Golden Haven | Salute to the Philippines' Modern-Day Heroes (2023)

Hero… four letters one word… a single word that will give everyone a fulfillment and proud feeling. A single word that gave us a strong impression and positive praises. But how can we be a hero? As we are thinking for the word itself, many of us will get afraid and might ask ourself “can I be considered a hero even in the smallest things?” or “will I became a hero when I do this?”

Being a hero is not always come along with the sword and blood, it also comes with our mind and heart. As Dr. Jose Rizal does, he fought through writing novels that will trigger the patriotism that lies in every Filipino’s heart. Likewise, Andres Bonifacio leads the battle through the use of swords and blood that help Filipinos to wake up and fight for their right. In this scenario, both are considered to be a hero and both of them fight for our rights when Spaniards colonized our country for a long period of time, the only difference is that they use different ways to fight.

Just like Dr. Rizal and Bonifacio did, we can be a hero even in the smallest things. You can be a hero when you rescued a cat on one rainy evening. You can be a hero when you gave a portion of your food to a street kid begging on the road. And you can be a hero when you did not leave your friends in his/her darkest times and days. You see, we can be heroes in many different ways and we should always choose to be a hero especially in this time of the pandemic.

Applause on August 30

Remember the date? On August 30, we are bound to celebrate National Heroes’ Day. Are curious too on why we celebrate it on the 30th day of the said month? Well, it is because it is considered to be the intended date to mark the ‘cry of Pugad Lawin’ that happened in the same month of the year 1896. It is the very first act of revolution against the Spanish Colonizers by the Katipunan led by Gat. Andres Bonifacio. It is observed to be the start of rebellion and battle against our independence. Actually, we celebrate the said event every Monday of August, therefore, in today’s year, it is the 30th. So wondering now why we celebrate National Heroes Day?

Hail to our National Heroes

National Heroes Day in the Philippines is celebrated to honor the legacy that they leave on us. If not because of them, probably we are still a slave of a different country. If not from them we are still a prisoner who is left behind, we are still the people who don’t have the freedom that we enjoy today.

RELATED: Honoring our Modern Day Heroes this Labor Day

Praise to Dr. Jose Rizal who opens the heart and mind of the early Filipinos in order for them to wake up and realize that they are being abused by the foreign nationalities. Bless to have a Filipino Andres Bonifacio who encourage our eldest to fight for our rights through establishing Katipunan and encouraging them to have unity on that time and partly succeeding to defeat Spanish troops. Applaud to General Antonio Luna, a hot-headed but brave and brilliant general who administer the troops against the colonizers. Moreover, laud to our very brilliant “sublime paralytic”, Apolinario Mabini who is considered to be the brain of the Philippine Revolution.

And of course, we also have female heroes who change Philippine History. Thanks to Gabriela Silang’s bravery who led the Filipino troops after the assassination of his husband, Diego Silang, and was tagged as the “first Filipina to lead an uprising against a foreign power”. And also to our “mother of Katipunan” who happens to take care of the wounded troops in the battle.

Imagine what will happen to us if they did not stand against our rights? If they are not that brave enough to fight for our rights, we are not the Filipino as we are today. There may be scars of yesterday but remember, those scars will always be a living memory of us on how we fought for what we have today. We shall all remember and honor their legacy, sacrifices and acknowledge them as hard we can.

Salute to our modern-day heroes

As mentioned earlier, we can be heroes in our own ways, in this time of pandemic many people are considered to be our modern heroes. They are heroes not because they win a bloody battle but because they have a heart and heroic acts that inspire people nowadays.

Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs)

OFWs are the group of workers that choose to be far away in order for them to have a job that can support their family. Some of them are domestic helpers. Being a slave in another country is a very painful reality that hit most of us, imagine they are serving another family but their own family here in our country is being left behind and they stand at their own feet. Imagine that they are being away from their children to just take care of other kids from their employer, how painful is that for their part. And most of all they are obliged to endure the longing and sadness of being away from their special someone. Maybe some of us envy those people who go abroad just to work, but the truth is, it is never been easy to be alone in that place wherein you cannot hug nor be with someone you love. But it is commendable that they are still smiling, loving, and fighting despite the longing, sorrow, and sacrifices they are enduring just to provide the best for their family.

RELATED: Golden Haven provides more income opportunities for OFWs through ‘Kabayan Rewards’

Frontliners (delivery riders, police, military, sweepers)

In this time of the pandemic, where people are scared to go outside their comfort, front liners are there to continue living. As delivery riders still continue to do their job just so people will have convenience in buying what they need despite the fact that it brings anxious feeling knowing that we didn’t see who our enemy is. Furthermore, the police and military personnel are also considered to be modern heroes as they are serving and providing safety and the needs of every person in our community particularly in the surveillance of every person who passes and enters the boundaries of different areas. And lastly the sweepers, they are also a hero that maintains the cleanliness of our environment in the midst of the pandemic, thankful to them that even we are afraid to go out and clean the surroundings we have them to clean it and make sure that we are safe against the different virus and disease we might get such as the dengue and malaria. This group of people is brave enough to face the risk just to maintain the orderliness and safeness of every person’s need in our community.

Healthcare workers

Pandemic seems to be the surface of death, we don’t know if when we will be infected and who will infect us plus the mere fact that there is a tendency that we might meet our end unexpectedly. But thankfully, we have heroes who help us out to fight for our life even though they are risking their own health each day passes. Nurses, doctors, and health workers in different fields seem to be exhausted especially that the COVID 19 disease is continuously affecting our households. Sometimes they are sleep-deprived and they are lacking rest just to serve people’s life, instead of resting with their loved ones in their rest days, they choose to face the risk to fulfill their passion and show how they love their job as well as the people who need them.

RELATED: The New Normal: Looking Beyond The Pandemic with Golden Haven

We must admire their passion in helping every COVID patient to recover, we should give our deepest gratitude to them as they serve as our shield in facing our death. When we happen to cross health workers we must say thank you to them for helping every person who needs to be saved, we must smile at them so that they can be more inspired to motivate us to help our self and we should tap their shoulder for them to feel our sympathy as we all know the hard work and sacrifices they are giving for us.

Deathcare service Providers

In line with the health workers, death care service providers are also risking their lives just to fulfill their passion. As the mortality rate brought by COVID 19 continuously increasing, this group of people falls into a “high-risk health worker” as they are closely in contact with the deceased COVID 19 person. In fact, they are included in the first category that should be given a vaccine to fight the disease.

At Golden Haven, employees’ safeness is the top priority of the management as they are continuing to provide the quality service that the clients must receive.

On the day of national Heroes, we shall also praise our modern-day heroes as they are also fighting their own battle to win in different situations. They might not be like Dr. Rizal who fired at his back, not like Gat. Bonifacio who is hit by a sword and not like our other heroes who died fighting for our independence, one thing is for sure, our modern-day heroes are very selfless to think about themselves they are only committed to how they can provide and contribute to the betterment of everyone in the country. And most of all they are ready to face death, just to help and save people’s life. With that, we must say to them THANK YOU AND ALWAYS BE SAFE.

READ MORE: Golden Haven Memorial Parks News and Update