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.


---<--@

Nation at Prayer

My brothers and sisters of the Promise, today at 5:00 pm, our Nation will pray. We shall pray for those who were lost to us from natural and man-made disasters last year - for indeed there were too many.

They were
our fellow men and women;
fellow citizens the LORD intended
for the great labor of this Country
- human beings not unlike ourselves -

who, male and female, young and old, 

dreamt with us a common Dream 

of a better Republic for all Filipinos.  

Living souls whose fruits we shall never now know or taste  -
Promised lives whose fruition we shall never now see or hear -
whose fullness of good renown this world shall never now enjoy.

All of them we shall now commit to the one God of all Nations - each of them by their name - ever by a space in the heart we shall solemnly recall them - and resolve before the LORD as one Nation that their loss shall not have been in vain.

And as we remember them now, let us be sure to remember them as they were - always. So full of the things we shall today - in prayer before God - commit to the memory of our common humanity - so full of the things of life - so certain of the promise of the Peace which is our Nation's original birthright.

For indeed we shall remember them - we shall ensure their hopes do not remain unheard and their lives do not remain fallen. For we shall indeed bury with the past - the evil of those days.

None shall remain behind us but the dust.

For every thing that is to us everything we shall carry with us - in our hearts - into 2014; and the rest we shall commit before God unto tomorrows we shall as one Nation in Peace continue to reach for - together this time.

We thank you LORD God for this time to pray unto Thee!

We thank you God for the lineage, instrumentality and the unique person of our 15th President Noynoy, we thank you God for our Nation and for our Nation's Republic, we thank you God for family and friends, and for this Family of Friends - united in thy Peace - upon a journey of greater belonging and of learning to know each other in Thee.



Salaam. Shalom. Peace. For Thou art God, above and beyond all things, and there is no other, AMEN.
---<--@

Carry on, Sir

We stop not to argue
- in the shadows - about the Night
and the maddening depths of it.
Lest the Darkness overtake us
with madness.

We stop not
carrying on along the way
for our discourse is about the Morning
walking together as if with Christ
on the Road to Emmaus.

Carry on, sir. 

Remember always your promise (to yourself)
during your inauguration speech, that you are beholden
to the loving remembrance in your own heart - my kuya Noy -
of a memory both personal as well as national in their natures:
Use it to see clearly, and with steadfast faith in God
and diligent attention to His Providence,
continue to express through thy august Office,
the Executive vision that you want for our Country
to particularly possess - in your own time.

The vision of a Government
that is accountable to its own authority,
aware of its responsibility - to the mandate -
it has variously received from the one Nation
on whose life and promise, the Responsible State
derives from the Divine Providence of God,
it's powers to govern - with virtue and wisdom,
within the particular framework of a Republic undertaking of Country,
the greater wealth and the greater good, both spiritual as well as material,
of the common generations of our people - unto the last of our generations
- forever.

I pray your spirit be clear even when all things are not -
that you, dear Sir, in your own solitude may always, always have a recourse
to the Love of the LORD present and ever so near to thy own heart.
And so may God love thee and keep thee and bless thee forever.

May a living Remembrance of these times - kindle in thee, its own virtue -
that all things God may reveal to thee - come necessary to the account of thy heart
that thou in the Sanctuary of the love that you keep in your soul may reach out to the darkness
through a fire born of greater things, and a light forbearing in hope, be ever capable of the embrace
with which God embraces all individual realities - in the Spirit of His abundant Peace
- a seed of the ultimate experience of Country.

You are the center to which there can be no rising nor falling, the center unto which the powers of the Nation must derive their constant measure.

The wings that shelter our Country must continually form and re-form themselves, at the rise and fall of each and every moment, from thy Office. No where else may it rely upon for its life and life's purpose.

There could be no rising nor falling in your commitment to your Office - its lineage, virtue, and authority are all you have to bring down from God and heaven the necessary strength to power the flight of our Republic toward that promised Dawn - and verily, these are all you need.

May they humble you and in God, make you ever persevere.
---<--@

Personal Reflection -

A faithful President over a perfect one - always.

I do not always agree with our President Noy
but I implicitly know we walk in the same direction. 

He may seek to express within our Republic journey,
matters about our National Dialogue that are varied and distinct
or even, at times, seemingly antithetical to my politics, but never will I forget -
that the journey we all must take - under this season of sky - is but one, long march -
from the depths and the darkness of Exile unto the Light and the Promise of an Eden Rebuilt -
for our Nation and its own emergent Republic motion under heaven, and therefore, for all Nations.

