20110331

From Hope to Hope -

The People's Republic of China yesterday carried out the death sentences for Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, Elizabeth Batain and Ramon Credo.

The three were executed by lethal injection. It was carried out in strict accordance with the law of that land which we must respect. There was no evidence that due process was denied any of them. Everything went like it should...

Why is it that it still feels so wrong?

I received the news yesterday evening while riding a bus back home and I can not help but feel a wave of sadness overtake my thinking. For a moment I felt what their families and friends were expressing behind all those tears.

I understood that underneath all the raw emotion was a fear of the unknown - a fear that the world has been unkind to them and will continue to be unkind to them.

And then I felt angry - angry at the people who betrayed my compatriots to this evil fate. For it is an evil fate; a fate I believe does not belong to them.

In my previous posts regarding this matter, I have made clear my view as regards to the fate of our three compatriots.

We now have an onus to carry out their final hopes on earth - as a nation, we must do justice to their plight - take care of the people they left behind and assist our local authorities to pursue and convict those who are responsible for this crime.

...and all our local Barangay Watches.

Personally speaking, I want this event permanently etched into our national memory and let it seep thoroughly into those institutions that fight against this evil.

As a Church, we must continue to pray for the repose of their souls.

What worries me now is precedence.

---<--@

Improve Philpost

As a proactive measure to ensure Internet trade, when it booms in the Philippines (because it will), is properly facilitated and the advantages of eTrade preserved for the benefit of the nation, steps should be taken to revitalize and improve Philpost.

I believe that this would be a good investment and should be seriously considered. This will help boost government revenue - eventually.

It will also help us feel more closely connected.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

20110327

Gaps in the Line

There are gaps in the line of my Generation X -
the lonely spaces of missing lives,
the unfulfilled promises of those individuals
taken before their time...
the results of man's evil against man.

In those other generations before my time
these gaps were the unwanted effects of war and crime.
In my Generation X,
though war and crime still takes its toll
most of these gaps in the line
are the result of abortions.

It is no small wonder my Generation X is hurting - a lot.
---<--@

Let us now, for a moment, go back to the debate regarding the RH Bill:

As regards to our nation, there exists only one evil end that I should like to warn you about and this evil end is the abomination of the desolation of war - the one defeat that this nation and all of its present generations should be wary about. Because through many and diverse methods, it shall make a relentless sport of the life of our nation.

Against the will of this evil, we must be just as relentless in our vigilant desire to preserve our peace as a nation (distinct but not apart from the one family of the nations of Mankind).

Though abortion is not perceived to be the central issue as regards to the RH Bill. I shall not fail to make mention of it here. For the evil of abortion serve the same end as it must be obvious to many of us now.

Those missing gaps I have mentioned above constitute a lack in human promise. We are left all the more weaker in our generations when human promise is left wanting in the nation.

Indeed, our representative congress has a commitment to pass the right laws. What I hope to avoid for our nation is a weakening of its vitality through laws passed that are in reality anti-human and so instead of binding what evil there is bind what good there is.

There are nations in our world today who are suffering because of this lack in vitality so that we are not left wanting in those lessons we can not afford to learn ourselves.

I should like to point out to you, my honorable compatriots, that we are as a nation a pledge of the victory of Sacred Life. We exist to preserve both human dignity and human promise.

In my own view, the essence of the RH Bill is education. It is more than just simple choice. More than that, it is about fostering the right choices in our people.

It is about quality of life issues in this nation - how to improve it?

It is about poverty as a social justice issue in this Republic - how to diminish it?

It is about population demographics - how to utilize it in pursuit of the national good?

It is about traditional Filipino family values - how to preserve it?

It is about the order of our generations - how to obtain its completeness?

To wit, it is all about engendering a new sense of freedom in our people and therefore, the duties that must accompany it. So what are these duties?

The passing of any kind of RH law in this Republic will impact the way in which Filipino society as a national whole will perceive what kind of responsibility we shall as individual citizens attach to these questions, and therefore, how courageously and how consistently we shall apply ourselves to the constant demand for answers in the civic sphere.

All of these have a direct bearing on the national destiny. All of these are shaped by the

laws that must always be guided by a will to preserve this sense of a

responsible freedom in our people.

This debate is contentious. But let it also be guided by civility and a sense of loyalty to the nation. It can not descend into blindness. For if we are not vigilant in our freedom and allow ourselves to become so divided in our hearts about this debate, we shall still come to calamity.

The sheer weight of the division that this issue represents to us must not completely suffocate our burning desire to recognize what we are all trying to promote in common with each other through this debate. If we allow this to happen, it is the least of us Filipinos who shall suffer. It will add to the debt of Justice and multiply burdens.

