‘He could not change the government ills or get rid of the politicians, and the irony was that he had to change himself.’
FORMER Gen. Danny Lim prominently figured in a series of rebellions against two presidents of the country. Feisty and uncompromising, he nurtured what may have been a burning desire to truly serve as “the protector of the people,” a calling of the Philippine military that has been ingrained in the 1987 Constitution.
As commander of the elite Scout Rangers, Lim, a graduate of West Point, was determined to reverse the growing advantage of the communist rebels in winning the hearts and minds of the people. He interrupted his so-called surgical missions with “sit-ins’ with barrio folks where he learned the real problems that made the people vulnerable to the insurgents’ ideological and political agenda.
He concluded that the real enemies of the country were government officials and politicians, patently-corrupt, incompetent and negligent in providing roads, schools and public hospitals. It was not difficult for him to be recruited by the RAM led by Red Kapunan and Gregorio Honasan.
Lim was one of the leaders of the 1989 military coup, the bloodiest since President Cory Aquino was swept into power, eventually taking over the financial district of Makati when most of the rebel forces and their commanders had either surrendered or gone into hiding.
After being given amnesty by President Fidel Ramos, Lim also went up against President Gloria Arroyo in a botched coup and found himself in jail again.
He joined the Duterte administration as MMDA chairman still distrustful of politicians but no longer hungry for social and political change as before. He had told some reporters in a breakfast forum that “he was done with politicians.” The high-profile former general who fought the system with uncommon tenacity had mellowed and did his current work quietly and humbly. He could not change the government ills or get rid of the politicians, and the irony was that he had to change himself.
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The following Biblical passages may be helpful to provide a satisfying alternative to the more popular traditional and superstitious beliefs for the new year that are dished out in media. Acts 19:18-20 – “ Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.” Letivicus 20:6 – “If a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.” 1 John 4:1-3 – “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. Bu this you know the Spirit of God: every Spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard and now is in the world already.”