Tyrants are not as fortunate to as be blessed with any prevailing sense of a National direction
let alone agree with anybody - with consistency on which way is forward and which way is back.

Stop the Violence in Sabah

I am saddened by the fact that those who have the most responsibility to mitigate with reason and words the entire width and breadth of this conflict have fallen short of it, allowing it to gain from our nations the initiative we have initially possessed.

For it now stares us in the face like a bottomless, shapeless, undefined thirst.

Both the Philippine and Malaysian governments have a responsibility now to regain this initiative and stop the violence in Sabah: Is peace not thy sworn duty to uphold before thy nations?

Peace left undefended slips easily away. But peace defended to excess turns to ashes.

Stop the violence in Sabah in order to pave the way for the creation of the necessary conditions that would decisively favor negotiations that does not - and no longer will - involve bloodshed.

This is what is important now -



Stop the violence in Sabah now.

Let us speak out against the violence, violence against Filipinos and Malaysians alike!

Let us be resolute in our clamor that any course of action that involves violence as a means will not work to avail - for any of us - a meaningful, long term solution to the issue at hand, indeed it will only feed the hunger that relentlessly seeks to devour the life and the promise of both our nations.

For peace is the true craft of our nations!
---<--@

Status quo ante in Sabah

With the initiation of hostilities in Sabah, we are now faced with more questions.

But this much is clear to me -

We are now staring down a steep and rocky decline that leads to a deep and dark ravine.

If we are so reckless, if we are not yet wise, we shall find ourselves hurtling out of control with Malaysia, spiraling together down the gravity of war.

We can not go there without undoing much of the present good and therefore, willingly relinquishing from our own midst, much of the promise of our futures together (in and between our nations).

We must tread carefully.

Work hard to recognize the things that remain - that we truly have in common with Malaysia - as the desire to obtain from the Providence of God, a peaceful resolution - and resolve to hold on to these things harder and stronger now in the ensuing darkness and confusion.

Now, when I say we, I will now include all the Filipinos in Sabah especially those of and with the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo - for they are ours. If we leave them - or any one off, if we remain divided in the course, we only strengthen the spirit of war.

For we are not united for the sake of spreading the fires of this unwanted conflict, we are now uniting for the sake of extinguishing it - not by feeding our souls to fan the conflagration - but through a determined and expeditious return to the safety of the high grounds of peace.

For war will exhaust itself - all by itself - if it is not fed.

We have to resolve to turn away from the descendant darkness that is now working hard to engulf us - all of us with Malaysia - and find our way back up to the safety of the ascent where there is still light.

If you can feel the inter-play of this gravity and counter-gravity, of this light and darkness, in your spirit, then let it be known to thy own heart that it is a thing to guide us, God-helping  -

Therefore, our most immediate goal at this present time in Sabah and one that we - at the level of the Republic - should coordinate in common with Malaysia must be a return to the status quo ante.

Status quo ante in Sabah!

Dear President Noy, I am convinced that that is the most immediate way out of this deepening crisis. It is to stop decisively and take a few determined steps back from the brink.

Once we are back there, God-helping - to the status quo ante - let us then work - together this time - to improve the situation - for all - aided by the retrospective advantage of a clearer vision - keeping in mind and heart what the sultan and his men was reported to have said "honor over lives".

For this is key.

We must understand them in their own term - not ours.

We must accept that fact that they can not come back home deprived of honor; that they must be able to come home clothed - at the very least - with what honor they have left our shores with - this is key.

We must choose our words wisely. And be truthful about it.
---<--@

Do not remember the fallen with anger
the darkness they fell to overcome
can only be served by it.

Do not honor their hope with hatred
the victory they have died to realize
can not be won through it.

We can never now visit their memory
in places where they are not remembered
so get away from us now, you darkness

turn away from us now, o sadness 

come back to us now, o soul
return to us now, o heart 
return us back to family
return us back to friendships
return us back to our homelands
return us back to our places of peace
and ever we shall remember
never again to forget.

Salaam. Shalom. Peace. God be with us all.

Salutation #77

Let our Banner be unto thyself a symbol of unity, my people,

and let it fly in thy heart out of love of God and Country.

Yea, let this Banner fly in thy heart of hearts or not at all!

For if this one kind of love is absent in the absent heart of Man,

there shall our Country be found nowhere in creation.

- Salutation #10 (Old Defiant)

(Old Defiant vs. Old Compliant)

Peace, I salute you.

I should like to emphasize in us again,

my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

the importance of unity over division -

especially in the midst of this brewing crisis

between our President and our Chief Justice.

