Thoughts in the Raw

I hate it that the BBL issue is getting helplessly conflicting. One can not despair though. When things get this way, I think it is becoming more and more a leadership crisis than a legislative one. And when we talk of leadership we look to Malacanang... or to each ourselves...

I use this blog to store my thoughts and read back to them when I can... So about the BBL, another thing I haven't really written about is the "expansion" clause. It should be removed. Even if the Philippine Republic does federalize... (maybe we will, maybe we won't), it introduces into the national thinking, a kind of competition that is unsuited to the keeping of the broader peace. What if every province had the ability to eat each other up? If Congress hasn't already done so, they should rethink this clause.

I can not fully oppose the BBL like I fully oppose separatism and armed insurrection. The BBL for all its controversy represents a significant investment in peace reform - whether it prospers or not is another question altogether. I can not however, overlook how much effort, funds, and futures have been put into the crafting of the draft law. It has to be given a chance. 

---<--@

The Rohingya people might themselves possess a history of conflict we presently have little to no understanding of... We have to make sure this history of conflict does not come into our shores unresolved.

Unresolved if not by them - by us - this nation we know as our own. We have nothing to do with the baggage of their past - from Bangladesh, to Myanmar, or with the Rakhine - though we can represent something of their future...

I think we as a nation have a moral and spiritual obligation to help human beings in need, especially those who are under threat of being unjustly and summarily relieved of their lives and liberty.

We as Filipinos must always remember we started out as people in the shadow of death. Both Islam and Christianity as our major religions are familiar with the plight of the human minority - all three Abrahamic faiths started out as exceptions and as contradictions before the face of the world.

I do not know how we as Christians, Muslims, and Jews got to be so fully assimilated to the rule of war... I recognize our beginnings and know through my own remembrance that what we do to each other can sometimes be so terribly incompatible with the memory...

Anyway, since we are in truth obliged to help them - we have to also make it clear that our helping them does not mean that we favor them over their enemies nor grant symbolic asylum to hatreds of any kind. As we too have an obligation to Justice and to do justice - it is the plight of their common humanity more than anything else that we must immediately recognize.

In any case, we are now also obliged to help ourselves understand the plight of the Rohingya people. If ASEAN has a capability of declaring and acting upon a region-wide humanitarian crisis, this would be a good example of one of those, I think. 

---<--@

Ayayay... para bagang ganito:

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

The ASEAN Peace Corps

Regional citizenship is the vision.
Regional development is the mission.

Peace is through strength. In ages past, particularly the age we are about to leave behind, peace was through war. War was thought to be strength. What errors this kind of thinking produced is obvious in our world today.

Peace is through strength of the human spirit.

We can never lose our individual identities through peace work. We could only gain a better appreciation of the diversity embraced by the ideals that underpin the fostering unity of our ASEAN by learning about each other.

Peace is a journey of directions. 

If in the recent past, the horizon for our world and in particular, our region seem endlessly dark, it may be thought that our world was wandering in search of a way out of the long night.

We are many in ASEAN but all of us, with the rest of the nations of our world, long for a new day.

Integration is next year. Our governments alone can not fully consolidate the region. We must engage the civic consciousness of the region and provide it a channel into deeper waters.

As such, this shall be a civic organization. It shall operate under the aegis of ASEAN, the auspices of our member States, and the common good will of our peoples.

It shall be a volunteer regional organization with the stated aim -

To strengthen the spirit of human citizenship in our region in Asia through peace work (vision) and - To support of the vision of one ASEAN through regional development (mission).

It will allow our peoples not only the gain of a knowledge of the region and an understanding of its unique heritage of living cultures and experiences, it shall also provide for them, from nations across our region, a meaningful way to gain broader expertise in professions and specialties from the many fields of human endeavor as gifts they may take home with them to their home Countries.

This translates to a capability for evenness in regional development and a broader peace for ASEAN.
---<--@

Personal Thoughts 

Five of each ASEAN member States are mainland (Mainland) and maritime (Seaward). Of the mainland States, I believe Cambodia and Laos need the most assistance.

Personally, I envision a railroad that will connect the five mainland nations and serve their logistical needs as well as develop their tourism potential.

Here in the Philippines, it is a further grounding on our the principles of our national economy that I believe most necessary.

