I support the Bangsamoro

I support the Bangsamoro. 

By this, I mean all our brother and sister Filipino Muslims regardless of political faction or tribal distinction who desire for a better peace in the Philippines.

I am of the opinion that the BBL though an imperfect document fully represents in spirit the sincere desire shared by many Filipinos of a more perfect peace in Mindanao and that passage of the BBL will serve as a foundation toward the fulfillment of this hope.

I support the passage of a final form of the BBL with revisions in keeping with this spirit. 

The basic law is a means toward better means in the ARMM region. The BBL is not an end to itself. The passage of the BBL is not a guarantee of a perfect peace in Mindanao or elsewhere.

There is no such thing in this world as a perfect peace. 

Peace shall be something we as a nation must always strive for in every generation. Much more effort shall be needed on the part of our Republic after the passing of the BBL.

Therefore, preserving our unity as a Country for Filipinos and cohesion as a nation of Filipinos must be a part of the considerations being made in the current deliberations as regards the BBL.

One AFP and one PNP. We should insulate both military and law enforcement arms of the Republic from as much political considerations as much as possible.

Constitutional bodies must remain national in scope and accountability.

I think public education most especially in this new age where innovation as regards education is made necessary must at least be a concurrent power.

Funding must bear in mind the public nature of public funds. While I can see that the BPE is to be allowed a necessary head start, funding must eventually prove equitable and fair as a means toward better temporal ends for all provinces and regions across the Republic of the Philippines.

This is so as not to cause internal friction that might lead to destructive rivalries and popular discontent in and among our national communities and their representative, structural LGUs. To preserve that unity and cohesion necessary to carry forward, from strength to strength, into fruition the intentions and vision embedded in the BBL in consonance with the Republic vision founded on the 1987 Constitution.

That is all I can think of...

The earlier the BBL is passed, the better. The sooner its intended benefits reach our people closest to the soil of our earth - the bakwit or IDPs, the Badjao, the IPs, etc., the better.

What I submit through this post I intend as guidance. It is a personal expression of my own long-standing commitment to peace in the Philippines. My hope is to share them through this blog to the prudence and wisdom of our representations in Congress and all other Filipino souls interested in the bringing forth of a more perfect peace in our beloved Philippines; a peace for all Filipinos.

Salaam. Shalom. Peace. May God bless us all.
---<--@

Friendship is the only real choice we can make in the night. We can not keep saying to each other in the night it is dark. And recognize each other not on account of the night.
---<--@

Beware of easy extremes: Absolutisms in a democracy are employed like demagoguery is employed in fascism. They stop people from thinking for themselves. For fascists, this is good. For a democracy, this is bad. Very bad indeed.

Ideas are a part of our lifeblood as a free people. 

What can I trust?

When I think about how much suspicions swirl about our thoughts these days, one thing becomes clear to me: These suspicions are up to no good.

Left unchecked, I can see these suspicions contribute only to the growth of more ill will. And lack of good will is not conducive to the prospering of the peace.

Then I ask myself, what can I trust?

I think there is a genuine desire for a meaningful, equitable, and durable peace in Mindanao and that this desire has taken hold in the soul of the Filipino nation. What I mean by this is that all who speak in behalf of peace in Mindanao are these days not just voices from Mindanao, not just voices from our Muslim brothers and sisters in the nation, but are from Filipinos across the entire width and breadth of our sheltering Republic.

Certainly the RPH itself not just the GPH wills to establish a meaningful, equitable, and durable peace in Miindanao and that the desire for peace in the Filipino nation remain sincere.

This is a truth I can trust.

Our President in being responsive to the clamor of the people for peace in Mindanao in his own heart I believe desire peace as sincerely as the rest of the nation.

The OPAPP too I believe is sincere and have done (and is still doing) their level human best to carry out the sovereign will of the Filipino people for peace through the authority of the Office of the President. I trust Sec. Deles, Atty Ferrer and Justice Leonen before her to be good, hard-working public servants and that all of them remain so notwithstanding everything.

OPAPP to include not just its visible public heads but all civil servants who comprise this Office were before and remain until now, committed to the Philippine Peace Process as a whole. The sincerity that pushes things forward in behalf of the RPH in them above all, I think has never wavered.

Having followed the GPH-MILF track for a time now, I have been witness to its highs and lows. There were two low points in the process; the first one was al-Barka and the second, Mamasapano. The latter one being indeed the most difficult one so far.

There will be more low times, I expect, but in the midst of these I equally also expect little victories along the way... If there were mistakes done, it surely must be corrected and I think all concerned are open to better means to achieve the singular end for which OPAPP was commissioned.

Let us be reminded that the peace process is being carried out on a broad front and is wider in scope than just the MILF track. Peace reform is a difficult thing but commensurate with its challenges are its hopes and the hope I myself believe a successful conclusion to the Philippine Peace Process as whole shall bring to full fruition in our Country is immense.

The MILF I believe likewise retains, a workable measure of sincerity.

All this sincerity I observe still endure even in the midst of the controversies at the wake of Mamasapano.
And these are practically seeds of good will; not yet fully maturated as measures of trust but exists in the form of a desire to be able to trust.

Indeed, trust within the nation has suffered and this wounding have made for unsettled days. However, even as suspicions swirl about dissipating like so much acrid smoke into the atmosphere of the nation, let this observer point to the fact that the desire to heal and to recoup what immaterial gains were lost to us still remains in almost all of us.

This makes me hopeful.

What can I trust? If not who at this time, what can I trust? 

There is a new definition of politics I have been chewing on... politics it stated - is a means to harmonize human relationships to advance the goals of the State.

