Red Cross appeal

In times of calamity, the Philippine National Red Cross is one of the organizations most heavily relied on to render aid and assistance to those in need. Red Cross personnel are often the first on the scene of a disaster and among the last to leave. This includes their permanent, professional, staff, and volunteers who give up their free time and resources to pitch in.

Wherever you may be, there’s probably a Red Cross chapter near you. Disasters, besides inspiring feelings of pity and horror, also leave many people feeling frustrated and helpless. This is a good time to send a donation to your local Red Cross chapter, or perhaps you can call them up and find out how you can help, if you’d like to help. Red Cross chapters around the world help each other; a disaster in the Visayas leads to calls for help immediately answered not only by Red Cross chapters in Manila. Cebu, and Davao, but by Red Cross organizations in the region and throughout the world.

February 19 marks the birth anniversary of my grandmother, who was the first Chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross. In light of current circumstances, I thought the best way to commemorate her birthday is to make available her own appeal for help for the Red Cross.

Click below to listen to Mrs. Quezon’s 1948 Red Cross fund drive appeal:

Aurora A. Quezon 1948 Red Cross fundraising appeal

Nonong7 29 1926

My father, about a month old, in his mother’s arms.

In a recent column, I also quoted from an essay by the late Leon Ma. Guerrero on my grandmother. Here’s the whole thing (from his book, We Filipinos).

Mrs. Quezon
by Leon Ma. Guerrero
written in 1953

By some coincidence I got to know both Doña Aurora and Baby Quezon* well at about the same time, on Corregidor. I had met them before that, of course, but it was only during the first days of that historic siege that I had the privilege of more than a casual acquaintance. I was on Corregidor at that time awaiting an assignment from General (then Major) Romulo, and President Quezon was kind enough to give a berth in his own tunnel. They were days of very great strain and tension. The enemy was bombing Corregidor continuously and the news from the front was bad. The enormous burden of responsibility, together with the dank air of the underground tunnel, made the President haggard and worn. But I never saw Doña Aurora lose her poise. She was a very pious lady, with a profound faith in God and His saints, and I daresay she found in religion a secure refuge that even the whine of enemy bombs could not penetrate. She had a small chapel put up at the end of the lateral tunnel where we were staying and there was Mass every day.

The last time I saw her before I left for Bataan, she was sitting serenely in the midst of the chatter and clatter of the hospital tunnel, reading the life of Saint Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary. She smiled when I said goodbye and told me to pray that God should keep and bless us all. I was very deeply moved because I suddenly remembered my mother in Manila; it was just exactly what she would have told me and my mind gave a start of recognition, made a brief but tender identification between my mother and this pious lady quietly reading the life of a saint.

Baby -she hated to be called Baby- was the child of her father, whom she adored. I have often thought that she never married because she never did find anyone who could measure up to that vivid and gallant genius. She was quarreling with him at that time. She wanted to go to the front. Baby hated hypocrisy and histrionics, and she meant what she said. “She should have been a man,” the President told me. I could see he was pleased with her. If it had been left to the two of them probably he would have let her go and he would have gone with her. But to headquarters it was unthinkable. Baby never did get to the front. I was fatuous enough to tell her once she had a masculine mind. She was frank, uncompromising, even ruthless. If she learned anything from her father, it was to have a mind of her own and to say it out loud.

In Bataan I shared the same tent with Philip Buencamino, who was later to marry Nini Quezon. He was the aide of General de Jesus, the chief of military intelligence, to which I had been assigned. I remember distinctly that one of the first things Philip and I ever did was to ride out in the general’s command car along the east coast out of pure curiosity. The enemy’s January offensive was turning the USAFFE flank and all along the highway we met retreating units. Then there was nothing: only the open road, the dry and brittle stubble of the abandoned fields, and in the distance the smoke of a burning town. We turned back hurriedly; we had gone too far. I am afraid we never got any closer to the front lines. Our duties were behind the lines. We were quite close during the entire campaign until I was evacuated to the Corregidor hospital, and I developed a sincere admiration for Philip. He was a passionate nationalist who could not stomach racial discrimination, and I remember him best in a violent quarrel with an American non-commissioned officer whom he considered insolent toward his Filipino superiors.

Nationalism was a trait of all the Quezons; it was the secret of their greatness. There was nothing personal in the feeling for they themselves were never in a position where they might be subject to discrimination. But for them it was a matter of principle that the Filipino was just as good as anybody else. Even the serene and gentle Doña Aurora had an intense feeling for the dignity of the race. She insisted for instance on the independence of the Philippine Red Cross.

That was a great part of the tragedy of her death, and of the deaths of Baby and Philip**. Surely it is a bitter and shameful irony that they should have died at the hands of their own countrymen, whom they loved so uncompromisingly. But their death is also tragic because it was dealt to them by those who considered themselves victims of social injustice. For the administration of Manuel Quezon as first President of the Commonwealth was devoted precisely to the cause of social justice. There is in every man a secret and obscure instinct that gives him a warning of his fate, and it is possible Quezon had a premonition of tragedy that intensified his great crusade. He came from the poor and he knew the blind rage that can blaze in the dry and shriveled hearts of the dispossessed. Perhaps, in the stately halls of Malacañang, he foresaw in a flash of prophecy that bend in a narrow road, the cruel talahib*** tall as a man, the thorny forest, the sombre mountains, and then suddenly the ripping slash of a machine-gun.

