A Reprieve for Mary Jane

We have won a reprieve for our Mary Jane. Let's make it count.

Kudos to our President BSAIII and his Indonesian counterpart, President Joko Widodo, to our DOJ, DFA and its Indonesian counterparts, to civil society from both our nations, and to the God of all nations.

Everything led to everything in the right way because of everybody who cared and prayed and labored to bring about this opportunity... the important thing now is to make it count.

Let us keep in mind there is still work to be done to obtain for Mary Jane that hoped for commutation of sentence. Other things may happen from there. But we have to get there first.

We have to continue to watch and pray and help in our own ways.

Let us also pray for the eternal repose of those eight who were executed early Wednesday morning. Let us remember their grieving relatives... and let us be humbled.

But for the grace of God go we, my brothers and sisters... Let's give thanks and make it count...

Salamat po sa Diyos at salamat sa ating laht!
---<--@

Update 20150505tue: My thoughts still return to the 8 who were executed Wednesday morning last week. Let us please pray for their souls. Learning about the stories of some of the ones besides our Mary Jane was as hard as it was sobering. I think a few more should have been spared. 

There really is no right way of killing a person.

Even through human institution, taking a human life is always an evil. Perhaps an evil weighed against a greater evil but an evil still... There truly is nothing good about it. If not for the safety it stands to gain for the community, capital punishment would have been an outright sin.

Perhaps capital punishment has lived out its usefulness in our days, perhaps not. One thing is for sure though, a person once dead can not be wished back to life again.

Keep Calm, Carry On

  Quick, call secutiry!

Best of 80's new wave...

Lessons from Hanukkah

Hanukkah teaches that the right response is not to curse at the darkness but to light a light.




Hanukkah teaches us not to rely on miracles.

It is a witness to strength of perseverance.

Did not the oil itself persevere?
---<--@





Hanukkah 2015 begins in the evening of Sunday, December 6 and ends in the evening of Monday, December 14.

Though Hanukkah 2015 still lay in our tomorrow, its lessons remain so near to me... It's one of the two Jewish holidays I hold dear in my heart. The other one is Purim.

Both of them are holidays of national deliverance.
---<--@

"Ich Janke air fur all das cute, una liebe, una schone." - Anne Frank, 19440307tue

Thank You God for all that is good and dear and beautiful.

A prayer for Mary Jane and her companions

Heavenly Father, please do not forsake Mary Jane Veloso and her companions in their hour of need. As in Gethsemane You sent Your Holy Angel to comfort Your Son before His Passion, be there for them in their anguish also. Hear their prayers.

Comfort them. Comfort their families. Give them gentle counsel, O most merciful God. The forgiveness of their sins. Give them strength and courage to believe in the grace of Thy deliverance.

For Thou art God, able to produce good from any evil, and make the wild flowers grow from fields barren and accustomed to death; Who forsakes not and produces in each of us despite ourselves, the fruits of Thy ultimate and everlasting purposes, we shall pray to Thee and thank Thee for our prayers.

If today, O good and gracious LORD, Thou willed to receive them, deliver them swiftly. If today, dearest God, Thou willed to allow them to remain living here on earth with us, deliver them swiftly.

Let Thy will be done.

Amen.
---<--@

Personal Reflection:

I am fully convinced now that Mary Jane Veloso is a victim of circumstance.

A concatenation of adverse events to which she had little to no power to reverse has her now in thrall. My hope is that sharper minds and nobler hearts can unravel the truth before it's too late.

Hope still remains that Mary Jane will not be executed... Whatever happens though - we must move to make things better over here so as not to multiply victims like Mary Jane.

20150427mon: Whether we believe in the death penalty or not, as a Country, we have an obligation to ourselves as citizens to see to it that our rights to both life and liberty receive adequate legal protection - here or anywhere in the world.

The dignity of the human person in every Filipino citizen and the prestige of the entire Philippine State are goods reciprocal: To recognize one is to recognize the other, to respect one is to respect the other.

If one believes this as I do, one should likewise realize how we contradict ourselves whenever we choose to protect one and not the other. Both bases must be covered.

We can not dictate policy for other States but we can certainly accommodate for better here at home... Some improvements will be structural to the Republic and will be gradual but the most immediate ones I can suggest are these:

Screening for high-risk OFWs - criteria to be based on Country of destination, age, gender, level of education, average overseas experience and any adverse social conditions relevant and applicable.

The screening itself will either be in questionnaire form or through an interview. This will be done before the departure date and a clearance will be required by customs at the airport.