Politics when it comes to pressing forward an agenda or a policy in a democratic forum can be a fight. That much is true especially when old molds need to be proven old to make way for the new, but politics too as stated above can be a decent, constructive conversation.

I can better appreciate the above way of thinking about politics... 

As a concerned citizen, I am for a politics that maximizes on the truths about our national conversation, avoids complexities, presents itself simply, humanly and faithfully, defines it advantages truthfully, and exploits nothing untruthfully.

To know the "goals of the State", we should refer to our Constitution. In all things, one thing I am sure of about politics is that it is a duty. It is not a lifestyle. And that there is an on/off switch to our being political creatures. Hence, public service is a calling not an ambition.

Anyway, back again to sincerity...

Firstly, we can trust our sincerity.

Let us give to each other at least, the benefit of the doubt - that we all still want in this Republic to serve and experience the common good. In this particular case, a broader, deeper peace in Mindanao.

Secondly, we can trust the truth.

Truth is what the beholder beholds in his or her heart to be. It just is. Capable of standing on its own. Truth is capable of defending itself. It fights. It sometimes bites. 

Because -

"Scripture is like a lion. Who ever heard of defending a lion? Just turn it loose; it will defend itself."
- Charles Spurgeon.

Truth is also as such.

So don't just believe in me because I say it, believe it because you know to believe it. Accept it because its true. Because as a human being, truth is I too can be wrong.

In the realm of things spiritual, where each of us live the interior life in our souls, often the hardest thing to do is to admit that, "I don't know". This in itself is a profound truth and opens for all seeking hearts, the way that lead into every good journey.

(Back again to topic...)

Public opinion is conflicted. But public sentiment is unified. Why?

We all thirst for peace. This thirst is but one thirst. And because we do, most everybody is asking in essence, the same question, "what is the truth"?. And truth can be many things to everybody.

The questions about the BBL ask the truth about the BBL - that we may together trust it.

For there are things we would like to know about the BBL - that we may together understand it.

It is only right to ask and to seek.

But if peace to us is important, in our doing so let us not so readily take to heart second and third hand information if we can help it. Let us care enough about what we commonly thirst for to seek to drink in the truth about everything from its primary sources.

I'll be honest, I have my limitations on what I can understand about the BBL. Thus, I am limited as to what questions I may ask that are truly relevant and constructive about it. Hence, I rely upon our Congress to do what they must... and seek to learn from what they find and accomplish in our behalf.

All this seeking in my own mind is indicative of the depth of our national sincerity; that our desire for a more perfect peace across our Philippines is not only just but also true.

Finally, I believe this seeking for truth as regards the BBL is a seeking that must be sought separately and apart from the political fallout of Mamasapano. It is my opinion that we should be able to make that distinction. It may serve us well to do so...

If our Congress can deliver the BBL on target, by or before June 4, so much the better.

We are dealing with a draft law. It must be scrutinized with legislative objectivity (as opposed to political subjectivity) else our representations in Congress lose sight of their own sincerity...

Truth is if this is done properly, everybody wins.

Everybody wins.

Perfect.
---<--@ 

Peace be with you, sister

I too am for peace. It is my hope that peace shall one day be the rule in this Republic of ours rather than the exception. I believe that if we are patient, and we are a patient people, peace for all of us shall be inevitable. For now, let us not lose hope.

The BBL at the wake of Mamasapano

The peace process as far as the MILF-GPH track goes have led us to the national debate about the Bangsamoro Basic Law. Mamasapano for all it's pain, was the catalyst.

It used to baffle me, and I once felt it to be slightly injurious, that all this attention to the peace process with the MILF has bubbled up into the national consciousness because of the pain that Mamasapano inflicted on the psyche of our peoplehood. It was a pain which was complicated and made even painful by the controversies surrounding that badly done operation.

Why do I say it was badly done? In memory of our fallen SAF, their wounded comrades, and their families - the performance at the tactical level on the field by those 44 that we lost along with those who survived Oplan Exodus was extraordinary, their legacy will always be glorious.

But we bled too much in Mamasapano. The entire Country knows it, understands it in our heart of hearts that we lost too many. Even for one such as Marwan, 44 was too much. I personally would that we had lost none, not a single one of them. Nada.

How do we bring justice to the fallen 44?

Continue with the peace process. Proceed smarter. Give the BBL a fighting chance. Recognize the hope invested in it. Find the lapses that were internal to the operation. Dispense with command authority. Quit assuming blame on the President. Wait. Command authority only applies when there is a clear and established chain of command which in this particular mission was deemed lacking. Why? Determine accountability and extent of administrative liability. The fault is structural first. It is personal last. Loop the families into what is being done. Determine criminal liability. Exhaust all means to enforce the law of the land, in coordination with the MILF through the AHJAG, where criminal liability is found and the persons culpable reasonably identified. See to it we never have to endure another "Mamasapano".

In time, when we have peace, we shall return to these terrible days of loss and make compensation for all lives lost to us - this time in spirit - and through a right remembrance of those days help to fully heal the nation. We shall build monuments to our unity. We shall honor war no longer but the virtues of our common peoplehood that led us all to peace. We will have renounced war within as well as without. And the defense of the Republic shall be stronger and surer for all of us.

The Mamasapano incident is illustrative of where our counter-terrorism efforts intersect with our internal peace and security efforts. Two distinct but very closely related things. Distinct because the MILF is not a terrorist organization. Closely related because terrorism at present is motivated by political exploitation of religiously inspired tensions. Let me underscore here that the landscape of terrorism is also evolving.

