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...
---<--@

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.
---<--@

Salutation #199

The right to rule is a sovereign authority.

The right of rulers to reign among the nations is an expression of the authority of their rule.

The rule of kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers, and all chiefs appointed among all the human peoples scattered across all the lands of the earth is a power to govern the nations of mankind.

The right to rule is a sovereign in authority because it is a Divine authority. Every rule sufficient to govern the nations must itself be invested in an authority which is sovereign.

Rule and the authority to rule is sovereign only when they are one and the same.

Only the LORD,
the one Sovereign of all nations
possesses in perfection forever 
both Sovereign Rule
and Sovereign Authority.
---<--@

(The Flaw of Human Government)

The rule of human government is sovereign only in authority inasmuch as the lawful rulers of mankind recognizes in the one Sovereign of all nations, the Source of their rule and its authority.

That their reign may be as wise and as faithful as their rule is just and humble.

No human ruler, from their every time and place, true to his or her appointment may lay claim to a perfect rule. Whatever form of election there may be in them, whether eternal or popular, all human government regardless of their particulars must share the burden of this reality.

All forms of human government is intrinsically flawed from the very beginning.

Henry David Thoreau wrote in pondering about human government:

"Government that governs least governs best".

Because government that governs best governs not at all.

The flaw of human government is that it exists. And it exists because it is necessary to exist.

The flaw of human government is that it is human. And that government must exist among the nations is the question the State must address, each in its behalf, and according to its own particulars.

The cause of the State is the flaw in human government. The purpose of the State is to address the question of rule. All States thus, are flawed. But the most flawed of States exists only to rule without question.

The cause of the State seeks the State to be just. The purpose of the State causes it to come to a knowledge of its own virtue.

Vigilant Trust. Faithful Authority. Faithful Rule.

Rule is the fundamental language of States.

No State emerges in time and upon our world fully armed and fully mature. As thus, the State is ever an incomplete expression of sovereign authority, to be expressed faithfully - in every generation, in every nation. The State is answerable to its question, and exists to be interpreted - the cause of politics.

Politics is neither the cause of the State nor its purpose. It is and shall continue to be while time is time, an accident of the State.

When necessary to the well-being of the State, effective politics provides for moments of necessary sufficiency within the State which through the auspices of human government creates betterment in the souls Providence has peopled in the nation and fulfills the power of human government upon the earth. Politics that is unnecessary and extraneous to the State serves it not by need of its accident but by its own independent design.

There is no good or bad politics, only effective politics. It is the art of the real.

The politics of the State is not flawed in and of itself alone. It is the science of human government.

Politics however, inherits the flaw of artless leadership in the government of the State. Where the flaw of human government is only human. Flawed politics is not. It is less than.

Politics is never apart from its reality integral to the common good of the State. Whenever and where ever it is meaningfully expressed to its nation, it is faithfully expressed as a service to Country. In the government of the State, it comprehends duty. In the communities of the people, it comprehends honor. It is never beyond its science, and is never away from its art. What it loves forever is to make our society better than ourselves.

A good politician is skilled in effective politics. More than that, he or she is a civil servant with a genuine heart of service to the nation; the living communities that together form the being of our peace, the very soul of our nationhood. Love of God and Country is not an obscure ideal to him or her, it is a principle he or she is able to bring right down to the very soil of our people, from up the loftiest places in his or her soul of citizenship -

as a service to the nation that gathers us all - across our generations -
unto the peace of one belonging - endowing us as a people
with a common identity, a living memory,
and a shared spiritual heritage.

An edifice of corruption arises from a culture that agrees to its monument. 

Corruption through collaboration, ignorance, or indifference will invariably permeate the climate of Country, turn our Republic Sky into another unfamiliar, unfeeling, unseeing darkness. It shall as the night invite the unhappy heralds of the Adversary of all our nations - war being the first herald, the first of four. 

Sovereignty is the being of our nationhood realized in time and in the truth.

The formless spirit of nationhood that is our timeless, changeless foundation proceeds as flowing water from generation to generation - with every present generation tasked to realize a living and a present remembrance of the national account, commanded by God, that we may bring constancy and form to our citizenship, and make sovereign the presence of our labor Country upon the world we must as nations rebuild together with freedoms anew... ever as nations dreaming together this time.

