My Centrism

I am center-right.
I reach out to the left who reaches out to me.
It is this reaching out that defines my centrism.
Not just my moderate conservatism.

I am a democratic expression
of those finest beliefs - firmest in myself -
within a spectrum broader than my conviction.

Therefore -

In all things political,
I shall be strongly inclined to begin and end,
right of center - every time, all the time.

In America, this means I am either
a liberal Republican or a conservative Democrat
but can't seem to decide on which because...

I am devoted to a necessary unity
and seek to serve my devotion
through meaningful peace.

Partisanship is only secondary to citizenship in my eyes.
And in my heart, Country is always to be honored and served over party.
---<--@

Vigilant Trust

An Identity of Participation

Democracy is built upon the strength and merit of individual choices.

Our citizenship is an identity of participation.

It is important to empower personal freedoms. It is also just as important to enable these personal freedoms to serve in society with other citizens.

As thus, the Philippine State exists.

And invokes for itself a Republic serving among an already free and fair people.

And in their behalf.

Popular leadership is exercised through the virtue of a representative form of government.

That in the Philippine Republic duly represents the people in the formal affairs of the State.
---<--@

Salutation #198

(The Three Branches of our Republic Government)

The Three Branches of our Republic government
works best when they stand on their own merit.

They are like expert Judokas, powerful
when they have their feet solidly under them.

They do not need the intermingling of each other's powers
to be able to fulfill their functions - within and for - this Republic.

In fact, the Three support each other best
by winning all of their fights on their own terms.

They are like a unit that way -
a unified form of popular government;
a strong and self-confident champion of
our Filipino people.

Corruption blurred the lines. 

It did so to the point
that there are claims of independence
between the Three that seem ridiculous
for being so explicitly self-serving.

The Three can not stand apart. 

At the same time,
they have to win their battles
- independently -
standing on their own strengths,
prevailing by their own lineages,
and winning through its own merits.

That way, the Republic is preserved - for the Nation;
the Nation from which we all rise at Day, and rest at Night -
till the end of time - as we know it.
---<--@

Salutation #193

The State is not the Government.
The State is the Ideal of the Sovereign.

We all own the Philippine State
- and - at the same time
none of us do. It is a free State.

It is a Responsible State.

(On the Philippine State)

The State represents the Truth 
of everything we are - as a Nation;
Keeper to the Memory of our Generations,
and Repository of the Common Hopes
of our National Communities.

Any meaningful sense of Timeless Regard
for the lasting Ideals of our People - as a Nation
and the prevailing spirit of our Country - as Motion
proceeds from the reality of the Philippine State.

It is the Knowing
that constantly abides as Learning
prevailing within our living National Culture.

It is the spirit of everything noble, everything good,
and everything worthy of the National Excellence and therefore,
worthy of the praise and the love of our peoples together
- as citizens and as human beings to each other -
passing quietly - as Beauty - from generation to generation.

Our President as Head of State
is the Exemplar of the Philippine State;
the Office of the President of this Republic
being the noblest of all public Seats-of-Service.

- selah -

The Virtue of Citizenship
is the Primary Endowment of the State.

It is the authority to govern
the Citizen in the Person of the Self.
In it is contained the power
that makes each of us
together a "we".

The Authority to Govern
our Peers in the Nation is the Secondary
and proceeds from the Primary (as a function).

This Secondary Endowment
establishes for the Nation - from the Nation,
a Government that is - in constant and faithful keeping -
to the Providential Reality of the Philippine State.

We recognize in the spirit of our Constitution
and also in the labors of the Philippine Republic
from timeless Ideals enshrined in the Philippine State
- what is Sovereign to our Nation - in our entirety,
AND the Sacred and Inviolable Trust - that must exist -
between our Government and our Nation (as a free State):

THAT the Virtues of the Republic Government
in order to freely abide in a Government for the People
must have its Reliance upon the Faithfulness of the People
 
AND that the People
in order to conserve - in All our behalf -
our one, common, human Reliance
in the Good Governance of the Nation
must preserve - in and across - our Generations
those two Endowments - Primary and Secondary -
that are proper to the Philippine State,
particularly in our youth but also in all our citizens -
and ensure that a Government of the People
within each ourselves forever prevail.

- selah -

The free Philippine State
is the source of our Sovereignty.

We, the people, 

receive it each Day - in Peace - 

and lay it down each Night - in Goodwill.

In the collective peace
of our National Communities, 

particularly in the life of our Cities together, 

our common labors are its wellspring.

We shape it - and - it shapes us - 

   (we are therefore, we must -
   in being and in becoming)

across our generations - to the last... 

Sovereignty emanates from the People!

And exists - for us - with each present time
in behalf of our children and unborn generations.

We are Citizens First, 

our Nation - a People first - 

ONLY THEN 

shall the rest of the Elements of Country 

follow - and then fall into place -

or not at all.

All that ends and all that begins 

in our Republic - must rise and fall - 

from the Sovereign being of our Nation: 

THAT we are the one Filipino People 

and our Nation, a Nation among Nations;
AND that - this is - our Sovereignty of Being - 

supreme in us - and (simultaneously) - exclusive for us.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas - Long Live the Memory.



Thought Exercise - What if?

(1)
The State is the Ideal of the Sovereign

We profess allegiance to an Ideal of a Free State through its Symbols and its Virtues, in order to obtain and perfect our citizenship.

Essentially, we profess allegiance - to each other - as citizens and as human beings - in order to mature our labor of Country and to bring our Nationhood forth into perfection, e.g. Democracy, Meritocracy,

(2)
The State is the Government

We profess allegiance to the Government in order to obtain and perfect our citizenship.

The Government is the source of Sovereignty and utilizes the people and the life of their communities in order to mature its labor of Country and to bring its Nationhood forth into perfection, e.g. Communism, Socialism.

(3)
The State is one person

We profess allegiance to one person in order to obtain and perfect our citizenship, e.g. Fascism, Despotism.

Hitler was the German State, the Nation Germany incarnate - look at what happened to him. And then look at what evil it did to his own as well as to our other kindred Nations. We will carry a burden from that war for a long time to come.

Even Monarchs who are directly responsible to God for the Authority of the State, profess it accordingly, delegate it when necessary, and do not lay a claim to the power of the State as absolute as these.

(4)
The State is a selection of persons

We profess allegiance to an elite few in order to obtain and perfect our citizenship, e.g. Oligarchy, Plutocracy.

Capitalism distorted by materialism. We are struggling against this now.