On Food Security

Hunger in Man we will not be able to fully address as Nations in exile. It is hunger in the Nation that we should contemplate - hunger as a social evil.

Food Security is the primary means we will utilize to defend the Republic from this social evil.

What is Food Security?

Food Security is the presence of the ready means to effectively address the basic question of hunger in our national communities.

Availability and Accessibility is key.

This is how I interpret it to be.

It is must always be planned in surpluses yearly, ahead of the basic food requirement of a healthy Nation. Necessary adjustments might occur to us, in the course of our build, according to prevailing climate and market readiness conditions.

Rice is the natural foundation of our Food Security. Rice shall also be the means we may use to measure our successes and deficiencies in this regard. We will develop Rice Sufficiency as a Region with ASEAN.

Consistent and cost-effective agricultural modernization, progressive, positive agrarian reform, the empowerment and establishment of "green" Provinces, the establishment of an efficient distribution network, and effective strategic warehousing systems in the Republic - done to address the basic question of hunger as a National development imperative may add together to form a structure whereby we may secure reasonable degrees of Food Security in behalf of our citizenry.

Hunger is not circuitous.

The means to secure ourselves from it through Food Security may not be as straightforward. But the core compass direction we will be building towards must always remain clear and quite resistant to any untoward politics, regardless of its positioning platform or guiding personalities.

We will be grinding at a stone. But obtaining a clear vision in this regard will allow us wear out this granite mountain down to a molehill long before our convictions become dulled.

Without the actual means to defend this Republic against hunger, the question of poverty as an adverse social phenomenon will always outwit and outflank both our thought and our will as a people.

Poverty is its own solution to a Nation determined. Providence decreed our labors to come together unto the good and were never meant to be but a futile suffering. But we have to have a clear vision.

No human being in this planet is immune from hunger. Even our politics must understand that.

Hunger as a National development imperative motivating Food Security simply seeks to adequately address this basic need in Man through the Republic as a functional, synergistic whole, impressing upon our citizenry that each Filipino citizen possesses an equal share in the Philippine State.

We owe it to ourselves as a whole, from least to great, to help each other advance the greater human causes Providence, through the heritage of our citizenship, have seen it fit to endow us with this same belonging.

Addressing this need in the Nation creates work. Labor - good, honest, gainful work - that affirms for our Republic the value of human life and, according to each our labors, elevates human dignity to a station met for every human person.
---<--@

Code of Cooperation

Can all the concerned parties agree that the implementation of a Code is -

(1) for purposes of stabilizing and demilitarizing the area of concern to pave the way for a diplomatic resolution of the points of conflict (which we shall work to discern from the area concern) -

(2) and the prevention of open hostilities upon that beleaguered sea around which all of us share a common shore?

As it is, the 9-dash line is diplomatically untenable and entirely unacceptable to my Republic and while this Code does not intend to resolve this issue, it seeks to create conditions that are better suited towards a resolution that will redound to the benefit of all parties, including the regional and the international community.

This Code of Cooperation recognizes two strategic premises -

(1) Uncertainty is our most immediate threat.

(2) War - as the agent of the last 2000 years - is our greatest enemy.

The two principal aims of this Code is - (1) to undo uncertainty and (2) to withstand War - that we may, as claimant parties together more effectively preserve the sovereign rights of our Nations and ensure freedom of navigation along the sea lanes leading in and out of the area concern.

Its primary directive is singularly and unequivocally Cooperation.

1. Distinguish economic interests and disentangle them from the political dialogue.

2. Preserve in the political dialogue a means to better express the parameters of a singularly economic concern (as distinguished from an existential demand.)

3. Observe again the SEA issue and identify these economic points of intersection (wherein the Code is preeminent and automatically applicable).

4. Identify all presently distinguishable economic points of intersection across the whole area of concern and number them systematically by count.

5. Prepare to pilot the most average issue. Agree to politically dignify regional economic cooperation where decisive national means exist - than to allow the crisis control over matters crucial to the future of our region.

6. Reach out in good will, and in smaller ways build a new consensus that is regional in scope - in behalf of the many and not in spite of them.

7. Observe and conserve the ends that favor peace over war.

8. Let us do this together in agreement and break the preponderance of conflict over the region.



In our EEZ's the primacy of decisions initial and fundamental to establishing shared responsibility and common reward for equal development will be retained by the GPH and the initiative of the Filipino people.