Terrorism is something I have thought about for some time now. I am careful about my labeling of something or someone as terrorist. I know accordingly when and where to apply the label. For I have seen and now believe it contrary to our efforts to contain the scope and spread of terrorism if such a word is left so broad as to escape a precise definition, at least, in the usage of the State.

Marwan is a terrorist. He was a callous and indiscriminate mass murderer. No matter his labeling of himself or his ideals, he is a political extremist. Left. Right. Center. It doesn't matter. His politics was way off base, serving an ideal/s less than human and therefore, more than real or possible.

One becomes a terrorist for the sake of politics alone. One crosses the line from peace to war through murder. Murder for the sake of justice. Murder in behalf of the nations. A lie for the sake of the truth. An affront to the collective dignity of the living communities of the earth.

What the State serves are human causes. Human causes natural to and evident of its own Nation. The particular Nation of which the State is sovereign expression of an intangible truth. Justice is what it speaks of. Not vengeance. Restoration. At the center of this Justice is Human Dignity and Human Promise. Goodness upon the earth. Humanity upon our humanity.

In Mamasapano, we got Marwan. And we will continue to hunt down, capture or kill terrorists such as he. It is clearly in our national interest to do so. In pursuit of counter-terror operations such as those which this Nation of ours through the Philippine State, as a Republic will very probably continue to mount, we, the people, may very well be asked again and again to make many small sacrifices for and in each the other's behalf. Some of us will render the full measure. Receiving loss for loss - continuing the violent cycle. Perhaps feeding it. To what end?

I think it is important to hear that the defeat of terrorism itself will not fully depend on operations such as that one we now will remember as Mamasapano. Politics at its very core is a hearts and minds game. When the ideals that espouse extremist politics that support terrorist thinking seem again what they really are, unreal and inhuman, terrorism will die. Person by person, terror as we know it will diminish. Not in the field alone shall the threat be fully countered, contained, deterred and finally diminished to the point of irrelevance.

Mortal fear is a negative freedom. To defend against it, we have to know when and where to defend.

Not so much that the people may be completely free from fear but in being inclined to the public good, fear not each other. Civic peace. Consider then, little acts of human kindness - mercy and compassion. For these things defend from terror just as mightily as the mightiest of arms.

Imagine for just a moment, just one hour of little acts of kindness multiplied by 100 million Filipino souls - what amount of good it does to the receiver, and more importantly what amount of good it does in the giver... multiply this further by the grace and the Providence of God.

In saying this, we return to the ideals of our national peace. Why do we forget that we are all Filipinos? That nobody wanted Mamasapano who believes in the promise of our peace as a Nation. I would hate to think Mamasapano is being politicized. There is nothing there that needs our convincing. No policy over it that needs defining. The pain is unanimous. The lessons clear.

We should be mourning all of our losses in this continuing war within ourselves. In saying this, I shall add to the Fallen 44, in the general list of casualties that our internal divisions have exacted from our nation through the years, the fighters from the MILF side that perished as well as the civilians who perished with them.

Why should anyone feel content or even happy to see everyday in the papers the mounting toll of decades worth of indifference and inaction on our part? Do we not know one life alone lived to its fullest can change our national destiny, alter it by degrees, make it a shade brighter, a tad more colorful...?

How much more can we dare to lose? How much more can we afford to overlook before the scale tips from light to dark and how slippery goes the slope from there... How easy it is to see all those lives lost without a care. As if we weren't graced by God to be one nation, as if we ourselves refused to embrace the legacy of our heroes, known and known to God alone.

So we return again to the peace process. It is good that we are talking about it.

Perhaps, the enlivening of the national conversation as regards the peace process in particular with the MILF was serendipitous of Mamasapano. Let us not lose the moment.

Let me just say that the BBL is not the end of all ends as regards the peace process with our brother and sister Muslim Filipinos. But as regards the GPH-MILF track, it well might be. It is important to give the BBL a fighting chance.

But equally important is to not lose our horizons despairing over the political what ifs being brought to play in our minds. The absolutisms of partisan politics. Good when good. But mostly bad. As if the only choices we got to deal with were either the BBL or an all-out war (or the BBL as it is or nothing). Because it isn't.

It isn't good for a democracy to be limited to black and white choices. Because often times, both black and white choices are wrong. Democracy is all about finding the middle course between two extremes. It is about having an honest conversation on issues that matter to all-in-the-nation. Horizontally across our communities as well as vertically up echelon to our leaders in the formal government of the State.

Democracy is the grace-inspired dawn of enlightened human reasoning in a nation. It is not the rule of the mob. It implies give and take. It requires listening and hearing and in between them, compromise. It is the caregiver and nurturer of the peace that our Republic is sworn to defend.

Trust is requisite to freedom. Respect is a requisite of trust. This respect as a shared belief in the necessity for mutual confidence between the central government and the BPE is written into the BBL as the principle of parity of esteem. Respect is also at the root of this principle. A respect which was built on years of dialogue and common action between the GPH, the OPAPP, and the MILF.

I think some of this fundamental sense of trust was tested during the Congressional hearings. I also think the MILF should do some soul searching because what was done to some of our troopers fall terribly short of the mutual respect they themselves require in the BBL. Discipline your forces.

When and where did we lose respect for each other? I think it was long before Mamasapano. A lingering pain from Colonial times. A wounding we long endured to the point where we became comfortable with the pain. A pain that have long eluded our capacity for social adaptation. A pain we adopted instead. It went right back into our national psyche. Not because we remembered but because we lack memory.

We are each fully accountable for each other. For as long as heaven recognizes the citizenship Providence Divine did vouchsafe for us in our hearts, all our generations together are each fully accountable for each other. Did we not implore the aid of God Almighty as a people in our 1987 Constitution?