Where this realization is weak, citizenship loses its potency. It becomes a corruption of itself. It becomes a malignancy that shall lessen what is sovereign and true in ourselves, and bring unto the bones of our people a weakness that prevents not as our laws prevent (to make a necessary social passage for all of us safe and straight) but only prevents to block our strength from rising from its very marrow.

As thus, a bad politician is the corruption of all the things a good politician is. He is a victim first, a coward later, and a criminal last.

Evil has its own gravity, as war does. Evil intent where all other choices are taken away soon become relative to our Liberty, and the freedoms we must keep absolute lose their sacred value.

Soon enough the rights we keep equal unto all men and women before God through Country shall lose their responsible power to shelter in safety the principal foundations of our democracy.

Liberty that is dim is also narrow of light and short of sight. But it is a fullness and a vision that has ever been ours from the very beginning; perfect freedom reborn forever from a Liberty that is perfect. 

The further away the rot of corruption takes us from what is common to all our good, least to great, the less and less we become in love with our journey of return to an Eden rebuilt as nations in exile. 

The less and less we understand a clearer vision of those things we must behold in our love, the more difficult it shall be for us across our generations, past, present and forever, to emerge triumphant into our ages in time as Country.

But the more we hold fast to what belongs to us. The more they shall cleave, truth unto truth. And we shall experience the pull of another gravity, an ascendant brightness - simple and easy and light. 

Remembrance that is right does not suffer evil to enter into the living memory of the present time.

---<--@

Politics is an accident of the State. Civics on the other hand, is integral to the State and its political custom.

We can not all be relating to each other politically all the time since we are neither just numbers nor abstract ideals floating around in space...

We are a real people.
---<--@

Thoughts on the Legislative System

Our Congress
may be likened to two lungs
- the Senate and the House of Representatives -
they both feature one function -
Respiration.

Now, as it were - in this metaphor,
each one whole act - of - each one whole lung
is the action of one system -
the Legislative.



IF within each lung
there were divisions that make it functionally stronger
then that is just a natural part of its physiology -
for these divisions assist and facilitate
in the efficient delivery of its vital function:
The meticulous crafting and maintenance
- in behalf of the National whole -
of a living system of law.

BUT if within either lung,
those divisions were to cause either one to weaken and fail -
shall the body ask which lung is giving it such distress?

Indeed,
within the Legislative System itself
- shall either lung - whether the Senate or the House -
reply to the organism, the one Republic of the one Filipino Nation
   (on whose a priori existence its own existence manifestly requires
   and unto whose well-being and safety, it is - as a whole - subordinated
   both in sovereign function - as well as - in sovereign authority),
"only a fraction of either one of us did it"?

NO, because in the first instance, the System itself - as a whole -
is directly answerable to both itself - and - the greater body of the people:
"The we forever" that this Congress exists to singularly serve
and on whose constant behalf must therefore,
diligently and sincerely maintain itself
ever toward that specific purpose
of popular service.

FOR however small the tumor
- just as much as the successful function of the System rely on its parts -
any failure of its parts to deliver is also a failure of the System entire.

This is (and should be)
the beginning and end of the measure
by which all the generations of the people
shall remember and acclaim - our Congress -
in its sessions and throughout its seasons, a Congress:
Never so by its parts but - always and ultimately -
according to its assemblies in their wholes.

Because for richer or poorer, in ill-health and in well times -
all elements that belong to the functions of the wholes within a Republic
are wed to the Systems unto which they serve
as parts to a synergy of wholes.

This is why,
in the way of understanding
our own particular Republic undertaking of Country,
one should never treat the Systems (and its Symbols) that comprise it - like its parts -
withholding one's convictions from bitterness and despair - for our own good,
and to reserve in thy civic spirit - a sacred space of patriotic belief -
where one may always seek to return to with honor.