In return, know that we are equally and quite profoundly invested in resolutions that preclude conflicts (1) fought for lack of trust - that may have been bridged without exacting a great and terrible cost by diplomatic skill and a common, overriding focus - words spoken truthfully and sincerely always read better, and in the long-term, speak clearer to our memory than blood (2) or conflicts fought for fear of discovering what is truly human in the other - that preclude the knowledge of common ways and familiar needs by a belief that is not served in reward of learning but is nevertheless present and unconnected, floating as it were - conveniently over the reality of truths inconvenient.

For the Tao of War is deception - to undertake the resolution we desire in this Code require us to emerge from this Tao - and speak plainly - to make the circuitous straight - in the language of true things.

The Art of War constitutes victory over War - which is Peace over War - Peace as the craft of all human Nations. And the Tao of  Peace is the Truth - therefore, within this Code we shall speak sincerely only of true things - restrain and contain our politics within our borders and reach out to the other in the truth.






Some initial recommendations: Approach ASEAN partners first - Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei simultaneously. Consult with Thailand and Cambodia on the Preah Vihear issue and seek to understand their lessons learned. Offer advice and support to help Thailand obtain political stability - within the framework of ASEAN, according to the level of bilateral good will Thailand will accept. Then approach the PRC with the ROC together. Explore if applicable to the East China Sea issue.

Personal reflection: To be honest, it is very difficult for me to complete this Code. First of all, I do not have all the information I should like to know to be able to support my larger premises with factual evidence in their details. What I do have are entirely from open sources as well as my internal guidance which is profoundly inclined toward the prevention of any outbreaks of War in our region.

This Code therefore, is an extension of my larger efforts to promote Peace and Peace reform through this blog - in preparation for the next age of our world.

Finally, let this Code and its vision be a work in progress. Let us stop hating each other and start looking after each other, dreaming together as Nations this time.

God bless the PRC and the ROC, my Republic, our ASEAN, Japan, Korea, the Pacific-rim region, and all Countries involved in the task of re-building and re-balancing for Peace.

Mabuhay po tayong lahat!
---<--@

Happy Independence Day, Malaysia

Happy 56th birthday, Malaysia - MABUHAY - May you and all our ASEAN grow strong in our ages in time and ever nearer to each other in peace and good will...



May all our troubles vanish, may all hatred cease, and may all divisions be overcome - May our politics be glorious and humane, our sovereign will to defend each other as a regional family resolute and noble, and our unity enlightened and strong for being blessed by the one LORD of all human nations Who in diversity makes one and in adversity makes perfect.


Peace. Salaam. Shalom.

Merdeka!

ASEAN is Essential

If we, as individual nations,
are really serious about our being one
in the particular spirit of our region...
Then it's time to start thinking and loving
ourselves like one region... like one ASEAN.

Citizen,
incline thy better thoughts
towards our ASEAN at least once a week!

Start now
to enlarge thy hearts (and be generous!)
to embrace all our brothers and sisters in the region,
finding ever deeper ways to love us all...

ASEAN is essential.
---<--@

Remembrance 
that does not fill thy spirit with love 
to put an end to all thy hatreds 
and overcome all thy wars 
is but thy ignorance of it.

Our Divided Pond

"While the tree craves calm, the wind will not subside." This is a proverb the PRC media frequently quoted last year when commenting on the rifts between the PRC and the Philippines over the South China Sea.



Our only fault is not having a credible air-sea military deterrent to enforce our core national interests concerns within our territorial waters as well as the primacy of our economic interests within our own EEZ's alongside our international legal obligation to keep these outlying waters secure from piracy and free from lawlessness.

I always come back to this weakness in our own national defense when I ponder on the bilateral equation between the PRC and the GPH.

We did not unilaterally draw these lines on the map, we accepted them from the community of nations. We accepted them along with the rights and responsibilities that our nation must undertake along with them.

We did not harass the Chinese fishermen (PRC) in Scarborough shoal in April of last year, we were enforcing our maritime laws as we should - not because "we can" but because as a Republic, we must.

After all what is a Republic without law but a sham against the people and a lie against the nation it is commanded by God to shepherd.

