PADS, a Filipino P D team, won again in ong Kong
I checked Google how many times President Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte has attacked God and apparently in the two years or so that he has become president, he has made many statements literally blaspheming God. The latest was in Davao City when he said, "I can't believe in the basic tenets of the Catholic Church. It is really a---portraying God to be so stupid." Again, let me say that in any given speech, President Duterte seems to love attacking priests or bishops. But again, let me remind you he is no longer a Catholic and if he attacks the Catholic faith that is his own lookout.
In yesterday's Sons of David, our early mass, breakfast, and teaching every Monday morning, we discussed what President Duterte talked about and of course, there are people who believe that the president has blasphemed God and should be punished. But who are we to demand punishment for one that God has chosen to lead our people?
At the end of a long discussion on what President Duterte spoke about God, the Sons of David decided to pray for the president. Indeed, God taught us to pray for one another, especially those who hurt you --our enemies. That's exactly what we did in the hope that perhaps someday, President Duterte realizes blaspheming God isn't going to help him any. And perhaps someday, President Duterte becomes a witness to God's mercy. This is how we ended our talk about a man who blasphemes God. If at all, be careful of the man who blasphemes the Holy Spirit, as there is no forgiveness there.
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Last June 5, 2017 an unheard-of group of rowers for an unheard-of group called the Philippine Accessibility Disability Services, Inc. (PADS) from Cebu quietly practiced along the shores of Cebu Province to join the first international, the famous Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival, at the Victoria Harbor. The team was led by Arnold Balais, a well-rounded athlete and he brought PADS to wear the Philippine colors in the Paradragon category and they fought four teams from Hong Kong, one from the United Kingdom, and Singapore.
The PADS team of rowers was composed of 14 men, four women, the drummer and steersman for a total of 20 members. They had various disabilities, some were blind, deaf, or had amputations. Sounds like an impossible mission. But then, it was the first time for the Paradragon Boat Race to be held a year ago and there was no other team with disabilities from the Philippines.
In that first race last year, the differently-disabled Cebuano paddlers lost to the HK disabled team by just 25 milliseconds. This encouraged the team to do more and in the finals they won their race decisively winning by seven seconds to claim their breakthrough gold medal. That was last year's race with very little news from the Philippine media, which is supposed to be on the hunt for gold winners in sporting activities. Yet those Filipinos won with valor and they told me their story of victory in the international waters of Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong.
As I'm writing this piece, I got a text message from my MyTV cameraman Joel Noel who informed me that the PADS Dragon Boat Team won the gold of the Paradragon Category of the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival for the second time. I wanted a word from PADs, but I was told that they were in the fellowship dinner that evening, so I will just have to wait for them to return to Cebu to interview them and hopefully this coming Tuesday, PADS will be our guests at the 888 News Forum at the Marco Polo Plaza Hotel.
I checked out who helped the PADs group and Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino and his group helped them. The Province of Cebu and the City of Cebu also helped them. We can only hope that this time around, President Duterte will have time to greet PADS. Mind you, Filipinos have always been missing the gold wins in many games that we join, often we are happy with getting the bronze. But PADS won gold not just once but twice. President Duterte should honor them!