And so
- in the case of this particular meditation -
one may likewise only exhort the legislative Offices
distinctly as their separate Houses - and/or - at their highest Collegial level,
exhort either august bodies to function FULLY together as a Congress -
and move independently of the stultifying spells of the politics
that this Republic may - even at sundry times obtain
from the persons of each their politicians.

- selah -

NOW
it is normal in the realm of politics to exist in opposition.
Therefore, Opposition parties do not choose to become Opposition parties
but are placed into their position by normal legislative circumstances prevailing in their day
and therefore DO have to perform a function
in particular with their specific calling
from within Congress.

Opposition parties
must oppose the intended legislative priorities of the Majority.
And this it does in order to give them pause - and - to remind them of the Opposition
or the Minority view that only by a twist of Providence, a circumstance of the Divine Wisdom,
the Majority could always have been - and could be - IF the Majority view fails
in their function to maintain the health of each lung, as it were - and coalesce
behind themselves the vital breath that bring new life to the living law.

The Minority view principally represents
the voice of the very, very fine smallness of random chance,
the nature of which the Legislative Body - as a whole -
must always be aware of - and - ever so be made to be aware of
for the System unto which they all as fellow legislators equally serve unto
once willingly given over to the realms of fate and of blind chance
- instead of being dedicated to the challenge of it -
loses control of itself completely and abruptly.

And so the Opposition must not be necessarily adversarial in nature
and should exist not to merely oppose but to "be in opposition" -
ever faithful to the Congressional whole - and - loyal to the Republic whole.
For the Minority in being aware of itself, lends its certain strength
to the Majority - and keeps the whole system sober
and functionally aware that it is.

Because in the end, within the embrace of our National peace,
everybody profits from knowing everybody belongs - to make things so -
and that politics and politicians - in and by their being, are transient by nature -
and this - their persons must always remember - that it is - and - that they are -
AND so realize that the ultimate vocation of all persons who in their souls
profess to belong to this one Republic whole - belongs -
to the right exercise of a common citizenship.

And that sometimes,
one has to be on the right side,
and lose - and carry on.
---<--@

Salutation #185

If you have been learning with me about politics,
you must now be able to agree
- with conviction - with me - and with each other
that our politics is an authentic human right
and therefore, a duty - expressed in our freedoms,
particular to each of us as citizens
integral to whose calling it is (within our Republic)
to be able to articulate and profess it
freely and accordingly.

(Politics and Violence)

The National Politics, our politics,
is not the rarefied domain of politicians.
We each, as citizens of this Republic of ours,
have a right and a duty to express our own politics.

Where politicians are our political thought leaders,
and very important to the vital workings of our Country -
they are only so because, we the people, must think politics.

And we must think politics to become convinced
- first and foremost, that they're truly ours -
more so than to convince others (that it's theirs).

Our politics must make us convinced citizens
and convinced citizens are citizens with conviction.

And these convictions
should make our politics clear - to each of us
for civic clarity and moral decisiveness are its first fruits.

- selah -

We do not as a Nation
possess in ourselves the National Politics
to argue endlessly about necessary matters
that involve the living life of our national communities
- at all levels across our fullest entirety, seen and unseen -
but to lend to these matters substance and popular weight

first and foremost - steadfastly, purposefully, and certainly

so that by sheer weight of our independent convictions alone

no matter how radically different they may naturally be

the Nation's priorities are accordingly and practically arranged
according to their constantly changing and dynamic realities -
from the ground (the very soil) of Country upward.

(And those of us who are formally called to be our politicians
by their vocations are the shepherds of these national priorities.)

For in politics,
we shall always have healthy disagreements
but we must - know and recognize - these disagreements
in the first place, by bearing the first fruits of our politics - first -
for these disagreements are like the natural bends in a river that flows,
futile without the water that must first agree on a direction forward.

Political disagreements are a natural consequence
of our common freedom of political thought and expression
and can not first exist without mechanisms of political agreement
for these disagreements are a consequence only of our much thinking
(of the things that the water seeks to avert and avoid at the river bends)
and are not by any means the fruit of meaningful political participation.