Lastly, as regards to the evil of abortion, it is not the number of cells in a fetus that define our being human, it is how we treat each other.

Angel of the Nations

I would like us to think about this:

How we treat each other counts for much.

I've often asked in prayer to know the proper name of the Angel of the Philippines. It is never given to me. As much as I would like to tell you what it is, my fellow Filipino compatriots, I do not know. This is so because we are what we do.

The nation is present in ourselves when we do the things that are proper to our nationhood.

This is true

especially when it concerns the unmet needs of the very least of the children of God and Country, the poorest and the most defenseless of our brothers and sisters in the promise.

We are what we do.

---<--@

A Day of Days

To my brother and sister Christians, the world is so full of troubles indeed. If you are confused, do not be afraid. For this world is shrouded in a spiritual darkness. This confusion is a symptom of the times.

Darkness is but darkness that does not lead us to the light. So do not hold on to what must pass away with the ebb and flow tide of exile time. Time is an ascent of the truth and the Truth is not of the darkness. Fear the LORD, He is God!

Sunday is our day of worship and rest.

It is that day of days we are obliged by sacred duty to go to church and, for Catholics like myself, to celebrate Holy Mass. This day was made for you and me, dear Christian soul - for each of us.

This day of days, my fellow Filipino compatriots - those of us who are the sons and daughters of Holy Mother Church and all who invoke the name of Jesus Christ - the nation can wait. For today among all days we shall renew our commitment to peace and common humanity before God.

Today we shall rest our souls and refresh our spirits.

Let us know that we have our other brothers and sisters, honorable Filipino compatriots each and every one of them, especially those of the faith of our Father Abraham, who shall keep the fort for us this day as we must do for them on their days of obligatory worship to the one LORD and Sovereign of all nations.

Let none of us here say peace who live upon our lands without its meaning being first understood in the heart with a conviction of faith.

We shall be vigilant for each other.

The peace of our Philippines must no longer be vexed by the evil of religious wars; a perplexing feature of the last great age of war.

This mindset of division require a form of monolatry - each to his own one god. This is a form of idol worship. The curse of monolatry is a peril we can no longer ignore in this present age.

If it is truly our desire to obtain from heaven the peace that prospers, we must know that God is the God of all - God is and that is all. He is the LORD and there is no other like Him.

So let your mind dwell on God this day making certain that when you shall enter deeper into the inexhaustible mystery of our Christian faith - in personal prayer and above all, in community with other Christians, most especially at Holy Mass, you enter with all your heart and all your soul into the most profound depths of the Trinitarian mystery.

This will strengthen you - each one of us - for the work of peace-building that we are all as a nation (distinct but not apart from the one family of the nations of Mankind) presently tasked by God to do; that my generation and the generation after mine (X and Y) in particular have been commissioned by our Lord Christ to accomplish (X and Y for Z).

Go open wide the eyes of thy hearts to the Incarnate Word of God, thy True Light and let flee the darkness from within our poor selves. Pray so that the ears of your inward hearing may hear the eternal message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then let us go bathe our broken hearts in its everliving waters.

Let us Catholics receive fervently together the Sacrament of the Eucharist at the altar, and then let us serve. Let us serve with all those who invoke Christ as Savior and Lord, who share with us one common baptism. For serve we must. Let us repent of our past ways.

As the Muslims say, we shall compete in good works, my fellow Filipino compatriots, as citizens to each other - together this time.

This is our burden of expectation:

We shall break completely with the momentum of past two thousand years by breaking the rule of war in each our hearts. A difficult thing indeed, but not by God Who everyday fills for each of us and for each our nations what is impossible for Man to do in and of himself alone.

For the War in heaven is in the heart. We must remain vigilant. We must refuse the spirit of War entry into our world from a heart submitted to the truth, even to the peace of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Redeemer of all Mankind. To accept this truth is to refuse division a toehold on this nation.

In this world of ours, cast adrift in a void that is hostile upon hostile to all of life both body and soul (most especially to all human life which is hated above all by the evil and all evil things), the only other freedom that reaches out to the freedom of Man reaching out from that loneliness from within our heart is the freedom of God.

Both the void of space and the void of war lay eager to consume the life of both the body and the soul. To the heart of Man, its emptiness is maddening, and its oblivion is certain.

But the LORD, our God, is merciful to all those who love and fear Him. He knows our sufferings intimately. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we know that God is the Fullness of Compassion.

Brothers and sisters, for all the good things our God had worked for us, in our lives and in the life of our nation, the things we truly ought to be most thankful about are those we don't have any knowledge about, for of these things are the greatest of evils made, those evils from which God has chosen to deliver us. Because as Jesus Christ Himself taught, God indeed delivers from evil - each person, each family, each tribe, each nation, even the world entire.

