20100929

"Our humanity must become alert to the fact that the generations that are to come after us depend on us today."

I am revising and carrying this post over from All to

my All -

To my Brother and Sister Filipino Muslims -

PEACE, I salute you.

We are at a crossroads in time.

We stand at a point in history where no one segment of our shared humanity can no longer ignore the existence of the other. Therefore, the defining choice is presented to each heart; unite in the ascent of peace or descend with the gravity of war.

You must ever be mindful of your promise, my fellow Filipino compatriot. I will not see you wasted on empty dreams.

For each of you, my brother and sister Filipino Muslims, are a human being. Each of you are a one whole truth - beautiful for being by Beauty beheld - and precious to my eyes as every other human being who lives to honor the truth not with war and division but with peace and its ascent to the unity of the wholes.

The peace of Jesus Christ abide in the good will of those persons who keep to its truth regardless of war's lie; it's property is as the light regardless of the darkness which is the ambition of war.

Does it matter therefore, that I am a Christian - where peace is concerned what matters is that we are all human beings.

Do we need to draw lines upon the soil of our earth to know that there are lines drawn upon the love in our hearts? Can any love divided against itself ever serve the one will of our one LORD, our one Beautiful, our one Love. Nay, my beloved friend and constant companion, one peerless love for one peerless LORD: Love for love, that is the way - one love alone, a one whole and undivided truth - that is our mountain path.

Therefore, your homeland, my honorable Filipino compatriots, is my homeland. Our Liberty shall have but one standard alone.

We shall be ever mindful of each other's native human dignity.

You are a Muslim, my beloved friend and constant companion, then be a good Muslim. And just the same with me and with every human being who has ever lived and shall ever more live upon our one planet, let us produce the fruits of a good and honorable religion. Fruits which are edible unto all humanity and good for all time. Fruits that serve to prosper all of Sacred Life in this, our one Creator's one seen creation. For the glory of God is the realization of all human hopes.

Let us go and walk in Beauty and let us be strong for each other.

Let us climb this mountain road, Beloved of God, let us walk this straight path and together let us add to the good of our world: Honor all the lineages of human hope - working to return each and every one of our nations of the one family of the nations of Mankind to the path of peace.

Let our one Republic be a reflection of these things. Let this undertaking of Country be our great labor of hope; let this work, imperfect and difficult though it may be, be a work of life - that God's will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.

Godspeed to each and every one of us and may Almighty God bless us all from always to always.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

...from star to star, one whole sky.

20100928

Remembering Typhoon Ondoy

Of the three elements of Country, only the Nation exists for itself. Both the Responsible State and the Common Market exists for the Nation.

Growing up here in the Philippines, I am used to the experience of typhoons. There is never a year when we are without one. It never used to worry me, these typhoons, because typhoons were part of the experience of being Filipino.

In some quite significant way, our culture has become well adapted to the seemingly perennial cycle of the seasons here in the tropics.

For hundreds, if not thousands of years, our generations have come to collectively experience what it takes to successfully forge a living in these islands. Because of all of this, as a nation, we have come to quiet terms with the peculiarities of our native land, sea and sky, along with all its particular realities, good as well as bad. Our social consciousness as a people have for a long time learned to accept the experience of it all as part and parcel of the fabric of Filipino life.

This was why Typhoon Ondoy (International Codename: Ketsana) was so different.

We remember Ondoy a year later in the way we do because, amidst its tragedy, it presents to the Filipino psyche something new that it must now grapple against: Our climate is changing.

After Ondoy struck in late September of last year, the Country was hit with four other typhoons (Pepeng, et. al.) all in the month of October. But we remember Ondoy all too well because of the hurt and the fear.

We know all too well that the tragedy of Ondoy was only exacerbated by deficiencies within the institution of the Responsible State, deficiencies which were to a large extent fed by so much of the evils which I believe our present government led by PNoy is trying to combat and reverse.

How we shall remember Ondoy, its heroes and its victims, in the years to come after this one shall depend completely upon how well we shall strive to stand firmly united as one Republic undertaking and as a nation distinct, decisively understand from all of this what needs to be done to preserve the common good and to proceed from it.

Like the mythical hydra, the evils of these present times stand adamantly against us to prevent us from treading the straight path. Our government can really only do so much in our behalf and at our own good behest.

