San Anselmo Publications, Inc.

22/08/2024

Let the cokeheads party while does the work! Mabuhay Sen. Risa Hontiveros!

21/08/2024

A Death Foretold: The Ninoy Aquino Assassination Remembered

Today, we remember the bravery and sacrifice of Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr., a Filipino who stood resolute against a dictatorship. His commitment to democracy and the people's freedom cost him his life—yet it ignited a movement that would reshape the nation's history.

As we honor his memory, let us recommit ourselves to the principles of justice, liberty, and the courage to stand for what is right. Ninoy’s legacy lives on in every heart that values freedom and refuses oppression.

A Death Foretold, a look back at the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, is available at the Good Intentions Workshop Lab in .ph and through our online shop. See link in our bio.

21/08/2024

THE LIVING HOPE SERIES
NINOY’S QUIET ROAD TO REAL FREEDOM
by Joel Pablo Salud

The tragedy with us human beings is that we only remember God in the negative way. – Former senator and journalist Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.

I got a call from my mother, saying “Ninoy has been assassinated! I want you to come home! Now!”

I spent the night at my best friend’s house in a posh village about a stone’s throw from White Plains. My mind was still somewhere between a dream state and a craving for brewed coffee when I received the call. I asked my mother, while on the verge of rushing out of the house, “Who told you?” Even at a young age, I always had the mind to check the source of the story.

“Your uncle at Philippine Airlines.”

That day, the country seemed to have fallen into a trance, the kind from which there is no releasing. The sense of loss was staggering. All so suddenly, the future was bleak. It had already been bleak since the declaration of martial law in September 1972. Now we have breached the lines of despair.

“The tyrant has won,” these words were on everybody’s lips. Little did we know that that death paved the way, three years later, for our chains to fall off.

Decades later, in 2023, I attended a book launch wherein I was one of several contributing writers. The book, “A Death Foretold: The Ninoy Aquino Assassination Remembered,” is a compendium of snippets on Ninoy Aquino written across the years.

To kick off the launch, writer Manuel L. Quezon III spoke extemporaneously about the photograph which appeared on the cover. He posted these words on his website:

“This book features a different face of Ninoy on its cover. It’s an equally serious one, from a photo taken minutes before landing: in this a photograph of Ninoy Aquino in his China Airlines seat, he is deep in prayer, alone with his thoughts. It is a picture of stillness in marked contrast to what came next.”

Perhaps, quite unknown to many, Ninoy previously came to faith in Christ through the book of Chuck Colson, “Born Again.” Colson was former political advisor to the United States government and served as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon.

Ninoy said that when he first read it, he thought Colson was a “phony,” just another politician wagging his right-wing conservative religiosity in the face of the American public. But as the Philippine senator went on to read it, he realized that Colson was serious about his faith, all the more when the former special counsel to Nixon began the Prison Fellowship.

In 1981, Ninoy was interviewed on the 700 Club Asia. In this interview, Ninoy related how the conditions of 1972 prior to and during the declaration of martial law by former dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos led to his exile in the United States.

Ninoy has been a fierce rival of the former dictator, the one who stood against the suspension of the Philippine Constitution under military rule.

In the interview, Ninoy related his coming to terms, while in solitary confinement, with the God who created the heavens and the earth.

He said, “As a young man, I have no time for God. I was too busy with my politics. I thought I was self-contained. I thought on my own steam I can make it. I only went to God when I needed His help… when everything is fine, I forget the Lord. But when I was placed in deep solitary confinement, nobody to talk to, I became desperate.

“And it was here when I started to question the fundamentals of my belief. Firstly, is there really a God? If there is a God, why should I be here? What have I done? Why are the crooks all out? […] But then I felt there must be a God because then all of these sufferings will be useless. As St. Paul said, ‘I am strongest when I was weakest.’ It was when God came to me that I felt really strongest. That’s why I have survived all my vicissitudes because I know there is this God interceding for us.”

To Ninoy, remembering God while in the throes of solitary confinement and a looming death sentence opened his eyes to the majesty and love of the God of the Scriptures.

