Tungkol sa Mamasapano

Masakit isipin ang Mamasapano. Isa itong trahedya.

Bagama't naidaos nang mga Tagaligtas nating SAF ang kanilang misyon sa Mamasapano mapait pa rin itong isipin. Masakit pa rin sa damdamin nang nakararami ang alaala nito. Bakit?

Sapat ba talaga na 44 na buhay ang ibuwis nang ating kapulisan at nang Bayang nating Pilipinas para sa isang terorista lamang?

May kakulangan ba ang mga opisyal natin sa gobyerno at maging sa PNP sa 44 na ito? At kung meron, sino ang mga ito at ano pa ang ating dapat linawin at isaayos nang Republika sa ngalan ng kanilang alaala upang maiwasan ang mga ganitong pangyayari?

Ang kabayanihan nang ating SAF 44 (at nang lahat na rin ng ating magigiting na tagapagsilbing sundalo't kapulisan) ay hindi natin dapat malimutan. Iyan po ay totoo.

Subalit 44 na buhay lang ba ang dapat nating pangalanan at alalahanin dito?

Hindi ba ang katotohanan po ay Pilipino lahat nang namatay at namatayan sa Mamasapano? Lahat sila ay responsibilidad nang Estado at sakop nang kapangyarihan ng Republika nating lahat maliban marahil kay Marwan (na isang kilalang banyagang kriminal datapwa't labas at labag sa ating batas ang pinanatili dito).

Ang responsibilidad po at kapangyarihang ito nang Estado at nang Republikang kumupupkop dito ay dapat sana nating pagnilay-nilayan. Dahil sa isip, sa salita, at sa gawa ito ay isinasabuhay natin araw araw sa diwa na rin nang ating sariling kasarinlan.

Paano natin gagamitin ang mga adhikain, prinsipyo't gunitaing nagbubuklod-buklod sa atin bilang isang Republika upang maging makatotohanan tayo sa ating pagka-Pilipino?

Ang prosesong pangkapayapaan ay nakasalalay sa katotohanang tayo pong lahat ay mamamayang Pilipino at may kakayahang mamuhay bilang isang bansang mapayapa. 

Republika po ang ating itinataguyod na katigan nitong kapayapaang ito. Datapwa't sa kadahilanang ang tunay na kanlungan nati'y isa't isa, pakikiramay at pakipag-kapwa tao po nawa'y gamitin ding batayan nang ating pulitika ukol sa mga isyu na umuukol sa Mamasapano habang ito po ay nililinaw.

Hindi po sana natin iatras ang Pilipinas nating lahat sa pagdating nang isang bagong umaga nang kapayapaan dahil sa sakit at kawalan na ating pinagdadaanan dahil sa trahedyang ito. 

Malinaw po sa akin sa kabila nang lahat ang panawagan ni General Espina. Ang itinatanong pa rin po nang puso't isipan ng maraming Pilipino ay kung paano mabibigyang hustisya ang pangyayari para sa lahat...

Para sa lahat.

Huwag po sana tayong mahulog sa kawalan ng pag-asa, manalig at maniwala sa Diyos at sa pangako nang ating Pilipinas na mahal... at nagmamahal.
---<--@

The Burden of Scalawag Cops

The uniform belongs only to those who wear it with honor.

General Purisima should not bear the burden of scalawag cops in his force. At the very least, it shall set a bad precedent for the rank. It is not part of his command responsibility to be psychic. 

After all, dirty cops must hide their activities behind the PNP uniform. They have to, don't they?

Good cops don't have to. To the finest belong the PNP institution - it's dignity and traditions are theirs alone. What the Republic admires as noble and excellent in our professional citizen-police are virtues - true and beholden - only to the spirit of good policing. Not to scalawags.

The service arm provide a citizen-police with additional protective cover. Additional because it really is the integrity of their badge that protects them. 

The national community recognizes the badge and so cooperates willingly with their finest within a system of Justice meant to preserve every good and wholesome thing universally loved and cherished in the life of our society, night and day, across the seasons, under our Sun and Sky.

Some cops go their entire career without firing a single shot in the line of duty. They are not less brave or less honorable than their fellow brothers and sisters in the blue.

Our mistrust of the uniform is directly a consequence of our internal divisions. Scalawag cops reinforce the appearance that our police is a force we should be unwilling to trust - as a service and an institution per se. This becomes a burden good cops must everyday live with. It makes them vulnerable.

The civilian character and national scope of our PNP should be allowed to reach its true promise and this may only be arranged when the normalization processes take into effect after the conclusion of the whole national peace process  Another benefit of peace we should look forward to...