Voluntary for all Filipinos travelling overseas - either as OFWs or tourists. Mandatory for those who are travelling to particular Countries identified in the criteria.

Set up a Citizens Defense Fund. This fund is to be drawn from sources of income already being drawn by the State - sourcing it from relevant centers of revenue - and must not be passed on to the backs of those particular class of citizens it is intended to protect - to protect the prestige of the State.

The CDF will provide the financial capacity to sustain and carry out programs and information initiatives meant to shield and empower professions identified as vulnerable or high risk - OFWs and Journalists are two that I would like identified. This until such a time as statistics change and those categories have entered levels of risk considered to be nominal or other categories have been identified and included.

As these ideas are still in their formative stages... certainly, they can be improved on in due time.

Kwestyon en anser

Sa kabila ng mga kaguluhan sa mundo, sa gobyerno, sa kapayapaan, sa dagat sa kanluranan, at ang walang kasiguraduhan sa kilma, may pag-asa pa kaya ang Pilipinas nating lahat?

Schempre naman.

Kaya ipaglaban!

Sino pa?

Pasasalamat kina Ben Tisoy II, Z generation kutings, at Totoy Badboy.
This post has been approved by the Boom Boom Paw Foundation.

Seal of Quality

Hikahos

Hay hikahos! 

Buhay nga naman...
Talaga pala minsan.
Parang ngang gulong.
Umiikot. Umuusbong.
Dumarating. Lumalayo.
Nagtatagumpay. Nabibigo.

Ganun talaga.
Nananalig. Umaasa.
Natatapos. Naguumpisa.
Basta't may ligaya.
Minsan ma'y kadiliman.
Babangon muli. Umaga...
---<--@

Generation Diary

Personally, I think a parallel project here in our own Country would be really nice...

Anne Frank's legacy is a human one: Meant to inspire the human spirit in ourselves. Do not politicize it. Do not think it merely in an historic way. And you will better understand it. I did.

On Lifting the Moratorium on Capital Punishment in this Republic

I am not against the death penalty. I am against the death penalty being abused. 

I believe there are times when the imposition of capital punishment becomes necessary in the ordinary pursuit of justice so that the severity of the punishment meets the malice and gravity of the crime.

I also believe the guilt of executing one innocent person can not be wiped away by executing ten more who are guilty.

In all criminal cases, this guilt takes on the character of community so my opinion is this: We, the people, should try and ponder on this more carefully. For the question is not an easy one:

Were the Republic to lift the moratorium on capital punishment, is our justice system ready?

There are five pillars to this justice system.

All five pillars form one synergistic whole. But the center-most pillar in my view is the people. 

Our national communities being one of these pillars - are we, the people, ready? 

The other four pillars of our justice system are as follows: (1) our courts system, (2) our police service, (3) our state's attorneys, and (4) our state reformatory system.

All of them draw their necessary virtues from the character of our peoplehood.

Let us look at how we judge and accuse each other everyday - how rash and how harsh we can get... How many or how few the times do we choose to actively preserve each other's honor and recognize each other's dignity as something of equal and precious value.

Let us look at in-built social prejudices: The provincialisms and other chauvinist excesses that linger on within our selves. For these things - were we to serve the ideals of the justice we, the people, commonly desire - must all be considered carefully.

Let us work to rid ourselves of these... As for my own part, I continue to actively work to remove these harmful preconceived notions from myself as well.

Also, look at how some people here, her own compatriots - react to the case of Mary Jane Veloso. I have a lot of admiration for Mary Jane. For her detractors here in our own Country - so very little. They react like they don't think. Like they worship law. 

For these are safeguards against abuse of the law. Indeed, a good and well-regulated populace is better than any law. Good judgment naturally supports a sound justice.

We should be citizens first in this Republic after all and politicians last. Are we?

In any case, the fact that there is a moratorium on capital punishment means that the death penalty is not off the table and it never was.
---<--@

Love Smarts

IX. Love Smarts

Love is pain.

The pain of a broken heart. Hurts deeply. So deeply it seems, it eludes the mind. And so we struggle to find ways to cope. To mend a heart. A heart that once was whole. That now lay in pieces.

Salt itself has lost its taste! And life its flavor... 

So the broken heart labors. Weeping. Shedding salty tears. Until every drop has been shed. Flowing out. Into rivers, sea, and sky. Until the hurt relents.

And the rain renews. Once again...

Bitter were those days... Seasonless were those skies...
---<--@

Love Captains

VIII. Love Captains

Home is where the heart is. So you come home to your love... and your love comes home to you.

When you fall in love with a person. It just happens.

