20101130

Captain of the Common People

Today is Bonifacio Day.

Andres Bonifacio, my fellow Filipino compatriots, is a captain of the common people. And why is it worth remembering his legacy?

It is a well known fact that we are a patient people. But this patience is tempered by a daring that is jealous in its aspiration. For we are a people meant by the LORD, our God, for freedom and self-determination; a nation distinct but not apart from the one family of the nations of Mankind.

Indeed, this truth is written in the soul of every Filipino for all Filipinos instinctively know and understand that this freedom is our eternal right.

Therefore, as a nation, we know the limits of our patience. And this is so because bravery too is a virtue that is not lacking in our people.

This is a characteristic trait we often take for granted.

There is a tension that exists between our patience and our bravery, our hope and our daring, that continually calls us to our national destiny; a tension that we may only understand through our connections with our past, the shape of our present, and the purpose of our future.

As a matter of fact, we sometimes take this to excess and inflict against ourselves the zeal that is meant for our real enemies.

We can observe this in the narrative of our history. We can especially observe this in the life of Andres Bonifacio.

For as long as we have not yet in time matured in our ages as an undertaking of Country there must exist this tension in our lives and this tension is one that is meant for us to understand but only in the greater context of the order and the purpose of our generations; for this tension is a tension of justice.

Indeed, our hopes for a better Philippines is one that is justified under God - the Filipino dream, my fellow Filipino compatriots, is not a false dream neither is our dreaming dead: We know this to be true - we are a good people and meant for better things, much better things.

In fact, there is a requirement under heaven for this nation to succeed, we just need some time to remember ourselves as ourselves again. For only the Filipino can love and prosper the peace of this one Republic of the Filipino people - verily, no other nation can do this work for us.

So if in Jose Rizal is our national hope, then in Andres Bonifacio is our patriotic daring.

But in particular, to remember Kuya Andres is to remember the common people; that in a Republic such as ours, we are all - young or old, man or woman, rich or poor - but particularly those of us who are working our way to the middle classes - the common people; and that we must be ever brave and vigilant for each other.

After all, we are all but one work, one people, one destiny - mabuhay!

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Morong 43

In the same spirit of November 30, I must also take this opportunity to call on our President to reconsider the case of the Morong 43 and look upon their plight with as much equanimity and compassion as he did with the Magdalo soldiers whose reintegration to the life of our nation I also support.

Wouldn't it be really nice to see the Morong 43 enjoy this Christmas in freedom and with their families as well?

Yes, it would.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Nearness

20101129

Generation Y

SALUTATIONS OF PEACE

and common goodwill to you,
our precious Starshine.
O precious child, O little lambs!
Think not your life to be uncertain
life is indeed full of uncertainties
but let this not burden your minds
nor make your hearts anxious
for it is not life that is uncertain
it is time that is uncertain
but life is for always.

For the life of man is in the soul,
made in the image and likeness
of our one common Creator,
and the soul of man is spirit
for God is Spirit
and our God is a God of life:
He is for always.

Time is uncertain
because the Truth is veiled
and all of heaven is in mourning.

There is much despair in our world today -
too many people are bitter,
too many people live in fear,
too many people are dying...
without even truly beginning to live.

Too many hearts have been hardened,
too many souls have turned away,
too many minds have become blind...
without even beginning to truly believe.

Too much lies, the language of war,
have twisted the tongue
of our nations.

Too much war, the scourge of life,
has plagued the memory
of our peoples.

Evil has taken a prominent place
in the hearts and minds of many;
like a dark star that rises
Wormwood ascends from sin to sin
in the Sacred Sanctuary of the soul
to eclipse our Eternal Daystar
turning our poor world into midnight
in the inward seasons of the celestial sky.

Every generation of every time and place
must confront the evils of their present time:
this darkness is that evil that we must confront
it is a spiritual darkness, a beast of War,
a reality that prevent the ascendant Peace
and deny respite not only for our suffering peoples
but for our dying world itself.

Our generation and yours
along with those elder generations
still here for us today by the grace of God
has been commissioned by Christ
to arrive in this time and place
to shine and lead the way
out of the darkness of war
and into the new morning from on high;
a new era of peace and renewal
for our planet and her peoples.

