Burden of Expectation
What does a nation do with a burden? It bears it together.
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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.
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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.
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"Faith in our people and faith in God."
- Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr.
