed serenity unmindful of the effects of what they did. In this case who’s on the loosing side? Me, of course. So I have faced my issues, released my forgiveness and made use of my time planning for productivity instead of wallowing in bitterness.

But during those years that we haven’t met each other I was not very sure if I have totally forgiven them. Now I’m pretty sure. Their presence made it very clear. I’m free from their emotional fetters. I’m no longer affected.

Yesterday, Councilor Danny Dayanghirang in his column “This is it” printed in Mindanao Times enumerated points why he filed a letter complaint to Atty. Humphrey Monteroso, Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao against HUDCC and NHMFC for the foreclosure proceedings executed by Balikatan Housing Finance, Inc. (BHFI).

Since I’ve been following this same issue which was first raised by House Speaker Prospero Nograles may I then go over Councilor Dayanghirang’s views one by one to shed some light into it in fairness to the agencies concerned.

He said that, “The objective of the program (which he identified as Socialized Housing Program) of the government for active members was defeated when thousands of accounts were later transferred to Balikatan Housing Finance, Inc. which in turn initiated foreclosure proceedings against those who have delayed payments of their amortization.

May I point out that National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation’s (NHMFC) Unified Home Lending Program (UHLP) is not a socialized housing program but a low-cost or affordable housing program. It was not created to address the needs of poverty but it was created to be a self-sustaining, continuous housing program through repayments by its borrowers. But sad to say, high volume of delinquencies defeated the purpose of the program instead causing its termination.

Foreclosure is only the last resort to recover the delinquencies which was already long overdue.

 “…… It (foreclosure) must be carried out with understanding and consideration of the present economic status of the landowners.”

Is 10 to 15 years leeway of delinquencies not understanding and consideration enough? If it is not then what is it? And if you will visit the location of these accounts the homeowners already introduced improvements. Some occupants are already assumers which mean the original borrowers have capitalized their properties without settling their housing accounts in NHMFC.

According to my research, BHFI had introduced refinancing schemes that any homeowners can avail if they will just visit their office.

“… The interest rate chargeable to the homeowners was changed from 9% to 14%… is clear violation of the terms imposed in the original contract….”

Because what is involved are highly delinquent accounts and the program is a recovery & refinancing program why would they question the interest rate? If they have paid the original monthly amortization religiously that usually ranges from approximately One Thousand (P1,000.00) to One Thousand Five Hundred (P1,500.00) Pesos their accounts will not be transferred to BHFI and the interest rate will remain a 9% per annum.

According to the Loan Mortgage Agreement (LMA) they signed, failure to pay monthly amortization in three (3) consecutive months the total amount of the loan is due and demandable. Now who’s violating the contract?

“… confront the officers who are responsible to the transfer of accounts from Government to Private Corporation which I believe is illegal…..”

One of the agreements stipulated in the Loan Mortgage Agreement, the Originating institution where the loan originates has the right to transfer the accounts without prior notice to the borrower. Where’s the illegality in that?

I think Councilor Danny Dayanghirang and the rest of the media must grab a copy of the LMA and have a thorough reading before lambasting any housing institution (government and private alike) that institute foreclosure proceedings. Though their motive is to help these delinquent homeowners (tolerance of non-payment is not helping to me) they should not be too slanted in their views. They should do some more research first to have a clear view of the different angles of the issue.