Transformative Leader for People, Planet, Prosperity & Peace
“From time to time there appear on the face of the earth men of rare and consummate excellence who dazzle us by their virtue and whose outstanding qualities shed a stupendous light. Like those extraordinary stars whose origins we are ignorant, and whose fate, once they have vanished, we know even less, such men have neither forebears nor descendants: they are the whole of their race.”
Every generation is faced with problems inherent in its own time and circumstances but there will always be leaders who will stand-up to the call to uproot the cause of the problems. This was true one and a half century ago when Rizal and Bonifacio rose-up to the call by waging struggle against Spanish colonialism as our country then had been suffering from 300 years of oppressive colonial rule. The charisma of these few brave men inspired the many to organize resistance giving birth to a sovereign nation. The advent of a new age saw our country beset with new set of problems, deeply rooted of having become a neo-colony through the control of monopolies, conglomerates and cartel, aptly described as the new conquestadores following extractive and consumerist, growth-at-all-cost development paradigm known as corporate globalizationproducing a highly-skewed pyramidal societal order.
The challenges we face today may be different from those faced by our ancestors but the guiding formula has remained the same. For in truth, El Pueblo Unido, No Mas Cera Vincido or THE PEOPLE UNITED CAN NEVER BE DEFEATED! This was true in the 19th century when the Filipinos collectively fought and dismantled successfully colonial rule. This is even truer today when the people will be empowered to resist against poverty, gross inequities and social injustices. But how can the people be liberated from the domination of the new conquestadores when they are deeply buried in the fallacies of life through the profit-driven mainstream media? The guiding formula is what is biblically declared: VERITAS LIBERABIT VOS (The Truth Shall Set Us Free). Unless the people know the truth why poverty paradoxically exist in a country oozing with ecological resources, to dawn upon them the truism on WHO CONTROLS? WHO DECIDES? WHO BENEFITS? from the ecological wealth of a country that once was a “paradise,” no way can they be liberated from the quagmire of poverty. Thus, our country needs the voice of truth, the voice of the voiceless to liberate the poor and the oppressed. Finally, that VOICE OF THE VOICELESS has finally come, the much-awaited amazing leader named Rafael S. Chico known as Ka Happy Raffy, a national and International multi-awardee tele-radio national broadcaster of the Manila-based RMN-DZXL, a compassionate environmentalist, oozing with courage in championing the cause of GAIA (Mother Earth) and the oppressed Indigenous Peoples.
Ka Happy Raffy is a well-respected and highly idolized journalist TV personality whose program promotes Hanapbuhay sa Pinoy or Happi as a countervailing measure to find alternative employment as thousands of Filipinos are leaving their families behind just to find jobs abroad. When a country like ours is just a dumping ground of finished products by foreign manufactures, massive unemployment will be the consequence because buying is like casting a vote, choosing from different economic alternatives, i.e., buying locally produced or buying foreign products. Buying foreign products means supporting job generation in the countries where the products are coming from. Ka Happy Raffy knows very well that 90% of the products or items being sold in our malls are foreign products. Such is the reason why extractive & consumerist economy is a wrong paradigm as our country has become the source of cheap raw materials, being processed abroad and sold back to us at high price. We are like dogs whose tails are cut, then processed abroad and sold back to us. It is only Ka Happy Raffy who is brandishing this truism as a TV journalist. Unless we know this truism and rectify the root cause of massive unemployment where some 3,000 Filipinos are going abroad every day to find jobs in other countries, leaving their love ones behind, no way can we solve the unemployment problem.
What is so amazing is Ka Happy Raffy is an ardent supporter of environmental protection. He knows that the humans are the only species with the power to destroy the earth as we know it. Yet, he firmly believes that if we humans have the capacity to destroy the earth, so too, do we have the capacity to protect it. It is so encouraging to see how Ka Happy Raffy have opened the eyes of his millions of tele-viewers-listeners nation-wide on the urgency to protect the planet, our only home. He has also inspired many to join the environmental movement. We salute him as indeed destruction of nature and its resources results from ignorance, greed and lack of respect for the earth’s living things. Thru him, we have access to more information, and it is essential that we act with a sense of urgency to protect Mother Earth or we will all perish as the Earth is now in the precipice of its 6th extension. Yes, Ka Happy Raffy, your adage is correct, “Think globally, Act Locally.”
