Thoughts in the Raw

I hate it that the BBL issue is getting helplessly conflicting. One can not despair though. When things get this way, I think it is becoming more and more a leadership crisis than a legislative one. And when we talk of leadership we look to Malacanang... or to each ourselves...

I use this blog to store my thoughts and read back to them when I can... So about the BBL, another thing I haven't really written about is the "expansion" clause. It should be removed. Even if the Philippine Republic does federalize... (maybe we will, maybe we won't), it introduces into the national thinking, a kind of competition that is unsuited to the keeping of the broader peace. What if every province had the ability to eat each other up? If Congress hasn't already done so, they should rethink this clause.

I can not fully oppose the BBL like I fully oppose separatism and armed insurrection. The BBL for all its controversy represents a significant investment in peace reform - whether it prospers or not is another question altogether. I can not however, overlook how much effort, funds, and futures have been put into the crafting of the draft law. It has to be given a chance. 

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The Rohingya people might themselves possess a history of conflict we presently have little to no understanding of... We have to make sure this history of conflict does not come into our shores unresolved.

Unresolved if not by them - by us - this nation we know as our own. We have nothing to do with the baggage of their past - from Bangladesh, to Myanmar, or with the Rakhine - though we can represent something of their future...

I think we as a nation have a moral and spiritual obligation to help human beings in need, especially those who are under threat of being unjustly and summarily relieved of their lives and liberty.

We as Filipinos must always remember we started out as people in the shadow of death. Both Islam and Christianity as our major religions are familiar with the plight of the human minority - all three Abrahamic faiths started out as exceptions and as contradictions before the face of the world.

I do not know how we as Christians, Muslims, and Jews got to be so fully assimilated to the rule of war... I recognize our beginnings and know through my own remembrance that what we do to each other can sometimes be so terribly incompatible with the memory...

Anyway, since we are in truth obliged to help them - we have to also make it clear that our helping them does not mean that we favor them over their enemies nor grant symbolic asylum to hatreds of any kind. As we too have an obligation to Justice and to do justice - it is the plight of their common humanity more than anything else that we must immediately recognize.

In any case, we are now also obliged to help ourselves understand the plight of the Rohingya people. If ASEAN has a capability of declaring and acting upon a region-wide humanitarian crisis, this would be a good example of one of those, I think. 

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Ayayay... para bagang ganito:

Thoughts in the Raw

I believe in the unjust judges, unjust laws principle. 

That naturally, a just society crafts just laws. But how just a society is depends not on its laws but on the measure it gives to its laws. Law magnifies justice and justice magnifies law. But everything in the system depends on what we put in.

This principle is quite similar to the thought behind the "broken windows" principle. That the tipping point between order and lawlessness are found in the little things... 
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The BBL is a means to achieve a dedicated end. It is a means, not an end; meant to produce the conditions that favor the establishment of a meaningful, durable, equitable peace in the ARMM region.

The BBL is not a guarantee of peace in Mindanao. Any mutually agreed upon version of this Basic Law still has to produce what the Basic Law promises to produce.

If a final version of the BBL passes Congressional muster, the responsibility of proving the worth of the BBL will pass from Congress to the constituent peoples of the BPE - their leadership especially. The proof of the Law shall be what the Law produces - as a means to a dedicated end.

Take our 1987 Constitution for example. Consider how our own Constitution remains dependent still on the political will residing within the Republic to materialize its ambitions. The BBL through the BPE will more or less encounter the same kind of proving.

The proving of the BBL will not be whether it passes Congressional muster or not. It will depend on how the Basic Law is allowed to take root among its constituent peoples in the ARMM region.

This is why my stand on the issue is resonant with the Catholic Church's stand - Give the BBL a chance. For it is but one question upon a path of many others. Give the journey a chance to begin. From there, many other answers need to be found. From there, the issue of the BBL will meet up with the Mamasapano issue.

Thus, give Congress enough time to address valid concerns about the quality of the Basic Law as well as surmount all legal and constitutional challenges about it

Because this much is true - Peace in the ARMM can be a cornerstone of a broader peace in Mindanao and therefore, a more perfect peace right across our Republic.

The vision we are working towards is worth the risk - so let us be careful.
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The fire in Valenzuela is horrible. I have been a fire victim myself but my experience is dwarfed and humbled by the experience of those who have lost friends and loved ones in Valenzuela. May God lead the souls of all those who perished into His safety and the hearts of all those who grieve for them into His solace.