(5)
The State is in the many and in the all

We profess allegiance to the self alone (and from the self to the other - but not with each other) in order to obtain and perfect our citizenship, e.g. Anarchy, Social Darwinism.

Democracy distorted by moral relativism. We are struggling against this now.

(6)
The State is undefined

We would not be having this exercise. God will spit us out of His mouth.

Salutation #190

Of the elements of Country, there are three -
the Nation, the Responsible State, and the Common Market.

(On the Country of the Philippines)

The Nation that we are, my people,
is founded on a Covenantal obligation
between God and the Children of Mankind
which is the Covenant that the LORD made forever
with all of the Nations of the Children of Mankind
that our God inaugurated in time
through Noah and his sons.

The Noahide Covenant
binds our generations to the freedoms
that ensure the preservation of sacred life
- the whole spectrum of it - that upon "our world"
   (as a realm apart from "the world" of the fallen Nations of old),
water shall never again consume the life of the Earth -
but shall through the life of our Nations
be nourished and sustained by it.

For we are through bonds of water and blood established.

Sacred Life is our sacred obligation -
and its preservation in ourselves and therefore,
throughout all of lower creation - is -
the fire that animates our spirits.

This "world - as our world"
that we are each as Nations is commissioned
to build together for all of the Children of Mankind
   (as God's own human peoples - arising from lineages apart -
   from the inhuman and irreparably corrupt spiritual lineages
   of the fallen Nations of old who sinned with the pride of Satan)
upon the Unknown Earth - which is likewise -
God's primary command to all the Nations of Mankind
   (including those fallen Nations of old
   whose life He utterly destroyed during the Great Flood,
   whose spiritual lineages the LORD disowned,
   and irrevocably unseeded in them)
is what we call the Inhabited Earth
that Crystal Blue Sphere that
   (it is blue because it is immersed in water)
from the spiritual realm
is a wonder for all
to behold.

This is our Covenant
- the Covenant of the Children -
and we are never free to break it.

To preserve the dignity and promise of Man - in all our Nations - is -
to do Justice to the image and likeness of Man - reflected upon the life of the world
and make it, "our world". Thus, making the Earth to the LORD, "very good".
Because to do Justice to the sacred life of this world - from the person of Man
right down to the very least of all of Man's animals and Man's plants
is the fundamental reason we are called to exist as Nations.

The existence of life in our world
- is - the soul that gives our Nation breath,
and the living up to the very wonder of this life,
along with the most profound existential questions
that specifically pertains to the mystery of life
and to the living of this life in this world,
- is - the spirit that is our breathing -
the truths of life's Salvation and its Redemption
is the fire that animates both our water and our blood.

The preservation of "the all" of sacred life
in this way - is the mission and the commission -
entrusted to all National communities of the Earth.
It is our Peace and the Goodwill of our Peace.

For the Universe
is not created for Man
Man is created for the Universe.

We as the Children exist for the labor.
Everything else exists for the glory of God.

- selah -

As a National community -
we are called of spirit and of blood born.
However, it is from water that our lineages upon the Earth are established.
For it is from the formless - that - the form of our citizenship
constantly renew itself and arise: Our truest citizenship is in our soul.

And from it proceeds the spiritual truths
where from we derive the first principles
that shape and define our Social Contract.

This Social Contract establishes - our labors as truth -
and - our truth upon the Earth - as a Sovereign Presence
before the LORD and the Assembly of the Nations before God
both in Eternity - and also upon the Earth.

This Social Contract is known as Democracy.

- selah -

We - as human beings -
do not practice our freedoms in a vacuum.

Freedom is a profoundly spiritual reality in Man.

Where in the life of lower creation, freedom is but a physical act,
completely reliant upon the nurture of freedoms ever greater than theirs,
our freedom is beholden to a spiritual dimension - because as human beings,
we implicitly know in our hearts that we must reach out to the only other freedom
reaching out to us, the freedom of God - in much the same way
that the life of the Earth reaches out to us.

The universe was not created for Man.
Man is created for the universe:
We belong to its labor
   (as common laborers upon the Master's field)
and only to its labor we belong -
particularly as Nations of the Children.

For example,
a dog whom we love or the plant that we nurture
- in the most immediate and real sense -
belong not to us.

For is it not also true
that it is Providence that speaks for its life?

We belong to it - or more specifically speaking,
to the labor of making it ours again.

And so inasmuch as we quicken our souls
to the work that we owe to the life in ourselves and to the life of all of lower creation -
in God and with each other, they become ours and they awaken again and learn our voice.

Else, this world - above the din of all other things that seek to confuse us -
will roar in silence deafening: For this world will never speak its secrets to our hearts.

And we will never know of it as our First Parents did intimately know of it
and so remain - very uncomfortably - strangers to the wonders of our own living Earth,
- trespassers and invaders to the varied realms that lay within our own Human Habitation.

If we love anything in lower creation - in the Truth,
they - like the Truth - become our possession forever. 

This is a freedom no animal or plant possess.

And it is never practiced like animals and plants practice their freedom.

It is never practiced in a vacuum.

And so
from Covenant proceeds Social Contract
and for us, my brothers and sisters of the Promise,
this is simply all about - Life and Liberty -
and so specifically - we are - as a Nation among Nations -
a participatory, constitutional Democracy;
a people brave, and free, and fair.

- selah - 

Why participatory?

Stronger freedoms require Liberty that we may exercise rights that exist to make our personal freedoms strong and also guarantee those same rights commonly preserved for other citizens not unlike ourselves.

Weak freedoms fall prey to any number of dangers and calamities, and the labor that we must fulfill is not easy.

If we do not hold on to our Nationhood, or worse - if we do not know how - it becomes impossible for any of us to build up the Earth.

Everything that in exile time progresses in Time without the Truth shall appear as an unremitting retreat into a devouring darkness - as the world gets darker and darker - meaninglessness becomes bitterness, bitterness turns into despair of self, despair of self becomes despair of others not unlike the self, and so - as the years become empty of their substance - Country will seem as nothing else but a madness that devours, and what once was in our common humanity precious as our hopes for all sacred life become abased into a sheer tyranny of beliefs founded in falsities and illusions.

The gravity of these things we must fight against - it is not our way of return: Ours is an Ascent in Time and unto the Truth.

We were never free to not fly upon Eagle Wings. For the LORD God saith that saying of the Nations, not of individuals. So when you shall sing to thy soul the popular song, "On Eagle Wings", make an effort to see that song as dedicated to Nations entire and not merely to individuals.

Our Nation, my beloved people, is one of those Nations. In this Nationhood, we are impelled to participate. We are therefore, we must.