Isn't this the purpose for which our Emmanuel came to our world - to deliver us, all of us?

Our God is indeed a good God, a very good God.

There is no reason God will not relent to deliver us now - in this darkness. If only we hear Him.

So today we shall remember the LORD:

That God is and that is all - That He is God - the LORD, our God, The God Who loves us all - the Father Who sent to us His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ Who one with the Holy Spirit lives and reigns with the Father, One God forever.
---<--@

I LOVE YOU, my nation -

I love you, my people:
Our hustle and bustle life,
our noisy, chaotic streets
full of pedestrian colors
and the sweetness of
our nameless, honest labors.

O my Philippines, advance!
Into brighter, better days
where I know
our hearts belong.

O my Filipino compatriots,
companions of national destiny:
We are not a bad people
these are just bad times,
but let us fear not
for I have seen our hearts
and I know we have it in ourselves
to make it all right.

We are a people of the peace,
stalwart defenders of Sacred Life -
and worthy of each others sacred trust.

Let us remain who we are
to become our better selves:
One nation, strong for being faithful
with one, indivisible peace
under the eternal vigilance
of our one Almighty God
and valiant keepers
of each other's
human hope and good will.

These evils times will pass
and all will be well, my nation,
we shall outlast these evil days.

All will be well, peace -
my one people.

I love you,
We love you -
O eternal Philippines -
from always to always.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

20110325

An Angel Weeping

I SAW
in my heart of hearts
an angel weeping,
saddened but not bowed,
shedding holy tears,
shed for Love.

"O hellfire!",
said the presence
within the comforting silence
of our hearts' mingling,
"The greatest abomination
is not thy existence!"

"I weep not
for thy blasphemy
and the abominations
that you relentlessly hurl
in the face of my Creator."

"I weep
with tears
that is shed
like the rain
filling the rivers
that flow in time
from the golden deep
of the Eternity of my LORD."

"I weep
because I am wounded
but not by thy evil
O reprobate sink
of wasted creation."

"I weep
not because of thee
O hellfire
for I am hurt not
by the bankrupt nature
of the Devil and his demons
and the reprobate men
who condemn themselves
by their unwavering
and immovable
allegiance
to the everlasting death
that was decreed
from Eternity."

"I weep
because of Love
knowing the unbearable hurt
of the terrible affliction
that thy rebellion
have inevitably caused
the most beneficent nature
of my most loving and most merciful
one LORD and only Creator."

"O hellfire,
thy existence
is a curse,
right by Justice,
but a transgression
against the infinite
dignity of Love!"

"I weep
because I am hurt
but not by thee,
O hellfire,
I am sorrowful
not for thy eternal woe
and the crushing depths
of the gravity of thy fiery defeat;
not for thy reprobate evil
do I shed these tears."

"I weep
because I am hurt
and I am hurt
because my God is hurt,
my LORD and my only Creator."

"I weep
with all the love
that longs for Itself
and I shall weep
profusely
in great torrents
like the rain
to fill the rivers
that flow in time
into you, O nations,
into you, O my beloved,
into those new seasons of life
that advance the cause
of suffering Mankind
and serve my one LORD
being like unto my God,
extending the glorious will
of my divine Sovereign
until my only Creator,
most forgiving
and with kindness
unsurpassed
wipes away the tears
at the springtime beginning
of all things new."

"And thou
O hellfire
and all thy
countless
abominations
that fight against
the rivers that flow
becomes to me
a forsaken season
shed like these tears
and overwhelmed like the darkness,
at the final winter of my memory,
and the daybreak of the everlasting peace."

"Alleluia, glory to our Creator,
holy, holy, holy is our one Sovereign,
alleluia to the LORD!
Beloved to God are those that weep
and labor in their hope,

dwelling always in good will
and believing with conviction of faith
that all will be well,

all will be well, peace,
amen, alleluia."
---<--@

OFW Drug Involvement

It was recently reported by our news agencies that the three condemned Filipino drug mules in the People's Republic of China will be executed. I am saddened by the fact that their courts have decided to uphold the death sentences for the three.

My fellow Filipino compatriots, I am no proponent of capital punishment. What I am convinced of will serve to further strengthen the cause of Justice in our own lands is a more efficient justice system; one that is swift, vigilant, and above all human (and therefore, humane).

I personally disagree with the punishment meted out by the court in China that convicted the three. I simply believe it does not fit the crime. The judgment however, is sound. For the three did what they did (in a strictly objective sense).

If it were otherwise, I do not think we would find ourselves hoping for a commutation of the prior death sentence to the lesser, in my own view, more fitting punishment of life in prison. I myself had hoped for a commutation of the punishment, and were the judgment not sound enough for me, I would not have felt realistic in my hope to make the plea that I had previously aired on this blog on 20110217.

