Our Navy Girls Rock

Do they not?

Standoff at Scarborough Shoal

Everybody seems to be concentrated on how weak we are, on how under-equipped our Navy and Coast Guard is, but what we don't immediately realize here is that it takes greater courage to confront a stronger nemesis, which in this instance, in Scarborough Shoal, are those Chinese marine surveillance ships. 

Let me reiterate here that we are not at war with China (PRC), however, in this particular instance only, our Armed Forces, in particular that arm to which is entrusted by our nation, the security and wholeness of our seas, finds itself on an opposite disposition, out of sheer necessity, with that Country.

Just this morning, it was asked in a current affairs program if those Chinese vessels were armed. Of course they are, at the very least, one has to assume that these vessels are defended by weapons, these are after all, reconnaissance ships.

Therefore, our sailors were and still are in real danger. This to me is not weakness - it deserves recognition in the highest order. 

Indeed, it could have turned out badly. It still could. However, chances are if an incident like this one does not immediately escalate, it will de-escalate.

We must remember things aren't always as fortuitous in the South China Seas or West Philippine Sea (depending on which parallax of war we subscribe with - fact is, everybody knows there is but one sea in question).

My brother and sister Filipinos, we can not rely on the workings of Providential grace exclusively for our national defense. 

We have to forge a plan for the credible defense of this Republic. And we must stick to it.

China, it seems to me, is becoming what she hated in the past; that thing of War that she knew and hated and suffered under... it makes me sad to think about it.

Now, a diplomatic solution that would preserve the dignity of both our sovereign Republics must be worked out. 

Compromises have to be made and given in order to secure a longer term solution to the much larger, more powerful Spratly divide that threatens to suck the whole of our region into conflict (and mire the whole of our continent of Asia in War for an indeterminable amount of time, further depleting what stores of human spirit and human potential our nations have managed to preserve thus far). 

This is by far not the only way out of this standoff at Scarborough Shoal but this is the only one - the only one - which will cost  less in terms of the ultimate price it shall exact upon the lives and fortunes of both our nations (and consequently, of all our nations). 

Mabuhay. May God be with us all.

---<--@

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.

---<--@