Some Thoughts on RH

Abortion is evil.
Life begins at conception.

True.

In my view however, these are not the real issues regarding our RH conversation.

It is freedom of choice. Choice, of course, not in the sense that one is free to define one's freedoms.

After all, we owe our personal freedoms to the certainty of our common commitments to Democracy as well as human morality and as a Country held responsible for them by the Life and Liberty of our Nation.

Therefore, I think the better question to be asked as regards choice in the context of RH for us Catholics is - how may these freedoms be unleashed - in the spirit of Humana Vitae - to serve the individual as well as the common good of Woman, Mother, Child, Family and Greater Society?

And this question where it pertains to Family and Greater Society directed not only to Woman but to both Man and Woman together as one soul and not just in the Catholic Church.

It has always been the negative choice "not to have a child" in scrutiny.

As such contraception is so aptly named - in the negative sense.

Now, let us examine the affirmative choice "to have a child". Because when it comes to its moral weight as regards the vital exercise of free will, this is the greater of the two choices.

There are actually two choices involved here. The negative choice "not to have a child" and the positive choice "to have a child".

The negative choice is a passive choice.

It actually goes against the natural intention of every sexual act.

It might look like an active choice but where ever and whenever this choice "not to have a child" has failed, so does the potent belief in a sovereign free will diminish itself in the human exercise.

In the souls of the people concerned, when this choice have failed them so many times "not to have a child", in most cases, human responsibility for the fruits of conjugal love slides back to being a random thing. Children are begot in our society without a clear parental vision of a definitive future for them

The failure of passive choice "not to have a child" having failed those people, most of whom are already struggling against other more immediate evils such as hunger and human security, in my view is the root
of this epidemic of helplessness is the center of the issue as regards contraception.

And is further complicated by larger structures of poverty and other adverse social conditions that besiege and surround the family unit, leading most to passivity and complacency as regards to the transmission of life as a free and human choice.

On the other hand, the positive choice "to have a child" is an active choice.

It is an act that empowers the free will. For all thing the mind conceives begin from the heart and all things the understanding illuminates are all things we may actively pursue by the innate power of our individual free will - as free and human choices.

Choices that arise from reasoned and prepared thought and reasoned and prepared thought that arise from a heart that knows it is a heart of love are never passive choices.

The choice "to have a child" therefore, goes along the natural grain of every sexual act because it involves both husband and wife envisioning family and duty to family and conversing about furthering and prospering their future, deepening the quality of their conjugal love.

If couples are taught and empowered to prepare for the active choice "to have a child" and are fully informed in their hearts and minds as to what this choice must entail - they would be inclined to think more about their choices. Planning is planning, after all.

Legislation may help curb the helplessness wrought by lack of an empowered choice. But only education can truly turn things around as regards to teaching the right choices and undoing the lingering effects of the wrong ones.

Social betterment in our nation must move not just along the limits of the law but by the free dictate of well-formed and soundly informed individual consciences. We are a Democracy after all.

This is where the locus of Catholic education should be.

Poverty is an integral part of the RH debate and we can not as a Church fully address the question without addressing poverty.

In my opinion, the questions arising from poverty takes priority. If we can curb the complications that make the equation as regards RH more simpler, perhaps the tide may one day turn.

If we slowly but surely address poverty, we might more sooner than later find ourselves perched upon a better vantaged position to effectively and democratically address the RH issue along the spiritual lines of the Church.

Because you can not teach a hungry family how to plan or how to even think ahead of their next choices to eat and to drink.

The positive choice may always escape them and the negative choice confound and weaken them - this is the conundrum. It is a Gordian knot that we may only undo by getting the poor to the middle class first.

Thus, it is important that we all must solve for hunger first.

And in this most obvious of social justice causes, I believe we can work with the politics of RH whatever side it may be, because its main concern I believe and trust is to provide a better quality of life for our less fortunate brothers and sisters in the Nation.

All the while, we shall move to better our moral and spiritual positions to correctly address the RH issue by Catholic education. In this RH conversation, we could lose to a single battle but if we do it right, we may find, we are fighting along the same lines as those who are presently pressing against us.

Let us not forget that hunger and poverty makes us poorer and poorer in spirit NOT in the sense that our beloved Savior Jesus Christ did teach us upon the mount.

Where we are poor in spirit because we are diminished in the light that makes us one, we become truly poor - being without the light that makes us a simple and single-hearted nation.

This kind of poverty make us all forget that this Nation is one.

Also, we are a Democracy, let us not act as if we are not. Too, this is a Republic, let us live up to its trust believing indeed every good thing under Heaven has a time and place here in our Land of Promise.
---<--@

Meeting in the Middle in a Post-RH Philippines

There must be a time
in every political dialogue
that we must as - one nation - step back
and allow for the necessary choices to be made, for good or ill,
and for the changes to implement themselves.

We have to trust in our democracy.

We have to trust in our ability as a Republic
to make either the wrong or the right decisions
and to profit from them both.

Our collective freedoms of self-expression in the Republic forum
must naturally be complemented by an abiding respect
for our individual rights to choose freely -
without fear of final judgement (of our peers).