Remember,

I am not writing here

about the impeachment trial

- or any external event that must also concern us -

I am writing primarily about you (about us) -

the citizen-servant.

For everything that proceeds in our Republic,

proceeds from the concentrated strength of its spirit

in your soul (our souls).

As regards the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Corona

and the divisions it is sparking in our nation,

if you are in any way interested

in what I have to think about the matter - personally,

please refer to the running commentary

I have opened here.

However,

if you are still sincerely confused about the matter,

you may inhibit yourselves from participating in the public debate

and remain in the safety of your own areas of service.

It is never fair to have to be made to choose

between two co-equal, independent branches

of our one Republic government

in the Responsible State.

Again,

our central focus here

is to make this an exercise in unity

so do not allow your own mind and heart

to become bitterly embroiled in the politics

and the divisions that must surround this event

- without having a clear mind -

as to where your freedom and your independence truly lies.

Completely refrain from adding your own flame

to the many conflagrations that threaten to consume our Country

but rather add it to the unifying light that gives her comfort and warmth,

bolstering her strength to see us all through this long night;

this longest night...

- selah -

(I am reposting this piece from 20110402.)

Something's missing from my Philippines. Something vital.

Who knows her?

These days, everybody seems to be living for themselves alone. It seems no one remembers her.

By this, she is grieved and therefore, draws further and further away into isolation.

For the spirit of Country, my honorable compatriots, is a spirit of self-belonging. It is a self-cognizant, collective sense of self.

And the Republic is a guardian to a people orphaned by war.

Thus, if the people are divided in their hearts against each other, they are scattered.

And the people are scattered because of those distant and faded hearts; hearts that seem to no longer recognize the spirit of this Republic; hearts that have come to accept the rule of War.

Hence, the spirit of Country is diluted.

And when there is no substance left in our remembrance, when there is no peace left to abide in our belonging, when there is no truth left to empower our will of Country, we shall cease to exist as a nation.

But while our history still fills the hunger in our souls, while there is yet a common longing for better days burning in our hearts, while there is yet those who remember and believe, while there is yet even a few who are brave and true, by the grace of Almighty God, war will never have us.

Truly, my nation, this is not a very good time for the spirit of war. For this is exactly why the colors of our own Country is called Old Defiant.

We have a choice. Let it mean something:

Let us defy division, let us defy corruption, let us defy poverty, let us defy evil and prosper, my fellow Filipino compatriots - together this time.

Let us defend where we must, O my nation Philippines, and leave all else to the invulnerable, omnipotent defense of the LORD, our God, the one Sovereign of all nations.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

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.

Salutation #67

Therefore,

as a nation - when we forget,

it is worse than when we knew nothing.

For when we knew nothing,

there was nothing to forget.

But when we forget,

we are always divided against something.

Worse, it is always something

we should never have forgotten.

(Preconditions to the Peace Process)

Peace, I salute you.

This is for all our peacekeepers

on the ground of our Land of the Morning

- military as well as civilian -

Muslim, Christian, and Lumad

who are all Filipinos to the very last

and brothers and sisters of the Promise

who continue to hold on to the civic peace

as citizens and human beings, one to the other,

as well as to all our peacemakers

met from across all the sides

of the one common negotiating table -

Peace is prologue to national prosperity!

But there are preconditions to peace.

For peace without clear preconditions

in a conflict involving armed struggle is futile.

For the spirit of War must first be bound by law

and the evil of war formally recognized by all concerned

- in order to strengthen the peace process -

and to effectively break these seemingly endless cycles

of violence and retaliation.

First of all,

there should be no question

about the legitimacy of our one Republic of the Philippines.

To question this is to question the necessity of the entire peace process.

It undoes the ground - upon which -

the parties to the one peace process

are working to build, through all adversity,

an enduring monument to the triumph of our nation.

These are preconditions to the peace process

of which there must never be any doubt.

It is therefore,

the initiative of the lawful government

of the one Filipino nation to pursue or not to pursue negotiations

according to common good of the sovereign Filipino people.

The GPH is not an equal party to the process.

It is the initiating party and let us always remember this:

The GPH is the significant party - the most responsible party -

without which this conflict shall continue unabated.

Foreign mediation is only supplementary and not central to the process.

Our peace process is therefore,

something that is begun by the incumbent Chief Executive

as a rightful exercise of the mandate accorded to his (or her) Office

by the electorate of the nation.

It is therefore,

the prime responsibility of the GPH

to set clear goals and common expectations - as well as -

to be unyielding in the implementation of the mechanisms

that will ensure that every goal is sufficiently met

and every expectation well-founded

and ultimately proven.

