Fwd: UP Diliman & UP Law working student (Alex LACSON for Senator)
RAS
From: luisa manalaysay <lui...@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 4:23 PM
Subject: UP Diliman & UP Law working student (Alex LACSON for Senator)
To:
Alex LACSON is the author of "12 Little
Things Every Filipino Can Do To Help Our Country."
To buy, pls visit: http://alexlacson.net/pinoyalexlacson/12-little-things-book
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Lacson
:
Personal Life
Early life
Lacson was born in Kabankalan, Negros Occidental, the sixth of 8 children. His
mother was a second grade elementary school teacher, serving "mostly poor
children living in the mountains." His father, a businessman, abandoned
his family when Lacson was only 14, leaving them in a dire financial state, and
with the shame that such an abandonment brings upon a family in a small rural
town. Lacson would later credit that shame for planting a desire, specifically
to rebuild his family, and more broadly to rebuild "his bigger family –
the Filipino nation."
Education
Lacson graduated from high school in 1982, and was then granted a scholarship
at the Philippine Military Academy. He studied there for three years,
but then transferred to the University of the Philippines Diliman to
earn a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science. In order to finance his
studies at UP, he worked as a Professor's Assistant by day, and as a
telemarketer by night. He also received help from his sister, who was working
in Japan.
After graduating from his Bachelor's degree, he enrolled in night classes at
the University of the Philippines College of Law, and worked full time
during the day. He graduated 1996. In 2002, he took postgraduate studies at the
Harvard Law School.
http://alexlacson.net/pinoyalexlacson/biography
Support
We believe in the power of little things to bring about positive change in our
country. There is no contribution too big or too small– we all have a stake in
our country’s future. People power is all about harnessing each Filipino’s
participation in the task of nation-building.
If you would like to support Alex’s advocacies, please contribute through any of
the means provided below. Under Philippine laws, we can only accept
contributions from Filipinos.
If you have any questions or comments, email us at denis...@alexlacson.net.
DONATE VIA TEXT
Using Globe, text ALEX <5, 25, 50, 100, 300, 500, 1000> to 2899.
For example, text ALEX 100 and send to 2899.
DONATE VIA BANK DEPOSIT
Bank of the Philippine Islands, E. Rodriguez-Acropolis
Savings Acct. No. 806-900-5307
Acct. Name: Alexander Lacson
Banco de Oro, Eastwood City
Savings Acct. No. 2880117573
Acct. Name: Alexander Lacson
Metrobank, Eastwood City
Savings Acct. No. 504-3-50414464-0
Acct. Name: Alexander Lacson
Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, Libis
Savings Acct. No. 1175142777
Acct. Name: Alexander Lacson
The donor confirms that:
1. He/she/it is a Filipino citizen/national;
2. The donation is not made by a financial institution;
3. The donation is not made by operators of public utilities, government
contractors/suppliers or those exploiting natural resources of the Philippines;
4. The donation is not made by grantees of franchisees, incentives or other
privileges by the government;
5. The donation is not made by Civil Service officers/employees or members of
the AFP;
6. The donation is not made by an educational institution that received grants
of public funds of not less than P100,000;
7. The donation is not made by persons who, within 1 year prior to May 10,
2010, were granted loans of more than P100,000 by the government or any of its
instrumentalities.
http://alexlacson.net/pinoyalexlacson/buy-me-a-good-senator-2
“Buy Me A Good Senator” is a movement launched by a group of ordinary
citizens to fund the election campaign of honest, competent, and sincere people
by encouraging the public to buy TBills (Trust Bills). Trust Bills are
documents which bind the candidate to the electorate for the whole period of
his term.
Atty. Alex Lacson is the first candidate to be supported by the group. In his
Trust Bill, Alex Lacson commits to be true to his oath of office as a Senator,
to be fully transparent and honest in the use of public funds, and to be humble
and responsible in the exercise of his powers.
Support the “Buy Me A Good Senator” Movement!
For P300, you will get:
* A Lacson TBill (Trust Bill) signed by Alex Lacson
For P500, you will get:
* A Lacson TBill (Trust Bill) signed by Alex Lacson
* The bestselling book “12 Little Things Every Filipino Can Do To Help Our
Country”
For P1000, you will get:
* A Lacson TBill (Trust Bill) signed by Alex Lacson
* The bestselling book “12 Little Things Every Filipino Can Do To Help Our
Country”
* An Alex Lacson campaign shirt (Thank God I’m Filipino)
To donate through Globe text:
* Text ALEX 300, ALEX 500, or ALEX 1000, and send to 2899
To donate through bank, deposit at any of the following accounts:
Bank of the Philippine Islands, E. Rodriguez-Acropolis
Savings Acct. No. 806-900-5307
Acct. Name: Alexander Lacson
Banco de Oro, Eastwood City
Savings Acct. No. 2880117573
Acct. Name: Alexander Lacson
Metrobank, Eastwood City
Savings Acct. No. 504-3-50414464-0
Acct. Name: Alexander Lacson
Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, Libis
Savings Acct. No. 1175142777
Acct. Name: Alexander Lacson
Send the following information to denis...@alexlacson.net.