You suddenly realize, "Wow, I'm in love!" 

This is not to say love is a happenstance thing. One actually enters into love like an unknowing dream.

You have all these ideas in your head about a perfect person... and wham! Love takes you in and like a trap that shuts, one in love is in. So suddenly and wonderfully taken in.

You fall in love. You fall. Indeed, you fall in. But that's not true love, one must eventually accept. You'll have to clamber out of love and together experience each other apart. The true lover's art!

Physical attraction is important, one can not dismiss. Yet beauty is deeper than this. If physical attraction is not followed up by deeper connections, when time comes... love may not fulfill its intentions.

So when you fall in love, waste no time in discovering each other deeply. Make use of this safe harbor. That you and your beloved may build a strong vessel together.

So make it a fast ship with proud sails! 

That when tempests rise to break your love apart, you may together withstand it. Even in the midst of thy many adventures, great and small. So remember...

When you can stand apart from each other like pillars to a strong house, thy will in love abide. To revel in thy togetherness. For time itself will have proven the lovers worthy.

Thine is a ship that has mastered the sea. For Love has come alive between thee.
---<--@

Don't count the miles, count the I love you's.

Are we special?

Plants and animals are more ancient than Man. The universe was not created (or set in motion) for Man but Man (brought to an awareness of our humanity) for the universe.

The vineyards were already established before the LORD chose the stewards who were to administer them. Angels and Man both.

The Angels did not cause the celestial heavens to open up in golden light and wondrous life. Neither did we establish our own space-time existence. Its constants, symmetries, its depths, its heights, its width and breadth, its limits and ultimate purposes we neither caused nor willed.

Nor may we ever fully comprehend them.

The fact that we may think about these thoughts makes us unique. But are we special?

Yes, I believe we were caused to make each other so. Not to assume it - to make it so. To make it so that we can live in a world fully aware of the knowledge that we are the children of Mankind. We may likewise chose to undo our common dignity and ignore our common calling.

We are not central to anything in anything in the universe unless one becomes alive and aware of the being of our being... and be unto each other a keeper of our common humanity and together - faithful stewards of the life of temporal creation.

It is truly humbling to peer into a telescope and realize how small and insignificant we are. Also humbling is to realize that from small and insignificant beginnings, we are together called to shine as the stars.

Carl Sagan and Eugene Shoemaker are two of my most favorite scientists.

Carl Edward Sagan 19341109-19961220

Carl Sagan hated the sins of religion because he loved science. I feel sympathy for his atheism to be honest. It is a reaction to the evils wrought by the sins of the recent past. Yes, the sins of religion. Not of God but of the harmful ways Man chose and still chooses to react to the Divine Reality. The structural sins from which St. John Paul II asked the Church to purge herself of.

The fact that Carl was able to think and decide to do something good about his life makes him special in my eyes. He lives on in his legacy. In a way, as a fellow lover of the universe, I am an inheritor of his labors. And for him, I am grateful.

Now if you were to ask me, does Carl or Eugene for that matter, live on in the afterlife? I would say, I certainly hope so... I do not know and that is wonderful enough for me.

When we ponder the universe looking for traces of God in the furthest places, with longing eyes and empty hearts, we will always behold a void - hostile, cold, irradiated, and mostly empty - staring us right back.

It is only when we know our place in creation that we shall appreciate what it is to dwell among the stars.

Carl Sagan did. We all look for a place among the stars in our own way. We are wanderers after all. Our planet is a wanderer among worlds. Our sun is a wanderer among stars. Our own galactic community is a wanderer among countless galaxies. Time itself is a wanderer in space.

The original pale blue dot - Earth from 3.7 billion miles away
(NASA/JPL/Voyager)

Is everything wandering because we are lost? Was time put into motion for nothing?

That depends. The answers I feel are here on earth and not up there in the temporal heavens. Truth is in the heart. Because of it, faith seeks understanding.

Faith is essentially an expectation of true things. It is a knowledge that precedes all knowledge. It seeks even without our seeking, born of a Truth prior to all that is truth.

Faith in religion and faith in science are essentially the same seeking. Both science and religion must trust in order to produce fruit. And the fruits they produce, if they are good, are good.

Good being something of grace and produced separate and apart from the labors of both religion and science.

Science and religion are not incompatible, I think. Some people may seek to pit them against each other but knowledge will still remain knowledge, truth truth, and people people.

Today is Earth day. What I wish for is for us to view our planet as it is - in its littleness and insignificance - all the more, our home away from Home.

Salaam. Shalom. Peace. May God bless us all.
---<--@

I support the Bangsamoro

I support the Bangsamoro. 