But what is law without the truth? For the former arises out of the latter and drives it constantly against its limits, not to destroy it but to make it perfect.

But what is the truth? It is - in its ultimate form - certainly not a thing that Man may create for himself, else all law become void and the universe itself unmade.

It seems to me that when the truth is made to be arbitrary, as it is with Beijing's insistence on keeping all claimants cornered, regardless of the avenues of international legal remedy, it all will boil down in the end to raw force and in this regard, the time is late.

We have to accept responsibility for what we presently lack and build upon it in a way that is befitting the necessary and the real. And we must do this not for anything else but our own true sense of well regard for this Republic undertaking of Country of ours and our love for our nation as a whole.

We have to be firm in the right. Defend where we can and get our own act together as one Republic whole. The elections this year affords our people a chance to act upon our national longings, one of them being to live in the safety and security not only of our own peace but also with the peace of the nations in our region, their strength added to our own and ours with them.

We do not want to make an enemy of the PRC. I myself as a citizen of this Republic do not believe in enemies, for as a nation, it is my conviction that we must only believe in friends and potential friends. Not because we are weak for this is not a time to be weak. Now is a time for strength.

We must always be ready to answer to questions regarding matters of peace, whether they are of our own creation or is a thing created for us by circumstances within our world or through the dynamics involved in our necessary relations with other nations for we have constitutionally renounced the use of war along with all its potential for abuse.

This is not to say that we will not defend ourselves, this is to say that we must make it clear that our heart lies only in our defense and that we are answerable to the answers we as a nation have determined to allow for ourselves about these matters.

The real question is, has the PRC already made an enemy of us? Who is the tree and who is the wind?

Where there are more questions than answers, the truth is valued. When there are more answers than questions, there is no certainty.

The Code of Conduct, as I foresee it, being a document largely defined by the economic nature of the issue as regards the South China Sea-West Philippine Sea, must answer for our region - the question of wealth - is not peace and friendship between the nations in our region a form of wealth in and of itself?

Did not the Chinese also say that the angry can be made to be happy again but the dead can not be brought back to life? Indeed, not unlike this saying, I also place a high value on human life. This is why I place a high value on peace. For in its most complete and absolute form peace is truly over war.

Never must this issue take away our common hopes for a better Asia and from our Asia, a better world - for all nations... dreaming together this time.
---<--@

War is not the test,
O nations of the children of Mankind -
war is the tutor!

Peace is the test -
and to pass this test brings success.

Salutation #145

Look to the sea,
look to the flow.

Look to the heavens,
down here below.



(Hope Taking Wing [in Asia])

Listen.

In a small pond,
we may seem like little fish -
because we are.

But the world
upon which our nation is established
is a much, much bigger pond.

It is a veritable sea
with much, much more fish
of every size, disposition, and spirit.

In this living sea,
everything is growing and breathing,
everything is in everything,
and this everything is in motion.

If
our perspective
is that of a small pond,
we shall remain little.

But
if our perspective
becomes large enough
to encompass the living sea,
we shall long for this one sea
and this longing shall
carry us forth.

In such a way,
little fish do not always remain little
nor do big fish live to belong in a pond.

This
is the way we are
at this present moment
with the PRC.

- selah -

Now
our Asia can not be
without China
and

just as equally true is that
our Asia can not be
without the Philippines.

Our Asia can not be
without all the Asian nations together.
Period.

For
no Asian can ever truly experience
the true spirit of Asia as a continental belonging
without all the Asian nations
belonging together
and at peace with one another.

If we do not rise to meet her,
if we choose to remain in our own little ponds,

if we do not brave the journey to the one sea,
we will never realize this unity.

And
if we do not realize this unity,
we will always be lacking
either as our parts (national) or
as the sum of our parts (regional)
in the necessary strength
to overcome the vast problems
that have plagued our Asia
for centuries.

We, that is all of Asia,
and the generations after us
will suffer these same problems
multiplied by the spirit of the times.

But we have a choice!

---<--@


The one Quest

View in Review 20120511

While there are other note-worthy articles I should like to include in this Review, for today, I am going to delve exclusively on the one issue that seems to loom in the horizons of my mind - Scarborough Shoal.

(I initially did not expect this incident to become so protracted...)