* Donor Name
* Complete Address
* Contact Number
* Donated Amount
* Globe Number & Transaction Number (if donation was made through Globe) or
attach scanned copy of deposit slip
Instructions for claiming your Trust Bills, books, and shirts will be sent to
you once we’ve confirmed your transaction.
A FILIPINO OF FAITH
BY THE WAY By Max V. Soliven
The Philippine Star 12/19/2005
We keep on paying lip service to the catchword, "Faith in the
Filipino." In this Christmas season of hope – and also sadness – this
faith and confidence in ourselves too often falls short of being justified.
However, here’s one story which I must tell.
This incident took place last Thursday in the late afternoon. I was rushing
home in my car, an X-5, from my last meeting in Makati – already far behind
schedule, since my next appointment, after a change of clothes, was in
Malacañang. My vehicle broke down in the mounting rush-hour traffic on the
Paseo de Roxas, not far from the corner of Buendia. There I was, frantically
trying to hail a cab in vain while the avenue was crawled alongside, almost
gridlocked. My desperation must have been all over my face. I had fruitlessly
attempted calling my Stargate office on Ayala Avenue, then my associates and
friends nearby. I needed a car badly to rescue me from the corner where I had
been stranded. But nobody could be contacted.
Then a white Chevrolet Ventura pulled up to the curb. The young man at the
wheel leaned over, his window rolled down, and asked: "Can I help you,
sir?"
I blurted out, "Yes – my car over there broke down. I must get home in a
hurry! Can you bring me somewhere where I can find a taxicab?"
The fellow smiled and said: "Hop in, Sir I will drive you home."
I scrambled aboard, thankful to the kind stranger, and God – and for my good
fortune. In retrospect, I wonder why it had never occurred to me he might be an
armed hold-up man. I guess it was the disarming nature of his smile, his
earnest approach. Yet now could anyone be so generous as to stop in the middle
of traffic, then offer a total stranger a ride all the way to his home? He
hadn’t even asked how far away I lived; he’d made the offer without hesitation.
When we were underway, I asked to shake his hand and asked for his name, "My
name is Alex," he simply said. ‘I’m Max," I replied, then fished in
my pocket and offered him my card. He peered at it, then exclaimed: "Wow.
It’s an honor! I read you every day!"
"Now. Alex, you owe me your card in return." I said.
Stopped at a light, he took out his wallet, got one and politely handed it to
me. It read: Alexander L. Lacson, above which was his firm’s title:
"Malcolm Law", underneath that, "A Professional
Partnership." By golly, I had been rescued by a lawyer.
There you are. Somehow, when faith in the Filipino wavers, a Filipino comes
along to restore your faith. Restore it? So surprise you with his kindness and
generosity. This is an experience – and a shining gesture – I’ll never forget.
* * *
I finally told Alex I was headed for Greenhills. He grinned. "By
coincidence, since I’m taking you there, my destination happens to lie not far
away – I’m headed for Wack-Wack subdivision to give a talk at a Christmas
party."
"Why?" I exclaimed. "In addition to being a lawyer, are you also
a preacher?"
He smiled even more merrily and explained that he had written a little book. It
was on the car seat beside him, and I picked it up. It was entitled: "12
Little Things Every Filipino Can Do to Help Our Country."
Alex had his little volume (108 pages) published earlier this year by the Alay
Pinoy Publishing House in Quezon City, and it had sold out in its first
printing within three weeks. The second and third printings were about to sell
out, too.
No, he wasn’t selling it through any bookshop, the biggest book shop (unnamed
here) wanted too big a portion of its possible earnings, but I told them I
wanted the proceeds to go to a scholarship foundation for the needy."
So, Lacson has been selling his book out of his office and out of his home.
The dedication of the slim tome reveals his sincerity. It says: "To my
Creator, who has blessed me with so much, and to my Country, which yearns for
love from its people."
As we drove up EDSA, Alex said: "I read your mother’s book, ‘A Woman So
Valiant,’ too – and I loved it!"
Can you beat that?
My mama had written that book of hers in longhand, on yellow pad paper not long
before she died at the age of 81 on October 16, 1990 – and belatedly, we had
published it last year. Astoundingly, it had been a runaway bestseller, without
publicity, and had sold out in the National Bookstores.
