Freedom for Sale

Corruption is not inspiration.
Corruption is trouble and ruin.

Do not give in to corruption!

Citizen, who you are is why you work.

So just be the best you can be... 

And it will be well for all in the world.
---<--@

Is your freedom for sale?

Do not sell your vote. 

Those who would buy your vote
would buy your rights and your freedom too
if they could...

So don't sell yourself out, Citizen - reserve the vote.

If you can't vote or if you feel disinclined to vote,
for any reason you may think compels you, abstain. 

Reserve your vote.

Vote only when you are convinced of the power of the vote.

- selah -

Your vote counts. 

So vote to win!

A single vote might seem to you insignificant
and should tomorrow you came to believe this true, Citizen,
then tomorrow our democracy too might perish.

Consider the reliance of the stars,
how entire stars rely on the action of their most fundamental elements
to complete their life cycles.

Can we not shine bright as those stars, Citizen,
through the Three Foundation Stars of our Country?

Therefore,
whoever one may choose to elect by way of the ballot,
understand that when we, the people, vote...

we vote to win.
---<--@

My Centrism

I am center-right.
I reach out to the left who reaches out to me.
It is this reaching out that defines my centrism.
Not just my moderate conservatism.

I am a democratic expression
of those finest beliefs - firmest in myself -
within a spectrum broader than my conviction.

Therefore -

In all things political,
I shall be strongly inclined to begin and end,
right of center - every time, all the time.

In America, this means I am either
a liberal Republican or a conservative Democrat
but can't seem to decide on which because...

I am devoted to a necessary unity
and seek to serve my devotion
through meaningful peace.

Partisanship is only secondary to citizenship in my eyes.
And in my heart, Country is always to be honored and served over party.
---<--@

Vigilant Trust

Political Wisdom

Our politics these days seem only to confound and confuse... people say - kakainis na, kakasawa na, masyado nang madumi.

Is there really such a thing as "political wisdom"?

This is what I think -

Political wisdom is not seated in the mind of an individual. It is a virtue of a political community.

It is like military intelligence that some people say is an oxymoron - a self-contradictory term.

Some minds tend to accept the term and its attributions as if springing from individual (personal) virtue, take the worst possible example of military or political leadership, and apply it as a failure of the whole organism.

Military intelligence has nothing to do with personal intelligence quotients as some people like to think.

It has everything to do with intelligence as a function of command. Will and Outcome are what it serves and manages not brains and smarts.

A superior commander with clarity of intent guides his or her intelligence to accomplish a given mission in a manner that preserves unit initiative and in a way that preserves the advantage to overall strategy.

A political leader likewise retains to him or herself what is personal and will freely seek to augment it as necessary through his or her political community - with the broadest political community being that of the national community.

The national whole in the context of the State is a body politic.

It would behoove us as the Filipino citizenry to work to demystify the politics of our own Republic.

The civic exercise of the political is a primary power and responsibility of the Filipino electorate. We must have a sense of the political - of what serves the better interest of our communities in the public sphere and we must duly represent them - through officials after our own hearts. 

The civic exercise of political authority reaches its summit whenever we vote.

It is not our politics to forever participate in its distractions in the government of the State. Some of these distractions are necessary but some shall be extraneous... we shall leave this matter for another time as a matter for platform politics.

Suffice it to say, we through our democratic interactions in the State, enlighten each other in the nation, in a sense. And from this humble enlightening, we become wise in all our ways as a body politic.

It is political to simply know what is fair unto other human beings - and to apply it as a citizen for the good of thy own neighbor is civic virtue.

Things like personal wisdom plays a vital part - but on its own, or tainted by the vice of intellectual pride - a good leader stands to gain nothing from the mind of a community

If

one should think the self to be a constellation
- in and of itself -
capable of accurately navigating the heavens
above the soul of the nation
on its own.

For

The Republic Sky is like the sky above our heads...
it shares of itself freely, is meant to be shared,
and therefore, must be shared.
---<--@

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.


---<--@

The Litmus Test of our Democracy

Elections.