The date for the executions was set at March 30. The Chinese Embassy in Manila had released a statement that the verdict is final. In a last ditch effort, our government is still hoping to strike a reasonable deal with China and save their lives.

Indeed, we still have reason to hope. But I should like to prepare us now for the worse. Let us first be appreciative at least for the reprieve that our fellow Filipinos had received. That it was granted is a fact, the conditions it implied were also evident - the courts in China decided that the sentence be suspended.

In the event that the sentences are carried out, if ever - for even now I still find myself hoping for a commutation of the death sentence to life in prison - I shall have to agree to disagree with China on those points of divergence and respect the discipline and sovereignty of their judicial processes.

Now please, we shall waste no time to remember as a nation what is now potentially being lost to us in the lives of Ramon Credo, Sally Ordinario Villanueva, and Elizabeth Batain (and others like them) -

Compact Against Demon Drugs

Many of our people may be equating this tragedy to politics, or the Spratley issue, or are outright indifferent or even hostile to the plight of Ramon, Sally, and Elizabeth. These tendencies I often find baffling.

There are opinions out there from among our own people about the fate of those three that vex me to no end. The truth of the matter is that there are hundreds if not thousands of our own people who are presently faced with the same troubles.

Shall we also leave them to their fates and say, "dapat lang yan sa kanila"?

It is vital that we keep our eyes and our hearts fixed on the ball, as it were - to the core nature of the evil that betrayed our countrymen and the social ills arising from it that sold them all to this evil fate.

If we do not - if we do not address these particular evils, how are we to remember those people in our memory? Shall we just live to forget what the pain of these things teach?

How is our nation to account for their lives to the one Sovereign of all nations?

Out of love for the memory of those who are suffering, we are as a Country always compelled to give ear to the grievances that has afflicted, still afflicts and will afflict our generations - which in this particular regard, my honorable compatriots, is the evil of the manufacture and trafficking in narcotics and other dangerous and illegal chemical substances.

True citizenship does not make deals with the evil in all evil things.

I will not take you on a tangent about this - if we are angry about any of this, let us be angry about the root cause of this pain in our hearts; a pain brought about by the evil that brought to so many Filipinos like Sally, Ramon, and Elizabeth, a sad and completely unexpected fate - the evil of the illegal manufacture and trafficking in narcotics and other dangerous and illegal chemical substances.

Some of us are like children in the way that we hold on to our hope. As a people, we still believe in happy endings. And rightly so, because of such a substance is our national destiny.

We do not cling to our self-identity because it is not a wonderful thing. It is a wonderful thing to be and to belong together as a nation.

We say we are Filipino and deep in our hearts perhaps very deep, and therefore, even more profoundly felt once revealed, we have a certain sense of expectation, even joy. Somehow we understand that it is a good thing to be Filipino. Else we would not even bother looking to find who we really are as a people.

If what nationhood is all about is just pain and evil - an empty and defeated promise - our own souls would not be able to comprehend this innate, completely human desire to belong. A nation is a people under God - lawful, ordered, beneficent, peaceful, and good - even very good. Else it is not a nation but a mob.

My fellow Filipino compatriots, how we feel about our national identity is a thing felt as something good because first and foremost, it is a gift.

So we have every right to hope as children hope - because we have this gift. Truly, many of us have sacrificed much in the name of this gift - for the sake of all our generations.

Shall we be bereft of such a heart these days?

For these are the days we need shepherds for the flock, laborers for the field and servants for the LORD. For it is God Who protects these hopes. He is the LORD, my people, our God.

Sally, Ramon, and Elizabeth had such a hope - a hope betrayed by evil allurements yet a hope in common with ours all the same. For their being in need, they were victimized and exploited by the lie of those whose hearts are far away from theirs. Shall we also stand aloof from them now in their greatest hour of need?

A Filipino is a Filipino is a Filipino - that's the bottom line.

How are the shepherds to account for these missing sheep? How are the laborers to explain this lost harvest? How are the servants to explain these stolen lives?

You, my honorable compatriots, are kindled in your hearts to anger because each of us is indeed responsible for each of us. We are each to another, a keeper and friend. Now with this feelings at heart, I bid us once again to re-examine the issue at hand:

How are we to account for this lost promise? By binding the evil that lie at its very root. We shall make a Compact Against Demon Drugs.

Indeed, I have put much thought into this problem of demon drugs. I myself am a recovering addict. I am personally familiar with the pain and the darkness of drug addiction. Over several posts of this same label, Compact Against Demon Drugs, we shall begin to examine closely the spiritual root of drug addiction, its evil purpose and anti-human design.