By this, I mean all our brother and sister Filipino Muslims regardless of political faction or tribal distinction who desire for a better peace in the Philippines.

I am of the opinion that the BBL though an imperfect document fully represents in spirit the sincere desire shared by many Filipinos of a more perfect peace in Mindanao and that passage of the BBL will serve as a foundation toward the fulfillment of this hope.

I support the passage of a final form of the BBL with revisions in keeping with this spirit. 

The basic law is a means toward better means in the ARMM region. The BBL is not an end to itself. The passage of the BBL is not a guarantee of a perfect peace in Mindanao or elsewhere.

There is no such thing in this world as a perfect peace. 

Peace shall be something we as a nation must always strive for in every generation. Much more effort shall be needed on the part of our Republic after the passing of the BBL.

Therefore, preserving our unity as a Country for Filipinos and cohesion as a nation of Filipinos must be a part of the considerations being made in the current deliberations as regards the BBL.

One AFP and one PNP. We should insulate both military and law enforcement arms of the Republic from as much political considerations as much as possible.

Constitutional bodies must remain national in scope and accountability.

I think public education most especially in this new age where innovation as regards education is made necessary must at least be a concurrent power.

Funding must bear in mind the public nature of public funds. While I can see that the BPE is to be allowed a necessary head start, funding must eventually prove equitable and fair as a means toward better temporal ends for all provinces and regions across the Republic of the Philippines.

This is so as not to cause internal friction that might lead to destructive rivalries and popular discontent in and among our national communities and their representative, structural LGUs. To preserve that unity and cohesion necessary to carry forward, from strength to strength, into fruition the intentions and vision embedded in the BBL in consonance with the Republic vision founded on the 1987 Constitution.

That is all I can think of...

The earlier the BBL is passed, the better. The sooner its intended benefits reach our people closest to the soil of our earth - the bakwit or IDPs, the Badjao, the IPs, etc., the better.

What I submit through this post I intend as guidance. It is a personal expression of my own long-standing commitment to peace in the Philippines. My hope is to share them through this blog to the prudence and wisdom of our representations in Congress and all other Filipino souls interested in the bringing forth of a more perfect peace in our beloved Philippines; a peace for all Filipinos.

Salaam. Shalom. Peace. May God bless us all.
---<--@

Friendship is the only real choice we can make in the night. We can not keep saying to each other in the night it is dark. And recognize each other not on account of the night.
---<--@

Beware of easy extremes: Absolutisms in a democracy are employed like demagoguery is employed in fascism. They stop people from thinking for themselves. For fascists, this is good. For a democracy, this is bad. Very bad indeed.

Ideas are a part of our lifeblood as a free people. 

Happy Sunday

Let us give thanks... rest, refresh, renew.

Let us pray for peace in our Country, in our region, in the Middle East, across Asia, in Europe, in Africa, in the Americas, in Australia and across Oceania. Let us pray also for Mary Jane Veloso and those who are in prison with her.

Let us pray for Persecuted Christians and all human beings who suffer unjustly for their faith.

Let us pray for more good will in the world, between nations and between human persons; more acts of kindness, more appreciation for the blessings of life, liberty, and Country; and more trust in the infinite goodness and Providential grace of God among all peoples of the earth.

Yes, let us be strong in diversity. united in adversity, and steadfast in hope!

Things change. It does not rain everyday. Behind gray skies, above the storm clouds, beyond reach of the tempest... perennial blue skies endure in golden days embraced by the sun.

Tomorrow could be worse, but let it not be today.
Today we will decide to act to make things better.

---<--@

Thoughts on Foreign Policy

Foreign policy is a domestic issue.

If we were to obtain for ourselves from the Republic vision, an independent foreign policy, then we must bring this issue closer to home. We must be able to know and express our place in this world.

Rizal was a true citizen of the earth. 

He exercised human citizenship as a foundation of his being Filipino He was not a xenophobe. His best friend was an Austrian, Ferdinand Blumentritt. And we all know his love life.

Our 1987 Constitution offers us guidance in the form of two things - renunciation of war (conferring the right of common defense) and amity among nations (conferring the right of family).

I perceive those to be two sides of the same foreign policy coin.

War to me is not a foreign policy. 

Personally speaking, I believe in an independent, interdependent foreign policy, one that stresses the importance of an interdependent planetary community as an immovable constant in a changing world.

At its soul is love of friendship.

Its central concerns are human rights and national rights simply expressed as their basic human causes and these as goods reciprocal.

And these also expressed as sovereign need and sovereign trust in international relations.