Never be ashamed of who you are:
You are a child of this dawning
a vanguard of this twilight awakening
that is the truth that no lie can ever take
this is the fight of your generation
and it is also the fight of mine.

O numberless stars
of our Father Abraham!
Shine for sacred life
and be present for peace.
For if we do not do this
though our actions are but
a tiny drop in the eternal sea
it will yet remain undone -
what will the future of our world be?
What will the succeeding generations
think of us who left for them a desolation?
Are we not all a part of this one world?

Nay, we must do this,

we must stand together.
In our hearts first
and then outward
into the tremendous world
of our common human hopes.

So be brave,
dear Christian soul
and remember,
from always to always,
we belong to our God and to each other:
One whole communion of Saints.

Life is hard indeed
But life is not impossible
nor is life evil.

So never fall into despair.
Because we are Christian,
O little flock, O little lambs,
there is always, always hope
because we are here now:
We are here now
in the Name of Jesus Christ
on behalf of suffering mankind.

Heavy indeed, precious Starshine,
and troublesome are the burdens of this world
but the burdens of this world
are the burdens of this world
they are not our burden
our burden is to love
and love all things well
neither exceeding nor holding back
according to our individual vocations
what promise we have in Jesus Christ.

Our Blessed Lord Himself said,
"the truth shall set us free."
Therefore to accept
Jesus into our hearts
is not a form of slavery
as the world would have us believe
for indeed His burden is light
and His yoke easy.

For who is our Lord but our Life
and this Life is the Light
of the human race.

This Light is Truth unveiled.
It is life endlessly abundant
and joyful complete -
it is heaven rejoicing greatly;
our risen Savior's shining glory.

So when you are in doubt,
O little flock, O little lambs
Just be true to the things that are for always
as God, your inner life, and your baptism,

family, friends, and friendships.

And be of good cheer,
and let our Lord's Peace keep you,
for our Peace is not a parting of ways
as Christians we never say goodbye
save for grievous sin.
We say, "Peace and Godspeed" -
it is my hope and your hope together,
it is our Lord's hope in you and in me;
our gathering together in eternity.

Jesus Christ loves you, O little lambs,
the Immaculate Mother of God loves you,
all the Angels and Saints love you,
all the Holy Souls love you,
all of Holy Mother Church embraces you
with an everlasting love.

Precious Starshine,
the things that really matter in this life
can not be perceived by human eyes
so liberate your minds from
the vanity of external things.
Penetrate deeply into this world
But never let the world master you.

All we have to do to shine
as the countless stars of Father Abraham
is to turn away from the darkness
live in loving repentance
and walk into the one Light
into the welcome arms
of our risen Savior bright.

Build like natives.
Live like pilgrims.
Love like Christians.

This is our time.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.


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


Allied Generations

20101124

The Pontiff of Love

My Holy Father Benedict XVI recently acknowledged that the use of condoms is permissible in some instances to prevent the spread of HIV; a statement widely regarded as a step forward.

Pope Paul VI in the encyclical Humanae Vitae (14) acknowledged that it is sometimes lawful to tolerate a lesser moral evil in order to avoid a greater evil or to promote a greater good. It is in this context and only in this context that the statement should be viewed in my opinion.

Indeed, my fellow Filipino compatriots, the debate thickens. A lot of people are eager to make progress in this issue but one thing it is not - simple.

Now, if we can all agree on that, that the issue of contraception, sexually transmissible diseases, and population control is not simple, may I also propose to you, in fact, that stepping forward might be the last thing we need right now.

Perhaps, what we need to do is to step out of the issue and try to perceive it from a vantage point that allows us to grasp at the enormity of the question at hand and understand that there will be no easy answers.

Now, the world-at-large may say many things about the Pope but in my eyes, Holy Father Benedict XVI is the Pontiff of Love.

He is for my Holy Mother Church and for all people of good will, the right person at the right time - our time, my fellow Filipino compatriots. And let me tell you why -

His first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (God is Love), is an exposition of God being Love Itself and Love which is intimately involved in the life of our humanity and that this Love is consummated in Christ; that this God is not someone or something that dwells from across vast open distances of space and time for God is found nearer to Man than we can ever possibly imagine; that Man need not look outward to find Him but only inward into the soul of his being where from the Sanctuary of the Heart, the LORD dwells to fill the universe entire with Light.

For if Love is not present in the heart of Man, God shall nowhere be found in the galaxy or in the universe entire.