Scarborough Shoal is NOT a population center.

It is an economic resource.

For what else is it?

There is a difference here, a subtle but significant one.

- selah -

Sovereignty lies chiefly in the nation - in the reality of we, the people who under God and before our laws and constitutional ideals are ordered and arrayed (in time and dimensional space) as one nation.

And from the nation extends to those spheres proper to our Republic undertaking of Country.

Why is it then that in the issue of Scarborough Shoal we are becoming so willing to undertake with China (PRC) burdens proper only for the defense of a population center?

Sovereignty has degrees just as equally as defense has depths yet sovereignty in all its places must be equally well-defended.

How we undertake this defense - against War, against each other - lies chiefly in how we must succeed in its conduct.

If we do not succeed in a diplomatic course of action as history has always been so eager to point out, we shall have no other recourse but an armed confrontation - a low-intensity conflict, as it were.

In this particular outcome, if we allow it to be, we shall be in control with China (PRC) only of how much damage we shall each be willing to sustain, for in this particular outcome, all parties would have already lost even before formal hostilities will have already begun.

We can not subdue China (PRC) neither can China (PRC) subdue us.

In this particular outcome, the longer view of things both obscures itself from our vision and denies itself from our foresight.

For we certainly could pursue the Scarborough Shoal issue through to its military means but to what ends, my fellow Filipinos, to what uncertain ends?

So instead of going into that exercise in sheer futility that in this particular case is armed conflict, it is to our common benefit with China (PRC) to find a way to share the advantages as well as inherent responsibilities of maintaining a common marine area as a mutual resource meant for the peace of both our peoples.

There is a middle ground to be found here. War shall not avail us anything.

And this middle ground has got to be found, recognized and commonly agreed upon through the use of an innovative approach that seeks to let go of old and antiquated ways of thinking... for the times are truly changed.

My personal position here (in support of President Noy) is to clarify, communicate, compromise, recognize, coordinate, legislate, and conform - exhaust every means, take every opportunity to transform this unwanted incident into an achievement of good worth to our nation (with armed confrontation only as a means of last resort in the conduct of the defense) - all for the greater good of our common regions in Asia, for the good of our Asia, and from our Asia to our needful world so much in need of respite and repair.

Moreover -



Scarborough Shoal is well within our 200 nautical mile EEZ or Exclusive Economic Zone (a compensatory advantage of our Archipelagic nature) and its continuing and responsible maintenance as an integral part of our territorial seas is sanctioned by UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea).

Of the substance of this truth, lettered in international law, and witnessed by many of our kindred nations, we may indeed constantly rely.

It is more costly, in terms of the national wealth, for the PRC to do what our naval forces and maritime law enforcement agencies must be able and indeed are able to accomplish in these waters. This is to maintain the law of our Republic and extend forth the sovereign peace of our one nation into this maritime territory - not to make it ours - but to preserve it as a resource for the good of our nation.



The PRC's over-extension (inherent in its claim to the whole of these waters west of our Republic) is also a cause for concern among other Countries in our world whose vital interest it is to keep those international shipping lanes within and beyond our EEZ free; whose nations need assurance that these sea lanes are kept open and available as a common trust of all nations.

However, the law by itself is troublesome if we ignore the fact that that the PRC is laying a claim to Panatag or Scarborough. This is why it is important to meet the PRC in the middle and preserve not only the dignity of both our Republics but also the viability and value of the shoal for the use of our future generations.

The US commitment to our defense may only be as strong as our own commitment to our own defense.

We must be able to take this in principle: Our primary defense in the context of the common defense and in concert with the mutual defense of our allies is always our responsibility.

We must be a friend to our friends and they shall be a friend to us.

The old mold of our ASEAN, however tenuously, may still understandably prevail.

That our ASEAN of late may still feel itself a random and accidental falling together of unrelated interests within our region instead of that purposed, principled, unified, Providential gathering of kindred nations into one focused and decisive regional force for collective peace and human community within our Asia may be evident in the uncertain stance that our own region is now taking here in our own region.

Therefore, we, as a defense partner with the United States and as part of the one ASEAN Neighborhood, must take both of these vital considerations arising from this unwanted incident as an impetus to spur forward the transformation of our Republic as well as that of our region with ASEAN and recognize its potential as an integral part of our diplomatic initiative.