There should be adherence to the singular vision of peace.

There should be justice in its approach - in spirit as well as in form.

There should be an ever growing reciprocity of trust.

Indeed,

there should be absoluteness of intent

- to succeed in the attempt -

as well as an unyielding sincerity

- being one without guile or mental reservation -

among the sides from across the one negotiating table

who represent broader interests from among their constituency

as well as carry the common appeal of the one Filipino nation.

There should be continuity and solemn remembrance...

It is the spirit of War - first and foremost -

that must be identified, weakened, rejected, and removed

prior to the obtaining of the vision of the political peace.

There should be universal acceptance

of the foreign nature of the spirit of War

and a common rejection of the manifold evils

it both inflicts and inspires in the nation;

evils made plain and manifest

to our common witnesses

by these unending cycles of pain and loss,

endless battle, poverty and exhaustion -

a sure lineage of ignominy and defeat - for any nation.

There should be a broader understanding of the national peace...

Indeed,

there should be citizenship with fidelity;

a faith among each ourselves that in the end,

the bottom line is that we are all Filipinos to the end

each being individually gifted by God

with one particular nationhood

- the grace to belong -

to a nation that is our nation whatever the name.

Therefore,

there should be a proper well-regard

for the crying needs of our common peoples

and a just and abiding recognition - in all of us -

of the value of the life of our nation.

There should be purity of arms...

- selah -

Now,

particularly speaking

- in the aftermath of recent events -

I think our President Noy

who is our legitimate Chief Executive

and elect by a quorum of the electorate of the nation

has sacrificed enough personal credibility,

spent enough political capital,

and has shown enough good will and good faith

to merit a show of reciprocity from the MILF:

They should surrender the murderers of our troops.

- selah -

And o

ur AFP

should be just as fearless

in launching a formal review

of the lapses

that has led to the incident at al-Barka.

19 is too much...

---<--@

This is my personal appeal to you -

My brothers and sisters of the Promise,

Let us not allow this recent outbreak of violence to shatter our hard fought good will as Filipinos and human beings, one to another, nor steal from us the bright future we all aspire for and truly deserve - the politics of division, once it has exhausted itself, shall look to us for help and consolation.

When that time comes, if we too have lost our guidance - what then?

If we do not hold our ground against the rising of the tide, whither shall our Country be found at the flowing of the tide, when the darkness recedes once again?

If the stars themselves become lost in the midst of the night - what then?

We shall truly be lost.

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!

20110723

Salutation #42

(The Peace of ASEAN)

To my honorable Filipino compatriots

and to the kindred nations of our ASEAN -

Our ASEAN Neighborhood has the potential for much good

not only for our region but for Asia and the world.

But only if we apply ourselves

to the understanding

that the Peace of our ASEAN

is wrought in virtue and human community.

We are the ASEAN Neighborhood.

A region that is distinct but not apart

from the problems that the nations of our world

must presently confront as a planetary community.

Problems we must work out and confront together as one

to bring about the close of the last great age of War.

If we fail, we shall all fail together.

For the planet itself is at stake.

But if we shall succeed

- as nations dreaming together this time -

we must triumph as ASEAN first.

It is essential that we believe with our hearts

in what strength there is in our unity

over what darkness there was in our past -

The strength of this unity is evident in the Flag of our ASEAN!

O my beloved ASEAN nations -

we can not hope to pull our home region in Asia

away from the descendant gravity

of the last great age of War

if we cast away our unity, covertly or overtly,

and pull ourselves apart in all directions:

War will surely scatter our peoples to the four winds.

If we remain divided in spirit,

O my Philippines,

O my kindred ASEAN nations,

we will have hoped in vain

to develop the inherent potential of our region.

If we hope in vain, we labor in vain.

For we all have inherent strengths

and we all have inherent weaknesses too

because our civilization is not complete

as individual nations in our ASEAN.

We will capitalize on our strengths

and work together to encourage, develop and fulfill them

in our nations for our region.

And we shall through weaknesses become empowered

to rely on our faith in each other and in God - more and more -

with a sense of humility and sincerity.

We will strive to realize - without direct interference -

that our ability to succeed as nations

depend largely on our being adequately cognizant and understanding

of our essential human natures,

its weaknesses as well as its common needs,

invested to the call of each our nations

and entrusted to the care of each our undertakings of Country.

