Salutation #103

(Maritime Nation)

If you want to strengthen the land
then strengthen everything
connected to the land.

If you want to strengthen
everything connected to the land
then strengthen the land.

- selah -

If you want to strengthen the sea,
if you want to strengthen the air,
if you want to strengthen space and time,
- you may only do so -
from the strength of the land.

If you want to strengthen spirit,
- you may only do so -
out of thy love for thy land.

Therefore,
if you want to build
both spirit and strength
and need to know
where to begin
- then understand this -
you must build from the land
and must grow only from out of it.

So let thy connections to the land,
give thee strength of will and purpose!

For without the land,
everything loses meaning...

And land that can not be held
- in the heart -
can not be held at all.
---<--@


Out from unity, all things we may build.

Go Team AFP. Go Navy!

Naval Jack of the Philippines

Real Weakness

The Last Fading Away

Who can bear the loss of our soldiers? From all services, they are this Republic's most obedient sons and daughters... Never forget!

O Soul of Army!

Defender of our Peace -
when in battle we weep
for those whose time has come
weep not because of anguish,
our tears are meant not for grief.

Cry not because they have fallen,
those sons and daughters of Country;
valorous souls who gave to us their utmost
and have bled their everlasting witness
to the universal mission of the eternal Army
from which all honorable armed professions
draw their great lineages of victory
Here, at the last fading away -
the quest for that one final sacrifice
the very last soldier to fall

before the breaking of the Day
in the name of Peace and for Sacred Life
in a relentless war that have lasted
from the dawn of Our exile time.

O Soldier of the Peace!
Noble Defender of Country -
You are life preserving life itself
for what is Country but a work of life.
Know you not why you respond
when duty calls you to battle?
Vague at times may your reasons be
especially amidst the desolation of war
and the darkness of war's attendant evils
but forget not what you love
and love shall forget not why you live
and none shall forget you if you shall fall
for in thy Country is thy longevity
Life itself shall be your resting place
and God will forever remember you
His Peace shall forever honor you
for the time you have given others -
more time for building,
more time for sowing,
more time for loving,
more time for hoping,
for kinder days to come.

O when shall the wounding stop
and the healing begin!
O beloved Soul of Army -
when is our last fading away?

Until mankind learns
to be better builders in peace
more than wanton destroyers in war;
until humanity learns
to value Sacred Life
than to seek those paths of death
Heaven and earth shall weep
with thee, O Soul of Army,
but never for those whose time has come
for the lost are never lost
so we must seek them not in vain.
Seek not our fallen with the dead
for life is life and death is death
so let the dead bury the dead!
Let us look for those who are triumphant
not with the defeated enemies of the Peace
but with the living as well as the everliving
for God Himself has declared Peace is over War.

It is for the oppressors of Country
and the enemy of Peace and Sacred Life
for whom the bell tolls
as we sing the songs of our fallen heroes
and their potent remembrance stir
in the hearts of those who yet believe
in the victory of the eternal Army
and in the timeless vision of God
to bring to bear in the name of All that is life
the final wrath that is to come
and bring to pass
Our last fading away;
that one final hymn of taps
at the joyful dawn of the Everlasting Peace
and the breaking of this midnight world.

So cry not because of the passing away
weep for loneliness but never for sorrow
for life is life and death is death.
Let us save most of our tears for those
who yet stubbornly cling to the lie
and believe in the heart in everything that is false
giving rise to all things that inflict evil to our poor world
and bring war and death to our suffering humanity.

For it is always for the reprobate that the bell tolls
to remind to those who sow in War what they shall reap.

---<--@

20110801

Our Philippine Marines is a vanguard force. It is their arms that protect the very limits of our sovereignty. It is their vigilance that preserve our one Republic at her frontiers. Go the Marines!

Let us call a spade a spade -

I will admit to you, my fellow Filipinos, I am personally grieved at the recent event in Jolo.

What the ASG did to our marines is utterly condemnable.

But I will not allow myself to become so blind as to become divided in my own heart about our nation. I see and I recognize the virtues of our Muslim compatriots apart from the darkness that is being wrought by those who seek the overthrow of our nationhood.

The President is pursuing an aggressive stance against the ASG. This is well and good. The ASG, as they themselves have so lucidly demonstrated, if they are not engaged in acts of terrorism is engaged in common banditry against our nation and other nations and have not impressed upon anyone any kind of ideal whatsoever worth considering besides force of arms.

My concern belongs entirely to my Muslim compatriots who are honest citizens of this Republic undertaking of Country, who are our fellow Filipinos, brothers and sisters of the Promise.

In this season of Ramadan, they together with the families of the fallen soldiers are the most vulnerable products of this untoward incident.

Indeed, they deserve our kindness, concern and assistance. It is only right.

And prayers for the souls of our fallen warriors.

I have no doubt the cause for which the ASG is now presently engaged is a doomed cause. Clearly, their fallen ideal have left them with no remaining excuse outside the criminal.

But if we forget ourselves, my brothers ans sisters of the Promise, if we shall neglect our peace as Filipinos, we undermine the proactive strength that will bring us closer and closer to the day when peace for our Republic is a greater, much binding force than conflict and division.

Let us today make the distinction.

Our one Country must become empowered by our our nation becoming enabled to embrace and protect - by the sheltering wings of our peace - all our decent citizenry from the scandal of those outlaws posing to act under the banner of any honorable religion - ASG or not.

My honorable compatriots, the future we are choosing to bring forward today belong to all Filipinos - it shall belong to all Filipinos or none at all.

Therefore, all our national communities across our one Republic whole must be able to condemn what is not permissible to our civic culture.

What offends the peace of our greater civic order as a nation must be deemed offensive to all Filipinos in all truth and without prejudice. And all Filipinos should be able to discern this for themselves individually, freely, and without fear.

So may the LORD bless us and favor our nation with His Peace.

Peace be to all Filipinos in this season of Ramadan - Ramadan Mubarak!

---<--@

Finally, let us say a prayer of peace for the soul of our own Corazon Aquino. Let us remember her gift with thanks to her and to our Creator as well as the hopes she has entrusted to our present care.

T

oday is the 2nd year anniversary of her passing away.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Peace be upon you, O Man,

in this season of Ramadan.