A Crime Against All Nations

Is it right to unjustly take from a man his liberty and to threaten his own family with his own life?

At any time and at any place, this crime is an evil which no nation can tolerate - let alone ours, let alone if this man is a guest of our Republic!

Our national prestige and the individual honor of our entire citizenry is burdened (again) by this crisis.

Is it right to unjustly take from a man his liberty and to threaten his own family with his own life?

This is what is happening right now to this man - Warren Richard Rodwell - and the nations of the world, friends - both familiar as well as unfamiliar alike, are watching and remembering it.

What happens here is important - how much value we place upon this issue is determined by how important we generally perceive this unfolding crisis to really and truly be.

Let us dwell with open hearts upon the plight of this guest of ours - selah.

Because what we do here is important - all of us are somehow involved in this - because there is no other Philippines with which other nations shall seek to know us than this one.

I implore all who are directly involved to concentrate and employ all available means to secure justice for this man, working toward his soonest and safest release, and to bind the evil that had perpetrated this crime in our midst with all our might as one Republic whole.

I want us to bear always in mind - kidnappers are bound with the same gaggle of criminals as slavers and human traffickers - theirs is but one spirit - an enemy of Mankind - hostis humani generis.

This is a crime against all nations.

And as we are a nation of Mankind - we can not tolerate this here.

My prayers go with Wocca, his family, and to Australia - may God see us all safely through this unwanted and unwelcome ordeal.

UPDATE: As of 20130323, Saturday, I came across an article in the news that Wocca has been freed by his captors. Bless the LORD for this day!

This is welcome news but still, the safe release of Mr. Rodwell doesn't override the fact that this criminal act should never have been done to him in the first place.

There never should have been a break in the liberty of his person nor threats issued against his God-given right to his own life.

At this time, Mr. Rodwell should immediately report to his embassy. If I know Australia, I know that whole nation is anxious to know that he is safe and sound.

I believe there are still hostages being held against their will - in this Country - by threats, criminal in their nature, that directly violate both their dignity and their rights and so the work continues... for it must.

---<--@

Go now and do what War does not expect;

in a million forms, in a million ways, serve -

Love your own and others like your own.

20111111

(NOTE: I often use this double reminder below to remind each of us of the deeper underpinnings of our sacred remembrances - external as well as internal in their manifestation - being both temporal and eternal, corporal and spiritual.)

Lest We Forget. Lest We Forget.

Peace, I salute you.

Today is commemorated Veteran's Day in the USA and Armistice Day in Europe, including Australia, New Zealand and others.

It is a day of remembrance; a solemn day, a blessed day, a day of days. It is a day of common military remembrances and is therefore, a day of peace.

My fellow Filipino brothers and sisters of the Promise, I know for a fact we do not commemorate November 11 here in the Philippines but we should at least try to learn to understand what makes this day valuable to the sacred remembrances of many nations - for we are part of just one family.

In doing this, we are not only being generous - to ourselves and to our other kinder nations - we are being responsible - for ourselves and for our other kindred nations.

- selah -

Therefore, I write this here today to formally and officially remind us that, however dark the past may have been for all our nations - without exception, we belong to just one family.

Indeed, the past has been terrible and dark: For the spirit of War has deceived us all.

The truth is that all our nations, however great or small and however diverse our distinctions, belong to only one true belonging - so let us remember this today - that we are truly only one global community and let us try to meaningfully commemorate our peace with each other as nations - dreaming together this time.

Let us remember that our Philippines is - and shall forever remain - integral to this one family of nations - represented by our United Nations institution.

Let us say, "I remember you, my brother, I remember you, my sister - mabuhay!"

Let us say, "I remember, I remember."

---<--@

Shifting Paradigms -

When we talk about remembrance we essentially speak about the substance of our inspiration.

This is why we should be wary of evil inspiration because the source of all evil inspiration is false remembrance.

You only have to shift your focus to see that the night sky is so full of stars...

(Photo courtesy of Harmony Lovelife and Haragan Makamandag - Go 1ID 35IB!)

Our brave soldiers - who can bear not to love them...

Despite all the controversy (and these days it seems controversy is everywhere), in the darkness, above the fleeting clouds, they are there -

standing steadfastly,

preserving our best military traditions,

shimmering with virtue and valor,

ever ready, ever faithful,

ever hopeful for better, kinder days,

guarding our better tomorrows -

Therefore, I do not choose to believe in controversy.

However deep the night goes, I choose to believe in you

(for I believe in Justice and the good fight)

I choose to believe in our better selves -

and as sure as I live and breathe today,

the morning will surely come

for our beloved Land of the Morning.

Go team AFP - go PA - mabuhay!

---<--@

You only have to shift your focus to see that the night sky is so full of stars...

Often, when all that we care to remember

is how huge the darkness and how frail and tiny the light,

we weep bitterly unto despair

and completely forget

which one is pure substance

and which one is pure illusion.

Be inspired about the right things and they will produce in you, the right things.

Be inspired about the wrong things and they will produce in you, the wrong things.