Even the most freest
and the most fairest of them all -
does not keep us free - nor our politics fair.

Entering the gate alone does not build the city.
---<--@

We experience self-determination as an individual right when we exercise it as a national community during elections.  

The right of suffrage also bestows upon our shoulders the responsibility of a mature electorate. This electoral culture is the substance that enlivens and empowers the act of voting. It does not suddenly come to life only on election days. (And goes back into the crypt afterwards.)

It is a living and integral part of our National culture and one  that should be constantly renewing itself as an aspect of our freedom borne and won and gathered together - in Liberty.

Though the choices we must make in secret ballot is per individual - we do not really cast our votes as individuals - we vote as a community of individuals.

Majority rules - Vox Populi, Vox Dei.

But that does not mean the minority suffers. Remember, the majority exists also on their behalf.

The power of the vote is to affirm. 

In an elections, there is no negative vote. We have to remember this if we want to effect a positive change in our electoral culture.

We do not vote people, we vote platforms first.

Therefore, the measure of the virtues of candidacy in a popular elections is not fame or notoriety of person but proven personal sincerity and believability of political intentions.

In this, we do not look for those who only look good by making others look worse. That is the first sign of superficiality.

Of course, politics will at times present moral challenges to the personal integrity of our candidates but this should never exclusively dominate the electoral debate. Partisanship benefits us politically only in relation to the relevant matters at hand, that concern what we are really voting for - not just the who.

We seek in the questions our candidates must courageously ask, in presenting to us in the forums of the Republic, what platforms they stand upon and promise to build (upon entering the gate of the city, and into the helm of the Philippine State), what has resonance with what answers we are looking for - as a mature electorate - that is representative of the majority in our Democracy.

Therefore, there are no losers in an elections. Only those who receive our affirmation. We do not vote in the negative, remember.

There are no winners in an elections either. Only those who, according to their positions-elect, accept the mandate of the people - to serve the good of the Nation entire in the Republic government.

The mindset of winner-loser is the first thing out the window. It produces the violence that oft shock us by the bloody taint it inflicts upon the politics of the Philippine State - that scandalizes the many.

This politics of violence (along with the politics of money) in a Democracy such as ours is unacceptable.

Those who really win in an elections are those who run the race to the full, who with vigilance stay the course they have intended (to advance) for the people - at the outset of their term: Those who build - under God, what they - before Him and before the people, have said they would - according to their honest, human best - which is the reason why they became (Providentially) in the first place - it was popular. Their dedication and the merit of their works - for the people. Not just fame in and of itself.

They merit a succession of terms because they merit a succession of terms.

And will be remembered well for it.

All good things have a limit, a measure, and a time under our Republic Sky. It is clearly understood that there will always be a limited number of positions available in an election season for candidacy.

Our candidates, God bless them all, should know it. And understand that - whether they receive the affirmation of the vote or not - the vote is not a matter of losing or winning but a matter of time.

All good things in their good time. And good leaders in their due season.

Let us remember this also, we question what is questionable. We do not look for what is evil, as far as our politics go. Like the human body and its immune system identifies what does not belong to it by first knowing what does, in the organism of the Republic - we look for what is questionable, and challenge it by virtue of our knowledge of what is native to our common good.

Individual good exists nested and embraced within greater and greater realities of the good that make them all common. We can not choose between a lesser and a greater good. It is a false choice. Like saying one had to choose between breathing and eating.

So to know ourselves, is to know what belongs to ourselves. And the cycles of our elections should make us better and better able to deeply understand what is clearly what - as a mature electorate.

We, the people, do not vote to lose, we always vote to win.

How Rule of Law and the traditions of our Republic and its Democracy is kept - alive in our culture - matter a whole lot more to us now in a Republic that how our rulers are made elect.

In short, the litmus test of any democracy is how it's leaders lead and how it's followers follow (how rulers rule, and how their rule is kept) and in between them, how freedoms are kept free.

Entering the gate alone does not build the city.