This fire is the 3rd worst in our national memory. Adequate measures should be enacted so that both the City and the BFP may proactively ensure that fire safety is one of the foremost capability concern among business establishments. How can we lose 72 citizens in the way we lost them in Valenzuela just like that?
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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.
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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.
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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. 

Mamasapano and the BBL

Mamasapano and the BBL are issues distinct.

Justice and Politics are matters separate. They are related only in significance, one proceeds from the other.

Justice is indispensable and the truths Justice serves are changeless. For the ideals of Justice are older than time, original to being, and inherent in all living purpose.

(There is a kind of justice that harms. Sadly, we know of this kind of justice in the aberrations we feel our own justice system is capable of. Know it enough to harbor mistrust in the Justice of the State and even fear it. This we will reflect upon in a separate post.)

Politics is necessary but its effectiveness must rely upon how well our Justice is able to deliver - not to change what has already happened last Jan. 25, but to make amends and ultimately reconcile ourselves to what we had lost by the gain of their memory.

It would be disadvantageous to the Republic to confuse the pledge of Justice which is eternal with the mission of Politics which is temporal.

Anger will not serve us in the pursuit of Justice.

Anger if it can be transformed into a passion for what is necessarily a good, may fuel the Political but may also cause it to exceed itself. Politics are always bound by the real and what can be real is always limited by many things. Anger turned to hatred can be boundless.

We may recall to mind examples of this... politics of last resort. Politics must be joined to a vision that is a good that embraces the nation to safeguard it from excessive passion. Reason shepherding emotion.

Lives lost is never a political issue. These things do not go away. There is a saying, "the angry can be made happy but the dead can not come back to life."

This to me is a principal lesson that we ought to understand from Mamasapano:

Let us be careful when it comes to human life.

It pays to appreciate how fundamental human life is to our nationhood; how central human dignity and human promise are to the obtaining vision of the Republic and the success of the national peace.

Even if we were as a nation blessed by Providence enough to obtain from the memory of our painful experience in Mamasapano, the most good it may offer to our communities there will always remain among us the silence of those names... (if only we can hear what from behind the silence cries out...)

All of them, every one of us who perished during that day, everybody we lost who are each of them Filipino by grace of God - especially those civilians no matter how few who had nothing to do with battle and only wished for something better than a constant state of war.

We are, by our names, always more than just numbers. The visible universe is made up of numbers. We who behold the universe and ascribe it beauty are much more than the universe.

I want us to remember this...

For however political one may wax and for any reason one may think, they were all of them Filipino and this nation shall be made to account in the truth. The absence of this "we" presence in our hearts and therefore, in our times is a primary source of all our internal troubles.

I am not defending any evil done. I wish to consolidate in our thoughts and in our love on what in us is good that it may be easier for our communities to let those evil days flee in and of itself - because we are as we are.

Think about it.

Some say the Moro people do not or have never considered themselves to be Filipino. 

What matters to me however, is that I recognize the fact that they are. Because I am. And I will never do them justice as least spiritually if I allow myself to be swayed by the misguided political opinion of others.

In another place and time, all those whom we lost that day could have been fighting shoulder to shoulder for a cause that is common to all... building, building, building toward better days.

Some disagree with the usage of the word Filipino because of historical or other reasons. 

Words are both meaning and sound/script - essentially the meaning of words can neither be voiced or written. Words say something they can not really express by calling our attention to it - by sound or by other mediums physical.

Think about it.

What you hear or read and what you understand are two different things.

What matters is that one understands.

It is better to wear your truth inside your heart than to speak it loudly just to be heard.

Past generations of Filipinos including Rizal and Bonifacio and their illustrious generations did not have any qualms in the usage of the word Filipino. To challenge this now would only dislocate us further from the line of our history.

There is an expectation and a responsibility in citizenship. 

Most of the ideals that have shaped, informed, and enlightened our civics belong to the memory of the nation. Our identity remain constant to our mind and hearts even in the midst of change. For everything about being a Filipino are truths that are for always. All these things has to do with the national peace.

I wondered at one time what the real name of our nation is. Before the Philippines was. One can reach back into the past only so much until it becomes wishful thinking. Know the truth, and you will know the name of it. It is motion.

In the temporal realm, we go by name first introductions. The name itself is not as important as the acts that proceed from friendship or lack of it.

In the timeless, one recognizes the truth first, the motions of it, then the name. The name is the most intimate expression of unity, and makes it whole.

Our nation goes by the same principle... What matters is not things before, though we have an obligation to memory; not things a day past today, though we have a responsibility to duty and vision, what matters is the here and now.

Citizenship is what comes out of your heart.

And so I do not feel any prejudice nor am I imposing any upon anybody by saying I am Filipino.