And so - less stress on politics, more emphasis on clear and resolute choices.

No peace is perfect. But the decision to pursue peace must be one that is perfect enough. Truth is the first casualty of every nation's falling away from peace. Darkness sets in. War then takes its place. And so begins the death of human purpose and the corruption of human order.

If truth can not be resurrected by the choice to return to the path of peace, it is not a failure of peace but a failure of choice.
---<--@

Our WPS Situation

Its hard to foresee 10 years into tomorrow what the situation shall be in the WPS.

I think this is so because the strategy playing out upon those disputed waters are practically beyond our effective control. We may only play a passive deterrence.

Our ability to project a credible military presence over those waters are completely preempted by the rising tensions. However, through good planning and good foresight, I am of the opinion that we can structure a defense-in-depth in the WPS that over time will allow this Republic the option of credible deterrence even in the absence of a near-par force. This in turn would afford us with better diplomatic choices.

For now, our best defense is to consolidate and to build.

Let us not forget where our strengths lay. National development and human progress are still our most reliable allies; sound economics partnered with a cohesive, inclusive, internal strategy on nation-building.

I am still of the opinion that the true nature of the issue central to the predominating crises in the WPS  is one that is economic only. If things seem to be taking a turn for the worse, it is because this basic nature is now being transformed into reasons more compatible with active warfare.

Deescalation and demilitarization are still the better of our most immediate COAs open to preserving our advantages in the current form. Artificial islands are not conferred EEZs the same as natural islands per UNCLOS but still, I am personally at a loss as to how to perceive the PRC build up as nothing else but another subtle form of aggression.

What Countries do are always more telling than what they say. 

The language of States is rule and always involves the expenditure of national power. What power does or does not do is always more real and immediate than what its representations in the diplomatic realm indicate or does not indicate. Our experience at Bajo de Masinloc and at Mischief Reef are proof of this. National power unfortunately always involves the burden of arms and all nations know it.

Conversely, our allies among the nations also express in the same manner, the will of their States - but in a way consistent with the friendship between our peoples. Imperfectly at times but never deceptively.

I can not help but interpret the PRC efforts at expansion in the WPS as aggressive. 

I wish it were otherwise. But as they say, hope is not a method. Hope is a means, yes. Any good leader's gravitas must inspire with hope precisely because of situations such as these. But a method, no. Method is what we do with hope.

Our hope is still a peaceful resolution of the WPS imbroglio - with the PRC and all across ASEAN. My own hope is to expedite resolutions in the latter first and then with the former.

Again, our best defense is to consolidate and to build.

We seem to be in the front-line of a number of things. Climate change, peace reform, and international relationships - these are not necessarily bad and war will not necessarily proceed from any of them. So we have to be wise as to what we do. Never falling short nor exceeding the spirit of the defense.

We can not take our allies for granted so we have to look into ourselves as well. 

We must see what we too may contribute not to fan the flames of war though at times this not a choice, but to help bring our world into the new age. When we are joined with our allies - in peace and in war - if we do all we can, we will stand with them honorably.

Yes, because we can.
---<--@

Dredgers deposit sand on the northern rim of the Mischief Reef, located 216 km west of Palawan, in this Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative satellite image taken on February 1, 2015 and released to Reuters on April 9, 2015. REUTERS/CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative/Digital Globe/Handout

Yaya Meals

Would you serve Kim Chiu a yaya meal?

Political correctness has a tendency to go overboard. Nagigi tuloy OA minsan - over asserted. Overacting.

One does not preach to the choir unless the choir itself has forgotten the song.

I think yaya meals are a novelty of pop culture. Essentially harmless. That is as far as it goes. We'd be fine if only our thoughts as a nation about the matter is not as shallow.

Kasambahays, katulongs, helpers, drivers... etc. These are all working class Filipinos. They each have and possess their own common dignity. Under our Republic they are already contributors to the common good. Each of them share equal citizenship with all Filipinos.

My sister and I had two dear yayas growing up. Yaya Delia who was from Cagayan up north and Yaya Cherry who was from Leyte. I can tell you, so many years after, that my love and appreciation for them can only grow in time. We ate what our yayas cooked and it was usually for everybody. So if each yaya meal included kiddie meals at a discount, you know, I think that would be a great.

There is nothing malicious about yaya meals, I don't think. Creative if maybe misinterpreted. It is another economic choice on offer. One we may all freely accept or decline.

However, if it becomes an imposition on our liberty rather than a free choice.

That's another story.
---<--@

Would you serve Emma a yaya meal on her birthday?

