WHO FOOLS WHO?

According to Wikipedia, the guiding principle of the knights is honor and one of the codes found in the book Chivalry by 19^th century French historian Leon Gautier is “thou shalt never lie, and shall remain faithful to thy pledged word.”

Unfortunately, the European chapter of the Knights of Rizal has been compromised and beset by dissension and frustration under the contentious leadership of a handpicked group of incompetent individuals with limited educational and professional background and void of scruples and principles who pretends to uphold and foster the teachings of Rizal. They promised to unify the Order as well as the community but instead subvert it by using indiscriminately the honorific title as a knight only for their self-serving goals of personal aggrandizement at the expense of others.

In order to save his image and credibility, Lino has been telling everyone that his curriculum vitae was tampered and exaggerated by a third party. What has Manila HQ done so far about this? Has it ever made any official investigation into the discrepancies he referred to between the original copy that he sent personally in 2001 and the one published in the blog? In case that there were no differences whatsoever, how could a highly respectable and esteemed personality like Quiambao, Esguerra or members of the screening committee be fooled so easily that they approved his appointment and still maintain it up to the present? Is it because that they don’t want to be accused of having their head up their ass while their appointee is having a great time by himself laughing out loud behind their back for their stupidity because of their incompetence in exchange of their lifetime gratitude (utang na loob) regardless of their enviable position of power and higher education? I wonder how do the criteria of their screening and appointing committee function? Is it by qualification or by connection? What a great shame and disgrace in the name of Rizal on how the Filipinos who think of themselves to be intelligent could have fallen much lower than the caliber of Lino that was appointed easily with hardly any knowledge about the hero! Who’s fooling who at this point, in the end?

As to the question of his politics for the unity of the knights and of the community, why did he make a stink with the CDA for having been practically ignored and then organized another independence celebration instead of joining forces with the one that was officially endorsed and sponsored by the embassy? Was it because he wanted to challenge and defy the embassy officials to show them that he couldn’t care less if he weren’t the one in charged personally? Such an un-chivalrous and un-gentlemanly act or gesture that he had willfully showed and committed on this occasion is far from being worthy for a knight, particularly with his high-sounding title and position in the name of Rizal!

If he had really worked as a programmer at the BBL, how would he ever explain from his professional experience and expertise that any crazy maniac persons could possibly block his computer and deviate his emails unless if he had given away his secret password, thus making himself an accomplice-to-the-fact and should be fully made responsible to such an ignominious act? If he could easily make a fool of you with all of his lies and deceptions, who does he think he would blame or fool this time?

With due respect to your position and authority, you must be aware that Rizal did not die and sacrifice his life only for self-aggrandizement, but to see his own people be freed and united in equality and justice from tyranny and oppression under a foreign rule. Please show to the world that the Philippines is not run by corrupt and unscrupulous people, in general.

As a sign of gratitude for his greatness to what he had done to us, let’s give him due respect and honor. May he rest in peace!