It is a strange feature of the realm of political thinking
that agreements - to responsibly own up to our Republic Vision -
must consequently lead to disagreements - but, brothers and sisters, they do -
for the strength of our will of politics must be constantly tempered and refined
by the disagreements that give itself sincerely as fuel that serve to fire the flames
of the vital national processes that lead to the betterment of our own convincing
so that in knowing where we stand across the political spectrum that define
the totality of the near infinite reach of our own Republic Vision -
we are reminded by our own freedoms - where we agree in principle -
and that our politics can only be strong - in as much as they shall agree
that within our Republic, under the sheltering skies of our Peace,
there is a season, a time, and a place for each and every good thing.
under heaven.

We who know our politics
know we implicitly agree on something -
that we are.

And that from these agreements must proceed,
even without resorting to any formal debating and/or open discussions
just by our standing still and embracing the reality of our citizenship together,
the challenge to further agree - over and above our disagreements -
because we must.

And therefore,
like Jacob and the Angel,
with every present generation,
come prepared for the necessary battle
of winning together from Providence, our Republic Vision.

- selah -

Citizens who know their politics never sell them out -
neither are their votes for sale nor do they vote on mere whim.

These are souls who walk the ground of Country with gravitas and purpose
and breathe from the very land and air and sea of our people, our sovereign spirit.

And so,
when, we the people, should think of - our politics -
we should not think that the National Politics is somehow dirty
or beyond the capacity of us lesser mortals to understand
(and give its intended victory without challenge
to the unversed, the uncouth and the pretentious)

we think - we are - and therefore, we must.

After all, my fellow Filipino compatriots,
are we not all commissioned by Providence Divine
to be citizens of this exact place in time?

- selah -

With an eye
toward the upcoming Barangay elections
this October 28, in the Blessed Year of our LORD, 2013
- in the Third Millennium of the Common Human Era -
I should like to be able to articulate another truth
about our politics - and one which proceeds
from the thoughts we have outlined above.

Violence (of the physical kind) and our politics
are like oil and water - tubig at langis.

They are two immiscible realities -
to mix them, my brothers and sisters of the Promise,
without stirring against the peace of our national communities
is impossible - one is a break from the other,
each takes different paths that lead to different outcomes.

It is said, my brothers and sisters,
that politics is a contact sport, this is true -
but it is not a sport of brutes - as brutes would like it to be -
the battle of our politics is played out in a human arena
and is a contest, because of the magnitude of its inherent good,
that must always and everywhere inspire the nobility of human beings;
spirit, virtue and truth are its ultimate measures -
and we enter into it because, we love.

Truly, political violence is ruinous to the Nation - to any Nation -
(we may feel this at present at the sad plight of the one Syrian Nation).

For as we are a labor of not a few - or even the many
but a labor of the millions across our generations - far into forever -
an inspired work of the citizenry - and a labor of enlightenment,
unto the very last of our generations - unto the Last Day,

we exist for the continuance and preservation of Sacred Life

as a Pledge not on behalf of Humankind's final defeat
but of the ultimate Triumph of our Cause to exist -
in the everlasting fullness of the Truth.

Violence - it's existence, outbreaks, and continuance -
and the harm it inflicts upon the dignity and promise of Man
- is - what our politics must always and everywhere together oppose
within our Nation and between the Nations within our Family of Nations.

The politics we must profess must unanimously consider violence as evil
unless in order to prevent its own demise, violence itself is deemed unavoidable

and thus, becomes a lesser evil undertaken to save the body politic.

This always holds true
in the case of those outbreaks of armed conflict
- that only becomes necessary -
when the existence of the Republic itself
comes into terrible and mortal danger of War
as an unavoidable duty of the Common Defense
and anywhere violent forces willfully breaks into our reality
against both our sovereign will and our deepest wishes -
as an integral part of our civic responsibility
to universally defend and preserve the National Peace;

a fact that was clearly recognizable just quite recently
by the crisis at our beloved City of Zamboanga.

(The craft of all nations is Peace - therefore,
not all wars must be fought - for not all of them can be just.)