We asked for trust yet show less respect. And the cycle begins again. Mamasapano had nothing to do with the peace process. Ideally. Were the Oplan that was its genesis redone without the mistakes we know were made on the fly, the peace track with the MILF would have not at all been - in any way - significantly associated with it. But now, the reality is - that it is.

All this attention is good. We can make great headway in the peace process through it. The BBL may benefit from it. I am not against the BBL. I am against a sloppily crafted version of it. I am against a version of it that lacks respect for the hope and the effort invested in it.

I am against whatever unfairness is therein contained in its draft form. Unfairness meaning any lack of equitable concern for the other communities wherein the BPE shall dwell in actuality amongst, in the context of its promised peace, a peace which we shall all likewise as one Nation make our own, like a wedding. One peace. For life.

Funding is one of my primary focuses. Because we are not yet that so well endowed with loose funds and constrained politicians. Funding and planning are two things intimately related in my mind. They are each a side to one coin. National security is my secondary focus, this includes civil defense, including effective public service commitments and real community policing. Education is my third. Human Fluency. These must be structurally spread equitably across the Republic. Most notably in the CAR which is the ARMM's closest political kin.

Fundamentally, constitutional bodies such as the COA, COMELEC, CSC, CHR and the Ombudsman must remain at the national level being wholly responsible to the one whole Filipino nation. I understand what is being called for as the asymmetry of political powers. But the branch should know where it must connect to the trunk and the trunk to the roots and the roots in the ground. Furthermore, there should only be one AFP and one PNP.

The CAFGU and its equivalent evolution or outright decommissioning after the peace process is another question altogether.

I want a vision from the BPE that goes beyond and above the constraints of the letters of its enabling law. I want to gauge the buoyancy of its spirit. Political commitments. Shared human causes. Subsidiarity.

And above all, moderation. Moderation in politics that preserves common respect. Respect in politics that encourages confidence in the process, and trust in the politicians. Not absolutisms. Truisms.

Not artless partisanship. Clubbing each other over the head like thugs. Patriotism. Helping each other along the way like citizens.

Politics is a fight. But whenever it is a noble fight. Like it is as one expects in watching the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, at least for the Pac-man, it shall be glorious. Glorious and profitable to the nation.
---<--@

I am for peace

That we as a nation have a choice for peace 

while other nations struggling as we are

may not or can not have this choice 

is itself a constant wonder to me. 

It is something I think about often 

that we - in the here and now - 

are able to desire peace...

It is a truth I never take for granted.

It means the favorable time for peace is now.

This is the most apolitical picture I can post... I think it fits right in.

Peace may also be won by a contest of arms. 

However, let us remember to consider the field upon which these battles shall be fought and won.

Nation-States have been shaped by wars fought among themselves. These wars are common in our history. But those wars fought from within a Nation-State are different. These internal divides do not shape destiny, they predicate destiny. The longer it happens, the darker that destiny becomes.

If a contest of arms were the solution to peace reform in our Philippines, why is it taking us so long to arrive at a decisive outcome? Our internal conflict have been the longest running in the history of the world. And so much pain and loss it has cost this nation, across the generations.

How easily some of us dismiss the blessings a season of peace might afford our nation's children. How easily some of us would rather trust in the power of arms than believe in the power of peace.

When shall we ever tire of killing our fellow Filipinos in defense of the very Republic sworn forever to our common defense?

Among ourselves, where individuals seem to kill others without responsibility, is it not because the very presence of war ultimately allows it?

As a nation where we seem to view all these individual tragedies as obscure, being without a sense of common accountability, is it not because the absence of peace ultimately precludes it?

Those who advocate a course of war do not understand the cost of war. Nor its nature in particular that we must everyday contend against here within our Republic of the Philippines.

No, I am for peace. 

I am for a just, meaningful and durable peace in Mindanao and across the whole of our Philippines; peace as a cornerstone of the national success.

I am for a peace gained through faith in God and unity through Country; peace that serves and defends all Filipinos with virtue, humanity, and maturity of remembrance.

I think we have suffered enough to merit this peace, I think it is within reach of our memory, and by grace of God and love of our people, we shall have it.
---<--@

Today, we commemorate the miracle of 1986. I was 13 years old then and even then, I had an idea that something big was happening... something bold.

I think many things happened to allow for that miracle in EDSA to occur. God did not just bless us with a miracle from out of the blue in 1986.

If the Gospel has taught my own heart anything, it is that miracles had to be owned first before it is owed to us by God - that faith is always first before fruition.

Today, I remember that truly peaceful revolution our nation was empowered by God to pull from out of the blue through our collective faith and unity as a people... a real crossing of a threshold.

I say it is one of a kind... and I respect it as such... unique. It is special not only in the memory of this nation but in the history of our family of nations. A great movement in the soul of a people... ours.

Oratio Imperata for Peace

Let's do this...


































February 23, 2015

Your Eminences, Your Excellencies, Reverend Administrators:

The situation of the country and the world right now calls on all of us to turn to the Lord in humble supplication and gather our people to pray. As the nation continues to grieve over the tragedy in Mamasapano and the family of nations is threatened by war and terror from extremist groups, our best contribution to the nation and to the world is to encourage people to pray.

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14).

I respectfully propose that we the bishops of the Philippines encourage our people to pray the following Oratio Imperata for Peace. Hopefully this prayer can calm the anxieties of our long suffering people and touch the hearts of the enemies of peace.

The authority to declare an Oratio Imperata for the various dioceses is the sole prerogative of the Local Ordinaries. If this proposal will merit your pastoral approval, I humbly request that you issue a circular to the clergy and Catholic faithful in your jurisdiction to make this prayer for peace mandatory.

