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. 

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.
---<--@

Thoughts on the Philippine Constitution 2

Nation is sovereign Foundation.
State is sovereign Expression.
Country is sovereign Motion.
---<--@

Our Constitution being the rule of the Filipino people, the ideals and consequent provisions derived therefrom must be responsible in particular to the question of power.

How sovereign authority is to be utilized to serve the Nation through the Republic within a Philippine democracy are its principles.

These principles serve the Constitutional vision and are the principles of national power.

National power and its structures are Constitutional accommodations - exclusively.

Therefore -

National power must be aligned with Constitutional authority - always.

National power must be made to serve the people - always.

Justice serves the State not because the State is perfect but because the State is flawed and human from the very beginning. This is why the symbol of a Republic is a shield.

And it's wings are sheltering wings.

All Country are zealous for their peoples. But the most zealous of all, as far as our experience may tell, are Republics. This presents us with dangers and advantages unique to our form.

And the most severe, as far as the question of rule is concerned, is the subject of how power is to be preserved, accommodated, and duly exercised in and through the Republic form.

Whatever advantages of permanence lost to us shall linger long after the flames from which all Republics are born have become transformed into the light that warms us, ever guides us, and bids us to carry on marching forward.

Continuity, Concordance, Concentration, Coherence - which Monarchical States, though differing in each their accommodations, reserve to each themselves in a way original to their form, we must in a Republic consistently address as though they were in danger.

This is cost of our Liberty, an eternal vigilance.

Because if we do not properly address these matters - whenever we must, our own zeal will consume us. Toxic power will poison our labor of Country.

In a democracy, we are all responsible for each other's good. The rights we enjoy demand it.

If we as a people falter in our vigilance, if we lose our civic sense and cause this public's trust to fail, what trustworthy fruit shall we reap from this Republic then?

Sovereignty is an emanation of the popular will of the Philippine nation - the people - as our whole in general, but specifically, especially where politics are concerned, in our present form and favor.

How our Republic builds is enabled by how the Philippine State establishes itself in power.

Let us always be reminded that - power without authority is toxic to the State. That power must always align with Constitutional authority - for our own sake. Power itself in a Republic does not necessarily corrupt. A lingering sense of popular powerlessness does - and will.

Tyrants and tyranny are not just of people. They have a powerful social manifestation. Betrayal of the public trust is a betrayal of national power.

Corruption is born of political ambition first. It is never a thing that arises from origins purely civic in nature. But will consume with desire what is civic and make it all political.

A purely political State will appear obscure even to itself. Civics and politics must always agree on a balance. It is a tension, not born of evil fears, but of zeal for the good - a vigilant trust.

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, so the saying goes.

And since we have to take the human being as we are, we have to also take our society as it is - there will always be a degree of corruption in an otherwise healthy Republic, but when the common cold is enough to kill us off, that is another matter altogether... Something, somewhere is not in order...

Politics serve. We must demystify the political culture of our Republic and make it clear. Public service is a calling to serve. It is not an ambition to power but nonetheless remains a reward unto itself.

For all consequent successes of the State begins and ends with its most faithful servants - along with its prestige and its rewards.

There is a better way to for the Filipino to prosper, a much surer way. Indeed, if only we can get Country right, it shall be very well for all of us - rich or poor, man or woman, young or young-once.

The popular ambition is a meaningful happiness born in pursuit of freedoms reachable, reasonable, and real; emanating from a Liberty that shines out as a light, to enlighten our nation, nourish the souls of our citizenry, and embrace with a sheltering warmth, the life of the many communities that live within our one Republic whole.

Happiness is different for each person.

However, it is always a consistent theme among all States. How happy it is to be happy - and be whole; one, clear blue Sky in an eternal, golden Summer. War will not purchase for us these things. Therefore, wherever war may seek to present itself, war must be met and withstood. By our peace.

And with all our means.

My fellow Filipinos, brothers and sisters of the promise -

The peace process is a litmus test for this one Filipino nation. I have long carried this message of peace and have consistently conveyed it through my writing.

If by 2020 we are still a split people, it might become less and less likely that we will reach our goal by 2046, and we will fall short.

Hopelessness in all our national communities along with all its attendant paralysis is what we must address: Stagnation, retardation, and impotency in the national life.

National power must be made to serve the vision of our Constitution and build for our people something more worthy of our labors together as one Country.

Hunger in the nation should be one of the first on the list of things we should seek to efficiently channel our national power onto and effectively address.

If we take us for what we are, we know it may not be a thing we can do in haste, or an accomplishment we may claim by our disparate parts.

This nation must prosper the peace, prosper the people - together this time.
---<--@

Thoughts on the Philippine Constitution

Nation is sovereign Foundation.
State is sovereign Expression.
Country is sovereign Motion.
---<--@

Our Constitution entrusts us with an outline of the Philippine State.

Every State is unique. No one State is ever the same.

In a Garden of Many Trees, each State speaks for a distinct type of tree, intended by Providence and its people to bear, harvests of good and edible fruit - each in its own due time, across seasons in time.

Each tree is particular to the nurture of its own Nation; each a labor of living life belonging to a unity of human peoples, and to their living and breathing economy (of generations). That all may in time be - in fullness gathered - by the Peace all their generations shall come to possess forever - as an everlasting heritage in the LORD and a present promise of His good will.

So shall it grow in time. We see this present promise of good will in the spirit of our Constitution - the words of which however splendidly stated and contained therein, we all instinctively know, shall never be enough. For an outline alone will not produce. Country is motion.