Bad cops should bear the additional burden of General Purisima's contempt along with the contempt of all those who wear their PNP uniform with honor. 

That's my take on the matter.

.

Service. Honor. Justice.

---<--@

Guns and Colonial Mentality

"Ang baril ay mabuting alipin ngunit masamang panginoon. (The gun is a faithful servant but an evil master.)" - Fernando Poe, Jr.



This quote encapsulates a liberating view of arms, one that releases our spirit from the colonial mentality that inclines us to believe - through the common experience of our people - that the prime utility of arms is to gain power over others, especially others weaker than we are.

If during past times the strength of arms were indiscriminately used to subdue the strength of our spirit, then the same truth that lives in the virtue of arms shall be the necessary remedy that shall awaken our nation from the error of past ways - so let us together reflect upon this...

Guns mean goons only if the virtue of arms is forgot dahil ang baril ay masamang panginoon.

But if we remember what FPJ said and make use of arms as our arms were intended - for the defense of our nation and in faithful service of all that we love - we serve ourselves well, my brothers and sisters of the Promise.

We serve ourselves well because we have - together - mastered the gun and by this throw off - more and more - of the lingering yoke of dark spirits past dahil ang baril ay mabuting alipin.

- selah -

People who fear the gun, in truth, fear other people.

But it is a work of Justice to instill good will and solidarity among men and peace and brotherhood among the nations of man that this fear may eventually turn into fellowship.

Arms do not serve individuals, arms always serve a community that looms greater than the self.

(Can we realistically conceive our local defense industry prospering in the absence of this truth in our culture? No, because colonial mentality holds us back in many places and through many diverse ways.)

To do justice to the gun, we must first do justice to ourselves - as ourselves - and re-discover ourselves as a nation - together this time.

In this context, the utility of arms find their original purpose and scope.

Through the reality of nationhood, the virtue of arms find strength and meaning and the ends for which it's knowledge and grace has been by God ordered and intended - in and among - our kindred nations of our one family of nations - the safety and peace of humankind.

This is the virtue of arms.
---<--@



So let us remember what FPJ said - to us - and - for us - about guns and the knowledge and virtue of arms - and say to him in return - "mabuhay ka, FPJ!"

Salutation #167

Benignity preserveth, Justice bringeth, Law leadeth, Life giveth.

(A Just Society)

Let us be a Republic
where people know of goodness
and recognize in themselves this goodness
and having no fear of the spirit of our Justice
   (who likewise love and recognize the same goodness
   idealized in our Vision of a peaceful national community
   and protected by the prevailing laws of our Country),
have every recourse to and confidence in the same
and by the same Justice fostered in their Liberty.

Let us be a labor of Country
where no man or woman who is good
fear neither the goodness of other citizens
nor the triumph of the spirit of evil in our midst.

Let us live in this society.

- selah -

Let us be a Just Society!
---<--@


The Nine Common Human Needs

Salutation #162

My beloved, it will be remiss of me not to speak what I feel about this...

Here is a priest blessing weapons - what feels wrong about this picture? 

(Mind you, I have seen priests of other denominations as well as holy stewards of other honorable religions doing the same thing - but I choose to be represented by my own shepherds within my Mother Church - so let he or she who has not sinned cast the first stone.)

(On the Blessing of Victory)

Since we tend to bless only those things that have an everlasting value -
the blessing of weapons seems to imply to the human heart that War
(and the suffering that war and its abominations - murder, hatred, genocide -
has continually wrought in and among the nations of the children of Mankind)
is a thing that may reach out and across into Our Eternity
to do us more ill - which is not the truth.

For in heaven, there is no War.

We may bless the individual soldier along with their kit - weapons included -
since the weapon (or weapons platform) is only an extension of the soldier
who hopes (as all soldiers across all the major arms come to hope -
through his or her submission to freely serve in the defense forces
raised by his or her particular undertaking of Country, Republic or otherwise,
to preserve his or her own nation - family, friends and communities -
from the ancient curse of War) not for the continuation of war but
for the consummation of peace).

Or we may bless the soldiers in his or her own position and place
within a particular weapons platform - terrestrial, marine, aerial, or space.

Or soldiers arrayed as a unit whole - being within their organized teams -
from the very basic maneuver element to the one whole army itself -
complete with individual kit and organic combat, combat support,
and service support attachments.

We may do this (and bless their victory) - but know and understand -
that the weapons - in and by - themselves are ultimately destined for destruction
and should never receive our blessing outside the context of the noble military
and apart from the person of the soldier.

Let us then reflect upon this and pray about it.
---<--@

Farewell to Arms

Salutation #108

Honest labors bless.