I submit this proposal to your better judgment and pastoral wisdom.

Sincerely yours,

+SOCRATES B. VILLEGAS
Archbishop of Lingayen Dagupan
CBCP President
---<--@

Preserve us all in Thy Peace

O LORD God, 

help us with our present work of peace.

Guide us through as You always have 

and see us through this difficult time.

Look with mercy upon our present distress, 

O LORD and one Sovereign of all human nations,

make Thy Countenance shine upon our Country,

let Thy Light dispel the enveloping darkness...

Counsel those who are in doubt.

Comfort those who are in sorrow.
Carry the needy forth from troubles.

Be our refuge and our strength!

Manifest to this one, faithful Republic 

in particular to our responsible leadership, 

Thy will of justice and good for all our peoples.

Preserve our common hopes as a human people.

Preserve our dream of a better Philippines.

Preserve us all in Thy Peace.

Amen.

---<--@

Resuming the Peace Process with the CPP-NPA-NDF

Peace with the CPP-NPA-NDF (CNN) is a government initiative. 

Therefore, it may only be effectively resumed primarily through the auspices of the GPH. 

A formal invite to return to the table must be extended and accompanied by a means basic that presents a path toward an honorable truce. 

In this initial truce, the RPH calls on the GPH and the CNN to honorably observe a cessation of hostilities as a requisite condition to a mutually pre-approved terms of a durable truce.

(Raising the white flag of truce in a conflict that divides only our nation is not a sign of weakness nor is it a mark of dishonor. It is a sign of humility and a mark of realization and truth. No one side shall be raising it alone, we shall as one Republic together raise it, so that after it - our Flag may soon follow.)

Terms of a durable truce will include powers-under-truce intended to further without prejudice the mutual goal of establishing and re-establishing effective mechanisms for peace and stability on the ground.

(Within the context of this framework truce we shall equitably re-apply the spirit and letter of JASIG and CARHRIHL that they may, while preserving their intrinsic value and integrity as separate documents, gain perspective accessible to the minds and hearts of our common citizenry.)

And these conditional powers be therefrom further defined and achieved in and by degrees of proven trust. 

Proven trust gathered under truce shall in time merit the endowment of mutual grants - granted by both sides permanently to the center of the table - and protected by policy - as beneficial to the facilitation of the process whole.

This is how I foresee the talks renewed.

The unifying vision of the RPH in this particular aspect of the one whole peace process must be especially clear. In this, the MILF process stands to teach us some vital lessons learned. 

Social justice and the political process must be salient points in the minds of conveners from the CNN side.

Memory and remembrance must therefore be at the forefront on the GPH side. That the GPH may express knowledge of ourselves as RPH enough to dispel the overthrowing vision that has guided and misguided for so long a time this armed insurrection we are attempting to quell - by reconciling all to the unifying vision of our one Republic whole. 

That the Filipino spirit may have a home to rest within - peace for our nation, prosperity for our people.
---<--@

Peace is not a place

Our exile is not a place.

Our exile is a time.

Therefore,
peace upon the earth to us
is not a place.

Peace to us is a time.

Peace to us is a truth.

Peace to us is a season under heaven
and the knowledge of this season on earth

Let us seek peace therefore, not as a place.

Let peace be for us a willing choice... 

And let this be the time.

Filipinos,
if in each our hearts there is no peace,
there shall be no peace to be found for us
upon this earth under heaven.

Unless there is no peace in our hearts,
we shall find no peace here in our nation
nor among the nations to whom we are kin.

And shall persist to wander this world
without a home... restless of heart, 
restless of hope.

Home is where the heart is!

Whenever peace is in the heart -
everywhere love shall lead us,
we shall always find a home
and shall never be left
wanting of rest...

Most especially here 
in this Country of ours.

So let peace
be our inspiration
to renew our spirit
and build!

Let this time be the time
we make ourselves belong...

One lineage of hope,
7,107 islands strong.

Let this time be our time.

Let peace be everywhere we are.

Because 
if not here, where?
If not now, when?
---<--@

The Global Peace Index 2014

My fellow Filipinos, brothers and sisters of the Promise, our Philippines recently placed below the first fifty nations in the recent Global Peace Index. We ought to aim to be with the first fifty.

From 2014 forward, we shall endeavor in this blog to follow and analyze our yearly ranking on this Index.

This year we are at 134 out of 162.

Peace moves along a much broader front than the peace processes this Republic of ours has collectively and formally determined to bring to fore in the life of our nation.

Peace insofar as the Global Index is concerned holds to a larger view.

That's perfectly fine. 

We must not take it in from its own vantage though. Lest we feel lost and overwhelmed by the height. Our peace processes on the ground provides us with somewhere to begin.

This is why we are aiming modestly.

Our peace processes are a litmus test of our greater capacity to unify the soul and spirit of our people. Its equitable and decisive conclusions and their effects are presupposed to further incline a greater part of ourselves to a much larger work very much close at hand - that of building up our one Republic from emerging to developing to developed.

From here on, I am convinced we shall begin to see much more significant improvements on our Peace Index ranking that will allow us to dream (not fantasize) to belong with the first 20 nations on the Index.

It is not impossible for us to improve. As a matter of fact, we should have every reason to believe we can.

We are a nation after all, our State is well expressed in spirit if not yet in form, and our Republic is born from well-proven seeds, still quite young and perhaps not yet so well grounded in the soul and soil of our people. Indeed we have much to do and over time and I know we can do this...

Prosper in our peace.