Peace is the soul of our nationhood. The fundamental spirituality of this Peace is connection. Our Nation is a formless spirit. We are always more than what appears to the external eyes of this world -

a peculiar labor we are indeed...
for as Nations together,
we are sown to the gathering,
sworn to sacred life, and dedicated
to those shining ideals (such as peace)
unintelligible to the darkness of this world.

Therefore, my beloved brother and sister Filipinos, any meaningful faith in our peoplehood must embrace the whole of our nationhood - past, present, and forever: here, now - in our hearts.

That the common trust of our generations be safeguarded by the good will of every generation, each in their own present time.

And the living economy of our common Posterity proceed to gather for all generations, the accumulation of the Means National, spiritual as well as material, to enable the present to prosper our Peace as well as our Peoplehood through the ages of our Country in time.

Wealth itself - where Country is faithful - may become a means to produce more Wealth.

We become citizens to each other when we belong. The peace in our souls is the soil of Country. The more faithful the Peace, the more sovereign the Being of our Nation in our souls.

Realizing the Peace of our Nation in ourselves makes our Labor and its Trust truly present upon the lands of our earth. We become a sovereign Nation upon the world.

We profess the Ideals of our Nationhood unto other sovereign Nations through the Philippine State. And in their Good Will, through the grace of Providence Divine, we are duly recognized before their Assembly for what they as Nations themselves possess - we claim our eternal Right to Family.

Our Constitution is not a rote study of history. One does not reach back to collect it.

It is the foundation of a great story.

Between its covers is the unfolding of an epic journey every generation must live, each in their own present time.

It is like a thing we must trust - to be more than what its pages are, containing a vision that has been ours forever.

If we are able to hear what it speaks, more than just read what it says - our Constitution, by its every present legal iteration, shall tell us something more about ourselves that is true.

It is up to each of us to discover what it is... it is different for each one.

Do not just study it. Trust yourself to love it enough... and receive it as if you already have.

If our Constitution merely stayed on the paper it is published on, my dear Compatriots and in particular to you, O youth of this Nation, there may come a day when there shall be none of us left but the ghost of a people on paper; a cautionary tale of a labor and a light of humanizing civilization that could have been.

And the world shall be a lesser place indeed - for every tree matters, every life matters; ever drop, every fruit is possessed of a value that is more than what the darkness of this world may ever understand.

Why were we Nations in the first place if our work was merely the annihilation of all life?

Why ponder on a circular thing that is not worth our time and our thought?

Furthermore, as we walk the Way of Amity with and among all our kindred Nations -

How we relate to other States is important. Just as vital, at times even more so, is how we relate to each other within our own Philippine State.

We come to a respect of other States through knowing our own labors, realizing the necessary battle we together stand - to obtain a maturity of peace - upon this world is hard for all peoples. That all States are weakened when every one of them absolutely believe they are strong - against each other.

We must always presuppose something human about all human States. That all Nations arrive - in a world intrinsically hostile to our common humanity, flawed and incomplete. That no Country springs up upon this world fully mature and fully armed.

For as Man is, so shall his Nations be.

War is an exception. War is a failure of peace. It is always an outcome of a battle we have already lost. And were we as Nations together to become so deceived as to think that War is a native of our earth, we will begin to believe all our necessary battles may be won through war. That this devouring beast was a faithful steward to our human realm. That it has precedence over us...

And we will certainly lose our place to it.

On earth and in heaven.

To sum it up, we have hope. Never despair.
---<--@

My two centavos worth...

I believe in the personal sincerity of President Noynoy. I do not think him to be himself in any way corrupt.

I am more concerned about motives concealed by less obvious people around him.

I think motions to impeach him is a waste of time; a political distraction that may cost our Republic more in terms of time qualitatively.

As regards to a term extension, I believe he himself should make up his mind, weigh his own personal and political considerations, and not leave it up to the people to decide.

If the President goes ahead with it, succeeds in convincing Congress to amend the Constitution, and receives in 2016 from the Filipino electorate a second mandate in affirmation of the popular efficacy of his platform and policies, he will come out with a much stronger mandate than allowing us to choose it for him today.

This will at least preserve continuity and momentum in the Republic by giving him much political capital to spend at the beginning of that second term.

Personally, I do not think it advisable to amend the Constitution for reasons short of a moral imperative or an ethical crisis - political dictates and its cohort tendencies must never be allowed to override ANY prevailing Constitutional wisdom - whether we at present fully understand it, somehow understand it, or not at all.

Many things in this Republic is built on trust, if we must know. The food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink, even the roofs above our heads are built on trust.

Our Constitution above all we must trust and trust in the Republic to duly interpret: Vigilant Trust.

I myself have fallen in love with its Preamble and often find myself trying to penetrate its words to discover their meaning - arising, seemingly ever new.


---<--@

An Identity of Participation

Democracy is built upon the strength and merit of individual choices.

Our citizenship is an identity of participation.

It is important to empower personal freedoms. It is also just as important to enable these personal freedoms to serve in society with other citizens.

As thus, the Philippine State exists.

And invokes for itself a Republic serving among an already free and fair people.

And in their behalf.

Popular leadership is exercised through the virtue of a representative form of government.

That in the Philippine Republic duly represents the people in the formal affairs of the State.
---<--@

The Question of Cain

Let us meditate a little more
on this war within the Filipino soul -

The absurdity of this war is
that it constantly propagates itself among our people,
multiplying the reasons why we should abandon our Nationhood,
when all the while, it is precisely this Nationhood
that can redeem us.

It feeds on the life of our beloved peoples,
overpowering the human spirit - from weak to strong.
It lies to our faces - that it means to do us good
and then proceeds to devour our children,
sparing none.