“Suffering can go two ways: it can either make you or break you,” Ninoy said in the interview. “In my particular instance, I welcome it as an opportunity. In this suffering, I knew that God cared for me. Because if He didn’t care for me, He won’t make me suffer.

“But I knew when He gave me this suffering while in solitary confinement, away from my children, it was only then that I realized the value of my children. God had to take them away to realize that value. I think the message is: welcome your suffering because God will never give you suffering that will break you. It’s a manifestation of His love, I think… because when we are in glory, we don’t know Him. But when we suffer, we remember Him.”

It wouldn’t be cliché to say that Ninoy Aquino found real freedom while in solitary confinement. He was a gifted man and an accomplished journalist. He climbed the ranks as a senator of the Republic in due time, and later stood as the archnemesis of the Marcos regime. Aquino knew he was on the side of right, while bearing the weight of the cries of an oppressed people.

And yet somewhere deep down, somewhere in the recesses of his soul, Ninoy knew in that sense of loss and aloneness that God has taken him into His loving arms. What Marcos intended to break Ninoy became the senator’s source of strength. He recognized the hand of God in his situation and there remembered how this same God has delivered Paul for His name’s sake.

Ninoy fell on the tarmac of the Manila International Airport on August 21, 1983 at 50 years old.

In Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, one of God’s most formidable evangelists relates how the Lord of glory can work all things unto good for all those who love God and are called according to His purpose:

“Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me” (2:17-18).

In Paul’s final letter to Timothy, he enjoins the young Christian leader to remain steadfast in the middle of persecution and suffering, knowing that God in Christ will reward those who stand their ground, immovable in His grace, while awaiting His soon return:

“As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (4:5-8).

Our nation faces insurmountable odds. Recently, Taal Volcano has showed unrest. A strong earthquake was also felt in Albay. Flash flooding has been a daily chore now that the rains have arrived. From all accounts in the news, our leaders seem to be caught up in how to augment their pockets than meet the needs of the people. Even the people function more now as rowdy, thoughtless netizens than actual citizens of a free nation.

Again, the world is at war – we against others and we against ourselves. Not all the yoga and new age belief and street protests can change it.

In all these things, God screams at us to remember Him – our tower of refuge and helper.

The writer of Ecclesiastes says there is nothing new under the sun. That is true. The Israelites of old have, for the longest time, fallen into idolatry and suffered its consequences. In order to save them from this terrible cycle of sin and shame, God provided an answer. Through the prophet Isaiah, God said:

“Remember these things, O Jacob, / and Israel, for you are my servant; / I formed you; you are my servant; / O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. / I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud / and your sins like mist; / return to me, for I have redeemed you” (44:21-22).

Remember God. That’s the key. Remember that there is God who is the creator of all things (Revelations 4:11). Remember that He fills the heavens and the earth (Jeremiah 23:24), and neither you nor anyone else can hide from Him (Hebrews 4:13). Remember that God is the one who formed you in your mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13-14), and thus He always thinks of you (Psalm 139:17-18).

Not that it validates God for humans to remember Him, but see, the One who is compassionate in ways we could never fully understand, can be grieved by our indifference to Him who created us.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, pastor in England, says this: “It seems that he does want us to remember Him, to think of Him, and to trust, and love, and love Him; and when we do not, He is vexed and grieved. At least, speaking after the manner of men, we are taught to believe that it pains Him at his heart, so that He cries out by the mouth of his servant the prophet, ‘They have forgotten Me, — their Maker, their Best Friend, and their greatest Helper.’”

In the person of Jesus Christ, God has done what no other god in the ancient and modern world has done: to show us His love by giving His Son Jesus to take our place of wrath (John 3:16; Romans 5:6-8). If God can promise to blot our Israel’s transgressions prior to the Messiah’s coming, how much more now that Christ has died and risen again for us (Romans 8:32)?

If like Ninoy Aquino you find yourself in a very dark place, or a situation from which not even God could save you, REMEMBER this: there is no place in all of His universe that God can never be.

REMEMBER ME, He says.

20/08/2024

As a child raised during Martial Law, my understanding of politics was limited to what I learned from Bulletin Today and Panorama. Although there were accusations of Marcos orchestrating Ninoy's assassination, it seemed illogical to me. If Marcos had wanted to kill Ninoy, it would have been easier to execute his already established death sentence.