A street kid once asked me for alms. I was by a fishball cart at the time and offered him fishball instead of money. He was happy to have it. I was happy to give it. And the fishball seller had a smile on his face... That smile gave me a thought. 

Who were we to each other to relate like that? We were not related by blood. We were in that timeless moments, Filipinos, that is why.

In a way, all nations are like that...
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In summary, 

The value of human life in this nation is to be realized. Human respect and the recognition of the human potential in every single Filipino is an aspect of our equality as citizens.

Integral to our sovereignty as a nation is the inestimable value of the life of each Filipino.

Mamasapano is a Justice issue. Central to this issue is the question of overkill or proportionality of response. If we lost too many because of administrative lapses (the sanctions of which I understand will vary accordingly), this is no excuse for us to have lost too much because of the bloodlust of a criminal few. These individuals being as they are - unchanged and unrepentant - have no place in Mamasapano, in the future Bangsamoro or in the whole of this Republic - ever.

The BBL is a Political issue. The citizenry ought to return to our ideals of what good governance is. How we, the people, commonly enjoy the simplest of everyday things within a state of domestic tranquility that may be characterized as dependable, durable, meaningful, equitable and quite cognizant of our human needs. And how this state of domestic tranquility may be shared.

Instead of tearing the basic law apart let us please ask, "how may the blessings of our democracy (meager though it may be at present) be shared more equally across the Republic, and in particular in the ARMM region?"

I believe the question of constitutionality is a question of accommodation first. 

What is truly unconstitutional is what is missing and what is lacking in our peace to make it more perfect. Why is the ARMM a failing experiment? What can the BBL contribute to make it work?

How may the promises of the 1987 Constitution be more effectively brought to the lives of the people on the ground in that beleaguered region?

Constitutionality becomes a question of exclusion only when we derive from it laws and political behaviors that are unclear, being furthest from the guidance and intent of its policies, principles, and provisions.

The BBL in the first instance is an approach at accommodation.

The legislature ought find the balance between the both Justice and Politics to arrive at a final form of the draft law; one that is effective, equitable, and compatible to the end by which the peace process is dedicated to - which is a more perfect peace in Mindanao and by extension, across our one Republic whole.

I, having determined my own limitations, will devote another post on my own personal observations on the draft law and go into detail about it. That I may keep my civic peace. And my thoughts be brought forth into the councils of the national conversation.
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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.
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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.

Our Peace Process at the wake of Mamasapano

Trying times bring out the best and the worst in people and these are trying times indeed...

There seems a lot of opinions out there as regards the peace process. As I too am committed to the peace process, let me express some of my own.

The peace we want to accomplish through the peace process must ultimately be a human peace; the justice of this peace in its ideal form being a restoration of our unity as a human community.

To me, a "human peace" is simply one that restores dignity to the life of a community and since the peace that we are negotiating across the board is a national proposition - this peace must be capable of restoring dignity to the life of all our communities in the nation - across the Republic of the Philippines.

Will the peace in Mindanao affect things in Batanes? Of course, it must! A human peace is one that is able to provide for the human needs of a community. As a Republic, we are this community, this one house!

To do justice to the temporal house of the one Filipino nation is to make it one as our soul is one. To remain in our souls divided in war is to choose as a nation to remain in a state of spiritual injustice.

The essence of our civics is to do unto each other good. 

For in this Country, we all must be free and unafraid to do good to our fellow Filipino.

A human peace allows us the space, across our generations, to preserve both our freedom and our hope, in all things good and worthwhile to and for the Filipino... To desire this peace, to me, is therefore, always a good thing. For it shelters and protects our national communities from war (often in more ways than one).

What happened?

From the Nation to the State, we have to introduce words to articulate something true about ourselves and, my brothers and sisters, words always exclude. Indeed, words both limit and exclude. Therefore, peace as its human expression may be intensely political - most especially if our remembrances about it as a nation are not yet as mature.

Observe however, how a lot of Filipinos think war is not the answer - that is good. It means the spirit of our memory is being restored unto us... we just have to articulate it properly in the State.

The BBL is one such proposed articulation of how we may as one Filipino nation be restored to the unity of our peace. It is certainly not a perfect document. I myself have several things I should like to be able to clarify about it.

The BBL is a result of a long process... One should at least respect the hope that is invested in this document which is a hope for peace; a hope that if expressed correctly in the State may never go wrong.

I am NOT for war. Indeed, I am absolutely against any forms of "all-out war" - in any place, at any time. I am definitely for the peace - in particular here in our Philippines.