Outside the manifestly ethical considerations expressed

in the duty of the Common Defense and the integrity of the National Peace -

All forms of political violence shall always be the sport and hidden recourse
of those adulterous brutes who have slept in their hearts with the Dragon of War
and shall always and forever - and everywhere - as far as our Nation is concerned
be considered for what it truly is - an abominable crime - a crime against all Nations.
---<--@

Fuel for Civic Thought

The question here is,
as we are cut from the same cloth as the American Republic -
(and can learn from their expression - if we are wise, God-helping,
to better express our own expression of Country):

Where and when will this revolution become an evolution?



This is not just a circle.

Let us not forget that this is also a spiral; an ascent
into the summit of our completion (or a descent).

For there are endless forms of Abundance
(once the material veil of these things
have been successfully breached by the national culture)
and all of these ultimately lead to absolute freedom
and ultimate forms of happiness.

BUT there are also - upon this world - endless forms of Bondage
(the existence of which is the exact reason why we are a Nation -
for we are meant to strive against it - not bow to it - or appease it).

Political Graffiti

When the strength of our governance is held in its thrall by its love of the nation and not with itself, it is a popular government.

For it is not a popular government to be popular, it is a popular government to stand with the people, and for the people prevail.

---<--@

The word I use for this is political graffiti; the worse ones are writ in steel and stone but the most prevalent ones are in paint and print.

There is nothing wrong with proper acknowledgement of persons, even elected persons must get due credit where credit is due, this is only right and just.

But when this sense of entitlement is taken out of the proper context of the Republic whole and the person becomes bigger (or have begun to think themselves to be so) than the Offices that empower his or her stewardship of a particular function of the government of the people - it becomes a dismaying display of narrow-minded self-interest over the public spirit and the common weal.

So when I see names or images bigger than the Seals or Titles of the one Republic whose ages in time shall - and must - outlast all of our lifetimes in this present time, I cringe.

I ask myself, "what kind of message does it imply to the littlest Filipino?"

That we are ruled by mere individuals vulnerable to every idiosyncratic whim and fancy and the corruption of time not by vision and laws, ideals and virtue, that under the vigilance of Almighty God stand invulnerable to the folly of Man and the ravages of time.

Who do the people serve but the national success? What ensures our destiny is not the life of individuals but the longevity of our Republic undertaking of Country - yea, and long may she live - mabuhay!

Upon this we have all committed our lives, fortunes and sacred trust, have we not?

I love us all, but I have to disagree with those who think otherwise.

This is why I support the Anti-Epal bill: May it be further argued and definitively proven to be necessary to further perfect our Republic undertaking and be made part of the laws that safeguard the same.

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

Salutation #51

Service is a calling, happiness an ambition. Of both the call of service and the ambition of happiness, it can be said, none of these may be born purely of human beginnings but are born of truths arisen and perfected from and through the great and unfathomable Mind of God.

For the service which is ours is a calling of God and not merely a human ambition. And the happiness which is also ours is a Divine ambition and not merely a human calling.

(Servant Leadership)

Take heart, O friends of the LORD!

Trust in God, all you citizen-servants of the nations!

Come alive to courage, defenders of the people!

For God does not choose anything without merit,

there is always wisdom in His choices.

Peace, I salute you!

Good human leaders know to follow,

know how to fall and follow again,

persisting in their hearts to hold on to what is dear to them,

never losing hope while giving hope to others,

never losing faith while others lose theirs,

never losing love while love seemed to have lost them,

never losing God because God never has lost them.

So for our leaders,
God intends something
but some of them follow something else,
knowing not hope, clinging to it like it were his or her own,
knowing not faith, expecting to see their own image
on the person of others,
knowing not love, expecting not the death that is to come,
knowing not God, thinking to be above men.

If we cling to Him, if we persist,

no matter the depth of the darkness,

nor the measure of our unlove,

He will bring into bloom

the full reality of our human natures

and bring our being into perfection,

- for ourselves and for others like ourselves -

here and into the next life, life and abundance.

Being chosen, one should accept and rejoice,

being accountable, one should rejoice and accept,

for in so doing the LORD holds you back from sin

and prepares your heart

to serve your fellow human beings.

- selah -

Man's life is wrought in penance and divine satisfaction,

reparation for evil and a constant pleading to God.