The foundation of our electoral culture
which raises from among our midst,
at appointed times in the life of our Republic,
a government of the people, for the people,
and at-one with the people,
relies on our ability
to both freely express as well as
to responsibly defend our common freedoms.

One of our inherent strength as a liberal democracy
is our ability to self-reflect as a Republic whole;
we are a people capable of following old and proven paths,
of creating new ones, or of forsaking the wrong ones.

All of this is threatened by
a partisanship in our political life
- that - when it is allowed to endure,
becomes a thing above the liberty of our nation
and a hindrance to the freedom of the individual citizen,
most especially the very least of us all -
whose needs are the most urgent
but whose voices are
weakest of all.
---<--@



I have always thought that the RH issue is all about the empowerment of the right choices; that these right choices must be enabled through education to bend to the will of the God of life.

And that there can be no clear cut answers that will fit every situation.

Every incidence may only be judged by their individual realities.

Central to the argument of contraception is the fact that contraception denies from the intimacy of conjugal love, the ability to be open to the transmission of human life.

It is a choice to NOT be open to the choice of having children brought into this world through the marriage covenant before God.

BUT central to the argument of poverty is the choice itself to be open to the transmission of human life; that the poor, consumed and weakened by the evils of their condition, CAN NOT make the choice to be open to the transmission of human life.

A young mother in the depths of poverty who vows that her 12th or 14th child will be the last one if she has her way is a person who CAN NOT make the choice to be open to the transmission of human life.

The argument in Humanae Vitae about the lesser evil of rendering non-fecund acts permissible within the greater ensemble of fecund acts within the marriage covenant can not apply if the choice itself to be open to the transmission of life is a choice one is unable to freely and responsibly make (else long-term provisions for the arrival of the newborn are also made alongside that choice).

This leaves us with the normal argument of the lesser and the greater evil as well as a better appreciation of the bravery of our women and the resilience and character of our poorer folk (materially speaking).

Pope Benedict XVI admitted it may be permissible to allow the use of condoms to limit the transmission of AIDS (as a temporary condition that is understood a priori to be allowed only until such a time as the work of the rehabilitation of free human choice through Catholic education and eradication of the existing evils of poverty has become sufficient in itself to overcome it).

The condition of the incidence of poverty, like the condition of the spread of AIDS, is - if we as citizens to each other can help it - only temporary and for as long as this condition exists (as a threat to the greater wholes), a compromise that will allow us to more effectively battle to reverse its trends may be in order.

IF we, though well-meaning, so thoughtlessly surrender those who can not rightly choose for themselves to the evil of randomness and chance, do we heap upon ourselves as a nation, a greater or a lesser evil than by a temporary compromise made to allow for forms of contraception that are proscribed by our faith? 

We must be mindful of that fatalism that is already ingrained in our culture. For it might indeed be an evil that is already encouraging the incidence and the depth of the poverty that both the pro-life and the pro-choice camps are battling to reverse that we might all together be a better and a more freer people.

As law has its limits, it also presupposes a purpose.

As regards the RH law and its implementation, we must always consider -

Choice: Does it encourage the right choices?

Abortion: Is it a danger to the unborn?

Contraception: Does it promote a disposable view of human sexuality?

Sexual Education: Does it permit or promote sexual immorality or sexual amorality?

Maternal Health: Is it a danger to the institution of motherhood?

Women's Rights: Is it a danger to women, especially mothers?

Burden of Taxation: Does it open public funds to corruption or waste?

The Institution of the Family: Is it a danger to the institution of the family?

The National Culture: Will it permit our nationhood to further enable our Country to advance in its ages in time?
---<--@

Let us be vigilant and continue on. For the only way to go is forward!

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

View in Review 20120623

We're half-way through 2012!



I think we're doing splendidly, my brother and sister Filipinos.

You must ask yourselves today, have the first part of this year of years made us stronger together, even slightly stronger, than the days before?

And you must ask this bearing into mind and heart the reality of our nationhood, who we are, as well as the present guardianship of our Republic replete with her memory and institutions, what we stand for, even as you reflect on where time itself has taken our freedoms today.

I personally think we have become stronger for our coming together.

For our liberty as one nation is bound by the strength of our freedoms together.

This liberty is our Republic pursuit, the fullest extent of which is happiness for all our citizens - in this world (of trial and probation) and if we are wise, in that promised world that is to come forever.

Let us remember to stay focused for the rest of this year of years bearing into mind that - yes indeed!

Little things matter, invisible things matter, for these are the essential things.



I recently saw a documentary about the prophesies related to 2012. 

These would have proved disturbing to me have I not learned to anchor my heart upon the prevailing spirit of the times which the LORD has ordained specifically to bring these events into order and perspective that we may each have a choice away and apart from all the confusion.

We have a prophesy of our own we can lean upon... (refer to Daniel 12).

So that if things do get difficult and confusing, we know with the understanding of faith and conviction of heart to all the more place ourselves in the responsible and human service of each other as a nation among nations - under and before - God, our King.

Bear always into mind and heart also, my compatriots, that ye may have a good measure of the horizons of our hope spread in their arcs across time, we have the year 2046 as our intended destination.