The power of the vote guards the gate. The culture of our electorate determines how well the watches of the city is drilled, trained, and maintained.

Our leaders are drawn form this culture and are citizens first like we are.

They do not and will not pander to base intentions. They will not think to buy your vote nor should you think to sell your vote to them.

They will keep sanity and nobility the Republic government and virtue and compassion in the forums of the Philippine State.

They will support the good and uphold the common good and we will support them - all the way - for doing so - in all our behalf.

For they will enter the city - at the gate -
and persevere with her through her labors by day
who in recognizing the Beauty of her face in the morning,
rejoice with her at dusk, being at peace with the setting of the sun,
dwelling in goodwill among her peoples, prevailing through the night.

If we can reform our Electoral culture then the rest of the matter as regards Electoral reform shall be mostly about funding. This is a question of Law. And exists as a different matter altogether.
---<--@

Election Season...

It sure is.

---<--@

20110806

Awakening the Dream

IF WE ACHIEVE THE DREAM of peace in our times, my honorable compatriots, we shall unlock the true potential of our nation meaningfully engaged in realizing its promise as the one Republic of the Philippines - for all our people and for all our generations - a home away from Home for all Filipinos.

Achieve the political peace by or before the end of 2012. This is one of the conditions necessary for our nation to enter into the new age in peace with God and in harmony with the season that the LORD has set forth before all nations.

The political peace is the negotiated peace between the GRP and the MILF and represents the will of our leaderships to mend the internal disagreements that have led to the conflict.

This peace on paper is distinct from the national peace which is the actual work of mending our communities, of accommodating, reconciling and realizing our common hopes, one with another.

To set our own expectations aright, my fellow Filipino compatriots, the process of obtaining from the LORD, our national peace, is a distinct labor apart from the political peace process being undertaken by the GRP and the MILF and must be understood as such.

The national peace is the labor of our national whole.

Achieving the national peace (2012-2045) for our one Republic will take us much longer and will require a deeper conviction but is a labor which we can not begin nonetheless joined together as one Republic undertaking of Country without a prior peace on paper.

God shall bless our nation for being loyal to the mission He has invested in all human nations which is to give shelter to its communities against War and the darkness of exile as a particular endeavor of Country upon the earth and through these necessary graces, deepen our conviction to prosper the peace for ourselves and our posterity.

I should remind us now that most of us here today have never even known this peace.

Our leaderships at this point in time must also bear in mind and heart that peace in its general form is absolutely present in the greater will of the one Filipino nation from whom they all draw their sovereign authority and unto whom we all belong by birth, by common desire, and by the will of Divine Providence.

In this world caught adrift in the ebb and flow tides of exile time, my beloved brothers and sisters of the Promise, from the nation we all shall begin, from the nation we all shall return.

So let us take this truth to heart and put a paramount value on the peace of our national communities.

- selah -

Truly, my beloved people, there is a greater season at work here and we should be mindful of it because it involves matters much larger in their scope than our internal divisions. I hope all the recent goings-on in our world gives our own peace process a deeper perspective.

Having said this, I am encouraged by the recent meeting between President Noy and Chairman Murad in Tokyo - mabuhay po kayo!

I am also thankful for the government of Japan for getting better involved in this vital process for my Country reminding all concerned parties that achieving peace in our Philippines will also add to the greater good of our local region and of our home continent of Asia.

---<--@

A Word on Philippine Electoral Culture -

There are no losers in an honest election. But in a dishonest election, the whole nation is the loser.

---<--@

The Highest Office -

The highest Office in a Republic is the LORD's as the one Sovereign of all nations, God, our first defender and one Source of all our relationships.

All other Offices are established according to their nobility. Nobility, of course, being a substance of character that bears a quality of love for the common people.

Now, the noblest Office in a Republic is the Office of the President and forms at the center of the sheltering wings of government; wings that must fully embrace our one nation in the Peace of an undertaking of Country and this Country for us is the one Republic of the Philippines.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Mabuhay ang Japan! God bless us all.

Being Present for Peace