I will present to you what I have learned, relate it to the greater context of the nation, and place it squarely in the service of the national good.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The National Minimum

20110322

A Prayer for Peace

LORD God,
we adore Thee
and we bless Thee!

O most beneficent LORD
and one God of all creation,
rekindle in the hearts of Thy nations
the desire for meaningful peace.

Come, O LORD,
abide with needful Mankind
be again the God of our families and of our lands
reclaim Thy right as our one Sovereign
that loving hearts and willing hands
may learn the ways of Thy grace
and thy faithful bring down from heaven
the blessings of Thy most precious Peace.

Forsake us not, dear LORD
but with Thy holy angels lead us
away from the darkness of our times
and into the Light of Thy Countenance
that all the peoples of needful Mankind
may come to a holy remembrance of Thee
and that we may as one firmament shine
ever like the numberless stars
that you promised of old
to our holy Patriarch Abraham.



May kindred Palestine and elder Israel,
each in You, O LORD God,
become a light unto all nations
shining with Thy numberless stars
cast upon Thy one firmament
across the unfeeling darkness
of this midnight of war
as a warmth to each other
and a guide to all mankind.

AMEN.

---<-@

O ISRAEL, you are the cradle of our peace,
a nation destined to bless the other nations
with a knowledge of life and the Everliving.
The first people chosen by Almighty God
to bring the light of hope to our poor world.

What has become of us my elder brethren?

Thy terrible hurt, due to war's ambition
shall one day turn into strength, if only
we begin today to become that hope again
the hope of our Father Abraham, a promise
to bless the communities of Mankind, peace.

As I love my Annelies Marie, I love you.
But not the War, O people Israel, only you.
Not the hatred, O kindred grace, only you.
---<--@

Jerusalem, Remembered

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,

should the City of our LORD's Peace

be a hindrance to it?

If the ageless realms

of the unseen reality had a center,

it would be in thee, O Jerusalem.

O City beholden of old,

hearken to thy own virtue!

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,

arise in God, arise in God,

why should War ever be found

laying its filthy hand on thee?

O my dear people - come,
and know this, here and now -

the rightful ownership of this city

may sometimes elude us, in exile time,

but this is only because of intentions,

born of a will and a purpose divine,

higher and more kinder than our own,

as a mystery shrouded in hope

being embraced by the substance of things

outside the scope of our understanding:

The protection of the peace

and the primary defense of this city,

where there is any question,

belong to the common good will

of both the nation of elder Israel

and the emerging Palestinian nation:

Jews, Christians and Muslims together.

Because my beloved people,

it is here in our Jerusalem

where these - two nations of old,

brought together by a promise not forgot,

shall learn the ways of God's Peace

and shall put behind them

the darkness of the midnight past

forever.

So pray, my dear people,

arise in God, arise in God - and -

always keep true to each other's good

all ye numberless Stars of old!

And ponder this in thy hearts -

wrestling with a new sense of hope

born of things rekindled

deep in the faith of thy soul

ceaselessly asking the LORD to bless us

until all of the generations of life

in each our kindred nations

have become blessed by God
with a sustainable, meaningful

and lasting peace.

---<--@

The one Code



REMAIN TRUE -
to our peerless LORD
to the one God
of our Father Abraham,
the one common Creator
of all common creation,
seen and unseen.

To your own sacred remembrances
and the memory of your peace
with God and with each other.

To the overcoming of your War
and the advent of your hope
at the dawn of our new dreaming
as nations together.

To thy own universe within
and to the riches therewith
those treasures that
neither thief nor tyrant
can deprive.

To thy own calling
to serve in the way
of virtue and of peace
and to thy own ascent
upon the one mountain path
whereupon all good things
find their meaning and merit
in the prayer of the heart.

To thy own labors
upon this necessary life
and to the hardships also
that this inhabited earth brings -
May you be satisfied
knowing in your heart
what you truly strive for.

To thy own endeavor of Country
and to the trust of thy own nation
may you embrace with your embracing
these wholes upon wholes
as far and as wide as you could
and with courage
and steadfast persistence
bring all your love
as near as it takes you
to the one Love
that unifies us all
with the one LORD of All.

To our Lord's poor
and to each other
as keeper and as friend -

May we all remain faithful
from always to always
until the final gathering
at the end of days
and the beginning
of all things new.
---<--@

My fellow Filipino compatriots, the Israeli-Palestinian/Palestinian-Israeli conflict is like two brothers fighting inside a burning house. Both of them are fighting for the inheritance of the house. Neither of them remember that their real inheritance is each other.

The roots of War is ancient. Therefore, War was never a choice that can be made freely by any nation as itself. The real choice all our nations must always make - in every generation, and in every present time - is peace.