If we are to successfully grapple with these challenges placed by God before our chosen road, my fellow Filipino compatriots, in order to gain from Him and from all of heaven the national success, we must know that it is we, the people, who have the ability strike it at the very heart.

Towards this end, I am putting all of my trust in our ability to succeed - for God and Country - together this time.

Some Lessons Learned:

Conservation, because of what we are faced with, must be done wholesale. We will not stand to benefit from lukewarm halves and disparate pieces: It will only delay tragedy, not prevent it.

Preservation must be meaningfully inspired by its highest and therefore, noblest Cause - that of Sacred Life which is all of life, plant and animal, above all human life.

Disaster Preparedness and Public Safety, in order for these to become proactive, must evolve to become a matter of civic concern in this nation and an ordinary exercise of civic duty.

Integral Public Education is essential in this regard (Refer to SONA 2010 highlight #5: the re-dedication of our current educational system to the service of our youth in particular and the nation in general in the context of 21st century requirements).

All of these this will work to further enable in our people a spirit of volunteerism and inculcate in our youth, a greater and more abiding sense of national community.

State Emergency Services thus devolved into a government (LGU) responsibility must maintain, on behalf of the common Filipino citizenry, current, centralized, and adequate standards of training (including competitive remuneration packages) and technology necessary to effectively form the core of any incident response in this particular regard.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

About that Flag incident at the US-ASEAN summit in New York: These things happen.

It happened once while I was in Australia that an Australian Prime Minister was welcomed by a host State with a New Zealand Flag.

It was clearly a mistake and is no big deal at all: Case Closed.

Welcome back, PNoy and delegation!

Salutation #4

(Light)

PEACE, I salute you.

Evil which is poison, when once by mischief,
allowed entrance into that Kingdom within
becomes the malice that corrupt the purity
of the human will's intention for good -
dividing the one House of that Man within
against the Sanctuary of the LORD in the heart
making the soul vulnerable against itself
inclining fallen Man to sinful things.

For malice is the corruption that is sown
upon the ground of the human heart
to become those manifold and diverse tares
which are the vicious habits of sin
that overgrow with choking weeds
that evergreen garden of the human soul
where we take our walks with our God
in the stillness of our wakeful prayers;
that same timeless garden
that one must through God's good graces
cultivate with much virtue and light.

And sin is a lie that creeps
upon the threshold of the heart
seeking to assault and overthrow
the reign of our sovereign LORD within
that it may slowly overcome with its darkness
the golden blue of our native skies.

Now, our LORD being the one God Who is
revealed unto all of our shared humanity
in complete and utter finality
through the Sacred Humanity
of the Incarnate Word,
Who is the Second Person
of the one triune Perfection -
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
our one Truelight, our highest Exemplar,
and First of our First Magnitudes,
is the self-same God Whose Presence is
for all creatures, seen and unseen,
that one, holy and sustaining Light,
when once in exile time completely denied
by the arrival in the soul of Man
of an absolute and irrevocable choice
to embrace and to obey the will of evil,
which is the will of sin and the ambition of war,
become in absolute reality manifest
as a smoldering and inescapable wrath
for when the Daystar Sun is completely eclipsed
by rise of Wormwood, that false star of Satan,
this darkness shall by its terrible descent,
completely consume into dust and ashes
all that remains in that Man,
both body and soul,
suffering the first death
which is permanent
as well as the second death
which is everlasting.

What motivates Man in the heart
is either one - good or evil -
and so therefore, that tree of exile
that from our faded Eden cast
the singular lineage of Man
is that self-same malice that
in the garden of our hearts with God
must first be uprooted
and its poisonous darkness
overthrown from within our souls
that evil and its corrupting lie
may from our eternal good be cut off.

This is how we shall acquire
one standard of Liberty for all.

Therefore, let us be good,
beloved friends and constant companions,
let good things motivate us,
let us be a people of the good,
let us seek to dwell on true things,
knowing by heart unto where
and from Whom all good things come,
persevering always in prayer,
both in private but above all together,
with the seen as well as the unseen,
thus, becoming intimate with the Intimate,
and seek no more to profit from evil things
nor make provision in time for evil things
in the timeless abode of our hearts
dwelling with God, alone with the Alone.