This Love is also synonymous with Goodness, Beauty, and Simplicity.

All of this means to say to me that the Holy Father draws from those first principle truths, an understanding of the sheer complexities of human living, and seeks to proceed from it to arrive also at answers to the problems that trouble our age - and there are many.

I can only imagine the angst of the Holy Father - we must continue to always pray for him.

Because when one dwells upon the magnificence of God as Goodness; of God as Love and Beauty Itself, one becomes necessarily confronted with the mystery of evil and the human condition.

Consequently, one arrives at the virtue of Hope which is the subject of his second encyclical - Spe Salve (Salvific Hope). His apostolic exhoration Sacramentum Caritatis (Sacrament of Charity) means to strengthen and renew the Church in the Sacrament of Love, the Eucharist, and his latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Love in Truth) is one that proceeds to courageously address and engage the nascent problems of our age.

Truly, Holy Father Benedict XVI is the Pontiff of Love.

What he says and does I take seriously for he is with us, brothers and sisters, so let us banish the thought, first of all, that the Pope is in any way or form against any of us who are seeking for intelligent answers to this debate. What can be derived from all of this confusion is that we must indeed proceed with caution for this question of the RH Bill concerns the highest of causes - that of Sacred Life - the Cause of God.

Hence, we must be more eager to step out of the issue than to move forward and not misplace our zeal for progress in the fight for the betterment of our nation.

I also completely understand that it means a lot to our Filipino nation, being a majority Catholic nation, to meaningfully understand what confronts us here - on a moral level, viewed from the heart of Mother Church. And so I am particularly engaged in the striving for answers with you, my fellow Filipino compatriots, both as a citizen and a Roman Catholic Christian.

Let me begin this with the culture of death that pervades the times. For this culture of death is the universal background against which the problems of contraception, sexually transmissible diseases, and population control (among other evils) merge together to confront our collective moral understanding as a people.

It would do us well in the interim to try to get a better understanding of what the culture of death presents to us not in terms of what it promises to our eyes but of what it does not and can not promise to our generations; that our conviction for a culture of life may become more and more deeply and profoundly established.

Concerning the RH Bill in particular, this culture of death shall be the next topic of discussion in this blog.

Truly, we have to individually reflect and pray about what decision to make in the forums of the Republic before our Congress acts on the RH Bill next year.

In the meantime, my fellow Filipino compatriots, even as we reflect and pray, let us temper the public debate with much patience, nobility, and reason, knowing in the end to place our greater trust in the greater purposes of greater things.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Hope Taking Wing

20101123

Pathology of a Tyranny

Today, the whole nation commemorates the Maguindanao Massacre.

Exactly one year ago, 58 of our fellow Filipino compatriots, including 32 journalists, were ruthlessly murdered in a great and astonishing crime that shocked the nation and sent ripples around the world.

What was shocking about these murders is the sheer audacity by which it was carried out. It was committed with an air of impunity and brutality that was so great as to be astonishing.

It stands out singularly and distinctively as an evil fruit of an evil tree.

No evil of this magnitude suddenly appears without first being allowed to maturate, my fellow Filipino compatriots, the Maguindanao Massacre was not an accident.

Tyranny takes many mature forms but are born of one beginning; the people has to allow it. For without our permission, in principle, no tyranny will ever reach its most absurd heights.

This was allowed to happen, the evil tree was allowed to bear evil fruit.

In times of peace, in a Republic such as ours, it would have been more difficult for a tyranny of any shape to evolve into a form that threatens the freedom and order of our civil society.

But these are defining times, my fellow Filipino compatriots - we are still in a twilight shadow for a decision looms over the threshold of our hearts - a choice for a meaningful, sustainable, durable peace toward a better, more vital Republic of the Philippines.

It is the common work of tyrants whether temporal or spiritual to deny us our ability to benefit from our human freedom.

Indeed, how can we consider ourselves free if there is an area of our life that is ruled by fear and ignorance? How much do we know of ourselves? How much do we know of our fellow Filipinos?

Differences and divisions are only fearsome if we allow ourselves to be ruled by it. Our Country is wracked by these divisions and nowhere are the wounds of our nation more evident than in our beloved Mindanao: As one of the three stars of our Old Defiant, she deserves to shine no less brightly than the first two.

