Captain of the Common People
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.
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Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.
Nearness