But we can not build the right world with the wrong values.

- selah -

Why constitutional?

The Nations of the Children of Mankind is one great Peerage before the LORD.

And indeed, we are each - as human individuals, a peer to one another - through our personal and individual distinctions, equally - a keeper and a friend to our common humanity.

We all have - and have forever possessed - a basic, human citizenship.

Our communities too, are such as we - a Peerage of the Nations, for unequal each Nation may be in spiritual maturity and material strength, but as a Plenary Global Community - being as one Family of Nations - we are each enabled to equally overcome that we may together prevail against this world, and make of the Earth, our home away from Home.

For we are all here for a reason exclusive only to the fulfillment of a dream of happiness, and it is not even our dream, it is God's dream for us, and it is wonderful beyond wonderful indeed!

The authority to govern our peers whether from within the Nation or from among the Nations themselves is not a human authority, but a Divine authority.

And this authority is vested in a Responsible State and the structure of this State, as it applies to our Nation, is established in our prevailing Constitution - this binds us - in spirit - to a particular undertaking of Country that is in form - a Republic - and which therefore possess in itself - a very specific spirit.

We move like a Republic moves.

However, it is our personal freedoms that determine its Ascent - into its ages in Time - from emerging, developing, developed, and mature - and our Right of Ascent is likewise determined by the rightness of these freedoms.

Each Nation only has one Right of Ascent, each Country only has one freedom or Way of Ascent - all else falls into the gravity of the unveiling of the darkness of the desolation - and Democracy as a whole - is the Social Contract we specifically have - with each other, that we owe - for each other, and that our generations owe - to each other - that we will secure for ourselves and our Posterity this Republic, and it's Liberty.

It imposes a Burden
   (which we shall also expound upon very soon),
because our freedoms are neither cheap -
nor are they ever free.

- selah (pause and think) -

Now we come to review the Engine of our Economic Progression.

For to liberate our souls to pursue those spiritual freedoms that is our happiness,
we must first liberate our minds and our bodies from the physicality that in material weakness
mires us individually and prevents our communities from securing for themselves within the Nation,
our Republic Vision (as it arises from the Maturity of our Love and Remembrances together).

This engine is human enterprise Capitalism,
and it establishes upon our Common Market within the Nation,
a Free Enterprise Market structure.

It is the Engine naturally compatible with our Democracy and its sheltering Republic,
driving its Progress forward, against the flow of exile time, that we may secure - at the helm -
for all our generations to the last, through an Economy of matter and grace,
the wealth of our Nation - which is wealth already established in us
being in everything already dedicated as our possession forever.

The full breadth of the Vision of human enterprise Capitalism is to perfect the drive of human enterprise and liberate Man from the poverty and the humiliation of the human condition.

It creates material wealth as a means to secure and obtain - in the Nation - for each and every individual, the freedom to individually pursue a happiness that is fully and completely human - so each Man may know to be free - to learn to be happy, even in this world - securing and obtaining for himself or herself true riches - from perishable means to imperishable ends.

The full breadth of this Vision does not create more poverty. It makes the poor wealthy and the wealthy truly wealthy and leads all and involves all in the Real Economy of the Nation.

Furthermore, Capitalism is - a National proposition - and therefore, may not exist to serve only the interests of a few citizens, particularly in a Democracy. Else it should falter and fail - to the everlasting regret of all.

Also, as it serves a primordial need in Man's own being - to be truly free and truly happy, Capitalism - as an Engine of Economic Progress - must naturally possess a spiritual dimension. It's promise of happiness never was a material dream, for its dream of happiness is an invincible one.

People drown in riches because their souls can not be filled by gold alone.

Greed has no part nor place in a free enterprise Market.

And as ours is such a one - our free Market structure must naturally react to expel greediness - as tares are beaten from the wheat.

Indeed, it must be intrinsic to our Economic structures and strictures that inordinate wants and the many lusts that support them are not only counterproductive but also counter-intuitive to our National Economy and run counter to our economic good as citizens - being usually not only corrupted but criminal.

Truly, truly, virtue is currency.

Greed in our Economy is like having termites in the wood of our tree.

All of that which places the value of Man's things over the things of Man give nor possess no value and only exists to take from Country; it shortens the length of our days (making it appear to our hearts we're getting nowhere fast), is useless to the fostering of our sovereign freedoms, and is quite destructive to the labor of securing the National wealth.

We can be as rich as we want to be in our Economy, provided it does not make any of us filthy - but only truly happy.

In fact, in the most ideal sense - everyone should own capital, multiply it, and have a successful business so that we should all be billionaires, rich with good things besides, and wealthy at the same time.

A Capitalist does not value imprudence in the use of material resources and despises greed because greed is reckless. Greed is narrow and selfish and suffocates both human creativity and personal initiative. It is the saw that ultimately saws off the branch it is sitting on - calamitous to the Market it preys upon.

Capitalism values not how much money is in the bank but on how much capital enterprise is in the works, it values chutzpah, and rewards honest, dedicated and inspired work, no matter how small it may be, seeking to succeed not on how well and how bravely one runs from business - but on how well and how bravely a business is run.

The capital in capitalization, and the exclusive proprietary rights of those who own the means of work is only the result and not the source of the capital in capitalism. It is a myth that Capitalism is prejudicial to workers' rights; a legend propagated by the greediness of a few.

The human capital is crucial to the success of Capitalism, so that it's betterment - both in the labor force and in the management corps that serve each proprietary trust - in business and other market venture entities - that comprise our Free Market is vital to the success of our Economy.

But the value of the human element may only be as valuable as we recognize it. Fairness is what makes our Markets free. Therefore, a degraded economic identity in our citizenry will - and shall - imperil our Market Freedoms. When honesty in the small seem to count for nothing when the truth is that honesty can never be measured by any material dimension. Honesty is honesty in all persons.

And this in turn shall slow or even stop the many human gears that drive forward the popular engine of our Economic Progress. It will produce disparities in the way we view wealth and poverty, polarize it into an unnatural state of division - so that wealth and poverty are no longer connected - in both our minds and our hearts.

(That wealth and poverty as they exist - exists not harmoniously but are inimical to each other - like hydrogen refusing to bind with oxygen to make water.)

Indeed, there is now in our Nation, and perhaps also in other Nations not unlike ours, that selfsame unfamiliarity; a sense of unbalanced imbalances that seems so unnatural to the Economic evolution of any free, fair, and brave enterprising people - and one that prevents each our Country from taking wing, leaving us all earth-bound - below the clouds, under the darkness, out of sight of the stars and the skies.