It seems unbelievable but Ka Happy Raffy is the only TV-Journalist who is so compassionate in protecting sacred nature and more so in disseminating on the truism on how oppressed our Indigenous Peoples (IPs) are. He is the only one who would welcome the oppressed tribes to be personally interviewed or if not possible, thru zoom interviews. Without him, no way would the Filipinos know how hundreds of thousands of hectares of ancestral domain of the IPs are being land-grabbed by foreign investors in collusion with powers-that-be. He asked, Is the enrichment of the rich and powerful means the displacement and impoverishment of the IPs especially in Bukidnon and Lanao del Norte? Every time they would resist, they are being killed. Don’t you know that it is only Ka Happy Raffy who is brave enough to tell the truth that since 2016, 101 chieftains and lady chieftains have been the victims of extra-judicial killings (EJKs) and until now, no one has been arrested? Those EJKs included a 5-yr. old boy and a pregnant woman.
As Ka Happy Raffy would say, such is a great social injustice which is contrary to the constitutional declaration in the 1987 Constitution that says, “The State shall promote social justice in all phases of national development.” Totoo po, sila ay tao, hindi basura! What is so horrible is after all these years, no justice has been done on the land-grabbing and the killings. Yes Ka Happy Raffy you are amazing when you asked emphatically, “Isn’t it a great violation of the Constitutional declaration that, “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty and property without due process of law.” Yes, in this country no one should be above the law, all must bow down to the majesty of the law because we follow the rule of law and not of the guns, power and money!!
Our peasantry is also the most oppressed as farming has become non -viable anymore, the reason why 3 of 4 young farmers are leaving farming, going to the urban centers to work as janitors, drivers or waiters and if beautiful, as dancers. The culprit is the Rice Tariffication Law, the reason why so many rice farmers committed suicide “dahil nabaon na sa utang.” Another culprit is the many marketing layers in our country. Don’t you know that a bag of fertilizer bought by the oligarchs in Ukraine at only P50 but when it reaches Mindanao, being sold at P2,000? Pity the poor farmers, tied up to high cost of production but their harvest is sold at low price because during harvest time, the buying price is very low following the law of supply pill and demand. All these years, farming in our countryhas been tied-up to Conventional Agriculture where every one is profiting from farming, i.e., the seed and fertilizer dealers, the compradors the usurers, the middlemen, etc., but not those who have worked so hard, exposed to the excruciating heat of the sun and the coldness of the rain – the poor farmers. Only Ka Happy Raffy has exposed this truism being the voice of the poor farmers and the imperative need to debunk Conventional Agriculture to shift to Sustainable Agriculture that trusts in the inherent processes of nature, where the farmers’ basic needs are provided for.
What is so horrible is that all of these truisms are hidden because the mindset of the Filipinos is focused on unbridled materialism and consumerism. According to an Oxfam Study, “High veneration to the profit motive has already captured the mindset of all governments, all institutions, all universities including religious groups and the mainstream media.” It is only Ka Happy Raffy who is telling the Filipinos that if your attention is focused on the finger that is pointing to the stars, you will miss the beauty of the universe. Thus, he has become a multi-awardee journalist for focusing on the issues at hand, not “on the finger pointing to the stars.”
It is only you Ka Happy Raffy who is the much-awaited VOICE OF THE VOICELESS AS YOU EXEMPLIFY THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE OF VERTITAS LIBERABIT VOS. YOU ARE IN FACT THE MOST AWAAITED TRANSFORMATIVE LEADER FOR PEOPLE, PLANET, PROSPERITY AND PEACE! To you, our firm salute and warm embrace. Being a well-rounded person who have catapulted the heights of leadership from being a well-awarded most outstanding youth leader, head of the Philippine Red Cross and outstanding personality in several Civic & Business Organizations, God has prepared you to heal a broken world like a light to illuminate darkness. We hope you will play a bigger role someday to be the much-awaited transformative leader! Indeed, for everything there is a purpose under heaven! By his name alone, CHICO means CHangeIsCOming – all, FOR GOD’S GREATER GLORY!
