Typhoon Sendong is portentous.
It was not only out of season -
it is an indication of a much larger change.
No words can convey my distress at the loss we have sustained
at the passing of this most recent typhoon...
These are ours, O my Philippines, these are ours...
Arise therefore, O my nation - serve -
and pray for the victims of Typhoon Sendong!
(Hidden in Plain Sight)
Each year,
my fellow Filipinos,
our Country is tested
and the endurance of our nation
stectched to a point...
We are -
by the natural cycles of the seasons
and the excesses that the forces of nature
- earth, wind, fire, and water -
a nation yearly inflicted
with much violence
upon our communities
by the evils that arise from
these natural calamities.
But never have we thought,
O my beloved people,
never have we even begun to consider,
the slightest hint of surrender
to the limiting and random nature
of these evils!
Rather,
these typhoons
only serve to strengthen
our resolve
- no matter the pain -
to stand together
as one people.
For in the midst of these trials
we always choose to be the victors
and we always have.
Do you understand this?
We are -
a people whose virtues
have always been - as such -
hidden in plain sight.
So let us bear
- into mind and heart -
the strength and reality of
our own native resilience
as well as bring into the fore
of our social consciousness
- these present days -
the excellence of the virtues
embodied by our national identity
which are all the things that make living
the Filipino Dream worthwhile
as well as possible.
For the greater cycle of the seasons
is shifting -
These shall be times
- unprecedented -
in the history of all the nations
of the children of Mankind.
Winter indeed in coming
(after the autumnal dusk of our faded Eden)
- here in this season of shadows -
and there is a testing ahead
that shall require all our virtue
(as individuals giving freely
and as nations dreaming together
as one family).
Therefore,
let us always have meaningful recourse
to the sacred remembrances
of God and of Country.
- selah -
Our unity as a people
shall be our greatest guarantee against calamity.
Our peace as a nation
shall be our safest shelter against the darkness.
Our vision as a Country
shall be our surest way ahead
out of this long night - this longest night -
and into that new morning of Promise
for our Land of Promise.
2011 have revealed to us our weaknesses.
2012 shall temper for us our strengths.
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Tel. (632) 931 - 8101 to 07
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