Therefore, we should let our remembrances today stir our hearts and spur our minds onward, God-willing, toward a better understanding of ourselves as a people - that we are one people; a nation established by God; a nation distinct but not apart from the one family of the nations of Mankind.

We deserve better, my fellow Filipino compatriots, and because we do, the work is ours today to make it so - the work of Country: We are a Republic because peace is the will of the LORD for us, the peace that prospers.

No power on earth can ever bring back the victims of the Maguindanao Massacre. But we can dignify their passing by a celebration of their lives, their hopes, undimmed and unforgotten, now joined to the hopes of all our heroes and martyrs for a better, more vital Philippines for all Filipinos.

We shall grieve with the loneliness of those who have lost their loved ones but not with tears of bitterness shall we weep today, my fellow Filipino compatriots.

For we shall bear with each other the pain of their remembrance, O my nation, and make it our own and we shall see this season of sorrow pass away into new seasons of life together this time.

Truly, it flies in the face of the Republic, here in this day and age, to have such an evil hovering over the hopes of our compatriots -

It not only requires but demands justice:

Justice delayed is justice denied!

The later it takes to bring the cause of justice completely to bear upon this great an evil, the more potent its spirit shall in time become to haunt our generations over again.

Televise the trial for the benefit and the healing of the nation.

Indeed, let us also always remember not to punish the innocent with the guilty. In the pursuit of justice, we must never repay evil with more evil.

May our remembrance of that fateful day be both blessed and meaningful.

And let us all continue to pray for justice and for peace.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Salutation #3

(Darkness)

TO THE NUMBERLESS LIGHTS
of our kindred belonging,
greetings of sincere hope
and good will -
my love and prayers:

There is evil in our days,
as it was in those days of old.

Evil where it is allowed to endure
into every present time
to stand against the line
established in the Now of the moment
is an enemy that is never meant
to defeat the will of the good.

For the arrangement of all past things
in every person's life
like a romance between human choice
and the serendipity of God's grace
is always intended in such a way
by the beneficence of Divine Providence
so as to culminate into every present time
which is always sufficient in its own Day
with regards to the particular evils
that each and every individual soul
must in each their own time and place
learn to recognize and vanquish
by and through the grace of our LORD
in and with the support of our human communities,
civic and religious, national and international,
that exist for our benefit

- in exile time -

to safeguard and foster our common good.

Should there be evil in our day,
even if the past had a large part to play
in its appearance in our present time,
indeed, it should not be here to give us reason
to conveniently dwell on the darkness of past things.

Where evil is allowed to endure
into the present reality
of souls and communities of souls,
it is so that we may learn in our own lives
how to effectively close the doors of past things.

Believe that evil endures
not to defeat the human being
but to allow him or her the opportunity
to recreate in every present moment
in God and with each other,
the beginnings of better, brighter and nobler things.

Peace.
---<--@

Darkness is but darkness that does not lead to the light.

---<--@

I hope that Tilapia roast they had over at Maguindanao makes it into the record books! Salaam: Peace be to all of you from all of us.

Eye of the Heart

20101122

Pilipinas, kay Ganda

Poor Tourism Secretary Alberto A. Lim and his new "Pilipinas, kay Ganda" campaign! There was such a great rush to reject it that the merits of the new DOT slogan became inextricably lost in the confusion of the fight.

I myself wanted to tear it to bits a couple of days ago. But now I have become quite circumspect about the whole thing because no one ever took to the positive side of the debate.

This no longer appears to me as strange, ganging up on our own. We Filipinos have developed an inopportune tendency to take sides - any side but our own.

Incidentally, I think it is high time we dumped this unnatural way of thinking and start adopting Country-friendly mindsets as citizens, bearing always in mind that in the end, after everything has been said and done, we are (and we will always be) joined together in this Republic endeavor.

The new "Pilipinas, kay Ganda" slogan does have its merits. So what if its in Filipino, that is not a handicap! I realize that we are trying to attract foreign tourists but not all of them speak English. That this new slogan showcases a sampling of our national language already shows a glimpse of who we are.

After all, who we are is basically what we are offering in tourism and not anything else. We are not trying to offer anyone more of the same of their own Country, we are trying to help them discover what is distinctly and uniquely ours.