For it shall take two generations -
two generations to sow, nurture, and establish
the necessary changes in our Country
and allow for it to take root in the soil of our land,
two generations to work out the labor of peace
that will restore our Republic to herself
blessing all those who patiently wait
for the blessing of the LORD.

So let us give each other a little more love each day -
loving our own and loving others like our own.

Let us be understanding of our weaknesses,
considerate of our brokenness,
accommodating of our own common human needs,
unyielding in our determination to see this undertaking of Country
we call the one Republic of the Philippines through this longest night
and into the new morning of that promised day...

After all, are we not the Land of Promise, 
my brothers and sisters of the Promise?

Remember,
our democracy is to be nurtured like a tree,
its fruits are virtues eternal, and golden like the stars -
our Country which is our labor is to be honored with fidelity
and our nation which is our community cared for with kindness and love,
for these are the blessings of our peace and defended with vigilance and sacrifice.

Is this not the truth?

We are a free nation

because we have rightly chosen

(in the course of our history in time)

in our hearts and across our generations

to be guided and ruled by authentic human freedoms

where each our free and human choices

no longer become one governed by chance,

but by each individual strength of will

and the power of God's own grace;

freedom giving its life to freedom,

liberty shedding its light for all.

Sometimes these days,

and these days are becoming more frequent again

when I reflect on our population issue -

I think about

the prevalence in our collective thought

(as a free nation among the nations upon the earth)

either of (1) randomness (fatalism, or the "bahala na" habit)

(which in a free nation is a moral evil)

or of (2) free and human choice (relativism, amoralism)

(which is evil BUT ONLY if it is left to chance

for freedom that is irresponsible is anathema to itself).

Now,

of these two evils,

the question we must gauge is

which is presently the greater evil 

and so the one we must subdue;

between the one answer and the other -

a proper formation of a moral conscience 

is the arbiter.

   

One can not forsee

all ends in the RH bill debate,

and as a devout Roman Catholic,

I am anguished by its many nuances

BUT notwithstanding our action or inaction 

we are left to deal here with a clear and present evil

which is poverty and the increasing means and degrees

to which individuals and families within our own population,

have become helplessly subject to its many afflictions.

Indeed 

poverty has now become 

a social justice issue in this Republic

where failure to act decisively is consequently

a failure in the prevailing morality of our culture.

   I would even go as far as 

   to consider poverty as a national security issue

   for I am of the growing conviction that 

   poverty in our Country is becoming life-threatening

   to this Republic.

Admittedly, 

there are many facets to this issue

but in the context of the RH Bill debate 

adequate and effective population management

which is a primary responsibility of individual family units

within the peace of a democratic society such as ours

when it is left irresponsibly managed by our common failures

as a Republic whole to redeem our prevailing culture 

from the evil of randomness and chance - will and does - 

become a burden to our nation as a whole

and this burden when it becomes debilitating 

needs the swift action of our Justice and our Law.

What we do about it matters.

What we don't do about it matters even more.

A little mental exercise #1

If tomorrow it is declared, without a shred of a doubt,

that there are absolutely no petrochemical deposits

lying in the bottom of the West Philippine Sea,

I wonder how this will affect the region?

Will it soften the self-destructive stances of the politics of conflict?

Will it serve to alleviate the military tension in our common sea?

Will it add to the peace of our neighborhood and therefore, lead to a further strengthening of our futures together?

What if there really is no economic value?

What then are we really fighting for?

What for are we committing the lives of our most faithful sons and daughters...

...the desolation?

A little mental exercise #2

There is a dispute on Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal).

And this dispute involves two sovereign undertakings of Country -

the RPH and the PRC.

Do we recognize there is a dispute?

Do the two parties recognize there are two parties in this issue?

Do the two parties recognize each other?

Do the two parties who recognize each other recognize there is a respective claim of sovereignty over the area?

Have any of them already made up their mind to deny it?

Unless these questions are answered meaningfully with due regard for the greater good of the region, of Asia, and of our world - this division will remain unchallenged and unhealed; a neglected space in time wherein the contagion of War may fester and spread.

Peace may only be built on agreements.

- selah -

If the PRC insists on a bilateral remedy to the dispute without even considering the equality of our claims of sovereignty over the area, what it really is implying is a peace enforced by force of arms.

We may not win this fight in the short term but this shall prove ruinous for a power like Beijing in the longer term view of things where the value of any civilization is actually invested in time. 

It shall be to the mutual interests of both our Countries to pursue, if not through the ITLOS, a regional solution worked out with an independent regional or multinational tribunal (probably the ASEAN+China or other recognized body) bearing into mind the vital significance of the longer view of things, especially in this new age of spirit and thought, and the larger good of our Asia (and remembering the number for peace is 3). 

The truth is we can not live without the PRC and the PRC can not live without us either: We can not change the geography of our region, the currents of our common markets will lead and evolve into each other, nor the connected nature of our cultures, they shall always share an affinity wrought in spirit and blood - we may have these passionate disagreements today but all indications are we shall have to make this peace work.