In war, the only winners
are those who learn its lesson.

War is the tutor.

Peace is the test.

And to pass this test
brings success.
---<--@

The Land of Nod

As a Nation, let us be reminded that to serve the power of our arms is to be slowly but surely crushed by its burden. If we continue the course, we might find a day when we realize we can not eat our weaponry nor this continued violence against our own Nationhood allow for our people the best and the brightest means to satiate our common human needs.

BUT we have in the past ceded the nature of this internal conflict to the power of arms, and sought to further invite this war among ourselves like it were a friend -

and so for decades, we fought over this war. 

That this so-called "friend" may by its power vanquish our hatred of others, our fear of their "otherness". (Is there such a thing as "otherness" in a soul that is one? We only mirror our own hate.)

And so we became enemies to ourselves. We fought until hatred and despair, themselves offspring to war, became another reason to fight. (Fighting for the sake of fighting alone is not a lineage that leads anywhere.)

We fought until attitudes of murder crept into our own self regard for the Filipino soul, and became as Cain. In ourselves we have come to also behold the person of the Adversary - in our brother, our fellow siblings to the one Nationhood.

If we are not careful, we will be like Cain - a fugitive to his own heart, restless for Justice yet unable to return to its source.

There is a certain kind of fear that dwells in the land of Nod, it is a fear of others - a fear that is not a tension of the respect - due to God and to our fellow human beings - that leads us in time to discover how to surpass its own limits - it is an inward thing, imploding and shrinking the soul of a person.

It is a fear that prevents common respect and human community and dwells in a restless land devoid of faith and trust, in God and Country.

Our Nation is proof against that fear, and restores Justice where Justice needs to be restored. Not the justice of Nod, but the Justice original to our Eden. (After all, did not the LORD give us our clothes? And more so, in the Gospels is found the greatest remedy to this restless fear - for the Seal of Christ dispels it - for Charity covereth a multitude of sins.)

We exist - in this particular regard - to do both the brothers Justice, Abel by Remembrance, Cain by the Love that lives within the compassion of our peoples - exemplified by our famed hospitality, our native trustfulness and willingness to give welcome to the person of the stranger; and the power to make of them - strangers to us no more.

The question of Cain is a question of Liberty.

Cain is not free to find it. So we do not expect answers from Nod. The answer is - in us - as citizens and keepers to our common humanity. And if we seek to do both the brothers Justice, then each of us must choose to remember - and then, to renounce the War that brought to the first generation of our Exile so much woe.

And a woe - let us recall to memory, terrible upon terrible, that we have had to live with ever since.

Nod is in the Unknown Earth. It exists in places where the Goodwill of our Peace - as one Nation and as one Family of Nations - have not yet taken firm root upon the soil of our world.

If we continue to allow this war in the soul of the Filipino to remain, we shall exile ourselves like Cain, and nothing that is lasting shall ever be built upon this world by our labors of Country for our Nation. And the fruits it shall bear shall always never be enough to nourish the goodness and the life of our people.

Nor shall we be any more good to other Nations than our chosen weakness - our fellow Nations who are kindred to us in this world - in the Truth - to whom we do rely and who also look to us for their reliance.

We shall as a people proceed upon the Unknown Earth as Cain, restless for Justice and thirsting for a true sense of belonging - yet fearful for our own Reliance - to God and Country; wanting to return yet unable to return - set apart from our Peace by our own lack of choice.

The question of Cain is a question of Liberty.

The Decalogue made it clear that murder is a transgression in the eyes of God - in beholding the Divine Law; this is universally recognized in the ethical codes possessed by the great lineages of the Children of Mankind and a common prescript reflected by the Law of the Nations.

In the time of Cain, the killing of Abel was murder - as an act of War. It was not Cain who did murder his brother. But it was he who opened the door of his heart to it. And "it" - the Advent of War - caused him to kill his brother - by his own hands.

At the onset of the Nations of the Children, the LORD introduced to the Nations through Moses and the faith of His Nation Israel, a common prohibition on murder. So in our days, murder is clearly and heavily sanctioned.

Because murder too was exiled to Nod - with Cain. And as we are - as Nations - called to gather all the Children of Mankind - in the way of our return to Peace - neither War nor its many offspring which are lies, hatred, pestilence, famine, murder and genocide - must have a place in our life and labors.

Yet where war is, there shall the shadow of its offspring linger. Is this war among ourselves our "friend"?

That we should mouth its lies,
partake of its ancient and relentless hatred for our common humanity,
clothe ourselves with its violence, and allow its adversarial spirit
to feed on the life and labors of our human communities -
only so that it may proceed to devour our children
ruin the order and purpose of our generations
and profane the peace of our communities.

The nature of this war among ourselves is such that it is an evil to us - only inasmuch - as we are - in ourselves lacking in the good. We are sufficient for the Peace we must profess. We should never be afraid of our own Reliance - to God and in each other.

War is, of course, a greater beast that the one we must together in this Nation confront.

But if we come together in this Nation of ours - in Peace, as a Nation - let us also understand, we are with other Nations together capable of staying the beast - as one Family we are able to build up a world that is better for Peace, through Love for common humanity and living Remembrance.

Nevermore shall the stirring in our spirits stir for War - but for the many hopes the past generations shall to us entrust, when we make our peace with their memory.

But first, we must end this War within ourselves by a free and human choice. (War chose us - it seeks for us to open the door of our hearts to it, we do not have to - there is really only one choice we have as a Nation - renounce it. Let Peace be our policy. Let us also wonder and be grateful at the foresight of the architects of our 1987 Constitution - are they not like us?)