If we are called to serve, judge not,

but serve and serve all souls without distinction,

loving humanity in it's entirety

for love of God

and the salvation of our own souls.

Our human obligation lie not in judgment

but in reparation for evil and through reparation,

the alleviation of human suffering.

Therefore,

we are required to include

all of human suffering

and to discern not which one is punishment from God

and which other one is a person's own misfortune

or another one his or her sin

because none of us know what is absolute in the Truth.

This is the kind of service required of our leadership - who -

being called to serve must understand

that they are called not because they are good,

for Who alone is good but God,

they are called because they are accountable

not to themselves, for they did not choose themselves,

but to He Who by His authority wills into reality

all that He wills and sustains them,

directing them to purposes outside the scope of human thinking.

But to remain unchanged and unbowed,

with the will of war at the heart of every Country!

- selah -

War lusts after the life of all our nations.

Like a man perish from sin, so have civilizations entire

perished because sin was in the heart of Country.

To recklessly allow the vessel of Country to break

is like the murder of a woman pregnant

with a multitude of unborn lives in her bosom

- a crushing and unbearable burden

of unspent promises recorded against thee -

all of whom shall be accounted for at the Last Day,

to the very last hairs on their head.

For it is written in Scripture

and in the heart of Mankind - both -

that all of a Country's debt of Sacred Life

- across time and dimensional space -

will be accounted for by the Justice of God

before the one Creditor of All life.

For all living things have a purpose in God.

Indeed, each individual human being will be accounted for,

even down to the numbers of the hairs on their heads!

So be aware of the darkness that persists in the Night

and allow the spirit of War no foothold in thy selves -

To speak the truth and not to lie

for these are the mother tongues of heaven and hell.

To be honest, sincere, and willing to serve

with a heart of love and a will of understanding.

To love with one heart and to refer all things to God

- Who will refer them back to you -

and from you to the people and back again

as a continuous flowing in time - a mighty river -

enduring from generation after generation.

Be mindful of thy guardianship of the people.

Defend; neither falling short

nor exceeding the will of the defense.

For to fall short of the will of the defense is to find defeat.

And to exceed it is to become the enemy we claim to fight.

Ensure a just equality before the law;

that thy laws may serve the life of thy citizenry,

enlighten thy society, deter and defeat evil without harm to the good

so that every human being is given the most possible potential

out of his or her social identity

to aspire without fear

and to triumph without feeling defeated.

Lead unto unity and forget not the justice of thy peace

for where the heart that lives in the heart of thy nations

- is one and constant and alive -

where the people rejoice, all are inclined to rejoice,

where the people laugh, they laugh together,

where they play, they play together,

where they work, they work together,

where they grieve, they grieve together.

Therefore,

love the LORD and love the common people

serving thy undertaking of Country with one love alone.

For a heart that has many loves

each with different shades and degrees of scope and intensity

for each their different uses and objects and persons

does not know love,

and one who does not know love

has no knowledge of God nor claim to the unity of God.

For how can God abide in a heart that is unto it's own self divided;

how can the Sanctuary of the LORD abide in a sanctuary of war;

in a heart that is like a house always in danger of collapse,

wicked, adulterous, restless and never at peace?

How can the public trust be maintained

by those who picks and chooses who to love and who not to love?

How can the citizenry form a unified cohesion of hope and will of Country

around a heart that possesses none of these things?

How can the peace of any nation

respond to those whose hearts are contained by the will of war?

- selah -

Indeed,

the charity that must be thine by election

must burn with one love alone;

a love that obtains to God

and not a love that obtains to men -

or it is but an illusion of love.

Hence, in the end it matters not to thee - who to love -

because despite everything and in spite of thy self

- it is God and always God -

that you love no matter who you help or where you go.

For thy vision depends not on conditions external

but on things that are happening in your heart of hearts.

In this way, unity of the citizenry and social cohesion is fulfilled

at the level where true unity and cohesion is

- in the LORD and for the LORD -

at the very heart of a person

most especially thine.

For thy values are the values of peace.