There are still many things we do not understand about the tragedy of the Quezons. Was the ambush intended for them or for another? If for them, to what purpose? Was it to shock the country into remembrance that it was still at war, civil war? Was it to complete the discredit of the administration? Was it purely robbery or indiscriminate reprisal?

Luis Taruc**** was a frequent visitor in the Quezon house before he took to the field. He had long hours of conversation with Baby, who admired his mind and his inflexible will, so rare among the men she knew. Taruc denied that the Huk high command had any designs against the Quezons and pledged the punishment of those who had broken their “iron discipline”. The local Huk commander, for his part, declared that the ambush was only an ordinary hold-up and that he would have stopped the massacre, if he could.

One thing was sure. We could no longer under-estimate the emotional drive behind the peasant rebellion. Most people, when they heard of the Baler murders, asked themselves in sincere confusion: “But why? How could they do such a thing? How could they shoot down a lady like Doña Aurora and rob her lifeless corpse? She never did them any harm. On the contrary, she tended to their needs. She begged for them. She fought for them. How could they do it?”

People who has this have never been hunted. They have never starved and shivered in hiding. They have never felt that the hand of every man was turned against them. But the outcasts of society, or those whom society has made outcasts, no longer recognizes any duties to it. Humanity is their enemy. All those who have homes while they lack a roof over their heads; who have food on their tables while they must pick the fruits and berries of the forest; who have clothes on their backs while their own rags are torn in the underbrush; who can sleep secure while they must start with panic at the sound of every twig breaking in the night -all these are their enemies. And they watch for the time when they can hit back, briefly, blindly, but enough to soothe their wild envy and humbled pride; they watch the laborers clearing the winding road; they watch the bright banners of welcome waving in the forbidden towns -an enemy comes, one of the happy and secure- they watch the long rich plumes of dust sweeping across the gorges from the road -their hand is eager on the smooth barrel of the gun- one more chance to get back at them, no matter who, no matter if the gentle lady in the official car is a friend, for they have no friends, and so they press the trigger.

*Aurora Aragon was the widow of Manuel Luis Quezon, elected first President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines in 1935, and re-elected in 1941. The Quezons had three children, Maria Aurora (Baby), Zeneida (Nini) and Manuel, Jr. (Nonong).
** Mrs. Quezon, her daughter Baby, and Philip Buencamino III were ambushed and murdered by the Huks (Communist-led peasant partisans) on a trip to the Quezon’s native village of Baler.
*** Wild grass
**** The commander of the Huk guerrillas.

Technorati Tags: ,

Avatar
Manuel L. Quezon III.

8 thoughts on “Red Cross appeal

  1. MLQ3,

    I come from a family who’s always admired your grandfather; my own Mom admired your grandmother hugely that she became a volunteer even if only briefly for the PRC.

    Thanks for reprinting the story by Leon Ma Guerrero; it is a wonderful and touching reminder of my own past.

  2. The Red Cross appeal is immediate and timely (re: Leyte landslide). As a nation, we should contribute what we could- not just immediate aid (financial or in kind) but also a proactive commitment to end wanton destruction of forests. Thank God for concerned people like you. Count me in!

  3. Kabayang Manolo, I’ve written a press release about the flooding of Mainit Lake which has put at least 9 barangays in our town under water (visit: http://pidjanga.blogspot.com). Signs of possible landslides are now visible. Paki feature na lang po para matulungan ang LGU namin to prevent future disasters. Marami ding evacuees at kulang ang relief goods. Baka makatulong po kayo. Dito ko sinulat para mabasa rin ng PNRC.

    Maraming salamat!

    Mindanews featured us today:
    http://mindanews.com/2006/02/19nws-mainit.htm
    http://mindanews.com/

    Zimm/Peter

  4. I would like to send my condolences to you and your people on behalf of the United States. From what I have been told, the US Marines are currently on the ground searching for folks and I will try to see if my college is performing a fund drive for the Philippines. The college I attend is heavily Filipino, and some of my pals are upset at what happened.

  5. hi manolo,

    my late mother used to be a board member of the pnrc-rizal chapter under tita daling rodriguez. when my mom passed away, i “inherited” her place in the board. i admire the thousands of volunteers who give of their time and resources in all their sincerity. i hope they don’t lose sight of their mission and not taken by politics. no offense meant but i truly believe the red cross should be headed by non-politicians whether on a national or local level. this will minimize the pnrc being used for a purpose other than to assist and aid in disaster situation.

  6. Aurora Quezon helped the Hukbalahap

    I met a man who was the son of a former mayor who told me this story.

    Every time the Hukbalahaps was short of supply of rice, Ka Luis Taruc would cnntact Dona Aurora and ask for help. The grand old lady would then request for 6×6 trucks, from the then encumbent President (during that time), who sends the trucks from a camp in Central Luzon, to her farm in Arayat to be filled with sacks of rice and be brought to Ka Luis Taruc.

    He also told me that what happenend to Dona Aurora was a case of mistaken identity. That Ka Luis Taruc, upon knowing what happenend, was very angry and had all the people involved in the ambush eliminated.

    He told me his dad would have been also in the incident/ambushed if it was not his baptism that day.

    He also told me that his dad cried for so long, after knowing of the trgaedy.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.