I believe there are many opportunities these days to exercise citizenship with fidelity. And to be able to understand and to make this choice for Peace freely is a prime opportunity to do so.

Is it not good practice - to find the right questions - why our Nation must end this war, and let go of all the wrong reasons - how, and how may one proceed from choice - to civic efficiency - to human exercise?
---<--@

Practical Application -

Found here is the provenance where from the CARHRIHL is in spirit derived. The JASIG sought to draw the line upon the sand whereby we may together reverse the nature of the conflict.

That this line may only be realistically held under the flag of a robust and honorable truce is where the present difficulty lies. We shall overcome this difficulty or we shall be overcome by it.

Let us be for the overcoming. 

Amen, let us begin. May God continue to bless and aid our efforts - mabuhay!

Salutation #190

Of the elements of Country, there are three -
the Nation, the Responsible State, and the Common Market.

(On the Country of the Philippines)

The Nation that we are, my people,
is founded on a Covenantal obligation
between God and the Children of Mankind
which is the Covenant that the LORD made forever
with all of the Nations of the Children of Mankind
that our God inaugurated in time
through Noah and his sons.

The Noahide Covenant
binds our generations to the freedoms
that ensure the preservation of sacred life
- the whole spectrum of it - that upon "our world"
   (as a realm apart from "the world" of the fallen Nations of old),
water shall never again consume the life of the Earth -
but shall through the life of our Nations
be nourished and sustained by it.

For we are through bonds of water and blood established.

Sacred Life is our sacred obligation -
and its preservation in ourselves and therefore,
throughout all of lower creation - is -
the fire that animates our spirits.

This "world - as our world"
that we are each as Nations is commissioned
to build together for all of the Children of Mankind
   (as God's own human peoples - arising from lineages apart -
   from the inhuman and irreparably corrupt spiritual lineages
   of the fallen Nations of old who sinned with the pride of Satan)
upon the Unknown Earth - which is likewise -
God's primary command to all the Nations of Mankind
   (including those fallen Nations of old
   whose life He utterly destroyed during the Great Flood,
   whose spiritual lineages the LORD disowned,
   and irrevocably unseeded in them)
is what we call the Inhabited Earth
that Crystal Blue Sphere that
   (it is blue because it is immersed in water)
from the spiritual realm
is a wonder for all
to behold.

This is our Covenant
- the Covenant of the Children -
and we are never free to break it.

To preserve the dignity and promise of Man - in all our Nations - is -
to do Justice to the image and likeness of Man - reflected upon the life of the world
and make it, "our world". Thus, making the Earth to the LORD, "very good".
Because to do Justice to the sacred life of this world - from the person of Man
right down to the very least of all of Man's animals and Man's plants
is the fundamental reason we are called to exist as Nations.

The existence of life in our world
- is - the soul that gives our Nation breath,
and the living up to the very wonder of this life,
along with the most profound existential questions
that specifically pertains to the mystery of life
and to the living of this life in this world,
- is - the spirit that is our breathing -
the truths of life's Salvation and its Redemption
is the fire that animates both our water and our blood.

The preservation of "the all" of sacred life
in this way - is the mission and the commission -
entrusted to all National communities of the Earth.
It is our Peace and the Goodwill of our Peace.

For the Universe
is not created for Man
Man is created for the Universe.

We as the Children exist for the labor.
Everything else exists for the glory of God.

- selah -

As a National community -
we are called of spirit and of blood born.
However, it is from water that our lineages upon the Earth are established.
For it is from the formless - that - the form of our citizenship
constantly renew itself and arise: Our truest citizenship is in our soul.

And from it proceeds the spiritual truths
where from we derive the first principles
that shape and define our Social Contract.

This Social Contract establishes - our labors as truth -
and - our truth upon the Earth - as a Sovereign Presence
before the LORD and the Assembly of the Nations before God
both in Eternity - and also upon the Earth.

This Social Contract is known as Democracy.

- selah -

We - as human beings -
do not practice our freedoms in a vacuum.

Freedom is a profoundly spiritual reality in Man.

Where in the life of lower creation, freedom is but a physical act,
completely reliant upon the nurture of freedoms ever greater than theirs,
our freedom is beholden to a spiritual dimension - because as human beings,
we implicitly know in our hearts that we must reach out to the only other freedom
reaching out to us, the freedom of God - in much the same way
that the life of the Earth reaches out to us.

The universe was not created for Man.
Man is created for the universe:
We belong to its labor
   (as common laborers upon the Master's field)
and only to its labor we belong -
particularly as Nations of the Children.

For example,
a dog whom we love or the plant that we nurture
- in the most immediate and real sense -
belong not to us.

For is it not also true
that it is Providence that speaks for its life?

We belong to it - or more specifically speaking,
to the labor of making it ours again.

And so inasmuch as we quicken our souls
to the work that we owe to the life in ourselves and to the life of all of lower creation -
in God and with each other, they become ours and they awaken again and learn our voice.

Else, this world - above the din of all other things that seek to confuse us -
will roar in silence deafening: For this world will never speak its secrets to our hearts.

And we will never know of it as our First Parents did intimately know of it
and so remain - very uncomfortably - strangers to the wonders of our own living Earth,
- trespassers and invaders to the varied realms that lay within our own Human Habitation.

If we love anything in lower creation - in the Truth,
they - like the Truth - become our possession forever. 

This is a freedom no animal or plant possess.

And it is never practiced like animals and plants practice their freedom.

It is never practiced in a vacuum.