And the sooner we can work this out the better.
---<--@

If we find ourselves,
despite everything and in spite of all,

still dead-locked on Panatag Shoal

and in the Spratlys,

let no bad news be good news,

let no (military) action be good action -

BUT always, 

we should be mindful

of our building together from within,

we should always be mindful

of the real labor of our nationhood,

and all these things shall turn out

for the good of the nation

that is faithful to its own truth

and to the one LORD of all truth.

For in the meantime, 
we shall build.
---<--@

Between War and Peace is indecision and this is the worst choice of them all.

"so because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth." 

- Revelation 3:16

20111009 AM

“God loves human beings. God loves the world. Not an ideal human, but human beings as they are; not an ideal world, but the real world.

What we find repulsive in their opposition to God, what we shrink back from with pain and hostility, namely, real human beings, the real world, this is for God the ground of unfathomable love.”

― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Daily Meditations from His Letters, Writings, and Sermons

---<--@

Good morning!

I'm just going to shoot off some quick thoughts here -

I think we should never have removed Spanish from our national curriculum.

I think we should start thinking about the regional good more often - go ASEAN!

I think our President Noy is doing a splendid job. I think it is not fair to be so short-sighted, the work of reversing the tide will take a couple of generations. We are going to need a succession of strong and committed Presidents after him to bring our Country out of the doldrums.

And release Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani!

---<--@

More on the RH Bill -

I saw a struggling young mother with her baby once. She was trying to figure out if she could afford to get her baby a little pack of Bear Brand. The baby had a cleft lip and appeared to be malnourished. They appeared so poor and so desperate but largely unaware...

To me, her plight and that of her months-old baby girl seemed so overwhelming. I contemplated how she could have managed to conceive her baby through a free and human choice to have a baby. A few other questions came naturally after... what of the father, the family, the future?

I wondered if she could really be held completely responsible for bringing a soul into our world largely ignorant and so obviously unprepared to properly receive such a precious endowment from God. If not her, if not the father, certainly not the child. If not them, who?

I also wondered how many more young women like her will go through such an unnecessarily harrowing ordeal before their consciences become fully formed so as to effectively protect the freedom of their choices from the harshness of blind and random chance.

This is not the first time I've seen the hope of the poor burdened by so much weight.

Now, I look back at the debate on the RH bill and I ask myself, "is justice served to allow a condition like this to endure?"

The RH bill is NOT about abortion.

It is about human choice and about human choices freely and responsibly exercised in the context of Filipino society as a national whole.

The focus of the debates should shift more toward conscience formation and proper public (civic) education in the long-term and public safety, health and protection in the near to mid-term (our time frame still stands at 2012-2045).

If every Filipino were born with a properly formed conscience; if all our freedoms as individuals were - without exception - served enough even by human reason alone, then we would as citizens be completely right to immediately dismiss both the points as well as the failures (if any) of reproductive health practices in our Country.

Because if it were the case, human sexuality would not appear to be so beyond our natural power as human beings so as to consume so much of our time and effort in community with each other. We would have no need to debate the RH bill.

If every Filipino existed on the same plane of moral thinking, we would have been justified as a Republic to unanimously vote down the RH bill.

But since we all must as individuals exist on independent planes of spiritual maturity and since our common humanity must never again unburden itself of its duties and responsibilities to Sacred Life, the debate must continue.

We must agonize, we must fight our way toward a solution.

There should be a middle ground somewhere and somehow we have to get there...

---<--@

Finally,

I am proud of apl.d.ap and I know he's proud of me. Why?

Because we're both Filipino. We know it. We wear it. We flaunt it.

Mabuhay ka kapatid ko!

---<--@

So there. Everybody have a great weekend!

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

One Nation

Down with Filipino Crab Mentality!

20110514

Salutation #9

(Perseverance)

TO EACH OF YOU,

my beloved brothers and sisters of the Promise

who are all my honorable Filipino compatriots -

with one heart, O my nation -

I salute you, peace.

The more we are tried in fire and humiliation,

the more persevering should be our peace -

The more the evil within all evil things

seeks to dominate our common will of hope,

and shatter our belongings with each other,

the more we should strive to become who we are -

a people of peace, strong for our togetherness,

together for our faithfulness in the truth

that we are a nation distinct but not apart

from the one family of the nations of Mankind.

The Republic belongs to those who love it

and the nation to those who take this love to heart.

If the times are dark, it is not because of the true:

As every lion waits for its time, so must you.

So must you preserve the peace within thy selves!

Establish within thy soul

an unyielding firmament of Day,

and preserve in thy hearts a shelter of law -

tolerate no division, no enmity, no chaos -

for in this world there is much evil and lawlessness

but the more this darkness seeks to encroach upon thy will

the more the scandal of evil shall with pleasure entice

the more you shall seek to this shelter as a shield

that you may be guided by reason and faith

and as the Day is separated by God over the Night,

you shall be made to prosper in Justice and in the right.

Let this shelter flourish in thy one heart of hearts,

all of you who hold true to thy love of God and this Country,

and let the evil in all evil things find no safe harbor in thy souls;

let its tongue be confounded in the Sanctuary of thy heart;

let its deceptions wither under the light of the truth;

let its malice and cruelty be brought to naught,

its schemes be turned into dust and ashes,

and its ambitions into nothingness.