Capitalism is a national proposition. It is not a class predisposition.

It has everything to do with material liberation and human happiness. It is not either or. 

It is both supporting both.

It is human enterprise arising from the depths of the human condition; happiness as a personal pursuit in the context of a common national ambition.

It is capable of improving the spiritual condition of the human being in the citizen through economic progress and the advancement of temporal means inclusive to the common weal of the free State.

It is through Country a means toward better means and invincible ends.

Greed had nothing to do with it from beginning to end.

Mamasapano and the BBL

Mamasapano and the BBL are issues distinct.

Justice and Politics are matters separate. They are related only in significance, one proceeds from the other.

Justice is indispensable and the truths Justice serves are changeless. For the ideals of Justice are older than time, original to being, and inherent in all living purpose.

(There is a kind of justice that harms. Sadly, we know of this kind of justice in the aberrations we feel our own justice system is capable of. Know it enough to harbor mistrust in the Justice of the State and even fear it. This we will reflect upon in a separate post.)

Politics is necessary but its effectiveness must rely upon how well our Justice is able to deliver - not to change what has already happened last Jan. 25, but to make amends and ultimately reconcile ourselves to what we had lost by the gain of their memory.

It would be disadvantageous to the Republic to confuse the pledge of Justice which is eternal with the mission of Politics which is temporal.

Anger will not serve us in the pursuit of Justice.

Anger if it can be transformed into a passion for what is necessarily a good, may fuel the Political but may also cause it to exceed itself. Politics are always bound by the real and what can be real is always limited by many things. Anger turned to hatred can be boundless.

We may recall to mind examples of this... politics of last resort. Politics must be joined to a vision that is a good that embraces the nation to safeguard it from excessive passion. Reason shepherding emotion.

Lives lost is never a political issue. These things do not go away. There is a saying, "the angry can be made happy but the dead can not come back to life."

This to me is a principal lesson that we ought to understand from Mamasapano:

Let us be careful when it comes to human life.

It pays to appreciate how fundamental human life is to our nationhood; how central human dignity and human promise are to the obtaining vision of the Republic and the success of the national peace.

Even if we were as a nation blessed by Providence enough to obtain from the memory of our painful experience in Mamasapano, the most good it may offer to our communities there will always remain among us the silence of those names... (if only we can hear what from behind the silence cries out...)

All of them, every one of us who perished during that day, everybody we lost who are each of them Filipino by grace of God - especially those civilians no matter how few who had nothing to do with battle and only wished for something better than a constant state of war.

We are, by our names, always more than just numbers. The visible universe is made up of numbers. We who behold the universe and ascribe it beauty are much more than the universe.

I want us to remember this...

For however political one may wax and for any reason one may think, they were all of them Filipino and this nation shall be made to account in the truth. The absence of this "we" presence in our hearts and therefore, in our times is a primary source of all our internal troubles.

I am not defending any evil done. I wish to consolidate in our thoughts and in our love on what in us is good that it may be easier for our communities to let those evil days flee in and of itself - because we are as we are.

Think about it.

Some say the Moro people do not or have never considered themselves to be Filipino. 

What matters to me however, is that I recognize the fact that they are. Because I am. And I will never do them justice as least spiritually if I allow myself to be swayed by the misguided political opinion of others.

In another place and time, all those whom we lost that day could have been fighting shoulder to shoulder for a cause that is common to all... building, building, building toward better days.

Some disagree with the usage of the word Filipino because of historical or other reasons. 

Words are both meaning and sound/script - essentially the meaning of words can neither be voiced or written. Words say something they can not really express by calling our attention to it - by sound or by other mediums physical.

Think about it.

What you hear or read and what you understand are two different things.

What matters is that one understands.

It is better to wear your truth inside your heart than to speak it loudly just to be heard.

Past generations of Filipinos including Rizal and Bonifacio and their illustrious generations did not have any qualms in the usage of the word Filipino. To challenge this now would only dislocate us further from the line of our history.

There is an expectation and a responsibility in citizenship. 

Most of the ideals that have shaped, informed, and enlightened our civics belong to the memory of the nation. Our identity remain constant to our mind and hearts even in the midst of change. For everything about being a Filipino are truths that are for always. All these things has to do with the national peace.

I wondered at one time what the real name of our nation is. Before the Philippines was. One can reach back into the past only so much until it becomes wishful thinking. Know the truth, and you will know the name of it. It is motion.

In the temporal realm, we go by name first introductions. The name itself is not as important as the acts that proceed from friendship or lack of it.

In the timeless, one recognizes the truth first, the motions of it, then the name. The name is the most intimate expression of unity, and makes it whole.

