Conservation and Energy Independence
I want us to be a forward-thinking nation!
Absolutely speaking, how we practice conservation effectively as a people will affect our energy future.
To what extent we exercise a common ownership of our natural environment as individuals NOW will determine our long-term energy independence as a nation.
Our goal is to go green by 2045.
How we dispose of garbage, how we buy our food, how we go to work, how we treat the well-being of animals and plants, etc. - all these things are directly related to the way we think about conservation.
And the way in which we understand conservation collectively will affect our national policy-making in our Republic with regards to our long-term energy independence as a nation.
It's a free Country so let us be prudent with the way in which we use our liberty.
With regards to energy, our national mantra shall be - "everything is related to everything."
And with regards to conservation, at this late hour, let us also permanently attach the adjective "wholesale".
Because if we do not go all the way today - it will become progressively more and more difficult for us as a nation to achieve a measure of energy independence.
Conservation in the context of the paradigm shift (from War to Peace) in our national thinking becomes a necessary element of our national strategy.
My fellow Filipino compatriots, energy independence may sound highly ambitious but it is also highly necessary. And it is just as well that we think about these things sooner than later.
Later might be one moment too late.
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Spratly and the Common Defense
The Spratly issue is contentious.
We are getting into the thick of it. But let us not get the notion - here and now - that this dispute is, in any way or form, the primary motivation that informs and impels our will of common defense for this one Republic of ours.
We are to continually develop our defense capabilities (on our own as well as in coalition with our allies) at present out of a necessary love of God and Country as a matter of course.
For we are no longer part of the last great age of War, my honorable compatriots - its paradigm is past. We should learn to discard also the thinking that the defense exists because of a threat that compels it to exist as in the last great age of War.
The defense exists and have always existed whether there is a threat or not.
We are not defending out of a need to shield ourselves from other Countries. We are defending now because building up an effective defense is an integral part of our undertaking of Country and this defense shall be informed by the depth of our belongings to each other and nothing else.
We will defend what we love.
My noble Filipino brothers and sisters of the Promise, do not overextend yourselves as regards to the Spratly issue. Every nation here in our world is broken, each to a degree, and all are War-weary. All present indications are that, if we should exercise patient as well as prudent understanding with all parties involved, this issue shall be resolved not by force of arms, but by the overarching requirements of these present times - this greater season of Peace.
Therefore, I am still holding out for an equitable solution to the dispute in question - a solution that will do adequate justice to the sovereign right of all claimants.
I say "adequate" because I recognize that in such a dispute, one who is skillful in diplomacy must draw a middle course between two evils.
In the meantime, let us focus most of our national energies into filling out what is necessary in our nation to make our one Republic more and more ready to face the challenges of this new age.
We must become aware also that our region belongs to a greater (continental) belonging and that this nascent continental belonging too will flounder divided against itself.
In the thick of this dispute therefore, let us try to place ourselves within our own belongings in Asia to which we are all part that we may at least take notice of the calm of a greater good that exists as clear skies above the storm which is (in this case) this Spratly dispute.
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Think about it -
It is not Man's nature to wage war, it is War's nature to wage war.
If we bandy about with evil words one to another and in our nations do the same, if we are indecent and respect not the dignity of other individuals, let alone nations, we are sowing the seeds of new conflicts.
But if we speak like Men should speak and not debase our humanity into the level of brutes, all men - rational men and not evil men who have already slept in their souls with War - listen to reason and would try to avoid harming themselves or others like themselves.
Life as a whole is not inimical to itself but sadly, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, we live in an everyday world of contradictions; of lies, half-truths and malice - the veritable atmosphere of hell.
We can ill afford to conform to it and hope to remain human.
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Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.
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