This is not a deficiency in our people's virtue and good. There is so much bravery in a magbabalut or a fish ball vendor, or an honest taxi driver or airport porter - or any enterprising Pinoy who invests in the smallest of seeds - his or her citizenry - to dream of a better life - in this Nation - it is this spark that we should be looking for... 

(The author also has a specific proposal to make common for all Filipinos - the practical means to enter into our National Economy and strengthen our City's common ability to build up the National wealth which shall also be posted in this blog at a later time.)

For it is this spark that we may use it to jump start our Engine back to life - it is found in the here, there, and everywhere, just raring to go - in each of us, because all of this is - in the heart of the Filipino - and - in the soul of our Nation.

And Now is our Time.
---<--@

Kanlungan

Nakalilito man
at madilim ang mundo,
mga kapatid ko sa Pangako,
huwag tayong mabahala
at huwag mawalan ng loob -
huwag matakot sa gabi!

Pananalig sa Diyos,
kapayapaan sa ating bansa;
kagandahang loob sa bawa't isa
bunga nang pagkakapatirang
namumuhay sa ating diwa,
at pagmamahal natin sa ating
nag-iisang sambayanang Pilipinas -
ito ang lagi nating maaasahan;
ang ating kanlungan sa gabi
at daan tungo sa umaga.
---<--@

A Word on our Barangays

O faithful Republic of my people -

Some are all about height and distance,
but thou - let thou be all about width and nearness.

Nearness to the people is what governs;
thy popular mandate to reign is derived from it.

Width is all about completeness;
it is the fullness of thy will to embrace the Nation
in faithful service of thy most sacred trust.

From nearness to the people is derived
the authority to govern thy peers
and from completeness of will,
the ensuing exercise of Power
is consequently recognized
as legitimate.

Our Barangays
are the living sails of our Cities.

If the life of our Cities
are the wellspring of our Sovereignty;
the vitality of this life is singularly an attribute
of the general state of health of each our Barangays.

Our leadership in the Barangay are essential to the Nation
and so we must be free to seek them and they, to seek us -
through the electoral processes that is appointed for this task.

Indeed,
the toughest battles, invisible to the rest of the Nation,
to build up from the Unknown Earth, our Republic Vision -
are fought and won upon the ground of our Barangays.

It is here within our Barangays where - at every age -
the Divine Commandment to prosper and to make good
the sacred trust of our Nation - across our generations -
is everyday from the Providence of the LORD received -
and the labor of the Republic with each morning begun.

It is here where each our citizenship is everywhere exercised
and the blessings of our togetherness with each night kept -
the greater will of our Peace, each and every day won.

They are the oldest
and most venerable part of our Republic.
---<--@


The Diwata ng Lahi, a replica of the ancient Balangay boat, went out for a test sail in Manila Bay on July 11 2009. The word "barangay" is derived from an ancient Malayo-Polynesian boat called a balangay. It is commonly believed that in pre-colonial Philippines, each original coastal “barangay” formed as a result of settlers arriving by boat from other places in Southeast Asia.

The Separation of Powers

Tyranny (in all it's forms) which is a betrayal of sacred trust is the evil against which the Power of human and popular government  must constantly preserve itself from - that the authority of the State remain faithful in the service of the Nation.

Power is a function of authority which in the Republic resides in all its Offices of State - their Flags, Titles, and Symbols - that comprise the visible standards of a permanent lineage of government.

These Offices being established by a free people from among themselves embody the universal Ideals and particular Traditions of a single and united Nationhood universally enshrined in a writ Constitution bear by virtue of the life of all their generations, from first to last, in good will of their living Memory, at all times and places, the collective burden of responsible and effective governance.

This lineage of government (of the people, by the people, and for the people) shall be embodied in and by their persons variously raised by the enlightened will of the Electorate from among themselves in their due and appointed seasons through popular Elections and the responsible exercise of Suffrage rights.

The exercise of Power in government is the function of Public Service and the individual persons who duly and freely undertake the vital calling to serve their fellow citizens through the meritorious and compassionate administration of the duties variously established within all Institutions that serve the Offices of State - through authorities enacted by the Republic to willingly carry out, at all times and places, the Nation's mandate for a responsible and effective government - honorably to govern with the freedom of those who allow themselves to be governed by the freedom of their peers - humbly, ably, and faithfully.

Power in the Republic is the ability to recognize and preserve the sacred trust that binds together the souls of our citizenry in the freedom and strength of Nationhood - and in so doing prosper and persevere in good will of the Peace that endows with Truth, our sovereignty.

Power in the Nation is the action of Nationhood - fidelity to Truth and the Creative Ideal, awareness of the Human Condition and the First Principles of Nationhood, Stewardship of the Peace and the Public Trust, Love of God, Country and Common Humanity - and is the common exercise of every citizenship.

Criminals in desiring more freedom subvert freedom and corrupt their citizenship for the sake of their chains.

Tyrants in desiring more authority transgress authority and Power (in the Responsible State) is made futile and impotent by their betrayal.

A Tyrant is oppressive not because tyrants wield the Power of State but because they are bereft of it - hence, just as evil is a departure from good - tyrannies are likewise a departure from good governance.

Tyrants are vanquished but every Nation's permanent lineage of victory, and every labor of Country's singular right of ascent, and the Power that both forms and informs the Responsible State can neither be lost nor stolen nor the vision of these triumphs diminished through unjust and undeserving service of pretenders, murderers, and thieves.

A Republic is the chief consequence of the evils of Tyranny. It is a jealous Guardian of betrayed and wounded peoples - without Kings and Princes, without Peasants and Slaves, every Republic is sheltering wings to a Nation of citizens - a Country to an orphaned people - a human work called by the LORD and kept by the Providence of God in the safety of His Peace through a remembrance of the Truth.

There is no difference between Old Countries who survived their ancient lineages of eternal government in the Institutions of human Monarchies and the Republic - each face similar dangers, one the result of another danger - for each Republic is a continuation of the Old Country, reconstituting the advantages of constancy and continuity of a permanent lineage of victory by shifting Power from Crown to Office, not by human will or advantage but as a result of the Human Condition and the War against which all Nation's find a common and implacable enemy of their life and their every life's pursuits - all are allied against this danger - all aware of their principle endowment of building up the Inhabited Earth.

All tyrannies begin small as one act, one inscrutable motion of the human will, one choice made in the heart - quiet as a whisper that with the passage of time, under it's own season, mature into a deafening crescendo of evils - with the permission of the people.

