Salutation #38
(Purity of Arms)
Peace can not be won by arms
but by remembrance.
Our Republic undertaking of Country
is never ennobled by the strength of arms
but by the purity of our arms.
So if we are too hasty to bear them,
if we mistake one path for the other,
my honorable compatriots,
Providence Itself will grind us
into dust and ashes.
What Divine Providence defends
and what our Nation chooses to defend
through our common Republic endeavor
(especially through its military arms)
must be one and the same
- Benignity, Harmony, Unity and Sacred Life -
that Almighty God may restore freedom
to our one Republic as a whole
- that the Peace of our one Republic undertaking -
may likewise restore
its own native protections
upon the virtues of our people.
So let us be aware -
Every nation in the world of our present day
- from the least to the most responsible of nations -
is emerging from a deep darkness;
our world as a whole is questing for this Peace.
What is unique to our present time right now,
is not the perennial nature of armed conflict
- within and between our nations -
but the sharp contrast drawn
by the sheer weight of collective human history
between the presence of War and the absence of Peace.
That we may as one nation among a family of nations,
urgently know that -
by our arms, War is delayed.
It is never hastened.
Lest we forget. Lest we forget.
---<--@
Salutation #39
(The Necessity of Soldiering)
They say,
my brothers and sisters of the Promise,
that the most ancient of professions is prostitution.
The most ancient of professions is soldiering.
Of the two,
my honorable Filipino compatriots,
soldiering have always existed out of a necessity
- temporal in its mission, Eternal in its scope -
to defend the necessary Peace
that, in God's own turn, work to preserve
within our Republic undertaking of Country
the promise and dignity of our nation.
Prostitution only seems ancient because of our neglect
- the utmost width and profound depth of it -
to constantly fulfill, each in our own times and places,
the promise we bear as citizens to each other.
- selah -
They say,
my brothers and sisters of the Promise,
that the most ancient of professions is prostitution.
The most ancient of professions is soldiering.
---<--@
The above Salutations - taken together - form my official entry into the AFP writing contest in the Team AFP facebook page.
Go Team AFP! Go Army!
Adversity Tempering Hope...
The senate hearings that exposed to the greater national dialogue the prevalence of the cultures of corruption and betrayal in our AFP is disheartening.
I could not help but feel sad about the whole thing - a necessary process, mind you - but these are sad days indeed for our military services.
It is painful to watch.
Being sad however is a far cry from being in despair.
I am of the conviction that it is normal for one to feel sad about these proceedings who loves the Filipino profession of arms. What is not normal is to feel bitter about it or to grieve as if our AFP institution is beyond all hope.
Our Republic is not dead yet, my honorable compatriots.
You know this to be true who can feel its spirit stirring in your heart, calling you to care and to start believing again... in ourselves as ourselves.
---<--@
Why do I care about our AFP?
It's not complicated.
I am a citizen of this Republic endeavor. I understand it.
When I say, I love my Country, I mean it. I love my Country with a love that is not vague. I love my Country with a heart that is able to see by the light of my faith in God and in my fellow Filipinos the profound riches of the great destiny that the LORD has entrusted to our keeping.
I intend to cherish this gift and protect it from all takers.
I will defend this love as far as I am able, together with all my fellow citizens, utilizing whatever talents God has given me, because I understand - despite myself - with an unfaltering conviction that If I lose this love, I stand to lose everything.
---<--@
Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.
A Prayer to the King