Risks in Politics and Dialogue

Some time during the Japanese occupation in 1942, when I was 8, our house in Leon, Iloilo, was burned. A couple of months later my grandfather, Jose C. Capalla, was murdered in cold blood. He was then town mayor.  At first I didn’t quite understand why. Later my father told me the people behind the arson and the murder were my Lolo Jose’s political enemies. Much later I learned grandpa was a man of principles.

In this day and age I have come to realize that there were, and are, men of principles who risked their lives in defense of what they believe even if others don’t agree with them. Sadly, there are very few that I know.

Aside from my grandpa Jose C. Capalla, there is Romeo R. Capalla, my younger brother who was also murdered in cold blood last Sunday, Marc 15. He loved the poor and the needy especially those who were oppressed. He claimed he knew that the socio-economic-politico-cultural injustice was the cause of oppression and poverty in this country. He knew the history of such a situation and people and groups responsible for it. He had

his own vision of a new society and how it would be brought about.

He never studied economics but succeeded in

putting up a good business that exports banana chips to Germany and mascovado

brown sugar to Italy. He has put up sugar mills in Iloilo and Antique provinces and introduced a new way of growing sugar canes. In the process he was able to provide jobs for people in the countryside.

Romy, his fond nickname for us, was a soft-spoken, unassuming, self-assured, confident and courageous person. This personal quality has endeared him to many especially to us his brothers and sisters, and most of all to his family, He loved his wife Makoy and daughters Paul Jones, Romina and Katkat.

Risks involved in interfaith dialogue in next week’s column Shalom.