First of all, to preclude all the unfolding political drama from becoming a running saga in ourselves, we shall re-visit the art of Civics. That we may together endeavor to know what is right in politics.

I will be posting my thoughts about this soon that I may share them with you.

Salaam. Shalom. Peace. Mabuhay po tayong lahat.
---<--@

To check out the 2014 Global Peace Index page, go to: Vision of Humanity

A Milestone for Mindanao

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Peace as a flower

We used to get these as a wreath in Baguio City, they last for ages...

If peace in the Philippines
were a flower...

I think it would be
the Everlasting Flower.

Why?

Because it is lasting,
durable, and meaningful.

Just like the peace we are,
as one nation, working towards.
---<--@

Peace is gladness

Let us drink to national sobriety.

Peace is gladness. It must be!

She's a sweet song of vict'ry!

The difficult wine of a triumph

so sweet... Of which we drink 

to intoxication. 

Together...

That we might sing...

---<--@

Seek peace and seek it absolutely.

Thoughts on the Philippine Constitution

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is the foundation of a great story.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For as Man is, so shall his Nations be.

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

And we will certainly lose our place to it.

On earth and in heaven.

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

Peace Month 2014

The spirituality of peace is connection.












Tomorrow, my brother and sister Filipinos, let us shoulder together in the Bayanihan spirit, Peace Month 2014. Let us do this as a Nation. Let us work together to deepen our understanding of the word,

"Peace".

The Nine Common Human Needs: A Just Society

My brother and sister Filipinos,
who are all my siblings in God and Country,
kindred to my soul through the blessing of Nationhood,
whose hearts long to dwell in the native spirit of our Peace
and whose spirits seek to mightily soar with soul of our Nation -
my word to each of you and your thoughts to mine, beloved Nation,
may all come by way of our friendship and arrive by way of the Truth
through our one common and national salutation, peace and mabuhay!

Man is an extension of his human community.

They say, my brothers and sisters, that the proposition of a just society implies the existence of an unjust foundation; that the reason for Man through his Nations to establish Justice upon his world is Injustice.

And truly, such is the case. 

Indeed, we recognize only what is good in this world because evil preceded us in our going forth - in our tribes and lineages - unto the furthest reaches of the lands of this Earth.

Evil was forever bound to this world, however. But we are not. 

Our going forth is an exile march and in our hearts, we know there is reserved, for all the children of our Mankind, a way of return to our Eden rebuilt.

There is a way that leads to the right places in time that is reserved for us.

Indeed, we expect to reach those places glimpsed by the hope that is common in all human hearts through the light of every faith precisely because we are expected to come along that way - to come along the great and inevitable circle of the totality and fullness of all human experience, unto a place where we may truly be - the promise and the life that the LORD, our God, did intend for each of us to be - before this time, before the onset of the pain and the poverty of our human exile.

How come then, if this way did indeed belongs to us, that we are met with so much trouble that at times we are completely overwhelmed along the way of our ascent? (You have to pardon my lingua franca, I mean all that is put down in this blog and I trust you to know it by now.)

Because we have to do it - as Nations dreaming together this time. We have to do it as a community that is in community with each other. We have to succeed as a world and as a family of Mankind.

Lest we forget as a Nation, Man is by first principle, a victim; that innocence is maintained until such a time as guilt is established in a court of law.

Let us look again at the proposition of a just society. There is indeed, in this world, an unjust foundation that exists and exists so that a just society may seek to know and to find itself - but it is primarily social in nature.

The most evil structures of this world are social in nature. It is their scandal that accounts for so much of the trouble we experience along the way of our ascent as Country - into our proper ages in time. And all of them are a slavery that consumes both the life of our souls and the souls of our societies.

Take corruption for example - an issue that stares our Nation in the face; and an evil that feels itself brave enough now to stand in the way of our Republic whole.

Its first principle cause is a crisis of Filipino identity.

Its effect is also a weakening of the Filipino identity.

And causes us confusion and doubt - undermines the life that lives in the society of our Nationhood and thus, propagates itself among us like a virus.

Its scandal furthers the ignorance that now infects with despair our ever deepening crisis of identity and makes that which is natural, unnatural. (For all societies must endure a never-ending search for itself to emerge, to prosper in time, and to eventually arrive unto the Truth - for hope. Despair comes only with forgetfulness, confusion, and the descent into division and the oblivion of war. In my Catholic tradition, despair is a sin against the Holy Spirit.)

We accuse each other of its evil. When the Evil in the evil itself dwells from within the accusations we often mindlessly hurl against each other. We can never rid evil by pitting it with evil. Cancer cells will never heal if we inject ourselves with more cancer cells. We have to return again to what is healthy in being Filipino.

I'm not saying here that no one is criminally complicit in the Pork Barrel scandal that set this Republic back decades. I have a fair idea of the totality of what we have lost through this sad and unwanted affair. What I'm trying to say is we are all responsible for the cure that will allow this Nation to surpass this test.

After all, are we not a just society? Because if we are not now. Then, we can never be later.

It is important to strike down the actions of those who willfully and maliciously conspire with the social evil of corruption in their desire to reap the rewards of its many sins, this is true.

In view of the above, we are a people endowed with an established system of Courts in this Republic. And this Court system exists within a greater institutionalized system of Justice in our Nation that along with our laws help us to make provision to protect the vulnerable in our communities from the evil and the scandal of social structures specifically unbecoming of our dignity and promise.

Therefore, it is just as important to also understand, that what makes us to become largely immune from the sins of corruption lies not in this Justice system alone but relies also in our capacity to resist the Evil of what is not of us - in ourselves. Our Courts may only make us safe so long as we ourselves remain convinced in the merits of our better selves and in the goodness that is worth treasuring in the life of each citizen and every one of our national communities.