A tyrant is the result of a preponderance of ignorance, complacency, and indifference in the people - the rise of a mature tyranny is made possible only with the complicity of Nations - certainly no people desire to be burdened with the unbearable burden of tyranny but those who know of this exercise a necessary vigilance.

Every tyrant once vanquished, leaves behind a dark, distorted, and deleterious web of invisible supports capable of propagating it's own evils - an under culture of malice and corruption whose sins have caused various falsities and distortions to emerge as tares from the enriching soil of our culture of Country, the collective richness of our diversity and freedoms challenged - and the reality of our own sense of truth questioned by the lingering presence of this burden of Justice - this is why the Nation itself must be restored to the Truth - that we may know ourselves as ourselves - that the legacy of tyrants may wane with the returning of sacred remembrance that a free people's triumph over tyranny may always and ever be final and complete.

The Separation of Powers - Executive - Legislative - Judiciary - in a Republic is primarily purposed by it's establishment in the Constitution of the Nation as principal safeguard against the disruption of tyrants and the evils of their tyranny.

It is essential that we know the order and the purpose of their Separation as a harmonious, synergistic, and necessary truth in the life of our Republic - that they are Powers separated to safeguard a singular lineage of victory, and that they all owe their ascent (unto realization) to only one Truth, nor are they at war with each other but exist to repel the very divisions that have produced their Separation.
---<--@

The Positive Freedoms - "freedom of"

Expression
Participation
Dissent or Non-Participation
Press and Academic
Suffrage

The Negative Freedoms - "freedom from"

War
Inordinate Want
Mortal Fear
Ignorance
Oppression

Three Facets of Human Equality in a Just Society

Political
Economic
Social
---<--@

II. The Republic

To Old Glory, an ode - 

Thou, 

at thy Birthing art forever conceived -

the home of the free, for the free, by the free

ensuring a government for the people, and by the people

carrying aloft the will and the mandate of all thy generations!

The vision of thy conception thus enshrined 

and the ideals of thy belonging thus conserved

through the economy of thy generations preserved

that Thou, that Dream - orphaned to thy own world, 

in spirit borne unto shores, distant and new, by pilgrim wings, 

to become a peculiar appearance upon the earth, a peculiar people -

art One - reborn into a unity of many, embracing a nation that is free 

and forever now endowed with thy own Spirit, faithful and true

vigilant in thy defense, and kept by God forever true to thy memory -

a nascent labor of Country, gained in Him, and through His grace

constantly achieved by thy own faith in His Providential trust.

Thou, 

at the Crossroads of Independence -

refused to be a nation in thy Spirit suppressed

by any power of hell or human dominion spread upon earth

nor enslaved by whim of tyrants with freedoms, evil and strange,  

than THIS, the dominion thou hast at thy Birthing established
in Covenant with God, and before all thy kindred nations in Eternity,

for Thou art fully invested in thy becoming, as a work of His hands,  

stronger for each thy hope in each thy present generations arising 

brighter for each thy days lived in memory of every generations past,

thou art like a song that in the stillness of thy heart gets better and better 

with every music that begins to play for all thy generations left unsung.
   

Thou wert a labor of the LORD, forever unworthy of another!
For the freedom of God shall be the inheritance of thy nationhood

and its principles thou hast with all thy heart resolved to keep forever.

Indeed, this is thy Liberty and well suited to thy love and allegiance  

and Thou art today for shame if thy own freedoms are not wholly thine

and that Thou art for naught today if thy own honor thou shalt desert

for truly Thou art in courage better served - always - than in fear

and so Thou called forth thy own Great Defender to thy common defense
(for Thou art His, the LORD's, and may this be of thy conviction forevermore)

and an army rallied to the first thy great and noble Fathers, George the free,

for as a nation thou resolved to be led - even unto war and its attendant evils.

Thus in thy will of love and fraternal sacrifice,
even unto the shedding of thy blood and thy tears
Thou - through the travails and terrors of battle enduring and persevering -

did come to recognize in the ensuing clarity, the quiet dignity of Thy peoplehood;
of what formlessness has made Thee as a form upon the earth - 

of what Spirit truly made thy citizenship utterly and completely thine.

And 

dedicated to the Principles Thou undertook at thy Birth
thou forsook the old in order to become the new 

and took on the name, America, the United.

And in thy bravery and in thy self-reliance 

and with all thy imperfections glaring, 

and with all thy hopes still shining

thou went to be thy Republic - 

From the fires of Yorktown

arose thy eagle wings!
---<--@



Guard thee thy remembrances well and in this faith persevere...
Lest we forget, lest we forget: This we'll defend: This Memorial Day 2013.

I. The Birthing

To Old Glory - an ode



Of all the colonies,
Thou alone were in spirit unbowed,
thy nationhood ever conceived in liberty,
by pilgrims seeking the simplicity of a freedom
that is not wearisome and a faith that is pure -

Ah,
thou wert a peculiar appearance upon the earth -
a root of the old world carried to the new!

Thou wert strangeness and beauty all at once.

Thou, a people called and a spirit arisen - 

amidst a thousand ancient nations, the very last;  

a new community sown upon the soil of the new

bound not of blood nor tribe nor earthly bonds

being a people called through waters of the spirit   

into a nation born of vision and nurtured in liberty,

the first in thy founding and the last to be found.

Thou, at thy Formation determined -

thy destiny lay in the care of the Providence of God 

and that thy peace is strength to overcome all adversity.

And 

in wisdom still lacking but with determination so rich

preserved by thy faith and in thy freedoms nurtured 

thou enjoined each thy generations in great earnest,
despite all the many things yet left uncertain to thee,

to the call and the labor of thy emergent nationhood.

Through times of peace, and through times of war, 

life and abundance came before thee to nourish thee

and the care of friends met thee at every crossroads

for thou wert blessed by the LORD with sure safety
setting thee aside to work a work of glory in His Name

even as tears and calamity followed thee in thy wake.

And 

thou numbered the days of thy youth in great measures 

as thou grew in wisdom and age and strength of years.

Spirit and Freedom were thy most ancient of names.

---<--@

Salutation #139

(Helping Hands)

My brother and sister Filipinos -

A nation who
has no remembrance of its own past
is like a man who
have lost the use of his legs.

A nation who
has no love of its own present
is like a man who
have lost the use of his heart.

A nation who
has no vision of its own future
is like a man who
have lost the use of his mind.

If we are this nation, 
what for are our hands?

What for are our hands, my people?

- selah -

What for the memory but the light?
What for the light but the life?
What for the life but the hope?
What for the hope but the love?
What for the love but the labor?
What for the labor but the peace?
What for the peace but the LORD?