And so
from Covenant proceeds Social Contract
and for us, my brothers and sisters of the Promise,
this is simply all about - Life and Liberty -
and so specifically - we are - as a Nation among Nations -
a participatory, constitutional Democracy;
a people brave, and free, and fair.

- selah - 

Why participatory?

Stronger freedoms require Liberty that we may exercise rights that exist to make our personal freedoms strong and also guarantee those same rights commonly preserved for other citizens not unlike ourselves.

Weak freedoms fall prey to any number of dangers and calamities, and the labor that we must fulfill is not easy.

If we do not hold on to our Nationhood, or worse - if we do not know how - it becomes impossible for any of us to build up the Earth.

Everything that in exile time progresses in Time without the Truth shall appear as an unremitting retreat into a devouring darkness - as the world gets darker and darker - meaninglessness becomes bitterness, bitterness turns into despair of self, despair of self becomes despair of others not unlike the self, and so - as the years become empty of their substance - Country will seem as nothing else but a madness that devours, and what once was in our common humanity precious as our hopes for all sacred life become abased into a sheer tyranny of beliefs founded in falsities and illusions.

The gravity of these things we must fight against - it is not our way of return: Ours is an Ascent in Time and unto the Truth.

We were never free to not fly upon Eagle Wings. For the LORD God saith that saying of the Nations, not of individuals. So when you shall sing to thy soul the popular song, "On Eagle Wings", make an effort to see that song as dedicated to Nations entire and not merely to individuals.

Our Nation, my beloved people, is one of those Nations. In this Nationhood, we are impelled to participate. We are therefore, we must.

But we can not build the right world with the wrong values.

- selah -

Why constitutional?

The Nations of the Children of Mankind is one great Peerage before the LORD.

And indeed, we are each - as human individuals, a peer to one another - through our personal and individual distinctions, equally - a keeper and a friend to our common humanity.

We all have - and have forever possessed - a basic, human citizenship.

Our communities too, are such as we - a Peerage of the Nations, for unequal each Nation may be in spiritual maturity and material strength, but as a Plenary Global Community - being as one Family of Nations - we are each enabled to equally overcome that we may together prevail against this world, and make of the Earth, our home away from Home.

For we are all here for a reason exclusive only to the fulfillment of a dream of happiness, and it is not even our dream, it is God's dream for us, and it is wonderful beyond wonderful indeed!

The authority to govern our peers whether from within the Nation or from among the Nations themselves is not a human authority, but a Divine authority.

And this authority is vested in a Responsible State and the structure of this State, as it applies to our Nation, is established in our prevailing Constitution - this binds us - in spirit - to a particular undertaking of Country that is in form - a Republic - and which therefore possess in itself - a very specific spirit.

We move like a Republic moves.

However, it is our personal freedoms that determine its Ascent - into its ages in Time - from emerging, developing, developed, and mature - and our Right of Ascent is likewise determined by the rightness of these freedoms.

Each Nation only has one Right of Ascent, each Country only has one freedom or Way of Ascent - all else falls into the gravity of the unveiling of the darkness of the desolation - and Democracy as a whole - is the Social Contract we specifically have - with each other, that we owe - for each other, and that our generations owe - to each other - that we will secure for ourselves and our Posterity this Republic, and it's Liberty.

It imposes a Burden
   (which we shall also expound upon very soon),
because our freedoms are neither cheap -
nor are they ever free.

- selah (pause and think) -

Now we come to review the Engine of our Economic Progression.

For to liberate our souls to pursue those spiritual freedoms that is our happiness,
we must first liberate our minds and our bodies from the physicality that in material weakness
mires us individually and prevents our communities from securing for themselves within the Nation,
our Republic Vision (as it arises from the Maturity of our Love and Remembrances together).

This engine is human enterprise Capitalism,
and it establishes upon our Common Market within the Nation,
a Free Enterprise Market structure.

It is the Engine naturally compatible with our Democracy and its sheltering Republic,
driving its Progress forward, against the flow of exile time, that we may secure - at the helm -
for all our generations to the last, through an Economy of matter and grace,
the wealth of our Nation - which is wealth already established in us
being in everything already dedicated as our possession forever.

The full breadth of the Vision of human enterprise Capitalism is to perfect the drive of human enterprise and liberate Man from the poverty and the humiliation of the human condition.

It creates material wealth as a means to secure and obtain - in the Nation - for each and every individual, the freedom to individually pursue a happiness that is fully and completely human - so each Man may know to be free - to learn to be happy, even in this world - securing and obtaining for himself or herself true riches - from perishable means to imperishable ends.

The full breadth of this Vision does not create more poverty. It makes the poor wealthy and the wealthy truly wealthy and leads all and involves all in the Real Economy of the Nation.

Furthermore, Capitalism is - a National proposition - and therefore, may not exist to serve only the interests of a few citizens, particularly in a Democracy. Else it should falter and fail - to the everlasting regret of all.

Also, as it serves a primordial need in Man's own being - to be truly free and truly happy, Capitalism - as an Engine of Economic Progress - must naturally possess a spiritual dimension. It's promise of happiness never was a material dream, for its dream of happiness is an invincible one.

People drown in riches because their souls can not be filled by gold alone.

Greed has no part nor place in a free enterprise Market.

And as ours is such a one - our free Market structure must naturally react to expel greediness - as tares are beaten from the wheat.

Indeed, it must be intrinsic to our Economic structures and strictures that inordinate wants and the many lusts that support them are not only counterproductive but also counter-intuitive to our National Economy and run counter to our economic good as citizens - being usually not only corrupted but criminal.