For thou shalt will to extend this shelter of law

as a shield to the stranger, to the weak, to the voiceless,

to the dispossessed, the displaced, and the defenseless,

and thereby through thy own willingness,

find favor for this nation of ours

with the LORD of all nations -

the God of all mercy and infinite compassion!

---<--@

The War on the RH Bill

There is a "war" of words going on between the proponents and the opponents of the RH Bill. And its getting downright nasty.

My fellow Filipino compatriots, I am decidedly against the RH Bill.

I have made this position clear in my previous posts.

But I am also against this dividing spirit. In fact, I am more worried by the outcome of this division than by the outcome of the debate itself.

If we should fall, O my people, may we always land on our feet united in heart.

Entire nations have an ability to make mistakes, let there be no doubt about that. For in such a way are entire peoples tested in spirit.

But if our hearts become divided - RH Bill or not - not will we only fall, we will be crushed by its height.

A nation with War in its heart - a people without its peace - feels itself paralyzed for fear that it can not afford to make mistakes and is therefore struck down by God Himself.

There needs to be humility in the fight for the purposes of God will always prevail.

What if the RH law is passed? Shall it serve to make these divisions permanent?

What if the RH bill does not receive quorum in Congress? Shall it serve to also make these divisions permanent?

We should be mindful of our ultimate loyalties to each other as citizens. We should be aware of the humanity in our words - for we are speaking to each other in terms noble and human, being mindful that we all want what is best for this Country.

I fear the shift in our culture that will be brought about by the RH law will eventually serve to shape it into a form that is foreign to our people.

But I am more concerned about the internal divisions that will render this culture irredeemably stony and hard, fragile against any force of truth and unyielding against the will of any form of law at all.

Therefore, if this RH bill is passed into law, I shall endeavor to do my utmost to overturn it. But I will always remain within my loyalty to this Republic undertaking, true to my faith in God, and to the great democracy of our people.

For Man is able to live even under the yoke of evil laws. But without law, Man is unable to live at all.

---<--@

The 2nd Cause: The Cause of Law - Unity

Law in the service of Sacred Life.

A law that serves is one that is observed. One must first observe the law who desire to gain from its original intention. In this way, law is no respecter of persons but is above all persons.

Therefore, if any human community is to benefit from the intention of law, then it must first be willing to apply itself to its prescripts and to ensure that the rule of law both extends to all and applies to all (which is effective promulgation and civic participation founded on effective civic education respectively).

What precedes this necessary observance is an inherent public trust of whose original domain is founded at the very foundations of law.

To be sure, law was something inspired by God in Mankind having variously revealed it to our humanity throughout Salvation History as a sign of our LORD's manifest will to lead all hearts to the truth.

It is an extension of His good will for all nations.

Since the purpose of Justice is the restoration of the original ideal, Justice by its own virtue seeks to preserve and to promote what goodness there is.

We are then left with the reality of evil.

Now, the intention of law is to bind evil - to deter, deflect, deny, and expose it.

Therefore, the purpose of law is to preserve and to promote goodness also but this law achieves by the discouragement of evil acts.

Law is an adaptation of human reason. If gives a necessary form and shape to our reason. It shapes the social consciousness and civic conscience of entire nations.

A law that is unreasonable is not a law but a tyranny of words.

One can make a law against the preservation of life but this is essentially offensive to the spirit of law.

For law in and of itself has its limits. It must first be founded on something limitless to make it meaningful.

In such a way is the 2nd Cause related to the 1st Cause - Sacred Life.

Only in this light can we meaningfully perceive the saying -

"Those who have less in life should have more in law."
---<--@

On Illegal Immigration

In my own view, there can be no such thing as an "illegal immigrant", only the act of illegal immigration may be sanctioned by law.

You can undo the act but not the person: Love the sinner not the sin.

The thinking that inclines the mind to believe that a human person is somehow illegal (given that this entire universe is our one human habitation) is in itself unlawful and leads to those forms of injustices that add to the burden against which law itself must continually guard and fight against.

And this is true not just in the U.S., who is by far the most visible Country presently grappling with the issue, but is true for all nations, including our own.

Every nation to a certain degree must deal with forms of illegal immigration both from within ourselves (e.g. "informal settlers") and with other nations.

The way we, as a nation, treat human beings (especially the weakest and the least) and the way our laws treat human beings are intertwined because of the fact that our laws shape the way in which our society thinks to believe itself to be.

As such, law by itself is not sufficient.
---<--@

Preserving and Representing the National Good Will



My fellow Filipino compatriots, in the midst of all our necessary affairs as a nation - and they are many indeed - let us not forget our common duty of personal and national good will to our other kindred nations of our one family of nations:

Let us pray for peace in Libya and the safety of the Libyan nation.

Let us also pray for peace in Egypt and the safety of the Egyptian nation.

Let us never forget that region in Asia so wanting and needful of peace and that our own peace process is connected to the peace of that region.

For if we desire peace for other nations, we must first possess it.