And what for the LORD, our King,
but the victory of all these good things,
alleluia to God on high, my people! 

What for our independence if not our freedom?
What for our freedom if not our peace?
What for our peace if not each other?

What for are our hands, my people?

- selah -

Who has given us our nationhood but God?

Alleluia to God on high, my people!

Did any of us choose to be born with such a soul?

Who can take this spirit in our hearts away?

Alas! Only we, my people, you or I -
by our unremembrance, by our impenitence,
by our unpeaceful, and false ways.

So let us, as the stars,
in this time before the dawn,
awaken Now.
---<--@

Salutation #136

(Change to Master Change)

Things in our world are speeding up again...
If ever you feel confused about the goings on in our world...

You must remember to focus...

You must remember who we are*, my fellow Filipinos...
all we have discovered about ourselves...

   (*So that even without the words
   we shall be the meaning in our nationhood
   and the soul that lives in our Country
   shall sing to our songs!)

You must remember to place
both your attention and your heart
in the service of everything*
that improve the peace of our Country
and strengthen the unity of our peoples
as a nation among nations.

   (*In a million forms, in a million ways, serve -
   loving one another and building up the earth.

   In a million forms, in a million ways, serve -
   dwelling with each other in the Peace of God
   being united (in Spirit) as the LORD is united.

      [As God is one, be thou one heart, one mind -
      going forth and doing what War does not expect!]

   In a million forms, in a million ways, serve -
   upholding the purpose of our coming together
   as one nation among nations sown upon the earth;
   dwelling always in unity, understanding now
   with an understanding of the truth
   the labor set before us and the work purposed
   for the economy of our generations -
   the labor of peace!)

Above all God.

Then we will as a Republic
stand strong against these changes
like the bamboo have evolved to master the storm.

For we will as one nation
shine out against these uncertainties
changing in our hearts to master change.
---<--@

"I am the change to master change."

Salutation #134

(The Republic!)

If
our Nation is the vessel
through which we strive
to journey in peace together
from hope to hope,
strength to strength,
and truth to truth
across vast oceans of time
from generation to generation
toward a destiny for all
and one worthy of all,
even unto the golden shores
of God and His Eternity;
our one, true Country!

Then
Flag and Anthem
are its wind and sail,
the Constitution its helm,
the President its anchor,
and we, the people,
as citizens to each other,
its faithful crew.

What then
you may ask,
is the name of this
proud and glorious endeavor -
this speedy, sturdy, tall ship?

It is called -
the Republic!
---<--@

Salutation #131

A Word on the Corona Trial -

It is my hope that
(1) our representative peers in the Senate
obtains for us a fair result from out of this trial and that
(2) the nation unto whose entirety we all ultimately belong
benefits from and grows stronger from having undergone this ordeal,
(3) justice is done to all parties involved, and finally
(4) that this trial does not become a dangerous preoccupation for our Republic
that we forget to duly apply our energies on other matters
just as vital and at times, even more pressing.

Mabuhay! God be with us all.



(We Shall Persevere)

Senator-judges of the Republic,
each of you servants-elect of the nation
and my fellow Filipinos -

It now falls upon your shoulders
the unenviable task to make fair each thy judgments
on this very difficult impeachment trial.

As thy fellow citizen
equally engaged with each of thee
in this, our one Republic of the Philippines,
I only ask that in that coming hour of judgment
you do not lose sight of her vision and longevity;
that you should make your decisions independently
but not as individuals against an individual
even in this case, our very own Chief Justice,
but as instruments within a whole
presently charged with the specific task
of ensuring that the whole perseveres correctly
and in the most efficient way possible.

I have no doubt
that our Republic will persevere
and God-helping, ultimately prevail
regardless of the verdict.

How fast or how far
depends upon each of you
in that hour of judgement
just as how soon and how completely
depends upon all of us working together
as one heart, one people, one Country.

Do justice to thy nation first,
bearing into mind and heart that
we all move forward as one
only according to the weakest,
and most vulnerable elements
within our society.

This trial is unprecedented
in the pain and confusion it has wrought
against each our nationhood within
and while it is not as divisive
as the other rifts that need our concentrated efforts
it has nonetheless been
the most painful to witness
and experience in our lifetimes.

Our Chief Justice
is a public servant
and so is our President.

It was never fair in the first place
to have had to be made
to choose between the two.

The branches of our Republic
of whose Seats of Office they serve
and duly occupy being co-equal
to each thy own, Senators,
you all know without a doubt
what kind of an ordeal our beloved Republic,
replete with her own institutional memories
and collective remembrance
that shall far surpass and exceed us
beyond these times and persons,
has undertaken and undergone
to bring this trial forth into fruition
and now
it is time to reap
what was has been sown.

Your judgments as a whole
must contain - in each themselves -
the necessary provisions
that ensure that the rudiments
of a functional peace is preserved
between the complimentary branches
of the Executive and the Judiciary
as well as the collective wisdom to guide together
the path of these two separate branches
of necessary institutional human governance
within our one Republic whole
so that their co-equal, interdependent, democratic lineages
may in time find themselves perfectly conjoined
in harmony and maximum working order once again
and united with thy own
and in peace with the people
and so ever thus, far into the future!

For these are crucial times.

We should never again
stand so divided in our innermost self
as a Republic.
---<--@



A Personal Retrospective -

Something in me was restored
watching our senators yesterday,
something precious...

It was not the judgment
that I myself hold as remarkable
but the process - wherein -
our representative Senate,
empowered by our Constitution,
created for all a path
where there was previously none.

The final decision to convict
being not at all a judgment of individuals
but a single collegiate act of the Senate body
was delivered in decisive fashion.

The brave minority decision
as well as that of the majority
together form something
unprecedented...

But only if one so chooses to rise above
the persons and personalities of our own times
into the realm of ideals and visions
where dwells the spirit of our Constitution
and the Peace of our Republic.

We are indeed better off
for believing than disbelieving,
in hoping than in despairing,
in being better than in being bitter.
---<--@

Reflection -

If we hate our own institutions within our own Republic,
who shall be left to serve them? 

How can these branches of Republic service bear for us trustworthy fruit
if we who are its stewards forsake to nurture them even in spirit?

How can any Country mature without its institutions?
---<--@

Salutation #127

That we lead many nations
in terms of faith - only means one thing,
we are a people prepared.

- selah -

For the burden of the times
is a burden of expectation.

If it were a burden of justice,
would any nation survive?

Therefore,
do not despair,
my people.

Believe.