Ninoy's assassination sparked my political awakening. Ninoy finished high school in San Beda, which made it feel like we lost a Bedan brother. The school had a big bulletin board where they posted articles and pictures of Ninoy's wake. Every morning, I would look at the new pictures and read the articles posted on it. The school also started to sing "Bayan Ko" during the daily flag ceremony. In the afternoon, we would normally be sent home early as there would be rallies in Mendiola just across the San Beda High School gate. Instead of going home, I'd go out and watch the rallies.

My dad went with the hearse that brought Ninoy's remains from Quezon City to Parañaque where Ninoy was laid to rest. My dad had a banner made that said, "Ninoy, Hindi ka nag-isa from Bulalacao, or Mindoro." Somebody made a copy of those Ninoy voice recordings of his speeches in Boston. He was a delight to hear. I kept on laughing at his rob joke about Imelda. Butz Aquino organized the Tarlac to Tarmac run of the August Twenty-One Movement (ATOM). I followed it in the news every day until they reached the tarmac, which was reported on the sidelines in one of the papers.

In fourth year high school, I became the editor-in-chief of The Cub Recorder, the high school newspaper of San Beda. For our first issue, I placed Ninoy's graduation picture on one page with a caption that went like, "The bullet that hit Ninoy on the fateful day of August 21, 1983, changed our lives forever."

Marvin B. Aceron
Executive Publisher
San Anselmo Press

From “A Death Foretold:
The Ninoy Aquino Assasination Remembered”
Order now at Good Intentions Publishing!

20/08/2024

Fake author

🦉🦜

20/08/2024

labyu senri💙😂

19/08/2024

18/08/2024

“Work as if you will die tomorrow. Study as if you will live forever.”

Fr. Ferriols to Dr. Leovino Ma Garcia in a letter from the 60s.

Tatlong Sulyap kay
Padre Roque Ferriols
ni Celeste Lecaroz now on exhibit at the Ateneo Rizal Library.

🌞🌞🌞

Publisher of posts, books, journals, and pamphlets. Winner, Gintong Aklat 2023 for inspiration from Book Development Assosication of the Philippines. !

17/08/2024

17/08/2024

Happy to cheer the good work of our friends from Sunfu Solutions! 😀😀😀

RURAL HEALTHWORKER BACKPACK IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF ISABELA, NEGROS OCCIDENTAL

Sunfu Solutions visited the Municipality of Isabela in Negros Occidental, a 2nd class municipality, to propose life-saving medical devices for their health units. A report was sent to the Sunfu Manila office describing the health initiatives being done by the local government led by Mayor Dra. Irene Montilla, a medical doctor and Internal Medicine specialist, but the budget was limited.

A recommendation was made to instead donate a Sunfu rural healthworker backpack that checks on the health of the community in remote areas, which contains devices such as an infant weighing scale, a portable ECG with interpretation software, and a handheld ultrasound machine.

Here in the photo is Mayor Dra. Irene Montilla being shown the infant weighing scale by our product specialist that will help check on the weight of babies in her municipality.

The backpack was designed with inputs from medical doctors who visited Cuba to study their preventive community health activities. Sunfu Solutions always believes that health initiatives must be tied to public policy to make real impact possible.

16/08/2024

SALAMAT, PADRE 🕊️

Today, August 16, is the 100th birth anniversary of the Jesuit philosopher Father Roque Ferriols, who pioneered the teaching of philosophy in Filipino.

Photo taken from the exhibit “Tatlong Sulyap kay Padre Roque Ferriols” featuring the work of Celeste Lecaroz, at the Ateneo Art Gallery.

: https://trib.al/PcmROYM

16/08/2024

"Wika ng G**o" ni Marvin B. Aceron. Isang tula mula sa mga aral ni Padre Roque Ferriols, SJ.

14/08/2024

Walang San Anselmo Press, kung walang Fr. Roque Ferriols, SJ.

Publisher of posts, books, journals, and pamphlets. Winner, Gintong Aklat 2023 for inspiration from Book Development Assosication of the Philippines. !