Teacher's teacher

For us Teachers, minor phenomena can be borrowed as vehicles of reminding men and women of their negligence. Like the outbursts of Mt. Mayon of Legaspi City, Albay, Philippines, every boom is a resounding displeasure of the slow movement of the wheels of justice for the 57 victims of the Maguindanao massacre in Mindanao, Philippines. Another explosive ash flow and it can be a dismay of all the abuses done to our environment. Little additional outbursts and it can refer to the shock at hearing news of abortion cases and/or fetuses thrown in various garbage dumps or left in canals or any corner that dogs or cats can do harm to these little angels.

The once perfect cone is perfect no more. Is it a forecast of the doom that mankind will have to suffer considering that the once perfect man and woman, once perfect world where there was no pain only happiness and once children born out of love - all go to the other side of perfection which is destruction or imperfection? The time has come for reckoning and are we ready for it?

Within a week or so, Mt. Mayon might finally erupt according to Dr. Renato Solidum, director of Philippine Volcanology Seismology. Most of the people, withinb 6-8 kilometer danger zone have been evacuated, thanks to the good lead by Governor Joey Salceda.

Once again, after having said what must be said, let us pray for the safety of all concerned and if possible plead to Mt. Mayon to calm down and rest its anger. Father God, help us.

What are the implications of this decision? One, Cortez makes it very clear he is thinking of his own safety and his family's at the expense of his greater responsibility to humanity. He did not listen to Efren Penaflorida's challenge to harness in each of us the hero that is waiting to be unleashed. Two, life has no guarantee which means one's safety relies on God's protection. In the case of Cortez all he can do is offer his present undertaking in God's hand even as he accepts the dangerous case that deals with the mastermind of the Maguindanao massacre. Three, he is not a good role model of a judge who embodies quest for justice whatever it takes. He is missing the point of his unique vocation: to be the judge who will listen to the prosecution and the defense regarding the Maguindanao Massacre and Four, when the raffle chose his sala, it was a was a way of telling Cortez he was particularly chosen by fate - destiny -because he has the charism which he alone possesses even if at the outset, Cortez does not even know he has it. This is the rationale why the cases had to be raffled, the intervention of the unseen hand that chooses someone even if the one concerned feels he is not ready.

Yet, in the end we can only comment or criticize like what Senator Richard Gordon and Senator Miriam Santiago have poignantly expressed. Cortez, alone, will have to listen to his social conscience and face his God.