However, I must accept the path unto the threshold of this peace is political. Also, that the politics of a peace process will not readily confer justice in the temporal sense but initially serve to deflect the onset of more evil days. In Syria and the Ukraine, this for me is also true.

What justice we may work out shall be the justice of our sincerity in desiring peace and desiring peace absolutely - with a maturity of remembrance.

In general, the goal of our local peace process is to restore spiritual justice to the Philippine State that the State may then proceed to bestow temporal justice in behalf of all its citizens.

Justice in its fullness we can not deny ourselves. 

Our nation has a responsibility to possess in its soul an account to God of all human life. 

This means as citizens, we are responsible both for and to the memory of all Filipinos the Providence of God hath vouchsafed to  be born into our nationhood - through a living and present account of each and every single one of our names. This is our common debt of remembrance to God and Country, a burden of Justice which is part of our responsible Liberty.

We can not remember them all singly but as a nation we must remember them all fully.

And through a memory of their lives and sacrifices - live! Indeed, prosper and live! This "live" is the essence of our "mabuhay" which exhorts us to live the memory - therefore, long live the memory!

Maturity of remembrance understands the "intrinsic value" of each and every human life and detests war for what it is, understanding peace. 

A State that is fully accepting of peace in spirit proceeds from this truth not so much with law but with liberty. However, as we are wounded by so much internal strife, we need a cast to bind our bones to make them whole and strong again... We may liken the provision that establishes the CAR and the ARMM as such a cast. If the cast is not working, maybe it needs remolding.

Such is our quest for peace here in our Country...

We do not seek a perfect peace. It is impossible to attain peace in its perfection in this world at its state. But we may anchor our peace upon principles timeless and absolute and live its lineage unto truth and the victory of the Truth.

Our temporal dominion as a Republic here in this world may never be as perfect as our loves desire but if in our hearts we understand how we are united as one national community and if in our communities we know how we may live this unity and the hope of this unity in freedom... I think we all will be well.

Peace making involves trust. This means accepting risks. These risks are the same risks we normally subject our nation to when we choose to default to war and distrust.

Peace is an enlightened choice not to accept the status quo of this world and one we make as a nation - because we finally understand.

What does this mean? 

When we speak of the peace process, sincerity above all matters most of all.

Even before the politics of everything, I think when we seek peace we must seek peace absolutely. 

Appeasement of war bring more war and doing things in behalf of peace short of a true desire for peace is harmful simply because it is untrue... For the peace we all hope to establish among ourselves shall ultimately be tested by its fruits... a peace for all Filipinos.

Let us review in spirit the peace we are after. Let us have these reference points from each shore before we wade into deeper water... that the bridges we may seek to build - together this time - may be strong and straight and nevermore skewed.

The rest we shall attend to as things unfold... for we are creatures caught up in time after all... change is our right and our responsibility. 

Let us be patient. Let us be understanding. Let us be above all, firm.

Peace is over war. For war is not for always. But unity is eternal.

God love the Philippines. Mabuhay po tayong lahat.
---<--@

In the midst of all of these, in this Lenten season, I should like to remind my fellow Filipino Catholics to come back to a meditation on the Year of the Poor which is this year, 2015.

Let us work and pray that the Holy Spirit this year carry our nation forth into waters safer and vistas brighter.

A little personal anecdote:

Smile the Pope Francis smile: When I look at how our Holy Father smiles, I feel the warmth - the gold of the smile! One of the things I can not forget about our Holy Father is his smile. Isn't smiling like this a form of charity?

We love you Holy Father Francis!

Tungkol sa Mamasapano

Masakit isipin ang Mamasapano. Isa itong trahedya.

Bagama't naidaos nang mga Tagaligtas nating SAF ang kanilang misyon sa Mamasapano mapait pa rin itong isipin. Masakit pa rin sa damdamin nang nakararami ang alaala nito. Bakit?

Sapat ba talaga na 44 na buhay ang ibuwis nang ating kapulisan at nang Bayang nating Pilipinas para sa isang terorista lamang?

May kakulangan ba ang mga opisyal natin sa gobyerno at maging sa PNP sa 44 na ito? At kung meron, sino ang mga ito at ano pa ang ating dapat linawin at isaayos nang Republika sa ngalan ng kanilang alaala upang maiwasan ang mga ganitong pangyayari?

Ang kabayanihan nang ating SAF 44 (at nang lahat na rin ng ating magigiting na tagapagsilbing sundalo't kapulisan) ay hindi natin dapat malimutan. Iyan po ay totoo.

Subalit 44 na buhay lang ba ang dapat nating pangalanan at alalahanin dito?