So do good and abhor evil by doing good. Do not be by evil inspired.

For even if you fight evil through its own evil inspiration in yourself, it shall eventually consume you.

---<--@

It is not the severity of Justice but the certainty of Justice that deters good people from becoming less virtuous than they should and evil people from becoming more criminal than they deserve.

---<--@

Love your Country.

Your Country is the land where your parents sleep,

where is spoken that language

in which the chosen of your heart, blushing,

whispered the first word of love;

it is the home that God has given you

that by striving to perfect yourselves therein

you may prepare to ascend to Him.

- Giuseppe Mazzini

---<--@

Mabuhay po tayong lahat! Salaam. Shalom. Peace. God bless us all.

...the brightness of thy Banner undiminished in triumph waves, the glory of thy stars and sun are lights that shall ne'er fade...

P.S.

Today I also commemorate 2 years of recovery. I am so glad to say, this is a battle I now know I can win. I thank each of you for your prayers and your support! (You all know who you are.)

20110623

Salutation #20

(Freedom and the Filipino Dream)

My fellow Filipino compatriots -

Is the Filipino truly free?

Not while Country flounders

and ignorance of it reigns...

Not while our one Republic sky

remains shattered and broken

and our Peace is left unspoken.

- selah -

What is thy vision, O my people?

Is it so difficult to dream

- nowadays -

that we have forgotten the dreaming

that in ourselves as ourselves

require our constant true believing?

Have we forgotten the daring

that must accompany the dreaming

that can not take to its flight

without our surrendering

to the greater dream of Country?

- selah -

Shall we be forever fettered

by this lingering gloom, this unbelief,

this stultifying lack of conviction

in the nation in ourselves?

Shall God forever deny us

the Peace of our one Republic whole?

- selah -

Does our freedom consist in chains?

Indeed, freedom is a bond

but it is a bond of truth

- as a vow -

forged in the fire of brotherhood.

It is a liberating, expansive experience

of all that is good in the ascent

toward the unity of God

and the perfection of our humanity.

It is not a fear of responsibility

for our freedom is not the so-called freedom

of tyrants and cowards

but a courageous acceptance of the same.

It is simply the happiness of knowing

you are who you ought to be

in the LORD and among your fellows,

a citizen, true and true.

- selah -

If this has resonance in you,

let it rekindle in your heart

- a willingness -

to make this Republic of ours,

according to the freedom of our gifts,

truly a home away from Home for all Filipinos.

Is the Filipino truly free?

Do not look for the answer in others

seek the the answer in thyself!

---<--@

Salutation #21

(A Revolution of the Heart)

My fellow Filipino compatriots -

If it is so

that the need for adaptation

has outpaced the agility of our Republic to react

- as it is being evidenced now -

by our vulnerabilities to disasters of a natural source,

we must take this concern to heart,

my honorable compatriots.

Because if we are now being outpaced by these

what more of man-made calamities

which are much, much more unforgiving?

Or is it so

that these natural sources of nemesis for our Country

are being presently aggravated

by the willfulness of persons

who desire for our nation no good will at all?

Persons who from motives

ranging from blind self-interest

to a complete and utter collaboration with the evil in all evil things,

bring down upon our common folk

untold suffering at our expense?

All the more must we endeavor

to awaken to the calling of God and Country within ourselves,

O you of noble Filipino heart

- because -

if we can not preserve ourselves against their scandal,

we shall lay ourselves prone against their evil

and will fall with the very same cohort

as those who seek to overthrow

the rule of God in our lands

and sow confusion in the hearts of our people.

For the War to liberate the soul of this Country is in our hearts

- let us remain vigilant -

and let us complete our remembrances with each other,

invoking the LORD for His guidance

and His most efficacious assistance - always.

As the slogan from my home Province of Cavite goes -

Let us make this is a revolution of the heart.

---<--@

Salutation #22

(A Nation with a Soul of Submission and a Republic with a Heart of Peace)

To each of you, my honorable Filipino compatriots,

and to all our generations, Peace - mabuhay!

Our original line of eternal election* lost (to War),

(*that is, our hereditary rulers - kings, queens and princes of old)

we are survived still by the nation in ourselves -

for we are a nation, O my people,

born and bred in battle

and as thus, my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

our hearts can no longer be divided

for we are a people

inclined by the Providence of God

in our heart of hearts

to an understanding of His peace -

one lineage of hope, 7,107 islands strong.

A Republic undertaking of Country

is like a phoenix

born out of the ashes of fire and revolution -

it is therefore,

an endeavor of our generations

established not in War

but in Peace.

Our Republic therefore,

must be built up from the fostering strength

of its own abiding will of Peace.

For as no human hope may be realistically built

upon foundations wrought in War,

a Republic that must prevail

must prevail first from the fire of its own revolution

and emerge from within

its own ashes where from

this Country must eventually emerge

from War into Peace.

Our Republic must therefore,

for it to serve as a guardian to an orphaned people,

be brought up

- here in our heart of hearts -

in the spirit of the absolute defense.

