THE BUSINESS OF GOVERNANCE

Last Saturday at 3.30 a.m. the House of Representatives finally approved the proposed  P1.4 trillion  budget of  for 2009.  The representatives staggered home after four weeks of hearings and two weeks of intense plenary debates.

This is only the first phase in the budget legislative process.  A period of amendments will follow before the House version is submitted to the Senate which will subject the  budget to another  round of hearings and plenary debates.  The Senate version will be reconciled with the House version in the Bicameral Committee.  By tradition , the Bicameral Committee sessions are kept from the public.

In the meantime, both houses of Congress or on a month-long vacation.  They won’t resume sessions till November 10.

Social Watch Philippines wishes to thank the members of the Minority for advocating our alternative budget, and the Majority for acquiescing to important allocations. 

While waiting for the congressmen and senators to return from their break, let us trace Jose Rizal’s footsteps in Germany.

Where Jose P. Rizal lived while in Germany

“In this house lived and worked in 1887 Jose Rizal, hero of the fight for liberation of the Philippine people. Here, he finished his work “Noli Me Tangere.”

The above is an English translation of a weather-beaten plaque with a raised  portrait , posted on the door of a building located at 71 Jaegerstrasse/Glinkastrasse 28, 10117 Berlin. According to Ambassador Delia Domingo-Albert, “this building has great historical value to the Philippines.  Dr. Jose P. Rizal stayed in this building while in Berlin from November 1886 to May 1887 where he published his novel entitled “Noli Me Tangere.” As every school child knows, this book inspired the Filipinos struggling for freedom and independence from Spain.

Filipinos who have the good fortune to visit Berlin should take time to visit this building.  For sure it will not be in the usual  guidebooks which are intended for the typical tourists.  The best time to go would be towards winter . As they shiver from the frigid  climate  of Berlin, Filipinos can receate in their mind the difficulties that Rizal underwent in finishing the novel and getting it printed.

Andreas Conrad, writing for the German newspaper “Weltspiegel” in April 2, 1989, writes of the horrific financial and physical difficulties  Rizal went through.  “The manuscript finished in February 1887, had almost been thrown into the fire.  Rizal”s financial situation drastically aggravated. During a long period of time, he did not see any chance to publish hid novel.  His family could send him money only sporadically—it was in Berlin where he spent his most miserable time.”

Andreas Conrad continues, “His physical state, however, gradually worsened, since he could afford only one meal per day and   the worn out clothes could not stand the glacial  wind of the severe winter.”  Finally, he was able to publish the novel from funds lent by a friend.

When it reached the Philippines, the novel was considered “heretical, unholy and offensive to the religious system. At the same it was anti-patriotic, destructive to the public order and offensive to the Spanish government and its political functions….”

The rest is history.  We all know what happened to Rizal when he returned to his home country.

Meanwhile, the sturdy  building has survived revolutions, World Wars I and II,  the Cold War and the reunification of Germany.

Delia’s dream

Ambassador Delia Domingo-Albert has a dream.  It is for the Philippine government to purchase the five-story building where Rizal once lived and convert it into a Chancery for the Philippine government.  The Philippines is the only ASEAN embassy without a chancery and residence in Germany.

I had the opportunity to visit the building.  It is centrally located in the heart of Berlin (Mitte area) and is accessible to the Foreign Ministry and other government ministries, the Bundesrat and the Bundestag as well as the major diplomatic missions and commercial establishments. It will be most accessible to Filipino nationals.

According to Delia, the proposed Chancery building will put under one roof all its Philippine Government representation including trade, tourism and cultural offices. The matter is no pipe dream for her.  She is already proposing that it serve as the Philippine Center in Europe. It could be named, “Rizal House.”

The reader might  ask, “Why contemplate buying a building  during the  global crisis”?  It is during times of great crises that we cling to icons and symbols which remind us of  who we  are.  For Filipinos in Germany and stray tourists, can anything be more comforting than to be in a building once occupied by a great Filipino who suffered untold hardships to give us the novel which sparked our struggle for freedom?