We must do everything in our power to amicably resolve this standoff with the PRC.

Mabuhay! God be with us all.
---<--@

The Human Cost of War

Indeed,
my fellow Filipino compatriots,

the first ones to suffer the pains of War 

are ever the weak and the vulnerable.

- selah - 

Not our politicians,
not our able soldiery, 

not our middle classes,
not our wealthier classes, 

not even the criminally inclined, 

it is our small fisherfolk 

and their humble, hungry families 

who bear the brunt of this stand-off.

People whose minds (and stomachs) 

dwell furthest off of this brewing crisis!

We must bear in mind and heart 

that the human cost of this deadlock 

begins with them and is now counting...

   (Indeed,
   War will not cease
   until all of us
   - from least to strong -
   are made weak and vulnerable.
 
   For the spirit of War is a devourer of peoples!)

If we who are able
do not consider their plight 

to lend to our sense of urgency 

a deepening sense of justice, 

we might find ourselves taking stands 

on the wrong foundation.

---<--@

Standoff at Scarborough Shoal

Everybody seems to be concentrated on how weak we are, on how under-equipped our Navy and Coast Guard is, but what we don't immediately realize here is that it takes greater courage to confront a stronger nemesis, which in this instance, in Scarborough Shoal, are those Chinese marine surveillance ships. 

Let me reiterate here that we are not at war with China (PRC), however, in this particular instance only, our Armed Forces, in particular that arm to which is entrusted by our nation, the security and wholeness of our seas, finds itself on an opposite disposition, out of sheer necessity, with that Country.

Just this morning, it was asked in a current affairs program if those Chinese vessels were armed. Of course they are, at the very least, one has to assume that these vessels are defended by weapons, these are after all, reconnaissance ships.

Therefore, our sailors were and still are in real danger. This to me is not weakness - it deserves recognition in the highest order. 

Indeed, it could have turned out badly. It still could. However, chances are if an incident like this one does not immediately escalate, it will de-escalate.

We must remember things aren't always as fortuitous in the South China Seas or West Philippine Sea (depending on which parallax of war we subscribe with - fact is, everybody knows there is but one sea in question).

My brother and sister Filipinos, we can not rely on the workings of Providential grace exclusively for our national defense. 

We have to forge a plan for the credible defense of this Republic. And we must stick to it.

China, it seems to me, is becoming what she hated in the past; that thing of War that she knew and hated and suffered under... it makes me sad to think about it.

Now, a diplomatic solution that would preserve the dignity of both our sovereign Republics must be worked out. 

Compromises have to be made and given in order to secure a longer term solution to the much larger, more powerful Spratly divide that threatens to suck the whole of our region into conflict (and mire the whole of our continent of Asia in War for an indeterminable amount of time, further depleting what stores of human spirit and human potential our nations have managed to preserve thus far). 

This is by far not the only way out of this standoff at Scarborough Shoal but this is the only one - the only one - which will cost  less in terms of the ultimate price it shall exact upon the lives and fortunes of both our nations (and consequently, of all our nations). 

Mabuhay. May God be with us all.

---<--@

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.

---<--@

Salutation #61

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20111023 AM

Two Paths

These two paths lead away from each other - one leads toward the dawn and the other toward the void of all things that never were.

My beloved Philippines, we are a nation of whose present generations have never experienced the blessings of peace reigning within our midst -

None of us here today have every truly enjoyed the promise of peace to speak with empirical conviction about its real merit for ourselves and our peoples -

We only have the maddening darkness of War and the illuminating brightness of our faith in God and in God's faithfulness to speak for itself -

Today, we stand at a crossroads in time; a defining moment in the history of our Country is presented before all Filipino hearts -

For 2000 years, we have slumbered but now the time for waking up is here - Now is the time we wake up from the nightmare of the last great age of War -

We have to choose a path that shall lead our generations unto two totally distinct futures -

Peace on its own terms today or War on its own terms tomorrow.

- selah -

If it seems difficult for us to conform with the demands of peace today - on this we may certainly rely, war shall make it impossible for us to live with any decency as a nation tomorrow.

Let us be ever mindful that this season of peace shall not always be.

(There are greater purposes at work in our world today - purposes demonic as well as Divine and angelic - powers above and beyond the scope and the reach of Man alone.)

