{"id":14607,"date":"2025-03-30T03:48:14","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T03:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theboholtimes.com\/?p=14607"},"modified":"2025-04-06T07:13:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T07:13:50","slug":"the-currency-of-loyalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theboholtimes.com\/?p=14607","title":{"rendered":"The Currency of Loyalty<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

LET me share my poem:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Manila’s sweltering squares to Hague’s cold cobblestones, they gather\u2014scattered islands forming an archipelago of resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elena, night-shift nurse in Riyadh, still in scrubs,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marco, oil rig worker off Norwegian shores, calloused hands clutching candles,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maricel, domestic helper in Hong Kong, one rare Sunday not spent in parks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

March 28th: a date that pulses like a second Independence Day. The birthday of the tatay they claim as their own despite oceans of separation and criticism. Malasakit<\/em> alive in their bones\u2014that untranslatable care that transcends mere loyalty, becomes blood-oath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For seven sacred days, their earnings will not cross oceans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ATM cards tucked away like weapons holstered,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

no remittances\u2014those lifelines that pulse $36 billion yearly into the nation’s fragile veins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The money that builds concrete homes replacing nipa huts,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

pays for antibiotics when lagnat<\/em> strikes at midnight,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

feeds families gathered around flickering electricity,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

funds dreams scribbled in secondhand textbooks\u2014suspended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Tignan ninyo<\/em>,” they say, voices thick with resolve and homesickness,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“when we close our wallets as you’ve closed your ears.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their empty bank transfer forms\u2014blank ballots<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in an election the powerful never anticipated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world’s headlines painted him in blood,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

but these crowds speak a truth scented with sampaguita and sea salt:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They remember streets where children once played past sunset,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the grammar of promised change delivered in rapid-fire Bisaya,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the straight-talk that felt like respect after years of political perfume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Amsterdam’s flower markets, in Turin’s industrial squares,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

brown hands that daily serve Europe’s comfort<\/p>\n\n\n\n

now hold placards and empty padala envelopes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These hands that bathe the elderly, construct the modernizing skylines,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

steer massive ships through international waters\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

now directing currents of another kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sacrifice calibrated in missed meals back home:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lola’s maintenance medicine delayed one week,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

cousin Jenny’s tuition payment that will incur late fees,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the power bill that will mean darkness for days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mathematics of devotion calculated in pesos withheld,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in refrigerators gradually emptying in Batangas and Cebu,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in text messages apologizing: “Pasensya na, anak. Next week na lang.<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the tribunals measuring human rights violations cannot quantify:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

how a president became worth the hunger pangs,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

how his rough justice seemed like tender mercy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to those who lived generations watching criminals walk free,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

how his crude words felt like honesty<\/p>\n\n\n\n

after decades of political poetry that built nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The news cameras capture crowds but miss the sacrifice:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seafarer who walks five kilometers to save bus fare,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the caregiver who skips meals to save euros,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the construction worker sleeping four to a room in Dubai\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

all sending nothing home this week, though it cuts like self-surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Davao to Dubai, from Tondo to Toronto,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

they light their candles against twin darknesses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the shadow of international judgment, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the literal darkness they’ve temporarily sentenced their families to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For seven days, their love measures<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in the weight of tiis<\/em>\u2014endurance beyond Western comprehension, in the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

language of bayanihan<\/em>\u2014collective action as spiritual practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their empty bank accounts for one week<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a war chest filled not with money but with absence,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a testimony louder than Hague’s gavels:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is worth this hunger,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

he is worth this pain,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

he is worth the voice on the phone from home asking,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Bakit wala pang padala?<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the brave answer across static and satellite:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Para sa bayan ito. Para sa ating Pangulo.<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is how Filipinos pray\u2014not just with palms pressed together, but<\/p>\n\n\n\n

with wallets closed in defiance,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

with sacrifice that tastes like steamed rice without ulam,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

with love that costs exactly everything they have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LET me share my poem: From Manila’s sweltering squares to Hague’s cold cobblestones, they gather\u2014scattered islands forming an archipelago of resistance. Elena, night-shift nurse in Riyadh, still in scrubs, Marco, oil rig worker off Norwegian shores, calloused hands clutching candles, Maricel, domestic helper in Hong Kong, one rare Sunday not<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-upfront",""],"yoast_head":"\nThe Currency of Loyalty - The Bohol Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theboholtimes.com\/?p=14607\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Currency of Loyalty - The Bohol Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LET me share my poem: From Manila’s sweltering squares to Hague’s cold cobblestones, they gather\u2014scattered islands forming an archipelago of resistance. 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