Sure Secretary Lim's team might have taken an idea or two from Poland's tourism department (it's not like it's plagiarism). But no one ever noticed that the Poland slogan is in Polish. And that (pardon me for being frank) it has a lot less pizazz to boot.

If we had not already spent so much of our own money on this new slogan, it would have been prudent to just let the old one stand (i.e. Wow, Philippines). But since we already did, I am of the belief that it would be a crime to just toss the new slogan out the window. We should find a way to use them both, side by side.

And then let go of the thinking that every new administration has to re-invent the wheel because: If it ain't broke, why fix it? And if it ain't workin', why keep it?

Let us realize from all of this, here and now, O my nation, that this kind of thinking have really only kept us Filipinos down from our real potential because what we really need in this Republic is momentum and continuity.

In the end, selling this new tourism slogan is a matter of pure conviction. We just have to like it first and then find ways to like it even more. After all, how can we Filipinos sell it if we ourselves are conflicted about it.

The real work behind all of this lies in making our Philippines the home away from Home that all Filipinos believe in and deserve - our Land of Promise.

Of course, my fellow Filipino compatriots, that's the work we're all currently engaged in doing at present - each according to the freedom of our gifts - in our Nation, our Responsible State, and our Common Market: hearts joined together under God as one Republic undertaking of Country, one lineage of hope, 7,107 islands strong - one work, one people, one destiny.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

M's Razor

20101117

Generation Choice

TO ALL MY PEERS,

Salutations of Christian peace

and common good will
to our Generation X.

It seemed as if it would never come
But now the world awaits
What virtue we shall impart
To the nations of whose hopes
We shall soon inherit.

O my generation!
What distinguishes us
from the past?
Is it the hurt,
Is it the lack,
Is it the want of heroes' fire?
Who are we
and what defines us
as a generation?

We are here.
We are here now.
What shall soon define us
is not our past.
What shall soon define us
is not in the future.
What shall soon define us
in the eyes of heaven and earth
is our being here now
our being here in the moment
our being present for the peace.

O my kindred spirits,
O my generation be aware
of the wide, awakening twilight
of the time, times and a choice
at this void at the threshold
of the third Christian millennium
a space between our common human hopes
for peace and a better world
caught between tears and shadow
and God's infinite ocean of mercy.

The reality of our times exist
between the autumnal dusk of faded Eden,
this midnight world of war,
and the springtime thawing
of the new dawn from on high,
that bright new morning of peace,
before the noontime reign of Christ,
the Splendor of the Truth
and the Sun of Righteousness,
arising here in the wintering of our times
in the glory of God the Father,
the one common Creator of all mankind
on behalf of suffering humanity
and our poor world.

We must begin today
what no other generation can.
We must quicken to truths
that no lie can ever deny.
We must open doors
that lead to new horizons.
And we must shut the gates
so that no one may be left behind.

This is our time.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.


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


Human Nation

20101116

The Lady

The military junta in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar has recently decided to free Aung San Suu Kyi after more than 7 years of house arrest. It was also further reported that it was an unconditional act, if you will, a gesture of good will from the state.

Like a breath of fresh air. That's how I feel about it:

What is good for Burma is good for ASEAN, my fellow Filipino compatriots.

But like all gestures of good will, this one will only remain significant for the Burmese nation as a whole if it is genuine. For history will record it so.

And it can only remain genuine if Aung San Suu Kyi remains in freedom to pursue a path of destiny with her own people. She herself has made it very clear that the path she chooses is a path of peace; a radical change, one of internal renewal leading to the transformation of the fabric of Burmese society - a peace that prospers.

In this crucial time in her history, the Burmese nation can look to the People Power experience of my own Filipino nation. Indeed, we still have a long way to go but we are as a nation better still for our souls being touched by our adherence to peace and non-violent social transformation as exemplified in the People Power revolution. Today we are as a people still coming full circle into a remembrance of the things that make us a nation and a Republic undertaking of Country. But that circle was begun in EDSA 1986.

For Burma, I believe that circle was begun a few days ago with the simple act of freeing a bird with a song to sing for her nation. That bird is "the Lady", Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Having said that, my fellow Filipino compatriots, isn't it high time we also consider the case of the Morong 43 and other detained political prisoners in our own Country?