Truly, truly, virtue is currency.

Greed in our Economy is like having termites in the wood of our tree.

All of that which places the value of Man's things over the things of Man give nor possess no value and only exists to take from Country; it shortens the length of our days (making it appear to our hearts we're getting nowhere fast), is useless to the fostering of our sovereign freedoms, and is quite destructive to the labor of securing the National wealth.

We can be as rich as we want to be in our Economy, provided it does not make any of us filthy - but only truly happy.

In fact, in the most ideal sense - everyone should own capital, multiply it, and have a successful business so that we should all be billionaires, rich with good things besides, and wealthy at the same time.

A Capitalist does not value imprudence in the use of material resources and despises greed because greed is reckless. Greed is narrow and selfish and suffocates both human creativity and personal initiative. It is the saw that ultimately saws off the branch it is sitting on - calamitous to the Market it preys upon.

Capitalism values not how much money is in the bank but on how much capital enterprise is in the works, it values chutzpah, and rewards honest, dedicated and inspired work, no matter how small it may be, seeking to succeed not on how well and how bravely one runs from business - but on how well and how bravely a business is run.

The capital in capitalization, and the exclusive proprietary rights of those who own the means of work is only the result and not the source of the capital in capitalism. It is a myth that Capitalism is prejudicial to workers' rights; a legend propagated by the greediness of a few.

The human capital is crucial to the success of Capitalism, so that it's betterment - both in the labor force and in the management corps that serve each proprietary trust - in business and other market venture entities - that comprise our Free Market is vital to the success of our Economy.

But the value of the human element may only be as valuable as we recognize it. Fairness is what makes our Markets free. Therefore, a degraded economic identity in our citizenry will - and shall - imperil our Market Freedoms. When honesty in the small seem to count for nothing when the truth is that honesty can never be measured by any material dimension. Honesty is honesty in all persons.

And this in turn shall slow or even stop the many human gears that drive forward the popular engine of our Economic Progress. It will produce disparities in the way we view wealth and poverty, polarize it into an unnatural state of division - so that wealth and poverty are no longer connected - in both our minds and our hearts.

(That wealth and poverty as they exist - exists not harmoniously but are inimical to each other - like hydrogen refusing to bind with oxygen to make water.)

Indeed, there is now in our Nation, and perhaps also in other Nations not unlike ours, that selfsame unfamiliarity; a sense of unbalanced imbalances that seems so unnatural to the Economic evolution of any free, fair, and brave enterprising people - and one that prevents each our Country from taking wing, leaving us all earth-bound - below the clouds, under the darkness, out of sight of the stars and the skies.

This is not a deficiency in our people's virtue and good. There is so much bravery in a magbabalut or a fish ball vendor, or an honest taxi driver or airport porter - or any enterprising Pinoy who invests in the smallest of seeds - his or her citizenry - to dream of a better life - in this Nation - it is this spark that we should be looking for... 

(The author also has a specific proposal to make common for all Filipinos - the practical means to enter into our National Economy and strengthen our City's common ability to build up the National wealth which shall also be posted in this blog at a later time.)

For it is this spark that we may use it to jump start our Engine back to life - it is found in the here, there, and everywhere, just raring to go - in each of us, because all of this is - in the heart of the Filipino - and - in the soul of our Nation.

And Now is our Time.
---<--@

View in Review 20120324

We have got to buck up and support a pro-human rights stance in Syria.

We have to confront North Korea at the strategic level in a way that is clearly defensive in stance. (That missile is aimed at the route of least resistance and speaks volumes to my ears about the state of our own readiness.)

The DPRK's language is often symbolic and belies its intentions in a manner which is seldom direct. It is an unspoken language, however, always consistent with the spirit of that Country.

Thus, its not the satellite in showcase here, its the launch modality.

This threatens us only indirectly at this time however. Whether we respond or not (more importantly how to respond or how not to respond), must always be calculated to mitigate the threat that this becomes direct.

We must bear in mind and heart we belong on opposite sides of the 38th parallel and historically always have.

We have to be able to state a clear, cohesive, long-term plan of non-aggression, dialogue and de-escalation in the Spratlys as an integral part of the ASEAN regional community, with our allies in principle, and with China as an integral part of a continental whole (Asia).

We have to be both clear and consistent on what is ours (which can be jointly developed as a sovereign part of our Republic) and what is not ours (which can be jointly developed as part of a common trust territory solution).

War, in our age, can no longer be confined to particular regions, with specific or area combatants.

In an age where we, as the (free nations of the) one human race, are becoming closely related as a global community, conflagrations of any size shall be the concern of all our nations.

As in a forest of tress, War is the peril of all. (For War presents to our civilizations a threat as existential as fire is to wood.)

We have to stand on our own principles, clearly stated in our Constitution.

We have to be able to expound on these and understand them in depth from first principles.

It is from these principles that we may obtain certainty in a time of uncertainty.

It is upon these principles, we must return in order to build for our own generations the beginnings of an enduring, better capable, forward thinking, one and faithful Republic.

It is from an abiding understanding of these principles that the re-discovery of the truth that fills our nationhood with substance is made possible and this will fuel the rejuvenation of our great and noble society.

- selah -

Where does it all begin, my nation? At the heart - that is why, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, I can say to each of you, "we already have everything we need".

Now, if we should criticize each other, let it be. BUT let it be done so always with a sense of civic affection and indivisible loyalty to the nation.

Let it be understood by each Filipino that in the end, when push comes to shove, we will all fall onto but one belonging - to the last!

And that ultimately, we love each other for being Filipino, just for being Filipino.