By this we shall strive to be an example to each other in ASEAN

so that while we understand that we can not without coming into conflict

disregard the common experiences of our peoples,

each nation being as unique as each individual human being is unique,

we may also affirm in our own times

within each our own particular undertakings of Country

that the destiny we all aspire for as nations is one and the same

as the Peace we all strive to live in as Countries in ASEAN.

The spirit of War will eventually flee us

by the strength of the Peace of our ASEAN.

Therefore,

peace be to Brunei Darussalam,

peace be to Cambodia,

peace be to Indonesia,

peace be to Laos,

peace be to Malaysia,

peace be to Myanmar,

peace be to Singapore,

peace be to Thailand,

peace be to Vietnam,

and peace be to our ASEAN!

(And to East Timor

- waiting in the wings -

the Peace of our ASEAN as well)

Mabuhay po sa ating lahat - past is past -

we will ascend with one ascending

as one ASEAN Neighborhood.

---<--@

Attack on Norway

The twin terror attacks on innocent Norwegians yesterday at a youth camp and at the city center is appalling. Initial reports that placed the casualties at less than 10 have now risen into around 80 with people still unaccounted for.

This crime is a condemnable act of terrorism indeed.

Let us stand with Norway in this hour of tragedy, my Filipino compatriots, and let us pray for the victims and their families.

---<--@

SONA 2011

Let us pray for our President Noy. May his SONA 2011 be a sweeping success!

Lastly, let us ask the LORD in prayer (especially at Holy Mass tomorrow) to bless our nation with a strong succession of presidents beginning with our PNoy to lead our Country out of this long night.

Better yet, let us constantly desire this in our prayers to God as a nation that the LORD may bless, preserve and prosper the Office of the President of the Republic of the Philippines and that God may likewise bless, preserve and prosper the Office of his or her Vice President.

(Yes, we need more than one and so may all of them be blessed by God with a lion's or a lioness' heart. Refer to Daniel 12 since we are running on this timeline.)

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Being Present for Peace

20101108

The ASEAN Neighborhood

The concept of an interdependent community implies something more than mere tolerance. It requires a harmony of diverse strengths bound by a distinctive unity achieved through shared ideals and common goals.

In our region in Asia, my fellow Filipino compatriots, this interdependent community, in the most immediate sense, is our ASEAN Neighborhood.

The ASEAN is a regional grouping of nations. But more than that, we are a Neighborhood - a family of friends.

Each ASEAN nation is like a house and the life of our nations make of it a home (away from Home) for all of the generations of our peoples.

Each of our ASEAN homes is a shelter of Country, each with its own particular set of house rules that make up its written laws and Constitution or Ideal of State.

Each Ideal of State maintains within each particular form of Country its necessary governance which is a derivative form of the creative ideal and an extension of the will of Divine Providence.

Each our Responsible States is a specific guardian to a particular vision of Country of which singular will of mission it is to preserve the peace that prospers the life of our civil societies and preserve the order of our generations (unto the last of our generations at the Last Day).

Each ASEAN home should maintain a Family Store within the ASEAN Common Market to foster trade within our region and to facilitate cultural exchanges.

This, the SEA games, and other cooperative engagements within our ASEAN Neighborhood benefits us, my fellow Filipino compatriots, and it shall stand to benefit us even more if we cease to be passive about it or worse, indifferent.

I am bringing this to the fore of our consciousness because it is a prevailing fact of our national life that our civilization is not complete without our neighbors. Indeed, the founders of ASEAN understood that no one nation in ASEAN is an island.

It is our work to build upon their realization and break free of the rut in our collective thinking that our hard-won independence somehow implies isolation from the rest of the nations of our world. And we should begin this breaking out process with an understanding and appreciation of our ASEAN Neighborhood.

An awareness of this should work to inculcate a region-wide appreciation and a sense of comity that should preclude any more disrespect of the ties that make us one as ASEAN.

Too, we should not compare ASEAN with other more prosperous groupings of Countries in their respective regions. Because ASEAN is our work to do as well.

Indeed, we have our own set of problems and troubles but no one else can build on ASEAN than those nations within our ASEAN Neighborhood:

And we, as one of those nations, must form part of the solution.

Our Republic of the Philippines is also a member of the EAS, APEC, Group of 24, the Latin Union, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the United Nations.

---<--@

The litmus test for change in Burma is only this: Free Aung San Suu Kyi.

No Comparing PNoy

A recent article reported a comparison was drawn by an intelligence firm between our President, Benigno Simeon Aquino III, and the current President of the USA, Barack Obama.

Personally, I did not appreciate its negative implications. However, even if it were essentially well-meaning it is still basically faulty. Comparing persons is like comparing apples and oranges. They're just different.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.