---<--@

A Blessed and Meaningful Eid'l Adha to all my fellow Filipino Muslim compatriots and to all Muslims, peace.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Paradox of Power

20101109

Simplicity vs. Corruption

The labor of life is a pursuit of happiness.

Now, let it also be said here that this happiness is not so much about addition but subtraction.

For the happiness that the human heart longs for is an immaterial state.

But the spirit of the world would have us believe otherwise. For the spirit of the world is an enemy of truth.

Corruption begins when the lie enters the heart that the end for which our labors upon this earth is intended is a purely material end.

Therefore, all human beings are vulnerable to its allure - young, old, rich, poor. It threatens all and reduces all to emptiness.

Material wealth is a necessary good. But temporal riches are not the ultimate end towards which the fulfillment of life is purposed. It is a means to an end.

In our world, there are those unhappy souls who live in utter desolation in the midst of great material wealth. Those who toil no more for the original purposes through which all men and women are purposed by the LORD to obtain from the one God of all the abundance of heaven on earth.

They labor instead for vain and material ends and reap naught but emptiness and isolation. They have become enslaved by the fickle fashion of fleeting things. They have lost the appetite for the true things of happiness - virtue, light, beauty, peace, family, friendship: God, and Country.

They have become corrupt and eventually, habitually corrupt. They have ceased to be simple like children, young and free.

Hence, corruption is a vice and as thus, is opposed by a virtue.

This virtue is simplicity.

My fellow Filipino compatriots, simplicity is a virtue and as thus, require the grace of God in its operation. And so I should like to illustrate this for us through this brief anecdote:

Freedom Seeking Freedom -

do you like to live simply?

"yes."

no, you don't

if you would like to live simply

when i ask you again

do you like to live simply

you must first learn to answer no

and to humble thyself before our God

say to thy heart that God is and that is all!

and then say to the one LORD of all truth

that you want the answer to be yes

persevering in constant prayer

until you know that you do

for you are by thy seeking sought

... selah

because you sought, o heart

you are found

and you become free to become

thy true self.

---<--@

Virtue is a power to act; a power begun as a choice to cooperate with the Divine will. All that is virtue must proceed after its every realization in the quiet of the heart with God as a free and human act practiced over and over again until its exercise forms in the soul a habit of grace.

Indeed, the battle to end corruption begins and ends again with the self.

A "No" to corruption is a "Yes" to the Republic.

Therefore, if every Filipino would say "No" to corruption even for a day, it is a good start as the solution here belongs to its own exercise.

This exercise of virtue opposing vice may be likened to a new road being laid over the old.

The smoothness of the new means it must extend over the entire length of the old. This means it shall require much time and practice. The more complete the road, the smoother the journey.

The strength of the new road means it must possess (and be possessed of) some depth. This means it shall require much prayer and faith. The deeper its layers, the firmer the road.

Truthfulness or honesty is the foundation of simplicity.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Love and Truth

20101108

The ASEAN Neighborhood

The concept of an interdependent community implies something more than mere tolerance. It requires a harmony of diverse strengths bound by a distinctive unity achieved through shared ideals and common goals.

In our region in Asia, my fellow Filipino compatriots, this interdependent community, in the most immediate sense, is our ASEAN Neighborhood.

The ASEAN is a regional grouping of nations. But more than that, we are a Neighborhood - a family of friends.

Each ASEAN nation is like a house and the life of our nations make of it a home (away from Home) for all of the generations of our peoples.

Each of our ASEAN homes is a shelter of Country, each with its own particular set of house rules that make up its written laws and Constitution or Ideal of State.

Each Ideal of State maintains within each particular form of Country its necessary governance which is a derivative form of the creative ideal and an extension of the will of Divine Providence.

Each our Responsible States is a specific guardian to a particular vision of Country of which singular will of mission it is to preserve the peace that prospers the life of our civil societies and preserve the order of our generations (unto the last of our generations at the Last Day).

Each ASEAN home should maintain a Family Store within the ASEAN Common Market to foster trade within our region and to facilitate cultural exchanges.

This, the SEA games, and other cooperative engagements within our ASEAN Neighborhood benefits us, my fellow Filipino compatriots, and it shall stand to benefit us even more if we cease to be passive about it or worse, indifferent.

I am bringing this to the fore of our consciousness because it is a prevailing fact of our national life that our civilization is not complete without our neighbors. Indeed, the founders of ASEAN understood that no one nation in ASEAN is an island.