Our nation goes by the same principle... What matters is not things before, though we have an obligation to memory; not things a day past today, though we have a responsibility to duty and vision, what matters is the here and now.

Citizenship is what comes out of your heart.

And so I do not feel any prejudice nor am I imposing any upon anybody by saying I am Filipino.

A street kid once asked me for alms. I was by a fishball cart at the time and offered him fishball instead of money. He was happy to have it. I was happy to give it. And the fishball seller had a smile on his face... That smile gave me a thought. 

Who were we to each other to relate like that? We were not related by blood. We were in that timeless moments, Filipinos, that is why.

In a way, all nations are like that...
---<--@

In summary, 

The value of human life in this nation is to be realized. Human respect and the recognition of the human potential in every single Filipino is an aspect of our equality as citizens.

Integral to our sovereignty as a nation is the inestimable value of the life of each Filipino.

Mamasapano is a Justice issue. Central to this issue is the question of overkill or proportionality of response. If we lost too many because of administrative lapses (the sanctions of which I understand will vary accordingly), this is no excuse for us to have lost too much because of the bloodlust of a criminal few. These individuals being as they are - unchanged and unrepentant - have no place in Mamasapano, in the future Bangsamoro or in the whole of this Republic - ever.

The BBL is a Political issue. The citizenry ought to return to our ideals of what good governance is. How we, the people, commonly enjoy the simplest of everyday things within a state of domestic tranquility that may be characterized as dependable, durable, meaningful, equitable and quite cognizant of our human needs. And how this state of domestic tranquility may be shared.

Instead of tearing the basic law apart let us please ask, "how may the blessings of our democracy (meager though it may be at present) be shared more equally across the Republic, and in particular in the ARMM region?"

I believe the question of constitutionality is a question of accommodation first. 

What is truly unconstitutional is what is missing and what is lacking in our peace to make it more perfect. Why is the ARMM a failing experiment? What can the BBL contribute to make it work?

How may the promises of the 1987 Constitution be more effectively brought to the lives of the people on the ground in that beleaguered region?

Constitutionality becomes a question of exclusion only when we derive from it laws and political behaviors that are unclear, being furthest from the guidance and intent of its policies, principles, and provisions.

The BBL in the first instance is an approach at accommodation.

The legislature ought find the balance between the both Justice and Politics to arrive at a final form of the draft law; one that is effective, equitable, and compatible to the end by which the peace process is dedicated to - which is a more perfect peace in Mindanao and by extension, across our one Republic whole.

I, having determined my own limitations, will devote another post on my own personal observations on the draft law and go into detail about it. That I may keep my civic peace. And my thoughts be brought forth into the councils of the national conversation.
---<--@

Sweet as Jam

Before Anne, I was a glass-half-empty person. I was in despair. Those were dark days indeed... 

Knowing Anne through her diary made me a glass-half-full person. I can still be sad and depressed, of course. However, I will never look at life again from a dark and gloomy heart. In my own words: "She is my first contact star; my light against despair."

After Anne, the skies above my soul, day and night, became full of stars. I appreciate her very much.


Ok, here's a quote I got from her diary that resonates a lot with me:

"I don't have much in the way of money or worldly possessions, I'm not beautiful, intelligent or clever, but I'm happy, and I intend to stay that way! I was born happy, I love people, I have a trusting nature, and I'd like everyone else to be happy too." Anne Frank, 19440325sat

Which brings me to the gist of my post...

Opekta was Otto Frank's company at 263 Prinsengracht that sold pectin for making jams. I happened upon some of Opekta's old adverts and it struck me... Anne's cheer is sweet as jam...

The horror of the Holocaust notwithstanding, the people we lost during that time and all the people we, as humanity, are losing in the name of hatred, ignorance and indifference* deserve to be remembered by the light of their own lives also. For history will incline us to remember the fallen by the gravity of their loss. Time is severe in its account but we shouldn't be... after all, time is for man.

It is up to us how we shall remember those whose silence oblige us to abide in the memory. 

*the hatred of a few, the ignorance of some, and the indifference of many - a proven formula for war and genocide
---<--@

I used derive from history the blackest of hate. But from the memory, I caught a glimpse in the night through the hurt, a multitude of stars so great... my hate turned to love, my hope returned again to heaven above.

Thoughts on "We, the People"

IF TODAY we were to mythologize the history of our Republic, the chief protagonist of the story would be "we, the people"; the one, the true, the brave.

Another hundred years from now, this would still be true.

If only we were fully aware of this...