And so the best indicator of the Republic will

to preserve itself (at any time)

- in the first instance -

is the prevailing state

of its national military forces,

its spirit as well as its capabilities,

namely the entirety of its willingness

and ability to fulfill its constant mission

as well as

- in the second instance -

the watches of its community police

who are the custodians of the civic peace

and all of its first responders

whether professional, reserved, or volunteer

who are the extensions of the good will of the state.

Now, the watches of the community police -

more than enforce the law,

deter criminal activities,

and combat criminal structures,

must be custodians of the peace of the community

and are therefore

free agents of the cause of justice

inspired by a sense

of the vision of the nation in themselves

who more than quash evil by force of law

promote by personal example

as well as by extension

of the instrumentality of the policing institution

the whole individual good

- human dignity as well as human promise -

in the spirit of the community good

for the law and its prescripts belong to our courts

but to our own national police services

must primarily belong the order of the peace

of our civic communities.

Blessed indeed is the nation served

by the unblinking vigilance of the watches

of their own loyal police, fire, rescue,

and various civil defense services,

including its rehabilitative institutions,

- at all levels and at all times and places -

professional, reserve, as well as volunteer.

As to our noble military services,

charged primarily with the defense of this nation

standing faithfully with the Republic favored by God Almighty

with the Sacred Life and common good of our generations

to the very last of our generations

and so by equal extension

our national peace and good will

with all the other nations

of our one family of the nations of Mankind

especially here in our region, in our continent of Asia,

and across all the continental wholes of our needful world

caught adrift between heaven and earth -

Preserve the sense of the person of the soldier in yourselves.

Do not be influenced by evil affairs!

Do not be so swayed by those present things,

passing and obsolete in themselves

- empty of promise -

being manifestly vain by their very nature;

things that you know so very well

in your own heart of courage and peace,

have absolutely nothing to do with the good in yourselves

which though vulnerable is of a nobler and lasting substance,

more in keeping with the virtues of your profession.

Therefore,

Beloved of God,

do not be so swayed by those present things,

so as to become bitter

or fall into the darkness of despair,

neither allow your soul to become fraught

so needlessly by anxieties about tomorrow

for tomorrow is here now

with you today.

- selah -

For you are the path that opens

who know by your own heart

the Republic belongs to those who love it

and the nation to those who take this love to heart.

If the times are dark, it is not because of the true:

As every lion waits for its time, so must you.

Indeed, however long the night,

it can not last forever.

---<--@

Peace is original to our state. It can not be won in battle nor can peace ever be attained through war.

Peace, as it concerns our nations, can only be re-established among the hearts of the people.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Two Questions

20100906

Service Honor Justice

Our PNP is left demoralized at the wake of the hostage taking incident last August 23. It seems that now in the quest for answers, the whole outfit is taking a beating. I've heard a lot of negative feedback leveled at our police service as a whole.

Apparently, people are finding it convenient to blame the uniform and as a result of this, our own police service itself might quite easily identify itself with ideals that should in no-wise belong to it and this should not be the case.

I've heard it said, O my nation, that our first responders - in this case, our cops - are only too well remembered when they are called for and all the times they are called for are those times we would rather soon forget.

With the current climate of our Republic not fair-going at this time, it shall behoove this nation to exercise more prudence and discernment in the passing of judgments like these. It would not be right for any of us to forget that in the courts of public opinion, we should always take into our best regard the disinterested, anonymous service of many of our nameless first responders.

Why?

First of all, it is impossible for any nation to exist were it not for the common decency of its own people. The very marrow of Country lies in the strength of its prevailing sense of morality.

And in the sphere of community policing, if there were no decent cops left in the nation to uphold the public peace, civil society would soon begin to implode under the sheer weight of the forces of crime and anarchy.

But since we are still very much here, I think it is reasonably safe to say that not all of our police officers who are serving in the PNP are either corrupted or misled.

There must be more than a few people in our national civilian police service who know what they are doing and who they are serving and try as hard and as best they can to live up to their ideals of Service Honor Justice.

True there is much to improve upon at the wake of this incident, and the on-going investigations spearheaded by Secretary de Lima of the DOJ, and the political commitment of our President, PNoy, ascertain for us that these improvements are sure to be forthcoming.

But these are improvements still that have to be built upon the enduring ideals of Philippine community policing.

The guilty should never be punished with the innocent.

Lastly, there was a recent news article about a successful handling in Silver Spring, Maryland of a hostage-taking incident at the Discovery Channel last September 1. It was the talk some days ago. Again, there was much despairing: Why were the U.S. cops successful and why were our cops not? It's useless...

No it's not.

We should not try to compare ourselves with other nations just to be reminded of how less and less we are of ourselves. We must never compare ourselves to other, more mature endeavors of Country only to see how spectacularly we are able to fall short of who we are supposed to be. This is being bitter.

We have our own path to tread as a nation - our own arcs in the sky. When we do compare, we should measure the distance by the light of our longing for a better Philippines. This way we are apt to become more empowered to be who we are supposed to be - ourselves - a nation distinct from all the other nations of the one family of the nations of Mankind. This is being faithful.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.