---<--@

Miss Universe 2011 -

"Beauty is a state. You were born in it. For you are thus, and so with all beautiful things must strive to return to our LORD with it, being as you are - in the way that you are constantly remembered by our God in eternity."

Last year, it was a tricky question. This year, it was a politically sensitive one. However, I think Shamcey's answer was brilliant, don't you?

Congratulations, Shamcey! Please continue to inspire our youth.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas ! God bless us all.

Sheltering Wings

The Circular Relationship of the Four Causes

The Peace of the Brotherhood of Mankind

20110708

Salutation #32

(One Heart, One People, One Destiny)

Peace be with you.

My fellow Filipino compatriots,

in the Final Accounting of all things,

it shall be shown and made known to to All

that

we are a nation distinct

but not apart from all our other kindred nations -

a human nation, allied to the kindred peace

of all the other nations of our one family of nations.

We are a nation,

my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

and so it is as a nation

that we shall be held responsible

by both heaven and earth before the God of all heaven and earth.

As a nation, O my people,

we are by our individualities, families, tribes, communities and generations

bound by one heart, one labor, and one destiny.

We are thus called, as citizens to each other,

according to our fidelity to the truths of our nationhood,

to make a shelter for our generations -

the shelter of Country - a home away from Home for all living beings.

As a nation,

we shall rise or fall upon the void of the unknown earth

according to the one peace of our peoples

and the one economy of our generations

to the very last of our generations.

As a nation,

we shall build upon this world,

the kindred peace of Country

to the glory of Almighty God in heaven,

and fill it with living lights

or lay it to waste

by our refusal to

subdue the darkness

in and amidst ourselves - the evil in all evil things.

As a nation without its peace, we shall fail -

a defeated Country, desolate and empty of promise,

of broken, shattered skies,

we shall remain in the dread embrace of this maddening darkness,

falling forever into the void.

As a nation in possession of our peace, we shall persevere.

Victory shall in its time be restored to each of us by God Himself

where w

e shall together with our own eyes

behold

the triumph of an unimaginable abundance.

As a nation,

we are called by weight of our history

and by the call of our destiny

to rise above our differences.

And to do so with courage and tenacity -

for h

ow else is peace to be defended?

Indeed, my honorable compatriots,

it matters most what unites us than what divides us.

Our differences are diverse

and the cause of many valid concerns,

but they are temporal.

Unity is eternal.

---<--@

There is no honor in PARTISAN POLITICS if it is utterly disloyal to the singular cause for which it exists.

Partisanship in politics is good but only if it encourages a unity of decision that promotes wisdom in legislation, and therefore, as a constant exercise in one's strength of political judgment.

But if it encourages indecision, paralysis, and reckless action in the Republic for which it is called to serve in responsible government, if it bestows upon its nation no sense of common guidance and unity - partisanship, it may be said, is not politics at all, it is simply plunder.

---<--@

The Nation and the Responsible State -

We can not demand perfection from the State anymore than God can demand perfection from ourselves without His aid and His authority.

The life of the State is derived from the life of the Nation.

Its authority is a divine authority granted by will of Providence out of the necessity of the people themselves to be governed either by the original line of their kings and rulers (as in a Monarchy) or by their peers (as in a Republic).

It is therefore, composed of human beings - no more, no less. The real power of the Responsible State lies in its ability to unify its peace with the peace of its own Nation - this synergy builds up the Common Market, preserves the peace of civil society, prospers the people and blesses the generations of the people.

This is the labor of our own particular Republic undertaking of Country and is something we must gradually learn from our own common experience as a people united in time and in eternity under the peace of our Republic vision.

It is something that we gradually grow into like a tree growing under the Light of the LORD, our God, and one Sovereign; Almighty God Whose pruning and guidance we must also pay close attention to as a nation entire.

Furthermore, before the promised time of the LORD, it is an imperfect peace and keeps every nation of our one family of the nations of Mankind walking in humility before God always - and for our own good.

There may be many undertakings of Country upon this earth but there is no one undertaking of Country like our own. Neither can this Country be built by any nation other than ourselves.

Therefore, let us build like natives, live like pilgrims, and love like Christians.

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Healing Work

The Shattering