Kim’s Dream Orlan Ravanera
Pains of Life Be Faced Courageously
What greater pain there is than a 51-yr old husband, Mr. Armando Besin, losing his beloved wife, leaping to the Great Beyond unexpectedly due to a morbidity case in a hospital while his 21-yr. old son, Kim Louie Besin, a week before was surprisingly arrested for allegedly raping a co-drinker friend, ‘ang taga-tagay daw” enticing her co-drinkers to drink “Tanduay” while flirting as testified by those present. What was even more painful was the mauling done to Louie by PNP officers when he was being arrested, even buck-stroking him and shouting that if the family will protect him, all of them will be shot and arrested too.
Upon knowing the pains being undergone by Armando, I visited him during the wake of his wife, Alejandrita Besin, in Danao, El Salvador, Misamis Oriental . Armando has been a friend since the nineties when he together with his co-fisherfolk in Alo, El Salvador were among those who were with me for ten years in conducting nightly-seaborne patrol to stop the entry of 100-tonner commercial fishing boats in the municipal waters of Macajalar Bay. In fact, Armando and colleagues were the ones who built the Coastal Guard House in the seaside in Alo to guard the bay from all illegal fishing activities.
But our alliance and friendship went as far as in taking direct actions against massive illegal logging and illegal mining. We have seen then how the massive siltation was killing the mangroves and coral reefs which are the spawning ground of fish. Thousands of tons if not millions of top soil were then being carried by the rivers to the bay that were diminishing the grandeur of this wonderful ecosystem to the detriment of the coastal communities that are becoming hungry and buried in extreme poverty. We also took measure to stop massive pollution as the surrounding industries are just treating the bay as their “waste pit.”
I can still clearly recall those years when in the presence of Armando and my dear allies from El Salvador, an M2K2 grenade was thrown to us at dawn but miraculously did not explode as a toothpick-like bamboo was found in between the “striker” and the “primer” of the grenade. We were so amazed as we believe that it was the intervention of the Divine, the Universal Intelligence who is with us as we firmly believe that protecting God’s vanishing creation is the highest form of worship.
My friendship with Armando and colleagues continue without let-up as we passionately were giving a strong statement that no greater love there is than these environmentalists willing to give-up their lives upon hearing the cry of the earth, the millions if not billions of flora and fauna which are becoming extinct.
What was so unbelievable was what happened in year 2000 when no less than then President Joseph Estrada came to meet us when he came to Cagayan de Oro upon the invitation of the late Mayor Vicente Emano. When informed that Pres. Estrada was in a red car together with the Mayor, I together with the barricaders ran after the car not minding the risk of being shot upon by the Presidential Security Guards (PSG). Surprisingly, the red car stopped and no less than Pres. Estrado opened up the car’s window and talked to us. We presented all the evidences, documents and pictures of all the illegal logging activities which were being done in the prohibited zones, i.e., more than 1000 meters above sea level or in slope with more than 50% gradient. President Estrada then and there called-up the Secretary of DENR, Sec. Cereles and ordered the stoppage of all logging activities in this part of the country. Wow! So amazing. Thank you Armando for your courage. But now you are persecuted by what’s happening to your beloved son who was not even allowed by the BJMP to visit the corpse of his beloved mother as Louie was in fact “mama’s boy.” Where is the humanitarian treatment BJMP? Ha? Kailangan pa ng Court Order? Kahit na one minute lang? Don’t you know the statement that those who have less in life should have more in law?
ANG SAKIT TALAGA, DI BA ARMANDO? Don’t be distressed, we in Task Force Macajalar will be forever with you after all those years that we together stood up to protect the poor, the oppressed and Mother Earth. Only those who have the consciousness who passionately feel oneness with all of God’s creation as what you have shown has that TRUE LOVE, free from the unbridled materialism and consumerism, can understand that truism that as the form diminishes, the spirit rejoices.
Buddha Himself said that when he underscored that EMPTINESS is the path towards ending all sufferings. New spiritual leaders like Eckhart Tolle and Jason Shurka have emphasized the relevance of CONSCIOUSNESS as the essence of the divine, the vast spaciousness which is the transcendental dimension as a means to liberate those in the mundane to go the sublime. Even Jesus Himself pronounced this when he said, “The Kingdom of heaven is within you.”
Losing your beloved wife, Alejandrita and the suffering being experienced by Louie inside the prison manifest that truism that all forms are transient, or “lumalabay lamang.” Let therefore the diminishment of form strengthen consciousness towards spiritual awakening and enlightenment. When we were barricading logging trucks, we were awakened then in the essence of the inter-connectedness of all creation. Today, be spiritually awakened that losing your beloved wife and the imprisonment of Louie are just illusions in the fallacies of life. Be CONSCIOUS and be spiritually enlightened, be rooted with the Unseem Being, then know who truly you – CONSCIOUSNESS !