And if we truly desire peace for ourselves, we must first work to gain it from God - here in our one heart of hearts.

Let us also continue to pray for Japan in her work of healing and rebuilding and for Mexico who is fighting a vicious conflict against drug cartels.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Two Questions

20110511

RH Bill:

A Humane Population Policy?

Philippine population policy is the primary domain of the Filipino family.

By population policy here, I mean the natural human freedom of a husband with his wife within the institution of the Filipino family not only to plan for a sensible number of children but also to safeguard the intimacy of their conjugal love.

The transmission of human life and security of the order of our generations is not a power that ordinarily lies within the purview of the Responsible State.

That we are now concerning ourselves as a nation entire with this looming State regulation (the RH Bill) as regards to our population policy is worrying because it indicates an erosion of Filipino family values.

Furthermore, I do not believe we can effectively arrest this erosion of values and secure the Filipino family as a social institution fundamental to the life of our nation by dumbing it down further with a contraceptive mentality.

My fellow Filipino compatriots, I am not against poverty alleviation in our Country.

In fact, I consider poverty alleviation to be a significant social justice issue that we must as one Republic whole work to address in the near term as a pressing national security concern.

In this way, I completely understand the desires of our fellow compatriots who are proponents of the RH Bill.

But I will not accept short-term gains for longer-term losses that will only serve to stunt our near-infinite potential as a nation.

It is quite easy to accept a contraceptive mentality: Therein lies its allure.

But the straight path is a mountain road. It is not an easy road to take. It demands sacrifice.

It is also not a simple road to take. It is an ascendant way. It requires a certain strength.

It's summit usually disappears beyond a cover of clouds. It requires a certain trust.

And there are storms and high winds all along its length. It demands a constant vigilance of heart.

Is this not our path, my honorable compatriots? Though some might say this is but a similitude it still mirrors what can not otherwise be described in words.

The proponents of the RH Bill, may God bless them all, are mistaken in the thinking that a contraceptive mentality which only transfers the intellectual burden of the "population problem" to the poor will serve to either adequately address their needs or sufficiently redress their legitimate grievances.

It is the poor who are the least equipped of all to effectively adapt to the challenge of introducing the necessary safeguards to arrest the decline of the institution of the Filipino family.

In any case, is our nation actually in the grip of a "population problem"?

The proponents of the RH Bill would point out that we do. Because it is from this "problem" that they tend to legitimize their argument.

But I shall beg to disagree with them. It is the underdevelopment of our human capital that is the real problem here.

There are of course, vested economic interests involved here as well. But these interests too may be directed toward a path that is mutually beneficial to both the Common Market as well as to the Nation if only our Responsible State act to protect these longer-term national interests like our human capital.

Is the RH Bill really a better alternative over the slow but certain revival of proven national traditions inherent in every Filipino families, young or old, rich or poor, even in the face of an intermediate surge in population?

Perhaps in a perfect world, where all our citizens are empowered in their hearts and minds to make the right choices, the debate on population policy would be simple - we would all be one in the spirit of the divine command to subdue and fill the earth with living life.

But we do not live in a perfect world.

Let me tell you now, my fellow Filipino compatriots, that our human capital is at stake in this debate.

The most precious resource that this Country has is its people. Our population - our particular character, youthfulness, strength and nature as a people - is a resource more precious than gold.

This is an important consideration I should like to point out to you: The highest value that we should move to safeguard here is the individual freedom to choose rightly; our authentic human freedom.

This freedom is underpinned by a properly formed conscience.

As such, freedom of conscience is the freedom to seek its proper formation through a complete moral education. Freedom of conscience here is not a freedom to justify what should otherwise be wrong. Nor is freedom of choice a freedom to arbitrarily choose between good and evil acts.

Different individuals are naturally in different stages of moral formation. It is these natural differences in the socio-spiritual development of our people as individuals that complicates the debate on the RH bill and is basically a question of moral education.

In my own view, we are faced with a choice (economic as well as spiritual) through this debate on the RH Bill between moral education as an integral component of a good and competitive system of education for our nation and the wholesale introduction of a contraceptive mentality.

Having said all of that, I should now affirm to you that I am not for the RH Bill at all. Inasmuch as its provisions shall contravene the spirit of the beliefs I have stated here, I stand against it.

I am not saying that couples should NOT plan for a sensible number of children.

But to do it wisely, in the context of the totality of their marriage relationship, respecting their inherent dignity as husband and wife as well as the natural constraints which they themselves possess which they have received from God.

A contraceptive mentality is consistent only with a disposable, material view of life. The damage being suffered by our environment and the damage that will be inflicted to our culture arising from a blind acceptance of this contraceptive mentality have at their source the same error.

We should instead place the bulk of our worthwhile investments in the furtherance and development of our human capital through good governance, good advocacies, and a complete and competitive system of education.

It will get worse before it gets better, my honorable compatriots. This however, in my own view, is the greatest good - not a wholesale contraception of the poorest of our population.

The easy way out is usually not the right way forward.

We should never use our laws to bind what good there is.

I am personally against spending a single centavo of public funds on artificial contraception or contraceptive education other than Natural Family Planning (NPF).