For it is human weakness that is forgivable
but malice once by the Spirit of God challenged
when yet willfully and unrelentingly embraced
become that final, festering, poisonous rot
that shall turn into ashes
the timeless life of the spirit from within
that it may forever join Satan
and all that condemn itself to the hell
that shall soon claim all evil things.

Sin that is embraced with such utter finality
is indeed, truly unforgivable
not that our LORD is not merciful,
for our God is a merciful LORD
and kind to all creatures,
large and small, seen and unseen.
It is evil that is without virtue
and once made into a god
in place of our most beneficent LORD,
shall then execute its lethal reign
upon that unhappy soul.

Verily, none of us
should like to question motives
yet when motives are questionable,
indeed, one can not help but question them.

This is a root cause of division.

And so let us ever be mindful
of that constant counsel
that any division within our one peace
is the beginning of all evil.

What we should always question,
my beloved friends and constant companions,
are our methods together,
that we may never cease from seeking
to refine the many ways in which
the abundant grace of our God
that we though unworthy of such a good
have so abundantly merited through our Lord,
Jesus Christ, the one Redeemer of mankind,
that we by our willing hands and loving hearts,
may become increasingly useful instruments
that diffuse as light into the darkness
this unmerited grace of God
shining for all souls without distinction
that God's loving Presence in time
may be a paternal comfort and a constant help
to our suffering humanity here in our poor world
so needful of heaven's timeless embrace
that hearts may be one in God,
and peace may be all in All.

We are human beings
and therefore,
we are a becoming in time.
We share in our humanity,
a lack that can only be filled by the timeless.
A lack that is felt in our souls
as a reaching out to God
and manifest in our bodies
as common human needs.
And so, lacking, needful, bereft,
we are come to a knowledge of God
and of each other in God.

Verily, as our faith sets us apart,
our hopes join us together,
indeed, this is what makes us truly human -
our need for God and for each other -
and so in our belonging together in God
we must come together to build
through these, the generations of life,
those truly human communities
where all roads constantly lead to the dawn
towards the morning that return Mankind
to the one Love that has forever kept
all of our nations close to Its own bosom.

A society of need is a human society.
It is a society that goes hand in hand
with a government of gratitude.
Therefore, we must profess
a politics of thankfulness,
being a people of hope,
and work to enable a culture of peace
of which truth must be begun
in the darkness of exile time
by the first of the generations of life,
which is this, our generation
as well as those members of the elder generations
who are similarly called by our one LORD
and whose wise and steadfast companionship
our good God has so generously blessed us with,
ennobling us by the substance of their experiences
and the strength of their years.

War is a tension that is insufferable in this new age.
But hope is also a tension,
my beloved friends and constant companions,
and one that is more apt to liberate our nations
from the mire of poverty and despair.
It is an expression of God's own peace
which is the Peace of Jesus Christ
and an extension of the one paradigm of the peace
which contain in the one whole truth of itself
the reality of a promise of old to all our nations
made by the one God of our Father Abraham
that the numberless stars that we are each called to be,
shall bless the communities of mankind -
when we shall in the darkness of exile time
by each of our own life's width and breadth
through our LORD's unfaltering Light be made to shine
for each other in, with, through and for God and Country -
here upon this, our poor world,
upon this inhabited earth in the grip of the midnight of war,
as a labor of hope upon this last wintering,
upon a time of falling tears.

Finally, as regards to our one peace,
we can not, as a whole, abide by lukewarm halves -
we must each enable each other through God's grace
to profess this as a one whole paradigm,
one whole truth in the universes within our souls,
one whole truth in our families,
one whole truth in our local communities,
one whole truth in our national communities,
one whole truth in our regions,
one whole truth in our continents,
and one whole truth in our one planetary whole -
in reality, wholes upon wholes aligned towards life,
built on winged truth, an ascendant motion in time,
advancing the cause of life which is lasting happiness
through civilizations that with our nameless and honest labors
rise like incense to give glory to the God of all life
as the one family of the nations of mankind.

