After Fasting to Ask for a Miracle, I Now Fast to Say Thanks

On Holy Thursday last year ( April 9, 2009), i started what i had intended to be a seven-day Fast for what we believed to be a miracle to stop the House of Representatives from passing Mark Cojuangco's House Bill for the revival and operation of the excessively expensive and overly hazardous Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. That time, Cojuangco could already count on more than an overwhelming majority of House members, whose signatures he had already gathered.
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. I started the Fast with minimal publicity, something that puzzled many among those who knew about the protest action, and reinforced their view that it would have no effect at all. Explaining why i didn't set up a media plan, considering the life and death importance of the issue. Was it because the mass media and the public would only give attention to newsworthy personalities and groups and this private citizen is a virtual nobody? i explained to them the nature of the fast that I started Holy Thursday: it was a prayer. And I have always believed that “Someone in the Great Somewhere hears every word.” Moreover, I was praying for a miracle, and only that “Someone” could cause that. I felt that God had to be asked for a miracle akin to what happened to Saul of Tarsus on his way to Damascus.”
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. While my fast lasted, before some fellow oppositors to the BNPP revival started doing their sympathy fasts and accumulating enough total hours ro relieve me of the last full day and a half of my declared seven days, i wrote a common letter to each of the members of the House of Representatives to at least read the Malacanang-commissioned report under the Aquino administration detailing more than 4,000 defects of the BNPP as built and mothballed, before deciding definitively whether or not to vote in favor of the BNPP revival bill. Using my laptop and a nearby internet cafe, I sent out my letter to the House members.
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. As expected, the whole thing was almost completely ignored by the media. Information on it was spreading mainly by emails and text message i was sending out to people who had resason to be concerned for my health and safety. Many of them were opinion leaders and information amplifiers. Much more importantly, as the 'I believe' song lyrics affirmed, the prayer was heard by that "Someone in the Great Somewhere," the only one who could touch the hearts and minds, the consciousness of enough House members to withdraw their preliminary signaures from the BNPP bill. The momentum for it's being railroaded by the House lost its steam, and up to now, it has not been scheduled for Third Reading and plenary voting. I have reason to believe that the Fast lat year has had some effect.
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. (You can read more perinent info, Ayu-NO against the BNPP from articles in the website http://akma-220.8m.net/index.htm, including the chronology accounts in http://akma-220.8m.net/updates.htm.)
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. To commemorate the anniversary of Ayu-NO Laban sa BNPP! that i started on Holy Thursday last year, and to underscore my/our gratitude for the loss of momentum of the BNPP revival bill, i will start this Holy Thursday (April 1, 2010) a three-day fast. Anyone who wishes to join me is welcome to do so wherever they may be on these three days. All my other friends are just asked to share and ponder with many others the broad implications of this blog posting.
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. thankful cheers!
. ding reyes
. of zambales