Rather, I would put the burden on private advocacies that seek to promote these means (other than NPF) and shift the tax burden against those contraceptive practices that go against the life-affirming practices ingrained in our national culture.

I am not against making these other means available to the public - for as long as these means are not abortifacient or downright illegal - only because to make them illegal only removes them further from the necessary control of our Responsible State.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Principle of Totality:

The LORD makes all things whole.

The LORD makes all things one.

For God is a God of relationships.

He called Man to be one with Woman

and He joined them by their hearts

so that they would be one flesh.

He then made their happiness whole

through the union that joined them in love

by the children that made it complete.

(openness to the transmission of life)

The Beginnings of Human Life:

Life begins at conception: At the moment of conception, Man becomes a soul and the body comes to life.

The 4th Cause - Benignity:

It is not life per se that is the problem here but how we treat life: It is the strong that makes these problems persist not the weak.

Lessons Learned:

There are nations (mostly belonging with developed Countries) in our world today who are suffering because of this lack in vitality (i.e. their populations are aging out) so that we are not left wanting in those lessons we can not afford to learn ourselves.

20110327

Gaps in the Line

There are gaps in the line of my Generation X -
the lonely spaces of missing lives,
the unfulfilled promises of those individuals
taken before their time...
the results of man's evil against man.

In those other generations before my time
these gaps were the unwanted effects of war and crime.
In my Generation X,
though war and crime still takes its toll
most of these gaps in the line
are the result of abortions.

It is no small wonder my Generation X is hurting - a lot.
---<--@

Let us now, for a moment, go back to the debate regarding the RH Bill:

As regards to our nation, there exists only one evil end that I should like to warn you about and this evil end is the abomination of the desolation of war - the one defeat that this nation and all of its present generations should be wary about. Because through many and diverse methods, it shall make a relentless sport of the life of our nation.

Against the will of this evil, we must be just as relentless in our vigilant desire to preserve our peace as a nation (distinct but not apart from the one family of the nations of Mankind).

Though abortion is not perceived to be the central issue as regards to the RH Bill. I shall not fail to make mention of it here. For the evil of abortion serve the same end as it must be obvious to many of us now.

Those missing gaps I have mentioned above constitute a lack in human promise. We are left all the more weaker in our generations when human promise is left wanting in the nation.

Indeed, our representative congress has a commitment to pass the right laws. What I hope to avoid for our nation is a weakening of its vitality through laws passed that are in reality anti-human and so instead of binding what evil there is bind what good there is.

There are nations in our world today who are suffering because of this lack in vitality so that we are not left wanting in those lessons we can not afford to learn ourselves.

I should like to point out to you, my honorable compatriots, that we are as a nation a pledge of the victory of Sacred Life. We exist to preserve both human dignity and human promise.

In my own view, the essence of the RH Bill is education. It is more than just simple choice. More than that, it is about fostering the right choices in our people.

It is about quality of life issues in this nation - how to improve it?

It is about poverty as a social justice issue in this Republic - how to diminish it?

It is about population demographics - how to utilize it in pursuit of the national good?

It is about traditional Filipino family values - how to preserve it?

It is about the order of our generations - how to obtain its completeness?

To wit, it is all about engendering a new sense of freedom in our people and therefore, the duties that must accompany it. So what are these duties?

The passing of any kind of RH law in this Republic will impact the way in which Filipino society as a national whole will perceive what kind of responsibility we shall as individual citizens attach to these questions, and therefore, how courageously and how consistently we shall apply ourselves to the constant demand for answers in the civic sphere.

All of these have a direct bearing on the national destiny. All of these are shaped by the

laws that must always be guided by a will to preserve this sense of a

responsible freedom in our people.

This debate is contentious. But let it also be guided by civility and a sense of loyalty to the nation. It can not descend into blindness. For if we are not vigilant in our freedom and allow ourselves to become so divided in our hearts about this debate, we shall still come to calamity.

The sheer weight of the division that this issue represents to us must not completely suffocate our burning desire to recognize what we are all trying to promote in common with each other through this debate. If we allow this to happen, it is the least of us Filipinos who shall suffer. It will add to the debt of Justice and multiply burdens.

Lastly, as regards to the evil of abortion, it is not the number of cells in a fetus that define our being human, it is how we treat each other.

Angel of the Nations

I would like us to think about this:

How we treat each other counts for much.

I've often asked in prayer to know the proper name of the Angel of the Philippines. It is never given to me. As much as I would like to tell you what it is, my fellow Filipino compatriots, I do not know. This is so because we are what we do.

The nation is present in ourselves when we do the things that are proper to our nationhood.

This is true

especially when it concerns the unmet needs of the very least of the children of God and Country, the poorest and the most defenseless of our brothers and sisters in the promise.

We are what we do.

---<--@

A Day of Days

To my brother and sister Christians, the world is so full of troubles indeed. If you are confused, do not be afraid. For this world is shrouded in a spiritual darkness. This confusion is a symptom of the times.

Darkness is but darkness that does not lead us to the light. So do not hold on to what must pass away with the ebb and flow tide of exile time. Time is an ascent of the truth and the Truth is not of the darkness. Fear the LORD, He is God!