If we shall give war an inch,
my beloved friends and constant companions,
if we shall willingly allow
a segment of our shared humanity
to become vulnerable to evil things,
if we freely and recklessly abandon
our Lord's poor,
in the weak, the defenseless,
the displaced, the dispossessed,
the widow, the stranger, the orphan,
we shall indeed soon find
that war and the ambition of war
has again overtaken us all
with the final defeat which is its curse.

For what war does to one, war does to all.
So let our one peace forever remain, one whole one.
---<--@

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Pay attention to the deeper workings of your own heart, O my nation, for thou has a guardian spirit; an angel of the LORD, a keeper of all thy sacred remembrances -

There is a reflection of thyself written in heaven; of we as we should be as citizens to each other, across all of our generations, under the eternal vigilance of the LORD, our God.

Therefore, pay closer attention to the inclination of these present times and you will understand:

The name of thy angel is Peace.

Common Human Needs

20100920

Heart Speaks Unto Heart

Pope Benedict XVI concluded a successful visit to the UK yesterday.

As a Roman Catholic Christian, I am personally very appreciative of the welcome given to the Holy Father, our 265th and current Pope.

It surely is gratifying to see a multicultural society like modern Britain come together in all her levels and - for that one splendid moment in eternity - prevail over those enduring shadows that I know haunts us still.

Dissenters and supporters alike came together peacefully, in the spirit of fairness - a resounding credit to the maturity of British democracy.

There is a lot to be learned about this trip, O my nation. The contributions of the UK to the peace of the world for one can not be forgot. What reality we are presently endowed owes much to the undying sacrifices of many of her sons and daughters.

Now, the way ahead of us is made clearer still.

All the nations of the world - from the least to the most responsible - are being called to come together and write a new history, one that is not defined by the evils of past things.

The way of peace that lie before us is quite distinct from the way of the past. Unity here does not have to imply disgrace.

For unity is a work whose ends we can always entrust to God. The ways of God are so much beyond our understanding yet we all know in faith that the LORD, our God, is a most beneficent God and singularly worthy of all our love and trust. We just have to be found by Him to be willing to do the work.

If we allow the work of the times to define and ennoble us, we stand to gain much.

For just as there are a myriad colors in eternity that are not even visible to this world of ours, desperately and inescapably caught up in the ebb and flow tides of exile time, there are wonders upon wonders waiting in their wings to come into deepest realization for our good and the good of all Mankind if only we choose to believe in our heart of hearts in those hopes that lead us there - away from the darkness - together this time.

Indeed, it's a good time for all Christians to come join together in the work.

Indeed, it is a good time for all kindred peoples of the peace, Christians and non-Christians alike - above all our brethren Muslims and Jews in the faith and good will of our Father Abraham - to come together in the work of building the necessary foundations of a better age.

It shall be difficult, I promise. But it shall no longer be a work wrought in bitter tears.

The personal motto of Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman says it all: Cor ad Cor Loquitur - Heart Speaks unto Heart.

Thank you, UK!

Mabuhay po kayong lahat!

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God blesss us all.

Likewise, let us pray Godspeed to President Noy and his delegation who are flying to the United States tonight for a seven day working visit. May their efforts on our behalf be similarly blessed by the LORD of all of us.

20100915

I am carrying this post over from My Planet Annelies -

Burden of Taxes

(1) Taxation is an inevitability. Every endeavor of Country require it. From taxes, the temporal life of the responsible state is preserved and the necessary governance of the nati

on assured.

(2) Taxation is an integral part of the national dialogue. Hence, no true citizen can risk to remain ignorant about this fact of our national life. Because without taxation, none may claim the right of representation in the Republic forums.

From this act begins each and every broader participation in the national l

ife.

Therefore, our individual willingness to obtain from God the national success must also be adequately matched with the responsible paying of the legally required taxes.

(3) Taxation is a burden. It is a

complicated matter to be sure. And because it is so, there are whole agencies of government specifically dedic

ated to make sure that this necessary burden of taxation is one that is equitably shared by all.

For the burden of taxation is a responsibility undertaken by the nation as a whole. However, the sharing of this burden is the duty of every individual citizen.

Too, (4) taxation is a debt. Payment of this temporal debt is a civic responsibility that we owe to each other across all of our generations. Because nothing on this earth of ours can ever become built without this necessary participation.