---<--@

The Renunciation of War

The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, Article 2, Section 2 states the following:

"The Philippines renounces war as an instrument of national policy, adopts the generally accepted principles of international law as part of the law of the land and adheres to the policy of peace (1), equality (2), justice (3), freedom (4), cooperation and amity with all nations (5)."

1. Peace requires we understand War.

2. Equality requires we understand both human dignity and human promise.

3. Justice requires we understand the economy of the life of nations.

4. Freedom requires we understand the truth about ourselves before God.

5. Cooperation and amity with all nations requires we understand how to love our own and others like our own as citizens and fellow human beings upon the earth.

What about our own nation, my brother and sister Filipino?

Are we excluded here by our own Constitution?

Shall we renounce the use of war against each other first?

When shall we build the monuments

to remember this time in the life of our Country, my people?

When shall we count the names?

When shall we take the memory of our fallen in

and remember each their lives and each their promise

away from the poisonous darkness

this cruel division has so far

wrought upon the mind and soul of our nation?

---<--@

Think about it -

I hate this conflict among ourselves

firstly because of (1) what it takes away - from us,

because of (2) what it prevents from arriving - for us,

and lastly, because of (3) what madness it inspires by its scandal - in us.

When you see this conflict

for what abomination it really is

in the eyes of both heaven

and of all the earth,

you will recoil.

From whatever side

- you claim to belong -

upon this one hallowed belonging

granted to us - equally, to all our generations -

by the great Providence of God

and the timeless merits of our people,

you will recoil!

Now,

I want you to set the eye of your heart

on the prize of Peace -

it is everything that is being denied our Country

at this point in time - wealth, prestige, quality of life,

and much, much more - every good thing

which ultimately leads our nation

to the freedom desired by all Filipino hearts.

- selah -

Forsake War, renounce it.

Salutation #86

Of the Responsible State,

it must be said - there is no state more superior,

regardless of it's present governing framework,

than one that brings peace to the people.

A state must be judged by the people and the people by their peace.

A peaceful nation is a happy people ruled by a just state.

This state (the civilian leadership and its necessary administration),

regardless of its governing framework philosophy (in its present evolution),

is a just state - it is a Responsible State!

As all that is truth

cleave unto each other in the ascent,

so does freedom become ennobled

by the ennobling presence of freedom.

(Crossroads)

Peace, I salute you.

What's really on trial next week?

I want you see behind the externals

and look above the personalities involved,

and to perceive this impeachment in terms national

which extends across the life of our generations -

What's on trial next week

is an old and oppressive system

of selfish elitism and mindless factionalism -

a system which is disloyal to the life of our Republic;

a system we, the people, have allowed to endure

and have now the rare opportunity

to directly check and peaceably correct.

You feel the subtle effects of this system

('tis a rule of War, a mindless paradigm of division)

for it is like a tyranny without a tyrant

and its unfamiliar spirit is here in our midst

because we have allowed it to creep deep into our culture -

right into the very nook and cranny of every Filipino home

the sacredness of which our Constitution

- explicitly protects as inviolate -

because it is from each of our homes

where both our fortunes as well as our futures

as one Republic whole are broken or made.

(And War would have us all undone, my nation -

from weak to strong, and from lie to lie.)

Each home in our Republic is a bastion of Country,

for no matter how it is built - how magnificent or how humble -

each of our homes is dignified and defended by the laws

that we owe to each other equally - to recognize and uphold -

laws kept so that kings and presidents may not enter

any one of our homes - from least to great -

(but especially the least from among all)

without each our express permission -

let alone the spirit of War!

- selah -

My beloved people,

in exactly one week from now,

we shall arrive at a crossroads...

(only one of the many along our straight path)

where we shall each perceive

two paths leading out into the distance.

We shall each invest in a choice - as a nation -

a choice we must make more through our faith

- in the workings of God and of Country -

than through individual knowledge of any kind.

So that if we are still not established upon the truth

of who we are as a people and why we are as a nation,

when the time comes and everything speeds up once again

and the currents become for us turbulent -

we might get swept away - again -

into a place in time

we don't ever want to be.

We have no other home away from Home

- here upon this world of earth and fire -

than our one Republic of the Philippines;

we are but one vessel, one boat, one ship.

My brothers and sisters of the Promise,

we can no longer afford to be complacent.

There is no pulling ourselves back up river

for once it runs down water,

it must eventually reach the sea.

---<--@

Think about it -

Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light (spirit).

And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness (judgment).

God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day (authority).

- Genesis 1: 3-5

Power is what calms the sea, it is what divides the waters, it is what distinguishes the light from the darkness.

Among the nations, power is the presence of authority.

Likewise, lack of authority is the absence of power.

(Please also see - One Song Meow: Power.)

The Paradox of Power

Sheltering Wings

The Ascent

In those great sweeps of ambiguity,

the framers of our present Constitution defined for this nation,

by the ideals they have established for our Republic,

that great and abiding paradigm

of liberty for our people.

For these ideals guide,

as a unifying sense of vision and direction,

and give us counsel

according to (1) how we interpret our freedom,

(2) how we live it, and (3) how we learn it,

ever ascending with but one ascent to the truth.

---<--@

No Comment

To exceed the defense is to become the enemy we claim to fight.

I really have no commentary on the present goings-on in our Country (at least as far as those issues hugging the headlines at the moment).

Sometimes, you have to draw back from these things to see them from perspectives far from the maddening crowd. It all seems so confusing right now.

One thing is for sure though: If it were that the Executive and the Judiciary is indeed carrying out the beginnings of a constitutional crisis - let us be wary.