So let this be our choice - let our freedom be always guided by it.

For amidst the mounting troubles of this world, we must never forget that we all have a stake in the Middle East Peace.

Mabuhay po tayong lahat. God bless us all.


War in the Heart

Bangon Pilipino

Kaya mahirap ang Pilipinas ay dahil mahirap ang Pilipino. Ang bansa po natin ay naghihirap dahil napakarami pong Pilipinong mahihirap.

Paano po natin malulunasan ito? Babangon po tayo.

Marahil ito ang unang sasagi sa ating mga pag-iisip: Imposible! Nakakahirap po bang isipin ang isang maunlad na Pilipinas? Kapwa ko mga kapatid sa pangako, mas kawawa po tayo kung hindi tayo matututong maniwala muli at bumangon.

Marahil sa lalim ng mga sugat sa puso ng Pilipino ay minarapat ng marami sa atin na tumalikod muna sa mga sakit ng ating Inang Bayan. Ngunit bago na po ang panahon ngayon. Ang lahat po ay hindi na katulad dati. Ang bansa po natin ay nagigising na sa kanyang sarili at marahil ito po ay inyo na ring nararamdaman sa inyong mga puso.

Marami sa ating mga Pilipino dito sa Pilipinas at sa buong mundo ay may mga parang hinahanap dahil ang ating Inang Bayan ay tumatalima na po sa tawag ng Diyos niyang May Likha: Tayong lahat po ay hinahamon na nitong bagong panahon na bumangon.

Marami pong problema ang Pilipinas. Hindi natin mapagkakaila ito. Kaya sa mga epektibo at makabagong solusyon po sana tayo maniwala ng buong loob at hindi sa dami ng mga problemang ito. Dahil tayong mga Pilipino lang po ang pwedeng magbigay ng lubos at makahulugang lunas sa mga ito para na rin sa bayan nating Pilipinas, wala na pong iba.

Ang katunayan po nito ay ang solusyon ay nasa atin din. Kaya nating bumangon, kapwa ko mga kapatid sa pangako, tapang lang po ang kailangan. Tapang na maniwala muli sa Pilipinas at sa isa't isa. Pananalig lang po sa tawag ng Diyos at pagsisilbi sa tawag ng Inang Bayan.

Bangon na Pilipino: Mayaman, mahirap, bata't matanda, lalaki o babae - lahat po ng nagmamahal sa Diyos at sa Pilipinas. Lahat ay magkakapatid sa Pangako dahil ito po ang lupang ipinangako.

Mapalad ang Bayan na ang Diyos ay ang PANGINOON.

Mabuhay po tayong lahat.

---<--@

The Roots of the Problem

My fellow Filipino compatriots, to begin to understand the essence of the challenges that we as a people must presently overcome, we must understand the roots of the problem.

Here are the roots of the problem. They all feed into the one tree - the wrong one - which is the tree of the desolation of war. It shall certainly bear its fruit, but not for us, my dear people.

If we are wise, my nation Philippines, we shall begin now to lovingly tend to our own undertaking of Country - that we might work to bear the good fruit of our peace for ourselves and for others as ourselves which are those fruits pleasing to God and edible to all of humanity in time and unto eternity.

Here are the roots of the problem as regards to our Philippines:

Luzon - Corruption - diminish corruption in Luzon, spiritual - individual. Bind this evil in Luzon and its tide shall diminish all over the Country, bringing honor back to politics and integrity to our seats of government.

Visayas - Geography - unite the Visayan Islands, technological - national. Bind this evil in the Visayas and it shall act as a bridge that shall further unite the nation, consolidating the spirit of our people.

Mindanao - Division - build the peace in Mindanao, human - social. Bind this evil in Mindanao and we shall obtain from God, the strength to bring down the blessings of His peace all across our one Republic whole.

To uproot these problems from their roots is to also liberate each of the three stars in our Old Defiant to shine all the more brightly for each other. It shall make our Republic progressively stronger as Old Compliant (the false image of ourselves) becomes progressively weaker.

Palawan, we shall consider as a separate challenge distinct from the main challenges specific to Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao:

Palwan - Conservation - promote the national conservation of Palawan, ecological - political. Bind the twin evil of the rampant exploitation of the natural systems of Palawan beyond their ability to sustain and regenerate themselves as well as the resulting displacement of the indigenous peoples who are its rightful stewarts and we shall as a nation obtain for our generations a natural sanctuary; a place of spirit and rest where everything is connected with everything.

The challenge of Palawan concerns all the three stars together: It is here in Palawan where we shall as a nation learn the first principles that will lead us towards Energy Independence in 2045.