Man as an extension of human community; that we as citizens are never disconnected from each other's lives - for the Sun of our Flag shines upon all, seeks to equally guide all, and expects all to to see all and to know of all - being gathered by each other in the light of its Liberty.

A just society is all we envision ourselves to be - as a Nation, as communities in one common community. And so we must constantly bring it forth not in our yesterday, not in our tomorrow - but today.

I do not have to further expound or elaborate on it. We know it and I know we know it. But let me say this, the greatest understanding of it may only be found when and where our unity is greatest.

The fruit of this Vision 
in the reality of the Nation is - 
the Maturity of Present and Living 
Human and National Remembrances.
---<--@

The Creative Ideal is this - 
know truth, and apply it - 
to love thy neighbor, and do it - 
to know the Word, and be it.

The Nine Common Human Needs

Towards Dawn

In the grip of the long night,
the Nation turns its gaze eastward
longing for the unraveling of its mystery.

For we have set our sights
guided by the noble gold of our Sun,
upon those perennial blue horizons.

And there is indeed
a certain wonder to be had
in the yonder there, towards dawn.

The life of our people
who lay ever weary in our souls
thirsting for the blessings it shall obtain.

Emerge then, my Country,
from the darkness - turning away.
Arise from the long night, into one Sky!

Gather thyself, soul of our peoples,
against scattering winds, become as one:
Whole to thy memory, awaken to thy destiny.
---<--@

What War Expects?

If you are familiar with the theme of this blog, you must likewise know how happy I am for this moment. 

Alhamdulillah, Alleluia, Praise God - May all who share in this moment bless the LORD. And may we also bless each other for everything we have achieved so far and appreciate the dignity of the common work of Peace we have together set out to complete. 

Let us gain a fresh perspective on the way ahead from this triumphant vantage - and soldier on. 

Let us persevere in our Peace Process. The successes we achieve thought it I know will most certainly help to feed our families and our generations tomorrow. The Filipino shall be the better off for it.

Let us be more eager then - for more. For the reality of this success must have quickened something in us. Let us also find a way to get the NDFP (CPP-NPA-NDF) back to the peace table. 

Let us as one Nation together - do now what War does not expect. Let us do this in our souls - in behalf of everything we suffered. Much depend on it.

---<--@

Our right of ascent is Peace. Our way of ascent is Goodwill. And proceeds from the prevailing strength and clarity of our Peace. Peace in ourselves. Goodwill to others like ourselves

We renounce war not by policy. But by a free and human choice.

It is in our Constitution that we renounce war as an instrument of the State. It is contingent upon this Nation therefore, to enshrine Peace in our civic spirit and thought - being the Peace of who we are - as a free and sovereign people - and a Nation upon the earth.

The way of Amity between Nations, also in our Constitution, naturally proceeds from this, our Turning Away from War.

The War within the Filipino soul can not defend us.

It can neither feed our children, clothe our human dignity, embrace our human potential, nor may it hope to satiate our profound need for a strong and concentrated sense of national identity as Filipinos - one that reaches into the very soul of the Citizenship that lives in ourselves, a sense of the Truth, much more to us in substance - than just the word itself.

Some Thoughts on the Bangsamoro

The Bangsamoro is a National Initiative: It is therefore, the concern of all Filipino citizens. It is an effort to evolve the ARMM and learn from its lessons - and make it work.

Mindanao is endowed with much abundance. But it is run like a frontier - 'tis a place ever awash in a sea of uncertainty, its communities trapped between the ebbing and flowing tides of random sky and restless earth - never seeming to be able to change to master change.

But the Island of Mindanao does not constitute our Southernmost frontier, in fact, it is a center of gravity of our Republic - it owns one of the three Foundation Stars that form our National sufficiency.

What is it that make us sufficient as a Nation?

Our Republic is not random nor blind. Neither is the Peace that it promises empty.

Our Republic is a shelter of Peace. Its labor with ours, as a Nation across our generations, is to constantly ensure that the sovereign will of our people rise above random sky and conquer restless earth.

To be sufficient as a sovereign and free people is to be capable of sustaining this Peace. Not as a product of  strings of random events, the whim of tyrants, or an obscure fate but as the sum of our free and independent choices.

Indeed, this ability to ponder "what we are" (being) and "who we are" (becoming) came at a high cost in personal sacrifice and heroic dedication. Let us always remember - to Remember them - and seek to know them by their names.

We have suffered too much indeed in our struggle for self-determination to abandon our common destiny. The Bangsamoro is a result of this realization. It is a deliberate National effort to re-establish a meaningful, durable Peace in Mindanao.

AND is one of the many processes now taking place - in our hearts and minds - to take back from the brink - the soul of our Country and the spirit of our Republic center. It is a process that along with (1) the National Rebuild in the Visayas, (2) the difficult fight against Corruption in Luzon, (3) the labor to balance the ecological promise of Palawan with our Energy needs and stabilize our western frontier constitute the four main areas - under the Eternal vigilance of Almighty God - wherein this Peace is likewise being advanced - on a broad front - all across our Nation.

PEACE which is not an absence of conflict but a return to the Memory - of what we are - and - of who we are - that we are a "we" and that as a "we", we have belonged forever. Peace which overturns War - that the life of our people may find rest - and the enemies of our Peace find only restlessness. Peace which is the truth of something real to love, something real to defend with a zeal that can never be lost or misplaced.

For we can no longer allow ourselves to be divided by the idols of chance or the gods of ignorance. For this Nation answers to God alone and this House (Republic) serves the LORD, the one Sovereign of all Nations, above and beyond all things, seen and unseen.