---<--@


(Burden of Expectation)

What does a nation do with a burden?
It bears it together!
---<--@

THERE IS
an expectation - under heaven -
about this one nation of ours;
a requirement to succeed.

What is it about expectations
that make us cringe, my compatriots?

To whom much is given,
much must also be expected!

Is the Filipino truly free?

Have we become a nation mired
in a state of permanent revolution?

The mindset of War requires division - even in the midst -
but against whom must we fight against these days?

Increasingly,
we are becoming a people exhausted,
a nation dark and despairing,
trampled upon by unnamed tyrannies
and nameless tyrants.

Is the Filipino truly free?

- selah -

What is this freedom, this vaunted liberty?

We are a nation distinct, a nation among nations;
we are a nation led by a vision enshrined in our Constitution,
bounded by laws, and governed by an entire lineage of sacred trust
that goes from strength to strength and hope to hope
embodied - in time - through the Offices of this Republic
and duly represented by the mandates carried
by each their presiding Seats of public service
in persons elected or appointed.

We are a human society,
endowed by Almighty God with a culture,
a history, customs, traditions, aspirations, civic values,
and a freedom to pursue the happy ends
for which our generations (as a whole)
have dedicated and gained for this nation
self reliance and self determination
at such a cost!

What is it about the national success
that is becoming so fearful to us, O my nation,
that we have come to shun it?

Have we forgotten who we are?

No other nation upon the earth
can build upon this one, faithful Republic
the foundation of all her better days
than this particular nation -
this one Filipino nation!

Truly, there is a requirement for us to succeed!

But this requirement - under heaven -
(being that rightful expectation we all, as fellow citizens, share)
is only a requirement - and shall remain so -
as a thing remembered for us by God
and reminded in our hearts - these days -
by the most beneficent will of His Providential grace.

We have yet to claim it and make it ours!

And so let us together say, "yes, indeed."

There is a requirement for us to succeed!

- selah -

We are no different
from our other kindred nations
yet we are also distinct from each of them
because of the things that gather us together
into one common, human belonging; one nation.

We can not allow ourselves
to be defined by the those things
that strive against our peace,
that seek to tear us apart,
but by our free and human belongings
to each other as a whole,
one and distinct.

A nation - is - the people
- and - our connections - with and to each other;
our relationships - as citizens to each other -
and what (Who) animates and informs it.

Our freedom proceeds from this realization.

For we can not truly become free
to fulfill our national aspirations
until we have learned to serve
- as citizens to each other -
and we can not become
- as citizens to each other -
unless we participate in the work
to achieve a better Philippines.

And that this Republic is but one work.

- selah -

I have a belief 
in our beloved Philippines 
that transcends mere optimism.

And I often feel,
if I think about it long enough,
that I have come to a conviction of this
long before our time.

It is as though
it has always been there,
and never at all was it lost.

It sought as I sought
and now - we are together -
in our seeking.

And
in this togetherness,
we are together sheltered.

- selah -

The work we must do
to restore to ourselves our Republic endeavor
is not just the work of our government
in the Responsible State (not just the President's)
- it is ours as well, my people beloved of God.

It may only be accomplished
by nations and indeed, it may only be accomplished
by this particular nation, our one Filipino nation!

This is why I am addressing
much of this communication to each of you:

Only as
- we, the people -
can we effectively stand
against the evils of our present times.

Truly,
my fellow Filipino compatriots,
we should only expect for ourselves,
united across differences and one in our generations,
to succeed because victory is the only lineage
that belongs to the national peace
we must soon come to profess -
together this time.

Now is the time for peace:

This is our time.

Peace, I salute you.

(original produced 20100914)
---<--@

Battlestrong

Salutation #104

The difference between a Monarch and a President is one of election.

The similarity is that both of them still have to make the surrender of kings - an acceptance of a life of service to the nation as a rule above all rules.

(The Responsible State)

Upon the Responsible State is vested

the authority to govern the people.

This authority is a divine authority.

For this authority

is the right to govern your peers

and therefore,

belongs to God alone.

Upon this vital mandate is built

the structure and the systems

(Constitution or Ideals of State)

from which the Offices of State

derive both form and power.

And these Offices are served

by their various national institutions.

These institutions

when their purpose and design

are directed toward the nation

(not towards persons or personalities)

are what safeguard the national good.

Duty is empowered and rights protected;

peace is preserved and prosperity assured;

hope is sustained and service made meaningful;

law is observed and justice is vigilant;

civil order is maintained and freedoms understood;

vision is perceived and the national destiny clear -

These proceed from a strong and empowered

Responsible State!

---<--@

The Paradox of Power

Salutation #91

The Ages of Country
is a measure of the maturity of our Republic;
a measure of the brightness of our national remembrance.

From emerging to developing to developed to mature to ascended,
the development of our Country through its natural ages in time (the first four ages)
and its perfection in Eternity (the fifth age) can be likened to a tree
growing upon our one earth - in a garden of many trees.

It is deliberately conceived as a more harmonious alternative
better suited to the unitive spirit of the times
than the implicitly divisive three worlds, one earth model
that projects a first, second, and third world.
---<--@

We shall be aiming precisely for the fourth age - a mature Republic.

(The Fourth Age)

I can not see our Country

as anything else but a mature democracy -

a work of the truly free:

A hardy shelter of peace,

with wings strong enough to embrace

the whole of our one Filipino nation

- from least to great and great to least -

and spirit mighty enough to carry our one Republic forth

- across the vast wilderness of exile time -

from generation to generation,

from strength to strength,

and from truth to truth,

till all things in time are begun again by God

at the summit of our common Ascent

and the beginning of all things new.

---<--@

Remembrance: The Ages of Country

20111028

Salutation #62

I am hopeful not because there are words.

I am hopeful because there are people with listening ears

and hearts who are able to hear the meaning to the words...

(Nations Like Trees)

Wisdom is in the people -

(and discernment is in the Responsible State)

if we remain in ourselves, a nation united

- through thick or thin - by and by,

our Republic shall be enlightened by the peace we profess as a people

and our leadership enabled - inasmuch -

as we are empowered by the unity of our peace.

The more mature the peace we profess as a nation,

the better the age of our Country in time.

The deeper the roots of our citizenship is planted

upon the earth - far into forever -

as one Republic undertaking,

the more trusted shall be its fruits.

For nations are like trees

and the labor of Country is the labor of bringing the promise

of our nation into full fruition - for all Filipinos.

It is a labor of cultivation and nurture.

This is why I am passionate about the peace process.

Everything in this day and age - as far as our Philippines is concerned -

is invariably tied to its success and its success is likewise tied

to the greater forces that are now driving our world

toward interdependent community.