If we dislike something that is not ours as a people. Let us all the more perseveringly cling to our Old Defiant, imploring the efficacious aid of our one Almighty, instead of clinging to those things that shall soon be swept away by the rise and fall of the darkness of exile time.

If we are to be left holding on to what is ours, we must first learn to let go of those things that should in no-wise belong to us.

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Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

We will be described as human beings by promise of our birth,

citizens of the one Republic of the Philippines by will of national destiny,

believers of each our own honorable religious tradition by light of each our own individual faith and human reason,

common peers from among common peers in common creation by purpose of divine design,

and kindred beings belonging to the one family of humanity by nature of our common good will for all the nations of Mankind.

A Filipino is the heart that loves the Filipino nation.

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Mga mahal kong kapwa Pilipino, huwag po tayong magpapadala sa labis na takot. Tunay ngang maraming nangyayari sa ating mundo sa mga araw na ito. Pero wala ni kahit isa sa mga ito ang pinapayagang mangyari ng Diyos ng walang pahintulot.

Siya po ay ang PANGINOON, ang Diyos nating lahat.

Lahat po ng bagay sa ating mundo na binibigyang pahintulot ng Diyos ay ayon lagi sa kagustuhan Niyang tuparin ng lubos ang Kanyang mga pangakong binitiwan Niya para sa lahat ng ating mga henerasyon patungo sa ikabubuti ng ating pagkatao at ikagagaling ng ating sangkatauhan.

Huwag po nating pangunahan ang Diyos ng labis at nakabubulag na takot sa mga kalamidad na nangyayari sa paligid natin at sa paligid ng bansa natin. Kapayapaan lang po ng ating loob at kapayapaan na rin ng ating mga bansa ang nais Niyang subukan at patatagin dito.

Manalig ka, kapwa ko Pilipino! Naniniwala ka ba ng buong puso na mahal ng Diyos ang Pilipinas? Datapwa't matakot ka sa Diyos na ating Tagapagligtas higit sa lahat, ikaw na nagmamahal sa Kanya.

Manalig ka, kapwa ko kapatid sa pangako! Maniwala ka na kung mahal ng Diyos ang Pilipinas, mahal ka ng Diyos, Pilipino.

Sapagka't mapalad ang Bayan na ang Diyos ay ang PANGINOON.

Bakit ka pa natatakot?

Fear of Calamities

I have a healthy aversion to chain letters of whatever form - email, social media messages, text, or the traditional paper versions. I do not believe that compulsion is an aid to free will. To me, as regards to free and human choices, what holds water is faith and reason.

Whatever transmits and advances faith, whatever fortifies and completes reason, these things in turn effectively aid the freedom of the will of Man to choose rightly the things that belong to his or her human dignity and therefore, has the potential to actually fulfill (in time and in eternity) the human promise that the LORD, our God, had planted as a seed in the soul of each person.

I've friends and family who send me chain messages and I love every single one of them. It is love however, and not blind chance, my beloved friends, truth and not random compulsion that feed that hunger from within our souls - that restless desire to grow out from inside the self into God.

Choice is not blind to the heart that has chosen to become in love alive - we all walk in this exile darkness guided accordingly by the love in our hearts...

Now please, a lot of our everyday people here in the Philippines are presently being affected by needless fears arising from rumors reportedly spread by text messages of a lethal degree of radiation from Japan reaching the Philippines.

This is something which has absolutely no factual merit. It is just NOT TRUE. The current radiation levels here in our own Country remain at levels that are considered safe.

The spreading of this misinformation reminds me of those more devious forms of chain letters that prey on the legitimate fears of the common people.

It does not increase my faith in God to believe with any conviction of heart in any of those things. Nor the fleeting quality of any random compulsion serve to intensify the presence of the love I must hold and I must have in myself for people as myself - human, mortal, vulnerable and fallible - a love commanded by Christ, my Savior.

But the fostering of an authentic human citizenship, the responsible collective ownership of the life of living creation, the love of nature and the dignity of the natural world, holy friendships, an ordered love of family, a strong sense of duty empowered by love of God and Country, active civic participation partnered with effective civic education, an ethical and diligent observance of one's state of life, a willing and generous response to the call of vocations, a life that is well-lived in loving service of the truth and of the good of others - all of these work together to transmit, whether explicitly or implicitly, the qualitative force of both reason and faith. In all its various gifts and benevolent guises it speaks of a certain love; that of freedom; of liberty in the service of human community.

And none of these are served by that reckless compulsion which as far as I am concerned, is spread by that same rationale of domination that seeks only to disturb the waters of our peace.

Does the spread of those above mentioned rumors aid anybody's love of God and Country?

