Incidents in my Life that Make Me

Believe in Fate and Destiny…and GOD

By Apolinario Villalobos

I may not have a religion but I believe in God. As I am moving toward the threshold of my life, a simple assessment of what have been happening to me made me realize that my God is basically responsible for everything and HE even used other people, too. At this juncture of my life, I cannot deny that my decisions at times have negative effects in my life due to the abused excuse…human frailties.

Today, I am really feeling the “purpose” that HE gave me. My having been born in a poor family, orphaned at an early age that resulted to more deprivations did not prevent me from finishing my education. HE made go out of my birthplace when I worked with Philippine Airlines and was even made to choose a far-off station of the said airline, Tablas in Romblon, as my first assignment. HE prepared me for the PAL job by exposing me to office work when I was hired by the Department of Social Welfare when I was about to graduate from college. HE made me finish my college despite the impending odds, as after our batch of less than a hundred that represented four courses, the college department of Notre Dame of Tacurong closed down.

A guy, I did not personally know, being just a friend of my friend, and who was working with PAL in General Santos station was instrumental in my “entry” to the said airline by sending me a telegram with just my nickname on it but with my office address to tell me about their recruitment. Out of almost a hundred applicants coming from prestigious colleges in Koronadal City and Cotabato City, only four of us were able to hurdle the preliminary interview. At the General Santos station, my documents were lost but HE made me go through the final interview in Davao station based on the trust of the interviewers from Manila…with an arrangement for my documents to be submitted later. HE made me work for an airline despite my AB course intended for teaching.

HE prepared me for my writing which could have been my real purpose in life. When I was in first year High School, I was made to edit the high school organ, THE GREEN EMBER, although, while in elementary, I was already composing poems and “tula”. I used the skill to work my way through my difficult journey along the corridor of PAL, with the editorship of the company’s TOPIC Magazine as another junction of my career. I went around the country because of the job exposing me to different realities of life.

My writing made me express what I saw and experienced while living in Manila. An important episode of my career in PAL was having been absorbed by the International Sales department , the airline’s flagship with offices located along Roxas Boulevard in Ermita…the “red district” of Manila. I made the area as my base as I explored the “other side” of the big city that brought me to Divisoria and the slums of Tondo. In those places, HE showed me the disgusting faces of poverty. HE made me realize that poverty is more of a result of corruption and exploitation, than indolence.

Along Avenida of Sta. Cruz, streets of Ermita and the dark nooks of Roxas Boulevard, HE showed me the various faces of prostitution etched on the faces of the juvenile males and females to the heavily made up faces of matrons with advancing age of as old as 60! HE showed me the various faces of poverty suffered by new-born infants to the dying emaciated bodies on sidewalks.

HE made me write against corruption, exploitation….expound on the causes of poverty, prostitution and drug addiction. HE made me write about the neglected communities whose members fled from the unrest and hunger in their birthplace in Jolo and Tawi-tawi…the Badjaos. HE made me expose to the world the aspiration of those who want to have a better life and the desire of others to reach out to HIS other creatures.

But I still feel inadequate despite all that I have been doing for HIM and my fellowmen….I still feel that I owe HIM a lot for my life…for which a “Thank you, Lord” is not enough.