If not today, when?

---<--@

To love our own and others like our own -

"A stranger once welcomed is a stranger no more."

This especially holds true for those persons from other nations who represent for us the good will of their people as Father Pops once did.

But Father Pops goes one step further than this because he was one of the few who welcomed us first. He was on mission.

Father Fausto "Pops" Tentorio is a citizen of his native Italy who born of his great Christian love for our indigenous and poor Filipinos have truly become one of us. This makes him an honorary citizen of our Country by me.

The great injustice of his death is that he who should have received our warmest welcome was also he who was so abruptly and violently taken from our midst by murderous criminals.

Justice for Father Pops!

---<--@

Prayers for Thailand of our one ASEAN -

Among all our present concerns, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, let us also include in our prayers today the safety and welfare of the people of the Kingdom of Thailand who is presently battling a devastating flood in their Country.

To my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, let us be especially mindful of all our needs as well as our blessings during our Sunday obligations in this day of days and bring all of our prayers to God at Holy Mass today.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Citizenship with Fidelity

Mission Spirit

20111009 AM

“God loves human beings. God loves the world. Not an ideal human, but human beings as they are; not an ideal world, but the real world.

What we find repulsive in their opposition to God, what we shrink back from with pain and hostility, namely, real human beings, the real world, this is for God the ground of unfathomable love.”

― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Daily Meditations from His Letters, Writings, and Sermons

---<--@

Good morning!

I'm just going to shoot off some quick thoughts here -

I think we should never have removed Spanish from our national curriculum.

I think we should start thinking about the regional good more often - go ASEAN!

I think our President Noy is doing a splendid job. I think it is not fair to be so short-sighted, the work of reversing the tide will take a couple of generations. We are going to need a succession of strong and committed Presidents after him to bring our Country out of the doldrums.

And release Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani!

---<--@

More on the RH Bill -

I saw a struggling young mother with her baby once. She was trying to figure out if she could afford to get her baby a little pack of Bear Brand. The baby had a cleft lip and appeared to be malnourished. They appeared so poor and so desperate but largely unaware...

To me, her plight and that of her months-old baby girl seemed so overwhelming. I contemplated how she could have managed to conceive her baby through a free and human choice to have a baby. A few other questions came naturally after... what of the father, the family, the future?

I wondered if she could really be held completely responsible for bringing a soul into our world largely ignorant and so obviously unprepared to properly receive such a precious endowment from God. If not her, if not the father, certainly not the child. If not them, who?

I also wondered how many more young women like her will go through such an unnecessarily harrowing ordeal before their consciences become fully formed so as to effectively protect the freedom of their choices from the harshness of blind and random chance.

This is not the first time I've seen the hope of the poor burdened by so much weight.

Now, I look back at the debate on the RH bill and I ask myself, "is justice served to allow a condition like this to endure?"

The RH bill is NOT about abortion.

It is about human choice and about human choices freely and responsibly exercised in the context of Filipino society as a national whole.

The focus of the debates should shift more toward conscience formation and proper public (civic) education in the long-term and public safety, health and protection in the near to mid-term (our time frame still stands at 2012-2045).

If every Filipino were born with a properly formed conscience; if all our freedoms as individuals were - without exception - served enough even by human reason alone, then we would as citizens be completely right to immediately dismiss both the points as well as the failures (if any) of reproductive health practices in our Country.

Because if it were the case, human sexuality would not appear to be so beyond our natural power as human beings so as to consume so much of our time and effort in community with each other. We would have no need to debate the RH bill.

If every Filipino existed on the same plane of moral thinking, we would have been justified as a Republic to unanimously vote down the RH bill.

But since we all must as individuals exist on independent planes of spiritual maturity and since our common humanity must never again unburden itself of its duties and responsibilities to Sacred Life, the debate must continue.

We must agonize, we must fight our way toward a solution.

There should be a middle ground somewhere and somehow we have to get there...

---<--@

Finally,

I am proud of apl.d.ap and I know he's proud of me. Why?

Because we're both Filipino. We know it. We wear it. We flaunt it.

Mabuhay ka kapatid ko!

---<--@

So there. Everybody have a great weekend!

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

One Nation

Down with Filipino Crab Mentality!