If we are to help build a better Philippines, it is

vital that each of us become well acquainted with the actual work of helping to build a better Country. And there is no better place to start - as burdensome as it may seem for us today - than in how we pay our taxes.

What is praiseworthy in our Philippines, my fellow Filipino compatriots, as a perennial undertaking of Country is this - prosperity and life - both in their measures, abundant and lasting.

Therefore, if we are to become responsible for this hope, one to another, we must know that in the final accounting of things, taxes indeed is as necessary to our human condition as death. For we are each intended by purposes much, much greater than ourselves to build

and then to be re-built.

PNoy knows this. Now, you kn

ow this as well, O my beloved nation. By our giving, we shall set ourselves free. This is true for always. And this is true with taxes as well.

So say you with me, shame on tax cheats!

And then report them here: http://perangbayan.com/

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

20100914

Burden of Expectation

What does a nation do with a burden? It bears it together.

---<--@

There is an expectation under heaven about this nation of ours; a requirement to succeed.

What is it about expectations that make us cringe, my fellow Filipino compatriots? To whom much is given, much is also expected.

Is the Filipino truly free? Have we become a nation mired in a state of permanent revolution? The mindset of war require division in the midst but against whom must we fight against these days? Increasingly, we are becoming a people exhausted, a nation dark and despairing, trampled upon by unnamed tyrannies and nameless tyrants.

Is the Filipino truly free? What is this freedom, this vaunted liberty?

We are a nation distinct, a nation among nations; we are a nation led by a vision enshrined in our Constitution, bounded by laws, and governed by an entire lineage of sacred trust that goes from strength to strength and hope to hope embodied in time through the Offices of this Republic and duly represented by the mandates carried by each their presiding seats of public service in persons elected or appointed.

We are a human society, endowed by Almighty God with a culture, a history, customs, traditions, aspirations, civic values, and a freedom to pursue the happy ends for which our generations have dedicated and gained for this nation self reliance and self determination at such a cost.

What is it about the national success that is becoming so fearful to us, O my nation, that we have come to shun it? Have we forgotten who we are? No other nation upon the earth can build upon this one, faithful Republic, the foundations of all her better days than this one nation - this one Filipino nation!

And yes, indeed there is a requirement for us to succeed! But this requirement under heaven is only our requirement, as a thing remembered for us by God and reminded in our hearts these days by the most beneficent will of His providential grace.

We are no different from our other kindred nations yet we are also distinct from each of them because of the things that gather us together into one common, human belonging; one nation. We can not allow ourselves to be defined by the things that strive against our peace, that seek to tear us apart, but by our free and human belongings to each other as a whole, one and distinct.

A nation is the people and their connections to each other - our relationships as citizens to each other and what animates and informs it. Our freedom proceeds from this realization. For we can not truly become free to fulfill our national aspirations until we have learned to serve as citizens to each other and we can not become as citizens to each other unless we participate in the work to achieve a better Philippines.

And this is but one work.

I have a belief in the Philippines that transcends mere optimism. And I often feel, if I think about it long enough, that I have come to a conviction of this long before this time. It is as though it has always been there, and never at all was it lost. It sought as I sought and now we are together in our seeking. And in this togetherness, we are sheltered.

The work we must do to restore to ourselves our Republic endeavor is not just the work of our government in the state - it is not just PNoy's - it is ours as well. It may only be accomplished by nations and indeed, it may only be accomplished only by this particular nation, our one Filipino nation.

This is why I am addressing this communication to you:

Only as we, the people, can we effectively stand against the evils of our present times. Truly, my fellow Filipino compatriots, we should only expect for ourselves - united across differences and one in our generations - to succeed because victory is the only lineage that belongs to the peace we must soon come to profess - together this time: Ikaw at Ako.

Now is the time for peace: This is our time.

Peace, I salute you.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The bar of Philippine public service is the least: In the ordinary course of duty, to recognize and uphold the dignity of the littlest Filipino - that is what is praiseworthy.

A good Christian makes a good Filipino but a bad Christian makes a bad Filipino. In the same way, a good Muslim makes a good Filipino but a bad Muslim makes a bad Filipino. At all times and places this is true: Because a Filipino is a Filipino is a Filipino - this unity is an aspect of the liberty of nations. It is part of our freedom.