As a believer in "we, the people", I affirm the virtues of the Philippine State reside always in the people; that wisdom substantial for the good of all is entrusted to the keeping of the Filipino public in every generation.

When power in human government being ever in need of a constant source of strength and renewal finds in the people, no better source; rule and reliance is established in a State that is Republican and Democratic.

For in whom sovereignty resides is through whom the national sovereignty must be constantly ensured and preserved and government that is made to recognize the source of its authority is made capable of bearing trustworthy fruit.

If all our troubles as a Republic were to lead to a peaceful awakening in ourselves; one that empowers the nation and thus, enables the government of the nation to advance our vision in time, then we owe it to our past to make a way for our tomorrow. And the present shall not seem so muddled and dim. 

Rizal's awakened pen and the awakened souls of our illustrious founding generations never had a hope so great as our freedoms to be such - a nation brightly lit.

There is nothing as fundamental to the justice of human community as life and to her laws as the right to live in peaceful communion with others living within her.

Thus, again we are returned in our quiet meanderings to the people - the life of the nation.

The people are to be defended, the nation preserved.

Human dignity is to be recognized in all Filipinos and the human potential in each our persons upheld.

That the law of the State and the justice of the State derive their fundamental natures from ideals original to and characteristic of all our citizens as human beings. That the law serve, for the people observe, and the people observe for justice both preserve them and persevere in them.

We shall always be served by finding our beginnings therefrom whenever we need to...

I also presently observe that we, the people, in not being fully aware of this, at times allow ourselves to be obsessed by some passing evil and spurred by diverse forms of desperation often act in haste and that grave consequences especially in matters of State follow in the usual and confound us in its wake.

An example of this is when we as an electorate elect, set apart and call into authority more than a few leaders unfit for the spirit and reality of the Country we are trying to establish for ourselves and our posterity.

We forget to recall the symbolic value of the vote in the same way we unconsciously profane the mythic vision of a people, free and fair, living within the embrace of a Republic that is the dominion of their own sovereign peace. We have a right to be here. 

The rich tapestry of our pre-history now remain largely unavailable to us, but the living memory that is spiritual (water) can never be denied our nation. T'was a blessing unto us before we were a people.

If we were a Country with artificial frontiers; that "we are" is Providential.

Were we to rebel against the dictates of Providence, our peace upon this earth shall always be one that is by the sword sustained. Never to us as Country shall be made known from heaven, a peace that is to itself sufficient - being of its own remembrance, alive and one.

So I understand the wounds of our colonial past. I try to, I have them within myself as well. I know that the wounding may not be by our own hand but the healing shall not come by any other hand but our own.

And if our hearts have become so familiar with the pain that our minds have come to think to ourselves we are no longer in need of the truth, why do each present time cry out still for a remedy to hurts time itself has left unforgot?

How do we reconcile ourselves to these labors?

Can we be hero and anti-hero at the same time?
---<--@

Goyangi

Love you, Korea!

Goyangi

A little reflection on pretty cats...

My argument is: If it were not for pretty cats, we'd be lost.

Girl-cats are called queens. One to rule the reaches of each heart. Can there be two queens to a heart? I can hardly think so. 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So we see contrasts, light and dark. But when love too is in the eye of the beholder. There is consonance in all things. Beauty is everywhere.

Just the same, when it comes to pretty cats - only one above all makes everything beautiful in all... To have too many is just plain greedy. Pretty cats save the world - one tomcat a time.

If it were not for pretty cats, we'd be lost.

Thank you Han Hyo-joo for being a cat.
---<--@

Love is Magic

Let me tell you, "Got to Believe" made me a believer in our ability to produce a good Telenovela. It was a clear and refreshing break from the normal "iyakan" at "apihan" that I find discouraging in Filipino movies and teleseries.

I decided to see Got to Believe with my mom just to try it out. From the beginning, we were hooked. The premises were so well crafted from the start that we thoroughly enjoyed the whole series up to the finale. It was happy, sad, inspiring, cute and most of all - it was local. It was intimate and familiar. We can relate.

Much like the Filipino town perya where the characters in the story came together, fell apart and finally came together again in the end - the script, the sound, the cinematography, the cast and crew...

everything blended together in Got to Believe to become that beautiful and magical ride that it is.

It made for good times, great craft.  Thanks very much to the cast and crew... Lovely! You are all lovely.

I believe in magic, do you?
That dreams, they do come true.
That our days shan't always be blue.
That love shall see the lovers through.
And the magic is, and the magic is...
Got to believe in magic, with you.

---<--@

 I already love the song. Now I love the series.