- selah -

The one constant that may be presumed from the nature of frontier areas are that they are always peripheral to the politics of the central government - this to our Republic represents a problem of perspective. In the political arena, this tragically mistaken sense have denied from many of our common generations, the abundance of Mindanao, spawning policies and laws self-prejudicial to the well-being of our Republic and detrimental to the common weal of our being as a National whole - past, present, and forever.

This near-sighted politics of the frontier exists as a constant challenge to competent Ambassadorship - for what is peripheral to the National consciousness and what is central to the International consciousness are almost always in need of political synchronicity as well as human reciprocity - and so as a rule, good Ambassadors are always good managers of frontier politics - from the center - transforming them in accordance with specific foreign policy goals and specified state interests.

And most certainly, Mindanao does not require an Ambassador from Luzon. What we need to do is to draw Mindanao into the Republic center - where the Island, its peoples, and its star rightfully belongs - equally - with Luzon and the Visayas. We can not do this without winning the Peace in Mindanao for we can not win back to our Republic center that vital Foundation Star by remaining with the rule of War.

- selah -

As a direct result of a misguided perspective, the Island is trapped in poverty. Its people never knowing the enabling peace of our Republic sky and the life of its communities never knowing the empowering Good will of our Nationhood.

Poverty is the lot of Man and the labor of the Nations is to overcome it. We are here to work to be happy and be free to be wealthy. Simply put, the labor of our coming together as a Nation upon this world is to become rich - both - in the more lasting spiritual as well as in the more immediate material (or temporal) sense.

Our Republic exists not only to establish Peace, but to overcome poverty. But not artificial poverty. For we can not become fully established - as a Nation - in the sovereign labor of obtaining from Heaven - in behalf of the Earth, our legacy of Justice and the heritage of our National Wealth - without Peace among ourselves.

Coincidentally, the former secessionist spirit of both the MNLF and the MILF were fed by this problem of perspective. Because this problem - compounded by increasingly provincial politics - espoused a sense of inequality that is uncomfortable in a Republic.

It is uncomfortable because we were already established as a Nation before God. Else, we would feel no compunction. It is uncomfortable to us as a Nation because it is unjust before God and inhuman before the Memory of our people.

It is uncomfortable to the point of bitterness and the shedding of so much blood and tears. Both factions have heretofore, according to all our understanding - repudiated this separatist mission. Because now we are pursuing a common mission of Peace - together this time - in the Bangsamoro vision.

The fact that there are deep and ancient divisions between the two great Abrahamic religions of Christianity and Islam that together shape the living culture of our Republic - in the past - often did nothing to heal all those simmering political rifts, many a time adding only to the heat of those many fires that in the darkness consume instead of shedding more of the light that in the darkness leads out into the Truth. And so we have fought among ourselves to dismiss and disown the Truth for so long...

Until this new time, until this new season under heaven...

Indeed, these present days - it would be a sin not to recognize the fact that we can, as a Nation - accomplish nothing further by being divided in our hearts and in Mindanao we may find the main epicenter of this division - this fragmentation in our soul of Country. (The Visayas may feel it too, to a lesser extent - but at large, we are faced with a different set of challenges to win for ourselves that Star).

And it can all be explained by the fact that we have not done enough to draw Mindanao to the center of our Republic and address this fundamental sense of inequality that leaves so many of the least and littlest among our peoples in the shadow - apart from the light of our three stars, and away from the reach of our one sun.

To become sufficient in our Nationhood, we must in spirit - become one people - to become this, as our 1987 Constitution does not include within it, a deeper reflection on the spirit and the character of our citizenship (as it relates to the fundamental natures of our democracy and of our Republic), we must come to a deeper REALIZATION in ourselves of the spirit and character of our citizenship - one with another.

AND we are, as a Nation, the most sufficient when we do our utmost for God and Country - when we seek the good, know the good, and do the good - and to be citizens not unlike each other in this way.

None of us is a Filipino citizen unless one accepts this basic equality - to do unto each other - equal Justice before God - through our one Republic undertaking of Country - and to fear no evil - by virtue of a common civic spirit.

This common civic spirit binds us deeper than blood ties and liberates us from tribal limitations that we may - as citizens of creation - come to know greater freedoms.

These bonds of citizenship are what makes us a cohesive democratic society - it is this fundamental equality as citizens that allow us to endure and in freedom prevail.

BUT what make us truly a Republic is the constancy with which we learn to freely and humanly live out this sufficiency to allow us - with every cycle of our generations - to ascend the way of our Maturity and obtain from the Truth its fullness - in the all of us - for the All of us.

- selah -

Those three stars on Old Defiant represent to us - our being - as a Nation, and its relationship to our sun represents - our becoming - in our Republic.

Before God - at every time and place, all Filipinos true to our Memory profess this as truth - that before the LORD and the assembly of the Nations before God in Eternity - we receive freely in our souls - this being - and - this becoming - as citizens not unlike to each other.

AND our sun is the symbol of the unconquerable Dream of freedom (in God and through God's Country) within which every single Filipino dream of happiness is to be forever possessed in its golden pursuit.

This is our basic equality as citizens before God and its fundamental activity is - to seek to be good, to know to be good and to do what is good - to proceed from Benignity to establish - a dominion of Justice upon our souls - and the rule of Law upon our soil - and the realms of Sacred Life preserve upon this Earth - and to make it all "very good" before the LORD - and on each other's behalf - through His Peace - and in Good will of our common humanity - forever as Nations - of the one Family of the Nations of the Children of Mankind.
---<--@