I am a Roman Catholic Christian and accustomed to a certain degree to Christian revelation contained in our Sacred Scriptures and in the Sacred Traditions of my Holy Mother Church, but such is the climate of these present times that I am addressing this to you as a citizen of this Republic and an integral part of this one Filipino nation. For I must -

Our diversity is part of our strength: It is our divisions that dilute and weaken the concentrated strength of our rightful and responsible belongings to each other, and so woe to me if I turn my back on my own sense of shared humanity.

If I see the danger that threaten to engulf us all, shall I not rally against it as you would, O my fellow Filipino compatriots? If I feel the approach of the devourer of peoples, woe to me if I turn my back on you, my own nation. For then, I will have nothing.

No.

Love itself compels me; to lose this love is to lose all.

---<--@

"Faith in our people and faith in God."

- Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr.

20100913

Crystal Blue Sphere

I saw in a vision, a crystal blue sphere, shining with a multitude of living lights. The vision came to me quite abruptly while I was awake in the day, riding a jeep home from work.

The vision stayed for a time before me as I wondered. I wondered at how wondrous and beautiful beyond imagination it was that I thought I was seeing through the eyes of angels.

Then a darkness came over the vision and it seemed to me for an instant that it was no longer there. But it was, O my nation, before me was a world so overrun by sin and war that it was no longer distinct from the nothingness of the void - an unknown earth bereft of light, forsook by heaven, and forgot by God.
---<--@

We are as nations as the angels have their choirs. Arrayed in time and space, we are but one family of nations. The family of humankind is so ordered.

Without this order, the labors of the earth shall become increasingly impossible to bear. And there is but one labor in time upon the earth - we are to build up from the unknown earth, the inhabited earth - our crystal blue sphere.



This work is our work, O my nation. It is the work we share with all the other kindred nations of the one brotherhood of Mankind.

It is but one work: The providential grace of God sustains it and all of creation, seen and unseen, bends with us according to it. For the will of the LORD is as such.

From the very least to the most responsible of all our kindred nations, we are but one family of nations and the work we do, O my nation, is but one work. For the will of the LORD is as such.

We are many and yet we are one. And not for war's sake do we stir but for peace: The peace of the LORD, our God - He Who is - one, peerless and eternal.

This is the peace which God promised our Father Abraham in time we would bring as a blessing to all the communities of Mankind - from star to star, at a time, times and half-a-time, one whole sky - the peace that prospers and matures; the peace of our nations.

And there are four Faithful Causes that align us toward the peace of our nations: Sacred Life (the Cause of God which is the first), Unity (the Cause of Law which is the second), Harmony (the Cause of Justice which is the third) and Benignity (the Cause of Minorities which is the fourth).

We have the unprecedented opportunity, O my nation, to choose to help bring this great and necessary labor unto fruition and help bring respite to our failing world.

And we shall do this together this time - nation, commission, and mission.

For there really only is one choice - one way of remembrance, one path of peace.

And do not just believe these words on my account but please do as I did and look for evidence of the times yourselves and diligently work out a conviction in your own heart of hearts through much prayer and quiet contemplation.

Only then may one understand with an understanding of faith that the fruit of all honorable religion is peace and this fruit is expected by the LORD above all of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

This peace is our hope. And our world needs this peace.

I address this message to you, O my one Filipino nation and to my generation X in particular and to all our kindred nations:

Peace, I salute you.
---<--@

Compact Against Demon Drugs

There was seized from some foreign nationals some days ago about 100 million pesos worth of shabu or meth.

The drug trade feeds a false economy built upon the sufferings of many. I know a lot of these suffering people on a personal basis. I myself am a victim though as a recovering addict I now suffer in hope and not in vain.

The question I always ask myself whenever an amount of illegal drugs is reported to have been seized is this: How much shall it take out of the real economy of our nation? This is really quite difficult to say because the effects of drug abuse has profoundly deep roots.

However, quantitatively speaking, how many schools will 100 million pesos build? How long shall we suffer for our starshine - our children and our youth - to go without these needed schools?

In the same way that we are protective of strangers living peacefully in our lands, we should be just as aggressive to act against those who would seek to undermine the peace of our civil society in this way. They have no right whatsoever to come here and disturb the waters of our Republic.