Hindi ba ang katotohanan po ay Pilipino lahat nang namatay at namatayan sa Mamasapano? Lahat sila ay responsibilidad nang Estado at sakop nang kapangyarihan ng Republika nating lahat maliban marahil kay Marwan (na isang kilalang banyagang kriminal datapwa't labas at labag sa ating batas ang pinanatili dito).

Ang responsibilidad po at kapangyarihang ito nang Estado at nang Republikang kumupupkop dito ay dapat sana nating pagnilay-nilayan. Dahil sa isip, sa salita, at sa gawa ito ay isinasabuhay natin araw araw sa diwa na rin nang ating sariling kasarinlan.

Paano natin gagamitin ang mga adhikain, prinsipyo't gunitaing nagbubuklod-buklod sa atin bilang isang Republika upang maging makatotohanan tayo sa ating pagka-Pilipino?

Ang prosesong pangkapayapaan ay nakasalalay sa katotohanang tayo pong lahat ay mamamayang Pilipino at may kakayahang mamuhay bilang isang bansang mapayapa. 

Republika po ang ating itinataguyod na katigan nitong kapayapaang ito. Datapwa't sa kadahilanang ang tunay na kanlungan nati'y isa't isa, pakikiramay at pakipag-kapwa tao po nawa'y gamitin ding batayan nang ating pulitika ukol sa mga isyu na umuukol sa Mamasapano habang ito po ay nililinaw.

Hindi po sana natin iatras ang Pilipinas nating lahat sa pagdating nang isang bagong umaga nang kapayapaan dahil sa sakit at kawalan na ating pinagdadaanan dahil sa trahedyang ito. 

Malinaw po sa akin sa kabila nang lahat ang panawagan ni General Espina. Ang itinatanong pa rin po nang puso't isipan ng maraming Pilipino ay kung paano mabibigyang hustisya ang pangyayari para sa lahat...

Para sa lahat.

Huwag po sana tayong mahulog sa kawalan ng pag-asa, manalig at maniwala sa Diyos at sa pangako nang ating Pilipinas na mahal... at nagmamahal.
---<--@

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.
---<--@

The Burden of Scalawag Cops

The uniform belongs only to those who wear it with honor.

General Purisima should not bear the burden of scalawag cops in his force. At the very least, it shall set a bad precedent for the rank. It is not part of his command responsibility to be psychic. 

After all, dirty cops must hide their activities behind the PNP uniform. They have to, don't they?

Good cops don't have to. To the finest belong the PNP institution - it's dignity and traditions are theirs alone. What the Republic admires as noble and excellent in our professional citizen-police are virtues - true and beholden - only to the spirit of good policing. Not to scalawags.

The service arm provide a citizen-police with additional protective cover. Additional because it really is the integrity of their badge that protects them. 

The national community recognizes the badge and so cooperates willingly with their finest within a system of Justice meant to preserve every good and wholesome thing universally loved and cherished in the life of our society, night and day, across the seasons, under our Sun and Sky.

Some cops go their entire career without firing a single shot in the line of duty. They are not less brave or less honorable than their fellow brothers and sisters in the blue.

Our mistrust of the uniform is directly a consequence of our internal divisions. Scalawag cops reinforce the appearance that our police is a force we should be unwilling to trust - as a service and an institution per se. This becomes a burden good cops must everyday live with. It makes them vulnerable.

The civilian character and national scope of our PNP should be allowed to reach its true promise and this may only be arranged when the normalization processes take into effect after the conclusion of the whole national peace process  Another benefit of peace we should look forward to...

Bad cops should bear the additional burden of General Purisima's contempt along with the contempt of all those who wear their PNP uniform with honor. 

That's my take on the matter.

.

Service. Honor. Justice.

---<--@

A Milestone for Mindanao

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Independence Day 2014

"I would rather have a country run like hell by Filipinos than a country run like heaven by the Americans", the second President of our Republic is famously quoted.

Indeed, these present days, further up (or down) the lineage of that prestigious and noble Office, some might convincingly argue this country indeed is being run like hell by us Filipinos.

Was President Quezon being cynical about the budding Republic with which he so diligently served our struggling and anxious nation as our first head of State? Was our second President, after Aguinaldo, being bitter about our chances at actual Independence?

Should we be careful what we wish for? Should we dare not believe again in our hopes of Country?

My brothers and sisters of the Promise, Manuel L. Quezon is one of this Republic's guiding lights. His star is one that shines bright, but only when we care to look at ourselves in the right light.

To do the memory of the man Justice, allow me to finish his quote, "...because however bad a Filipino government might be, we can always change it."