Dishonest labors curse.

Clean money brings happiness.

Poisoned money brings only death.

(Law and the Real Economy of Nations)

THERE IS a vastly distinct

- yet subtle -

difference between

an economy that is real

and one that is false.

- selah -

A real economy

is one founded on the labors

all nations ought to work -

the labor of common human needs!

It is the work

of building up the inhabited earth

which in turn sustains the life of the people

and bring together all our generations.

In a real economy

- virtue is currency -

and grace, free and divine,

an integral part

of the national economy.

It is always

- a labor of hope -

(and so, ascends to the LORD)

and is the soil upon which

every national vision

is planted.

From out of this soil,

every particular tree of Country,

ordained, endowed and commissioned by God,

grows and reaches out to heaven -

and destiny.

A false economy

is one that takes away

from the strength and the vitality

of the real economy

that ought to animate the spirit

of every nation's dreaming together.

It is not the opposite

of a real economy

but a false version of it

and one that may offer

the external appearance

of similar fruit.

(A real economy

that from all outward appearances

appear to be at 100%

may only be, in fact, at 40%

because of the 100% false economy

thriving within it.

It is never as clear cut as -

real economy = 40%

false economy = 60%

total economy = 100%

The discernment of the Responsible State,

the vigilance of all its concerned government institutions

underpinned by the skill and will of the citizenry

especially first responders in law enforcement

all have a necessary part to play -

for all these individual actions contribute

to the over-all workings

of a healthy national economy

- which in turn -

shelters the person

and promote the well-being

of all.)

All species of criminal activity

and all those activities (as a whole)

that exploit the hope of the people

and take undue advantage

of the common human needs

that ought to be entirely protected

- by the Sacred Trust -

of every nation

produces diverse structures of evil

(social in nature

and organized as far

as it is allowed

by it own host nation)

that, each in its own ill-turn,

feed into these false economies

that steal away (like a host of parasites)

the time, talents, and the treasures

of Country.

It is always a work

wrought in lies and false hopes.

It is always an endeavor

supported by vice and brute force.

And it ultimately leads the people

into emptiness and despair.

For

despite all outward appearances,

all false economies are possessed

of no vision, no promise,

and no victory.

To join with it then, is futility.

Now,

it is one of the essential functions

of Law to draw a line

- clear and straight -

between a real economy

and a false economy.

RA9160 requires that we draw that line!

---<--@

RA9160 is the Anti-Money Laundering Act of the Philippines.

Common Human Needs

Salutation #92

What seeks to banish the evils in human society,

what seeks to redress the legitimate grievances of the community,

what seeks to safeguard the individual good and the common good,

what seeks to fulfill the requirements of the creative ideal expressed by the hopes of every nation and mandated by the ideals vested in each its Responsible States,

all of these are acts of Spiritual Justice.

It is what imparts force of truth to the individual will to preserve through human institutions, the peace and the order of civil society.

(3rd Cause - Justice)

(Defeating the Culture of Impunity)

Ignorance is poisonous but indifference is lethal.

This culture of impunity

is like a dragon-shaped shadow

hovering over our captive nation;

it seems huge when taken all together

and terrifying when seen from a distance,

looming like a serpent constantly waiting to strike

but from up close, if we choose to examine it,

it is still made of nothing

and everywhere it is vulnerable.

Like a tyranny without a tyrant,

it grips our society in a parasitic embrace

keeping the people from becoming

and the nation from the truth of itself.

To pierce through its illusion,

our present leadership must remain alert

to the shine (heart) and to the leading (reality)

of the great Providence of the LORD -

serving as servants and leading as leaders

enabling our nation to shine as one whole sky

empowering our people to become as they are

- citizens not unlike each other -

shining for God and mother Country

with sunbeams sharp against the darkness

dispelling the dragon's false embrace.

- selah -

Therefore,

let us confront all of these

individual injustices together

(particularly at this present time,

that of the murdered journalist and

fellow Filipino, Christopher "Cris" Guarin)

- in our hearts, in our lives, in our times -

through varied gifts and stations in life

bound together wholly as one nation

under the eternal vigilance of God

arrayed in time and across time

as one Republic undertaking of Country

and like a multitude of sharp spears -

speak the truth

and stand for the right!

For it shall take all of us to defeat this evil dragon

and overthrow its lineage of weakness and defeat;

prevailing as one work, one heart, one destiny.

Indeed,

my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

- all that is shadow must always yield to the light -

for it is still made of nothing

and everywhere it is vulnerable.

---<--@

Land of Promise,

Cradle of the Brave,

from the tyranny of oppression

thou shalt never yield.