PDEA recently proposed the idea of the death penalty. It was reported by the same agency that foreign nationals involved in the trafficking of illegal drugs are not being deterred enough in their criminal activities and may even be emboldened by the lack of capital punishment.

I believe that the ends proposed by the agency are good and agreeable. However, I also believe that there are deterrents other than the death penalty that would better serve our national interests in this regard.

The Cause of Benignity naturally proceeds to the Cause of Harmony because a better Justice system must be built upon preserving the foundations of the public peace and the common good.

Its virtue lies in restoration more than in retribution. In this sense, I believe that a more efficient and a more inspired Justice system is, in and of itself, an effective deterrent.


---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

20100912

Eid'l Fitr

Belated Eid greetings to all our Muslim compatriots - mabuhay po kayong lahat! Peace be upon all Muslims at the end of this season of Ramadan: May God bless and prosper us all!

Eid'l Fitr fell on September 10 of this year and was declared a public holiday by PNoy.

We should seriously consider what the President said about raising our national awareness about this holiday, my fellow Filipino compatriots. Everything that brings us together as one nation has a special import in these times.

Because unity is an aspect of the liberty of nations: A Filipino is a Filipino is a Filipino.

September 11

September 11 was yesterday. I've never forgotten: It's not a time for hatred.

Lest we lose sight of the significance of it all. We are one family of nations after all - what affects one will affect all. Such is the climate of the times.

The world was changed 9 years ago yesterday - but toward what end?

Shall the ignorance, prejudices and hatred that have ruled and divided the nations of Mankind for so long be allowed to linger still?

Shall the war that was so emphatically excluded in heaven still find a place on this earth?

No, not in my heart of hearts. I have worked hard to clear myself of all of this as much as I could by the grace of Almighty God and so must you, O my nation!

For we can not have any claim to the prospering peace of these times ruled by the same spirit of war.

Therefore, from whom and from what must we guard against on this day of days by our timeless remembrance?

From war and from hate.

So be it! Let us then remember September 11 as one in this way with America and with all our other kindred nations. Let us thus be motivated by good things together.

There will always be battles, this is true. But time has come under heaven for us to fight these battles together this time. Such is the climate of the times.

Lest we forget, lest we forget.

Anthony Nicholas

Of the four faithful causes, O my nation, the fourth cause is the cause of benignity - this is the cause of minorities.

A few days ago, the local papers reported that a Briton, a long time resident of our Country, was murdered in Sipalay in Negros Occidental in what was reported to be an isolated incident.

As with the victims of the Quirino Grandstand Hostage Crisis last August 23, our sense of justice must ever be cognizant to the fact that Mr. Nicholas (and others like him) is a stranger (in the Biblical sense) and a minority living in our nation and therefore, deserving of the special care and protection of our laws and customs.

The apprehension of those responsible for this crime must be further inspired by the above fact.

My personal condolences go out to all his loved ones.

May justice for him be swift and true.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Xenophobia has never been part of our culture as Dr. Rizal himself and many of those of his great generation is able to attest.

20100907

There are many things which must concern us, O my nation, but please allow me to bring to the forefront of our awareness two very important things - the Philippine peace process and the Middle East peace process.

The Philippine peace process is scheduled to resume after the season of Ramadan and I believe the Middle East peace process have already been re-opened. We all have a stake at securing the peace and both of these peace processes have a vital import to our undertaking of Country.

The former is a requirement for the national success because no nation may exist divided against itself. And the latter because no nation may proceed to prosper and mature divided against other nations.

Shall we build together today the foundations of better, brighter, kinder things for ourselves and for our generations only to be destroyed by the ambition of war?

No.

We will learn from the experience of all generations past and take into our common trust, their hopes for better days. And not waste ourselves on empty dreams.

There are problems these days that challenge us on a planetary level; problems that may only be confronted by our coming together as one family of nations. If we can not proceed from our own unity, O my nation, how are we to effectively confront the evils of our present time? How are we to secure for ourselves a future for our generations divided and alone? How will they remember us if we leave for them a desolation? We have a choice.

Where shall it begin?

It shall begin here, in our heart of hearts. So let us be present for the peace.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Tomorrow is Queen Mother Mary's birthday - Let us give her the gift of our being together with people we love and offer prayers for the peace of all nations.