Sunday is our day of worship and rest.

It is that day of days we are obliged by sacred duty to go to church and, for Catholics like myself, to celebrate Holy Mass. This day was made for you and me, dear Christian soul - for each of us.

This day of days, my fellow Filipino compatriots - those of us who are the sons and daughters of Holy Mother Church and all who invoke the name of Jesus Christ - the nation can wait. For today among all days we shall renew our commitment to peace and common humanity before God.

Today we shall rest our souls and refresh our spirits.

Let us know that we have our other brothers and sisters, honorable Filipino compatriots each and every one of them, especially those of the faith of our Father Abraham, who shall keep the fort for us this day as we must do for them on their days of obligatory worship to the one LORD and Sovereign of all nations.

Let none of us here say peace who live upon our lands without its meaning being first understood in the heart with a conviction of faith.

We shall be vigilant for each other.

The peace of our Philippines must no longer be vexed by the evil of religious wars; a perplexing feature of the last great age of war.

This mindset of division require a form of monolatry - each to his own one god. This is a form of idol worship. The curse of monolatry is a peril we can no longer ignore in this present age.

If it is truly our desire to obtain from heaven the peace that prospers, we must know that God is the God of all - God is and that is all. He is the LORD and there is no other like Him.

So let your mind dwell on God this day making certain that when you shall enter deeper into the inexhaustible mystery of our Christian faith - in personal prayer and above all, in community with other Christians, most especially at Holy Mass, you enter with all your heart and all your soul into the most profound depths of the Trinitarian mystery.

This will strengthen you - each one of us - for the work of peace-building that we are all as a nation (distinct but not apart from the one family of the nations of Mankind) presently tasked by God to do; that my generation and the generation after mine (X and Y) in particular have been commissioned by our Lord Christ to accomplish (X and Y for Z).

Go open wide the eyes of thy hearts to the Incarnate Word of God, thy True Light and let flee the darkness from within our poor selves. Pray so that the ears of your inward hearing may hear the eternal message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then let us go bathe our broken hearts in its everliving waters.

Let us Catholics receive fervently together the Sacrament of the Eucharist at the altar, and then let us serve. Let us serve with all those who invoke Christ as Savior and Lord, who share with us one common baptism. For serve we must. Let us repent of our past ways.

As the Muslims say, we shall compete in good works, my fellow Filipino compatriots, as citizens to each other - together this time.

This is our burden of expectation:

We shall break completely with the momentum of past two thousand years by breaking the rule of war in each our hearts. A difficult thing indeed, but not by God Who everyday fills for each of us and for each our nations what is impossible for Man to do in and of himself alone.

For the War in heaven is in the heart. We must remain vigilant. We must refuse the spirit of War entry into our world from a heart submitted to the truth, even to the peace of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Redeemer of all Mankind. To accept this truth is to refuse division a toehold on this nation.

In this world of ours, cast adrift in a void that is hostile upon hostile to all of life both body and soul (most especially to all human life which is hated above all by the evil and all evil things), the only other freedom that reaches out to the freedom of Man reaching out from that loneliness from within our heart is the freedom of God.

Both the void of space and the void of war lay eager to consume the life of both the body and the soul. To the heart of Man, its emptiness is maddening, and its oblivion is certain.

But the LORD, our God, is merciful to all those who love and fear Him. He knows our sufferings intimately. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we know that God is the Fullness of Compassion.

Brothers and sisters, for all the good things our God had worked for us, in our lives and in the life of our nation, the things we truly ought to be most thankful about are those we don't have any knowledge about, for of these things are the greatest of evils made, those evils from which God has chosen to deliver us. Because as Jesus Christ Himself taught, God indeed delivers from evil - each person, each family, each tribe, each nation, even the world entire.

Isn't this the purpose for which our Emmanuel came to our world - to deliver us, all of us?

Our God is indeed a good God, a very good God.

There is no reason God will not relent to deliver us now - in this darkness. If only we hear Him.

So today we shall remember the LORD:

That God is and that is all - That He is God - the LORD, our God, The God Who loves us all - the Father Who sent to us His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ Who one with the Holy Spirit lives and reigns with the Father, One God forever.
---<--@

I LOVE YOU, my nation -

I love you, my people:
Our hustle and bustle life,
our noisy, chaotic streets
full of pedestrian colors
and the sweetness of
our nameless, honest labors.

O my Philippines, advance!
Into brighter, better days
where I know
our hearts belong.

O my Filipino compatriots,
companions of national destiny:
We are not a bad people
these are just bad times,
but let us fear not
for I have seen our hearts
and I know we have it in ourselves
to make it all right.

We are a people of the peace,
stalwart defenders of Sacred Life -
and worthy of each others sacred trust.

Let us remain who we are
to become our better selves:
One nation, strong for being faithful
with one, indivisible peace
under the eternal vigilance
of our one Almighty God
and valiant keepers
of each other's
human hope and good will.

These evils times will pass
and all will be well, my nation,
we shall outlast these evil days.

All will be well, peace -
my one people.

I love you,
We love you -
O eternal Philippines -
from always to always.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.