By Nova Veraley V. Grafe.
DR. EFREN N. Padilla, an Outstanding Sillimanian awardee, an author and the executive director of Center for Filipino Studies at California State University, East Bay, launched a book entitled, David Slingshot last Aug. 26, at the Silliman University, Main Library.
David Slingshot is a political-analysis book that is composed of the author’s collection of essays about the contemporary political and social life of the Philippines and its people.
The word “Slingshot” refers to the phrase “walang pakialam kung sino ang matamaan”, which means, anyone can be affected with this book whether he or she is a prominent person or not.
According to Dr. Padilla, the essays that he wrote touches everything like Sociology and popular culture that represents the voice and culture of the people.
“I wrote this book for Filipino compatriots who realize that one of the hardest parts of our political journey is inside our own society, where we continually learn about embedded arrangements of social inequality and conflict, about the inevitability of social change and adaptation, and about the intimate social construction of the individual self and social ties as we grapple with the ever-shifting social reality of Filipino life,” Dr. Padilla said.
“Maybe I’m a gatherer of stones that I heard against people, institutions who threaten us, humiliate us, that’s how I wrote it. I tried to write in a way that is understandable and I think that’s part of my training. I got it the rhetoric way from Silliman,” Dr. Padilla added.
As what Ben S. Malayang III, president of Silliman University, Dr. Efren N. Padilla’s David Slingshot is “a product of thought of so many sharp thoughts on contemporary issues. [This] is what an outstanding Sillimanian can do. Daring attempt to breach the attempts of opinion.”
This book, according to Atty. Mikhail Maxino, dean of the College of Law of Silliman University, is “a little contribution nurturing the youth and making a difference in the ones he touches.”