It is our work to build upon their realization and break free of the rut in our collective thinking that our hard-won independence somehow implies isolation from the rest of the nations of our world. And we should begin this breaking out process with an understanding and appreciation of our ASEAN Neighborhood.

An awareness of this should work to inculcate a region-wide appreciation and a sense of comity that should preclude any more disrespect of the ties that make us one as ASEAN.

Too, we should not compare ASEAN with other more prosperous groupings of Countries in their respective regions. Because ASEAN is our work to do as well.

Indeed, we have our own set of problems and troubles but no one else can build on ASEAN than those nations within our ASEAN Neighborhood:

And we, as one of those nations, must form part of the solution.

Our Republic of the Philippines is also a member of the EAS, APEC, Group of 24, the Latin Union, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the United Nations.

---<--@

The litmus test for change in Burma is only this: Free Aung San Suu Kyi.

No Comparing PNoy

A recent article reported a comparison was drawn by an intelligence firm between our President, Benigno Simeon Aquino III, and the current President of the USA, Barack Obama.

Personally, I did not appreciate its negative implications. However, even if it were essentially well-meaning it is still basically faulty. Comparing persons is like comparing apples and oranges. They're just different.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

20101107

November Travel Advisories

What should we make of the recent travel advisories issued by no less than 6 Countries warning its citizens not to travel to the Philippines due to serious risks of terrorism or violent crime?

First of all, let us respect it for what it is - an exercise in prudence.

This is not likely to be a conspiracy. There is always a certain risk. And it fluctuates according to certain things.

It is an intrinsic responsibility of any undertaking of Country to ensure the safety of its citizens. All Responsible States are duty-bound to extend to their citizens the protection of their laws.

From the point of view of those issuing Countries - the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and France - it might be that there is nothing amiss here.

It is good to look at this in the first instance, my fellow Filipino compatriots, and realize that we must also be doing the same for our own citizens bearing in mind and heart that we have a very large Filipino diaspora living abroad.

In my view, this is the first and foremost thing we should learn from this incident.

Now, it might also be reasonably argued from our point of view that there is something here that is amiss. I myself am perplexed by the issuance of these warnings because there really is nothing to suggest that anything was "imminent". I am, of course, speaking from conclusions I may draw only from the information available to me as a citizen-at-large.

However, I present to you, my fellow Filipino compatriots, that things are NOT as out of control as we are somehow inclined to think. People here in the Philippines are indeed crying foul but not so much because of the fact that those 6 Countries issued warnings to their citizens but because of the helplessness we felt when they did. Our tourism industry will surely take a hit.

But I should like to remind us all once again as a Republic undertaking of Country - we are all that we need as a Nation to succeed in this endeavor of our generations. Only the Filipino can love the Philippines in the way no one else can - in the way that we must.

We just have to believe again, O my nation, without compare in who we are as a nation distinct but not apart from the one family of the nations of Mankind and work to bring out what we love about our native Philippines and realize it in our own time.

We can and we must come out of this better for enduring it with persevering grace.

Now, it might also be said that those 6 Countries overdid themselves and acted on either faulty or hastily prepared premises but that should fall squarely within the competencies of their own pertinent institutions to handle. What we have is what we have and we must work with the tools we are given to expand upon and improve on our own. And indeed, we have much work to do.

Let us also bear in mind the climate of these times and that all undertakings of Country, Republic or otherwise, are together allied to peace and its meaningful realization.

Let us bear in mind our friends. But let it all begin here - with us.

When water gets murky, our foremost requirement would be clarity:

I would not ask these Countries to reverse their conclusions out of sheer good will. But I will assure them of the things we are capable of doing in our own Country and then convince them of our determination to follow through on our own good will with decisive action.

Indeed we have a responsibility to keep the stranger safe in our own lands as well. Towards this end, Bantay Turista, is a good start. Towards this end, it should also be meaningfully dedicated.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Healing Work

20101102

Another Hostage-Taking Incident



There was an attack on Christians in Iraq yesterday; a hostage-taking incident at Our Lady of Deliverance Church in Baghdad. It left at least 58 people dead, 78 wounded, an entire minority community traumatized further still, and a nation left wounded yet again.

