I remember our Jesuit Prefect of Discipline back in high school who taught us how to play baseball with great passion. Being an American and a deep lover of everything American, he made sure we understood the rules of the game. Little did he know I disliked the great American game. Given a choice, I would rather play basketball or even “tumbang preso”. But that’s another story. What I remember about that Jesuit from Buffalo, New York is that he was terrific and most learned English and Latin professor and also a great lover of baseball.  After we, the boys in first year, had been divided into two teams, we were harangued with a lecture on the rules of the game. “What is the first thing you must do to win a game of baseball?” the towering Fr. Daniel Lewis, S.J. asked. “Play hard!” we replied almost in unison. “Wrong!” he yelled back. “The first thing you must do is to play the game!”

That little flashback must have been triggered in my mind by something that I knew should have happened, but did not happen, on stage of the Paniqui public auditorium last January 16th. What took place was a leadership forum. As the name suggests, it was a public assembly for open discussion. But how could there be a fair, clear, and open discussion when one of the key persons expected to be on stage and answering questions did not show up? Surely, Mayor Rivilla was there. But the other guy was not. Mayor Rivilla was answering questions. The other guy could not. Just like in a game, Mayor Rivilla had to be the winner because the other guy lost by default. The other guy could not possibly win because he did not play the game to begin with. Isn’t he very much like the “presidentiable” who continually refuses to show up in the Senate and therefore continually dodges every opportunity to explain his side and defend himself against charges of plunder? What could be the reasons for not showing up? Only the dodger would know. The public can only suspect.

But why does one become a dodger? To my mind, a dodger refuses to show up because he is scared to expose his inability to be a winner or to expose a truth about himself. A contender, who is handicapped by any of these two fears, or both, should not even be in the arena of combat. A true contender should never be afraid to prove his worth even to a most menacing audience. Otherwise, he should stay away from any field of competition.

My advice to dodgers: To win a game, first, you have to play it! For comments / reactions, please email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it