He knew the learning curve would be steep. He knew the world during his time was consumed by war and our nation was in the thick of it. He knew the way toward maturity for our young lion of a Country was one fraught with much danger and pitfalls, internal as well as external.

But he also knew, Independence was a risk we should always be willing to take.

We are always better served by bravery rather than timidity when it concerns Liberty and Country.

Because however badly we may be going at any time, were we single-hearted enough as he was to dare to believe we can as a free and sovereign people change things around for the better, we can.

We have a lot of heroes, if only we should want to seek them.

There is an entire constellation of them up in the skies above this nation's soul - if only we care to find it. And at nights, if you must know, when our Republic is at rest - it is the forbearant, quicksilver light of their living memory that watches over our way towards every golden sunrise.

Personally, I admire President Quezon for the compassion he showed to the suffering humanity of the elder sons and daughters of Israel, our brother and sister Jews, who during WWII, at one of the darkest times of their nation's life, this President gave free sanctuary among us in our lands.

I would, if I had the clout, likewise provide free sanctuary to the suffering humanity of the people of Syria not because of anything else but because they are suffering and they are human not unlike you or I - just like our second President.

Let me remind us that War is a slavery, and is a master we ought not serve.

We shall never achieve the fullness of the promise our actual Independence is meant to bring for this nation with a spirit divided, dark and confused. Let us carry on with the peace process - unto completion.

May we be blessed with a meaningful Independence Day.

Happy birthday to our citizenship, my fellow Filipinos, mabuhay!
---<--@

President Quezon 
lost his battle against tuberculosis 
away from our home away from Home
but what he never lost was - who he was - 
and in my remembrance - still is -

a leader to his people,

and a friend to his friends.

The Nine Common Human Needs: Security of Person and Property

Uncertainty is a root cause of fear in Man. This fear before our Exile was a Fear of Certainty. Both of these fears preserve in them the original intention that Man is to be - as the Angels, a social creature - a loving and faithful keeper to each other.

The former, which is a fear of the unknown - is manifest in each of us as an abiding and mortal fear of our impending temporal death, and exists as a consequence of our Exile.

The latter, which is the Fear - of the God Who Is - the Ultimate Truth - is a holy, loving, and awe-filled reverence that abides in the hearts of those who seek after Him - whom He calls unto Himself - in order to more perfectly love Him, and serve Him, and know Him.

The latter inspires us to freely strive for Peace and Human Community. The former bends the will and the spirit towards an understanding of the latter. The former must lead to the latter and the latter must enlighten the former. That the burden of our civilization may be light. One leads to safety, the other to freedom.

For the LORD, our God and Creator, is a God of Community - the LORD of hosts. He dwelleth in Unity and this Unity is Peace.

One of the main reasons that spur our human civilization forward is our need of a common relief from this fear of the uncertain. For it is painful.

The human spirit itself is driven by a universal thirst for a more perfect understanding of that Fear, which leads to Wisdom, and that Wisdom which is an understanding of the Truth - Truth that to our souls is Peace.

Aspects of this interior seeking universal to all Men and to all Women remain common to all our Sacred Remembrances; a spirituality of Peace therefore, remain as a common teaching in each our most cherished and honorable religious traditions as well - particularly, within our three Abrahamic faith traditions.

And so, in spite of the long shadow of War, we as a people remain yearning for Peace. It is more certain to us than War - in ways we often fail to readily understand.

AT THE VERY LEAST, in the sense that we are all equal partakers of this yearning (for Certainty) in our Nation (and in our world), we hold to an expectation as citizens that each of us may - in common - enjoy, security of person and property -

THAT dignity of each individual human life and the safety of its promise - from conception to natural death, along with each our respective right to private ownership - as a natural right and as a public trust - be duly preserved by the Philippine State.

The value of Sacred Life being already well defined, to further expound on the right of private property, I shall take from a teaching in Catholic Morality (excerpted from the book, Catholic Morality by Fr. John Laux, M.A.)

4. Duties Concerning Material Goods

a) The Right of Private Property

1. Ownership defined. - Not only spiritual goods, but material goods also have been placed at the disposal of man by God. But whilst the goods of the soul and the mind are accessible to all and do not diminish, no matter how many partake of them, a material good can, of its very nature, belong undivided only to one person, and the oftener it is divided, the smaller becomes the portion of those who use it. The right to possess, enjoy, and dispose of any material good for ourselves, to the exclusion of others, is called the right of private property or individual ownership.