Let us be wary for our own good sake's.

Let us not be bitter. Let us not be hasty. But let us be prudent.

Let us be solicitous for the people caught in between - both rich and poor alike - let us care about the way they are treated and let it be a reflection of our finer sense of Justice.

Let us be rightly concerned about the plights of both GMA and the farmers of HL - let us be solicitous for their deliverance - the former from an unjust retribution and the latter from further exploitation.

We are after all, one nation - not two, or three, or four - but one.

---<--@

Running Commentary -

20111209: Mind you, I too pine for Justice to come favor our Republic with the full measure of her virtue.

Now, the Justice I thirst for is not in spirit animated by either vengeance or hatred. [Please see the 3rd Cause.]

The Justice I seek for us, my people, is not the crude give and take rule of the wilderness but the virtue that restores the truth to end all injustices.

We should therefore be wary of a false sense of justice in our midst in much the same way we guard against false hope.

This is what I mean when I say we should be wary.

We should not allow ourselves [our hearts and our minds] to be drawn into a meaningless sense of division but stand steadfastly on the strength of first principles.

It is not fair having to have to choose between two co-equal branches of the one government we have entrusted to carry forward the singular vision of our one Republic peace.

While, it is true that the Supreme Court's most recent decisions seem to be leaning somewhere suspect it still remains that those decisions still are decisions of the Supreme Court.

Man can not live without order. Law is necessary, even laws that are broken and evil, because where there is no law, Man can not long endure.

It is to this order, this nascent Constitutional order, that I perceive the real damage of the current divisions engulfing the Executive and the Judiciary is being received - subtly, with consequences that are very difficult to foresee.

I still do not doubt the President's sincerity but his methods of late especially as regards this row with Chief Justice Corona seem to wax less than the nobility of his intentions.

Therefore, may both the Executive and the Judiciary work together to decisively put an end to their disagreements and present to us, the people, a united will and a common vision.

20111212: If it was that the 2004 elections were indeed hi-jacked, we have a lot more soul searching to do as a nation than I previously thought... I think about it and leads me to a place so dark and so deep i don't want to go there just yet.

Does this mean we might still be in denial as a people as regards to how sick and impoverished our one Republic truly is?

Does this mean it hasn't yet completely dawned upon us how far-reaching and broad our responsibilities to each other is to see our nation through this long night?

20111214: I've been reading some really polarizing articles on the impeachment of Chief Justice Corona - minds out there seem split, conflicted between their condemnation of one or the other (President Noy or the Chief Justice).

I think this is why due process should take its place. Because if we do not see this trial to the end, we - the people - will never know.

It is this ignorance that is dangerous.

Furthermore, I sense something is off about they way Chief Justice Corona delivered his most recent speech - it was as if he was digging in for a fight - but a fight with whom?

On the other hand, President Noy is taking great pains to frame his arguments even at great cost to his political capital, working and thinking hard to clarify his position amidst words like dictator, enemies of the court, and Hitler.

It might not be anger or hatred (or revenge) that we are presently seeing from our President but sheer determination and history might recognize it as such.

In any case, due process must take its place...

20111215: Define independence. Independence from what? I think what our Country needs is a new generation of citizen-servants!

---<--@

I want you to bear - into your heart and mind -

that old familiar Flag - our Old Defiant.

- selah -

We can not be the Country we weren't meant to be,

my brothers and sisters of the Promise.

Therefore,

we have to be better than that

if for no other reason than because

we deserve better than that.

God Encompassing God

PREAMBLE of the 1987 Constitution -

"We, the sovereign Filipino people,

imploring the aid of Almighty God,

in order to build a just and humane society,

and establish a Government

that shall embody our ideals and aspirations,

promote the common good,

conserve and develop our patrimony,

and secure to ourselves and our posterity,

the blessings of independence and democracy

- under the rule of law -

and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace,

do ordain and promulgate this Constitution."

- selah -

O LORD,

God encompassing God,

God encompassing All in Thyself!

O LORD,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -

Blessed Unity,

Holy Trinity,

Perfect Company!

O LORD,

there is none but Thee,

there is none like Thee!

O LORD,

Thou art from everlasting to everlasting -

in Thee All draw their being,

in Thee All draw their living life,

in Thee there is no shadow of turning,

in Thee there is neither darkness nor Night,

in Thee there is joy, abundance and peace,

in Thee there is only love and the Light!

O LORD,

Thou desire salvation for all beings

to Whom shall all needful souls turn to,

my God, but to Thee?

O LORD,

Thou art the one Sovereign of all nations

unto Whom shall Thy exile peoples return to,

my God, but unto Thee?

Abide in us, O LORD, be with us!

Be the God of our lives, our families,

and our national communities!

O Goal of all my goals,

I love, I trust, and I adore Thee!

---<--@

For God is a God of relationships;

the singular Source of all true belonging -

seen and unseen, all of Sacred Life come together in Him.

He is the LORD, He Who is, and there is none but Him;

the one Sovereign of all the nations of the children of Mankind.

---<--@

ADDED: 20130526Sun

We enter into the mystery of the Divine Unity to be alone with the Alone.
We enter into the mystery of the Holy Trinity to be intimate with the Intimate.

And we who are called to be witnesses of the Redeeming Love of Christ 

are called to be alone with the Alone AND intimate with the Intimate.

Let us reflect on the number 1 as the number for perfection: with the Father, Son, and Spirit as the perfect unity of order, purpose and relation - the God Who is, the LORD Who Loves us all - one God, in Persons three. Happy Holy Trinity Sunday 2013.
---<--@