My sister, Mrs. Mercy S. David messaged me when she arrived from New York that
the Japanese were now planning to transcribe the autobiography into Japanese
and publish it in Tokyo, as a chronicle of what happened to a Filipino family
in the war years (and during Japanese military occupation). The proposed
Japanese title, "A Valiant Mother and Her Nine Children."
But that’s another story, far removed from today’s inspiring tale about Alex
Lacson’s Christian spirit and generosity. One thing Alex said demonstrated he
had really read Mom’s book. He remarked that the thing he vividly remembered in
Mama’s memoirs was that, in spite of our poverty, she had determined: "I
don’t want my children to feel poor." Thus, one of us or two of us in turn
had been taken by her, on her meager earnings as a seamstress, to eat at a good
restaurant. The "classy" restaurant of the time, Alex recalled from
its mention in mama’s book, was The Aristocrat. How lives intersect in this
spinning world.
To get to the end of the "rescue" saga, Alex Lacson drove me to my
home in Greenhills, and I noticed he never broke a traffic rule. I was tempted,
in my selfish agitation to get home and get my tuxedo for the State dinner in
the Palace, then dash over to Malacañang, to cut corners, such as push into the
opposite lane when stuck not far from the Buchanan Gate, in order to sneak into
the Gate. But Lacson calmly awaited his turn in traffic . Obey the law and obey
the rules were obviously the bedrock of his "12 Things" credo.
In any event, getting to Malacañang in the end was only the bonus. Meeting
someone like Alex Lacson was the real miracle .
* * *
Alexander Ledesma Lacson, it turned out, modest as he was in bearing, was a
graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Law, 1996, and took up
graduate studies at the Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass. (Good old
Harvard Yard, by gosh). His wife, Pia Peña – it turned out even more amazingly
– is the daughter of an old friend, Teddy Peña from Palawan! She, too, is a
lawyer – U.P. 1993 – a legal counsel for Citibank. They established a
foundation together to help underprivileged children through school, and are
now subsidizing 27 young scholars in different public schools in Alex’s native
Negros Occidental.
The reason Alex had been headed for Wack-Wack was the fact that the officers
and employees of a company named Resins Inc., after buying 1,000 copies of his
book had invited him to give the "homily" at their Christmas party.
This was not a small group – the company had 600 employees, waiting for his
"word" that night.
Alex, it struck me from our conversation, is an eloquent and devout Catholic.
He believes God must have destined our people for some great role – why, in all
history, he reasoned, were we Filipinos the "only Christian nation in
Asia?" One thing is certain: He and his wife Pia practice their
Christianity – and live it.
Four years ago, he and his wife had a serious discussion about migrating to the
US or Canada because the Philippines, as a country appeared hopeless since
things only got worse year after year. They wanted to know if their children
(they have three, one boy and two girls) would be better off staying in our
country or abroad in the next 20 years.
Pia and Alex had asked themselves the question: "Is there hope for the
Philippines to progress in the next 20 years?"
They reasoned: If the answer is Yes, then they would stay. If it was No, they
would leave and relocate abroad while they were still young and energetic.
There were long discussions. One day, the realization, Alex recalls, struck
them: the answer to that question was in themselves. The country would improve,
Pia and Alex finally understood, if they and every other Filipino did something
about it. Leaving the Philippines was not the solution. As Lacson put it in his
book: "The answer is in us as a people; that hope is in us as a
people."
* * *
When I read the book afterwards, I discovered that many important people had
endorsed it.
But these encomiums are not needed. Alex laughed when I quipped that he must be
one of the wealthy Lacsons from Negros Occidental, like my classmates and
schoolmates in the Ateneo. He cheerfully, and proudly, said that he was "a
poor Lacson." His mother, he pointed out, had been a public school teacher
in Cabangcalan.
No, he’s not poor – his richness are in his friends, and in the heart.
Here are, in outline, his 12 commandments:
1) Follow traffic rules. Follow the law.
2) Whenever you buy or pay for anything, always ask for an official receipt.
3) Don’t buy smuggled goods. Buy local. Buy Filipino. (Or, if you read the
book, he suggests: 50-50).
4) When you talk to others, especially foreigners speak positively about us and
our country.
5) Respect your traffic officer, policeman and soldier.
6) Do not litter. Dispose your garbage properly. Segregate. Recycle. Conserve.
7) Support your church.
8) During elections, do your solemn duty.
9) Pay your employees well.
10) Pay your taxes.
11) Adopt a scholar or a poor child.
12) Be a good parent. Teach your kids to follow the law and love our country.
These are the 12 things every Filipino can do to help our country. At first
blush, they seem simple. When you study them more closely, they are difficult
to do. But all of us, together can do them.
--
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