Then whether through ignorance or malice, the person/s behind it must also be one who is devoid of that same love. For the means employed and the ends achieved are both driven and derived from the inward inclinations present in the human heart.

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The Quake in Japan: A Personal Retrospective

Deep within my soul, I hold a proper sense of pride for the great (ancient as well as modern) cities of our Mother Asia - Tokyo, Chiba, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Seoul, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Mumbai, Bangkok, Manila of course, etc.

I was decisively reminded of this as it rose plainly into my awareness the day after the disaster in Japan - I realized that I felt sad and outraged.

This is my Asian spirit - a sense of a belonging to a greater whole. If you ask me, all Asian nations share one thing in common - one thing alone: a deep and profound longing for peace: A desire to belong.

I realize and understand that I have this desire and required neither validation nor permission from any other being other than myself to accept the fact that being Asian is part of my identity; that I belong with as well as to Mother Asia.

If a similar disaster had afflicted Germany, would France not be just as concerned? If a similar disaster had afflicted France, would not Italy not be just as concerned? In the same way, I am concerned for Japan. Because Japan is of Asia as I am of Asia.

But most of all, I am likewise just as presently concerned about what these events bode for my own Philippines, my own Republic undertaking of Country. Because as regards to earthquake preparedness, Japan is the most prepared Country in our corner of Mother Asia if not all of Asia. Is this not a worry?

Shall we not listen intently to her advice? JICA prepared a recent report as regards to our own preparedness in a similar context - specifically that of Manila. It had revealed that we have much to do.

Now please, let me add my own two cents worth to the growing national conversation about civil defense: I am of the conviction that national endeavors such as these must be seen and understood as a duty that is to be performed by every present generation in the context of the lifespan of the nation.

It must, in the spirit of greater civic participation, be something that is done with diligence and vigilance of heart even for the sake of those generations who are yet to come. It must also be felt in the heart as something every Filipino generation must continuously be doing; as something that is worked by all our citizenry, something that must be accomplished even if it lies far away from the notice of others, far away from any praise or recognition; something that is generally understood to even be beyond the reach of each of our lifetimes to completely accomplish.

In this way, we are never lulled into a false sense of complacency.

Indeed, my fellow countrymen, the common defense of the nation against natural and man-made disasters is the concern of all Filipinos. Each of us who draw their citizenship from our eternal belongings together bears a responsibility to act responsibly and decisively to secure the national good according to the freedom of each our gifts.

Japan understands this - so must we.

Let us continue to pray for Japan...

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Soccer Diplomacy

Our Marines are doing something new in the Spratlys - soccer diplomacy. If you think about it, they are initiating a work of peace-building. They might not be aware about it but they are - and so what they are doing is very important.

It is no small and insignificant thing that adds up to become a great thing and there is nothing of greater importance to the life of a nation than peace. Of this truth we must all become aware of because as regards to peace, every little thing counts.

Soccer connects individual citizens and individual nations together in very much the same way that peace does. It certainly has the potential to connect us to as well as with the Americas (most especially the nations of South and Central America with whom we have deep historical trade and cultural connections) and the greater regions of our Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, Oceania - and to the rest of the soccer world.

Aren't we glad we have our own national soccer team? Go the mighty Azkals!

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National Peace Building Initiatives

Here are some examples of national peace-building initiatives: Light a Candle for Peace, Peace Runs, Peace Councils, Community Consultations, Interfaith Dialogues, Sports meets, etc.

These national initiatives are distinct but not apart from the governmental initiatives set by our Responsible State e.g. the AFP IPSP - Oplan Bayanihan. All of these work toward the same end of a peace that prospers the national good. Even the Common Market has its own innate ability to form its own peace-building initiatives with the nation and alongside the Responsible State.

Truly, we all have a part in obtaining from God, the peace of our Philippines.

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Preserve Palawan

If we are wise, O my people, if we are far-seeing enough, we will realize what we are losing by our indecision to preserve Palawan as a National Sanctuary.

In Palawan is a vestige of our former innocence - something the Filipino soul would always want to return into, something we should like to bestow to our generations even to the very last of our generations.

The frontiers of our world shall be as green oases in the midst of urban deserts. For the world will turn to our cities for hope. People will flock away from these rural areas. But most shall not quench their thirst for living life in the gray of these urban sprawls. Hope shall not be found in concrete jungles. For hope is a thing held in the garden of the heart: In these present times, a kind of innocence lost; something we presently stand to lose forever in Palawan.

Because for us Filipinos, Palawan represents our last frontier, something we must leave untamed and unconquered, something we must leave to be free - for our own good sakes'.

If we lose it now, we will lose it forever.

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Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

It is no small and insignificant thing that adds up to become a great thing and there is nothing of greater importance to the life of a nation than peace.

Be present for peace.