2. Private ownership rests on the divine law and, taking man as they are, is necessary for the individual and for society -

a) the Seventh Commandment forbids theft as a violation of the rights of others. If private property were theft, as the French Communist Proudhon calls it, theft would not be a violation of the rights of our neighbor, but the right of the State. But God does not forbid theft as a violation of the right of the State, but of the right of our neighbor individually. In the New Testament parables such as those of the sower, the vineyard, and the fig tree pre-suppose the right of private property.

(As regards to plunder of the public coffers, it is the individual tax payers' right of representation, direct as well as indirect, in the official affairs of the State that is violated.)

b) Private ownership is founded on the nature and condition of man; it is a natural right. Nature imposes upon man the duty of preserving his life, and hence it also gives him the right to exclusive ownership in those things necessary for the preservation of his life.

c) The individual has natural duties to provide for the material needs of his family and the education of his children. But he can not fulfill these duties without the right of accumulating and retaining a variety of these goods. If all men were perfect Christians, then the difficulty would be minimized. But we must take men as they are.

d) Without the right to private ownership there would be no incentive to work and consequently no progress in the arts and sciences.

e) God is the true Lord and Master of all things by the right of creation. But man also, the image of God, can mold and modify things at his pleasure. The fruits of his labor bear the stamp of his personality; and thus becomes their true lord in a limited sense, as God is their absolute lord in an unlimited sense.

f) Under a system of common ownership (Communism) the distribution of labor and of the rewards of labor would destroy individual liberty and make all citizens slaves of the State. Under such circumstances, peace and order are inconceivable.

(As regards the peace process with the NDFP, it is not condemnation of each side our Republic whole must seek but a re-calibration of interests leading towards the beginnings of a common ground vision pursuant and compatible with the reality of the Philippine State, a transformation of the nature of the conflict, and ultimately a reversal of the mindless tides of prejudices and cessation of the cycles of violence that have consumed this Nation for several generations now.

In short, we must together make this Republic of ours work - and, in an imperfect world, labor for the common good of all. Upon our Peace - one, whole, and complete - much depends.)

...

4. Whether we possess much or little, we must always remember that we are only the stewards of what we possess, not the absolute masters, and that we must one day give an account of our stewardship. For as God never gives up His dominion over the gifts of life, so He never relinquishes His right over the gift of material goods.

The fruit of this vision 
in the reality of the Nation is -
An institutionalized, civilian Policing, 
Public Safety, and National Security Service.
---<--@


The Nine Common Human Needs

The Question of Cain

Let us meditate a little more
on this war within the Filipino soul -

The absurdity of this war is
that it constantly propagates itself among our people,
multiplying the reasons why we should abandon our Nationhood,
when all the while, it is precisely this Nationhood
that can redeem us.

It feeds on the life of our beloved peoples,
overpowering the human spirit - from weak to strong.
It lies to our faces - that it means to do us good
and then proceeds to devour our children,
sparing none.

In war, the only winners
are those who learn its lesson.

War is the tutor.

Peace is the test.

And to pass this test
brings success.
---<--@

The Land of Nod

As a Nation, let us be reminded that to serve the power of our arms is to be slowly but surely crushed by its burden. If we continue the course, we might find a day when we realize we can not eat our weaponry nor this continued violence against our own Nationhood allow for our people the best and the brightest means to satiate our common human needs.

BUT we have in the past ceded the nature of this internal conflict to the power of arms, and sought to further invite this war among ourselves like it were a friend -

and so for decades, we fought over this war. 

That this so-called "friend" may by its power vanquish our hatred of others, our fear of their "otherness". (Is there such a thing as "otherness" in a soul that is one? We only mirror our own hate.)

And so we became enemies to ourselves. We fought until hatred and despair, themselves offspring to war, became another reason to fight. (Fighting for the sake of fighting alone is not a lineage that leads anywhere.)

We fought until attitudes of murder crept into our own self regard for the Filipino soul, and became as Cain. In ourselves we have come to also behold the person of the Adversary - in our brother, our fellow siblings to the one Nationhood.

If we are not careful, we will be like Cain - a fugitive to his own heart, restless for Justice yet unable to return to its source.

There is a certain kind of fear that dwells in the land of Nod, it is a fear of others - a fear that is not a tension of the respect - due to God and to our fellow human beings - that leads us in time to discover how to surpass its own limits - it is an inward thing, imploding and shrinking the soul of a person.

It is a fear that prevents common respect and human community and dwells in a restless land devoid of faith and trust, in God and Country.

Our Nation is proof against that fear, and restores Justice where Justice needs to be restored. Not the justice of Nod, but the Justice original to our Eden. (After all, did not the LORD give us our clothes? And more so, in the Gospels is found the greatest remedy to this restless fear - for the Seal of Christ dispels it - for Charity covereth a multitude of sins.)