First of all, as we know all too well now, my fellow Filipino compatriots, the act of taking innocent lives hostage is condemnable. Because life, above all human life, is non-negotiable.

Second, the persecution of any minority community in any nation defeats all four of the Four Faithful Causes upon which all nations under God is established in all its ages unto fruition in time and in eternity. Because the craft of all nations is peace.

Lastly, a Republic is a guardian to its people. Any perceived inability to preserve its own body politic against war is a weakening of its own destiny. And I mean the word "war" here in the context of the spirit of war which is division in all its forms.

Needless to say, I personally condemn this atrocious crime not just because I am a Christian but because I myself am a citizen of a Republic undertaking of Country and a human being.

I will not rail against it neither will I repay it with evil. It only makes me even more determined to help strengthen the institutions within my own Country against forces hostile to our peace and to pray that the good people of Iraq may also come to complete their own remembrances in their own due time, God-willing. What benefits one - in a family of nations - benefits all.

I grieve with the victims, they and those whose lives and promise were so abruptly taken from them shall be in my prayers to God in Holy Mass today, All Souls' Day.

I recognize their hopes for a better Iraq, and know that amidst all that disorder, this lineage is what must remain for that embattled nation. So I especially enjoin the youth of that land and all lands likewise divided by war and torn by strife, including our own Filipino youth, to trace upon this forgetful night, thy Arcs in the Sky:

Starshine,
the heavens above thee
seemingly unconscious to thy self
is never without its seeing
nor the unseen realms
that embrace and penetrate thee
amidst this unfeeling earth
without its desire for each thy precious company,
this evil is only allowed to tarry for a time,
for We are nearer to each of thee,
our beloved Starshine,
than you can ever imagine.

Keep thee a record,
an account of thy heart,
most especially those of thee
who are in the midst of conflicts
those of thee who are
no less loved than the rest of us
sorely affected by the curse of War
for the heavens reign true
to the remembrance of thy longings
and so it is for the needful earth
that you shall begin to write,
O precious Starshine,
and upon this forgetful night
let thy starlight be shed
to trace upon the darkness
thy arcs in the sky.
---<--@

My fellow Filipino compatriots, let us say mabuhay, peace unto the nation of Iraq and continue to complete our own remembrances. We have much to do - together this time.

Let us continue to be vigilant and to pray for peace.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.


Brokenness

20101101

I am a Roman Catholic Christian. Along with my being Filipino, my Catholicity is an inescapable fact of my life.

Therefore, there will be times when I should want to exhort my fellow Catholics about things that are particular to our Catholic Faith. And during those times, my fellow Filipino compatriots, in the great PREX (CSPGS, Q. C.) tradition, I shall say -

Catholic Ears, Please!

Today is All Saints' Day.

Yesterday evening was Halloween or All Hallows' Eve - the evening before All Saints' Day.

Now, there is a secular side to Halloween that is very hard to miss so I should not have to speak about it. Not taken to excess, that is all well and good. What I should like to speak to you about today is the Christian side to the story.

In the movie, The Sixth Sense, the young protagonist is quoted to have famously said, "I see dead people". But in reality, what he sees are dead bodies.

A deeper reflection on the nature of the human soul reveals by the light of faith that the soul is something quite different and distinct from what the movie industry would often portray it to be.

The potential of the human soul to become as beautiful as it is freely intended by the God of all heaven and earth is real. And this reality is best exemplified to and for us today by the lives of all our beloved Saints in heaven.

This is what I present to you today, my dear brothers and sisters, as the deeper intention that should be embraced amidst all the fanfare of All Hallows' Eve.

This we must not forget, my fellow Catholics, lest we empty out all that is vital and important in what we shall all find ourselves doing today as we set out to be with the hopes and the memories of our beloved departed ones today, All Saints' Day.

If you can truly visualize the human soul with all Christian charity, you will proceed to naturally learn to love and appreciate the human being. This soul - taken properly as itself by the light of faith - takes its prominence in Halloween over the body so that amidst all the fear and disorder of death there is still beauty: Beauty which is exemplified in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.

It shall most certainly help for us to expedite the final hopes of those who have gone before us if we have a better understanding of these things starting today.

May this year's celebration of All Saints' and All Souls' be blessed and meaningful to us all! Saint Lorenzo Ruiz and Blessed Pedro Calungsod, pray for us. And may the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. AMEN.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.