Two things the angel will ask us at the East Gate of our hearts returning to an Eden rebuilt: What are we without the LORD? What are We without each other?

- The Two Questions

20100906

Service Honor Justice

Our PNP is left demoralized at the wake of the hostage taking incident last August 23. It seems that now in the quest for answers, the whole outfit is taking a beating. I've heard a lot of negative feedback leveled at our police service as a whole.

Apparently, people are finding it convenient to blame the uniform and as a result of this, our own police service itself might quite easily identify itself with ideals that should in no-wise belong to it and this should not be the case.

I've heard it said, O my nation, that our first responders - in this case, our cops - are only too well remembered when they are called for and all the times they are called for are those times we would rather soon forget.

With the current climate of our Republic not fair-going at this time, it shall behoove this nation to exercise more prudence and discernment in the passing of judgments like these. It would not be right for any of us to forget that in the courts of public opinion, we should always take into our best regard the disinterested, anonymous service of many of our nameless first responders.

Why?

First of all, it is impossible for any nation to exist were it not for the common decency of its own people. The very marrow of Country lies in the strength of its prevailing sense of morality.

And in the sphere of community policing, if there were no decent cops left in the nation to uphold the public peace, civil society would soon begin to implode under the sheer weight of the forces of crime and anarchy.

But since we are still very much here, I think it is reasonably safe to say that not all of our police officers who are serving in the PNP are either corrupted or misled.

There must be more than a few people in our national civilian police service who know what they are doing and who they are serving and try as hard and as best they can to live up to their ideals of Service Honor Justice.

True there is much to improve upon at the wake of this incident, and the on-going investigations spearheaded by Secretary de Lima of the DOJ, and the political commitment of our President, PNoy, ascertain for us that these improvements are sure to be forthcoming.

But these are improvements still that have to be built upon the enduring ideals of Philippine community policing.

The guilty should never be punished with the innocent.

Lastly, there was a recent news article about a successful handling in Silver Spring, Maryland of a hostage-taking incident at the Discovery Channel last September 1. It was the talk some days ago. Again, there was much despairing: Why were the U.S. cops successful and why were our cops not? It's useless...

No it's not.

We should not try to compare ourselves with other nations just to be reminded of how less and less we are of ourselves. We must never compare ourselves to other, more mature endeavors of Country only to see how spectacularly we are able to fall short of who we are supposed to be. This is being bitter.

We have our own path to tread as a nation - our own arcs in the sky. When we do compare, we should measure the distance by the light of our longing for a better Philippines. This way we are apt to become more empowered to be who we are supposed to be - ourselves - a nation distinct from all the other nations of the one family of the nations of Mankind. This is being faithful.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

20100905

I have no idea how to begin this...

First of all, this blog is a continuation of the conversation we were already having on Planet Annelies. But this time, I am having this conversation with you, my nation - WE, the Philippines.

There is an entire ethos behind this conversation, O my nation. And I would that you bear with me on this as I begin to tell you about these things...

Old Compliant

Today, I would like to tell you about "Old Compliant":

Old Compliant is the false image of Old Defiant. It is everything we are not supposed to be.

It is always good to meditate upon those things we are not, O my nation, so that we may put all of our energies into achieving for ourselves and our generations who we should become in time - who we have always been in eternity.

The way of the world is evil and cunning. And those who have come comply with its mercenary ways have consequently come to adopt it.

We do not belong to this crooked way.

Our nation belongs not unto this world. In fact, no nation does.

Our being here as nations is a test of our belonging together as citizens to each other. It is a test of how committed we are as human beings to achieve the purpose of our being together in time - of how strongly we desire to build upon the peace of the LORD, our God, the humble beginnings of newer, better, and brighter things.

None of us is perfect but that's why we have the shelter of our togetherness and peace. Like the stars in the night sky, we are by the light of each other, one whole sky.

We are not meant to achieve a perfect peace upon this earth at this time but we are expected to embrace this truth as perfectly as we can - for God and Country.

For all of humanity were meant for better days - much better days. But to achieve this we have to go through this world together as transients - exile nations.

The way of the world says this desolation is all there is and for two thousand years till midnight hitherto we have been awaiting for our time to come:

This is our time - Old Compliant we are not.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas. God bless us all.