We exist - in this particular regard - to do both the brothers Justice, Abel by Remembrance, Cain by the Love that lives within the compassion of our peoples - exemplified by our famed hospitality, our native trustfulness and willingness to give welcome to the person of the stranger; and the power to make of them - strangers to us no more.

The question of Cain is a question of Liberty.

Cain is not free to find it. So we do not expect answers from Nod. The answer is - in us - as citizens and keepers to our common humanity. And if we seek to do both the brothers Justice, then each of us must choose to remember - and then, to renounce the War that brought to the first generation of our Exile so much woe.

And a woe - let us recall to memory, terrible upon terrible, that we have had to live with ever since.

Nod is in the Unknown Earth. It exists in places where the Goodwill of our Peace - as one Nation and as one Family of Nations - have not yet taken firm root upon the soil of our world.

If we continue to allow this war in the soul of the Filipino to remain, we shall exile ourselves like Cain, and nothing that is lasting shall ever be built upon this world by our labors of Country for our Nation. And the fruits it shall bear shall always never be enough to nourish the goodness and the life of our people.

Nor shall we be any more good to other Nations than our chosen weakness - our fellow Nations who are kindred to us in this world - in the Truth - to whom we do rely and who also look to us for their reliance.

We shall as a people proceed upon the Unknown Earth as Cain, restless for Justice and thirsting for a true sense of belonging - yet fearful for our own Reliance - to God and Country; wanting to return yet unable to return - set apart from our Peace by our own lack of choice.

The question of Cain is a question of Liberty.

The Decalogue made it clear that murder is a transgression in the eyes of God - in beholding the Divine Law; this is universally recognized in the ethical codes possessed by the great lineages of the Children of Mankind and a common prescript reflected by the Law of the Nations.

In the time of Cain, the killing of Abel was murder - as an act of War. It was not Cain who did murder his brother. But it was he who opened the door of his heart to it. And "it" - the Advent of War - caused him to kill his brother - by his own hands.

At the onset of the Nations of the Children, the LORD introduced to the Nations through Moses and the faith of His Nation Israel, a common prohibition on murder. So in our days, murder is clearly and heavily sanctioned.

Because murder too was exiled to Nod - with Cain. And as we are - as Nations - called to gather all the Children of Mankind - in the way of our return to Peace - neither War nor its many offspring which are lies, hatred, pestilence, famine, murder and genocide - must have a place in our life and labors.

Yet where war is, there shall the shadow of its offspring linger. Is this war among ourselves our "friend"?

That we should mouth its lies,
partake of its ancient and relentless hatred for our common humanity,
clothe ourselves with its violence, and allow its adversarial spirit
to feed on the life and labors of our human communities -
only so that it may proceed to devour our children
ruin the order and purpose of our generations
and profane the peace of our communities.

The nature of this war among ourselves is such that it is an evil to us - only inasmuch - as we are - in ourselves lacking in the good. We are sufficient for the Peace we must profess. We should never be afraid of our own Reliance - to God and in each other.

War is, of course, a greater beast that the one we must together in this Nation confront.

But if we come together in this Nation of ours - in Peace, as a Nation - let us also understand, we are with other Nations together capable of staying the beast - as one Family we are able to build up a world that is better for Peace, through Love for common humanity and living Remembrance.

Nevermore shall the stirring in our spirits stir for War - but for the many hopes the past generations shall to us entrust, when we make our peace with their memory.

But first, we must end this War within ourselves by a free and human choice. (War chose us - it seeks for us to open the door of our hearts to it, we do not have to - there is really only one choice we have as a Nation - renounce it. Let Peace be our policy. Let us also wonder and be grateful at the foresight of the architects of our 1987 Constitution - are they not like us?)

I believe there are many opportunities these days to exercise citizenship with fidelity. And to be able to understand and to make this choice for Peace freely is a prime opportunity to do so.

Is it not good practice - to find the right questions - why our Nation must end this war, and let go of all the wrong reasons - how, and how may one proceed from choice - to civic efficiency - to human exercise?
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Practical Application -

Found here is the provenance where from the CARHRIHL is in spirit derived. The JASIG sought to draw the line upon the sand whereby we may together reverse the nature of the conflict.

That this line may only be realistically held under the flag of a robust and honorable truce is where the present difficulty lies. We shall overcome this difficulty or we shall be overcome by it.

Let us be for the overcoming. 

Amen, let us begin. May God continue to bless and aid our efforts - mabuhay!