For there are many rooms and many trees...

---<--@

One lineage of hope - 7,107 islands strong -

"In the longer view of things, divisions don't make a difference, unity does."

You know, I used care a lot about where we've been - about one's upbringing, how one looks, how one sounds, what's in a name, from which school, from what religion, from what province, and from what family, and from what social class...

Now, what I truly care about the most is where we are ALL going.

I have awoken to the truth - that -

there can only be one Philippines for ALL Filipinos!

---<--@

An Accounting of Time

Time is not distance for time is distant

only to those with distant hearts.

Nor is distance a hindrance to our hearts

that in the timeless, beholds and is beheld.

PEACE, I salute you.

---<--@

Our dearest Starshine -

Let me teach you
the way in which thy heart
does perceive the idea of numbers
and the concept of its operation
in those realms where
the mathematics of physicality
and the limits of its reality
in terms temporal
and in measures finite
does never and shall never agree
with the reality of things within.

Because the substance of thy soul

is the abode of the timeless
that in terms eternal
and in measures infinite
are an accounting of thy heart
that amidst thy comings and goings
perceive things as they are
like a vision of love forever
in moments standing still
and not as they seem to be
amidst the darkness of things
that appear and disappear
with the rise and fall
of the tides of exile time.

One is not the beginning

for one is time neither begun
nor is one perceived to have an end
because one is an infinity
and two is not two things together
but two things that become one
for three are not three things apart
but two things made one whole one
by the Love that visits
each our longing for itself.

And so when you shall perceive

each of thy friendships, dear Starshine,

(e.g. family and friends, above all conjugal love,

as well as all natures of relationships.)

among all truly human relationships
you shall think only of one.

And when you shall seek to perceive
each our own expressions of hope
in the sharing and the bearing of Sacred Life
(e.g. complementarity of the sexes, the freedom of thy gifts, etc.)

you shall think only of two.

And when you shall seek to perceive
those things born to thy own heart's longing
and felt through the beauty of remembrances

(e.g. the creative ideal - cooperation with the Creator,

Peace and the labors of peace, etc.)
awakening to thy slow awakening dream
you shall think only of three.

And ever be aware that the medium

of thy constant reality from within
is an emerging continuum of gratitude
spread as luminous stars upon thy spirit
bursting with the joy of living life
born from things that cleave as truth
unto that vast universe in thy soul
that make you think of the many
but return you always to one -

the One, O my Starshine,

the LORD!

The one Giver above His gifts.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Patient Perseverance

Remembrance: The Ages of Country

20111025

To my Philippines -

Peace is the responsibility of all!

O my nation, if this conflict were anything else but a war among Filipinos, it would have been a foregone conclusion. The "all-out war" option would have been an easy choice.

In this particular conflict, however, our truest enemy is within. For the greatest threat to the peace of our one Republic are the divisions that keep our nation down.

(Mind you, O listening heart, not the sides themselves but the divisions that keep us apart!)

For it is these divisions that keep our Country weak and unfashioned; a mere shadow of the real glory of the Republic hoped for by all those generations past; that Land of the Morning of whose vision is the singular intention of all their labors, all their tears, all their sacrifices.

This War has prevented the appearance of that Republic, for we are at present living in a place in time that is increasingly not our own; a mere shadow of the hopes of the generations of Filipinos past, a mere fraction of their glorious dreaming.

(If we are being warned, it is because we are at a decisive juncture in the life of our nation.)

My honorable Filipino compatriots, this War in the heart of Man will prevent us from achieving the vision of the national destiny and work to deny our peoples through all our generations the realization of all our dreaming together.

It will seek to further dilute the concentrated strength of the spirit of our nationhood, preclude the promise of many, and consume the life of all. For the spirit of War is a devourer of peoples.

It is within each of us.

(Before the end of days, this beast shall be among the nations for the undoing of all nations.)

Therefore, in the midst of all of this passion, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, in the aftermath of what might have been the worst blow to the peace process we have had to endure as one nation thus far, I am not going to advise anyone of us to choose anything at this point in time.

I want us to rest and reflect. Let us afford our fallen the dignity of a calm worthy of their peace and reflect upon the things they have given their all to afford us.

Let us remember them all in this way, seeking not to add to the price this nation has to pay to obtain from God above the unity which is ours by honor and blood.

Let us listen to our President. Let us invest our trust in the power of his Office. Let us believe in his sincerity. Above all, let us believe in ours.

I personally believe in the sincerity of our President Noy. He may say it differently, do things his own way but I am absolutely convinced that he means to do exactly the same thing - restore our Republic and our generations to our rightful place in time.

Furthermore, let me say this to our national media corps -

Please be aware that all the media hype about this may also have unforeseen and unintended consequences. It might serve to inflame already deeply held passions and further alienate the bar of public opinion from the true merits of the peace process. Therefore, I would like to also ask our press people not to cut the branch we are all sitting on.

I would advise you to listen to the voices of the families of the fallen; to the voices of the common folk who live in the direct path of this conflict, decent Filipinos who did not intend for themselves to become victims of a struggle that is not theirs.

I would advise our national press as a whole not to make accusations that fly in the face of reason and impugn their investigative integrity.

For in a great democracy such as ours, the power of the free press comes from an understanding of its inalienable responsibility to the nation - one values the other. For press freedom protects its nation from ignorance of itself and an enlightened nation protects the freedom of its press.

Media serves the truth. The truth serves the people.

To sum, to all my brothers and sisters of the Promise, all us Filipinos to the last, from the noblest to the least responsible in the nation, from our President and across our wings to the very littlest Filipino, all you with listening hearts -

Let us not make any hasty decisions at this point in time. We do not have to.

Let us rest apart from our troubles and reflect - together this time.

Indeed, let us as one nation solemnly pause - observe a moment of deep and meaningful remembrance - at least till next week or at the very least, till after we have buried our dead.

Let Peace be our common salutation.

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Harbinger

Then the LORD God said: "See! The man has become like one of us, knowing what is good and what is bad! Therefore, he must not be allowed to put out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life also, and thus eat of it and live forever."

The LORD God therefore banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he had been taken.

When he expelled the man, he settled him east of the garden of Eden; and he stationed the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.

- Genesis 3: 22-24

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Prayers for our kindred Republic of Turkey -

Let us also pause for a moment and pray for all of those who were lost in the recent magnitude 7.2 earthquake in eastern Turkey.

As a nation who is not unfamiliar to the tragedy of earthquakes such as these, let us grieve with our brother and sister human beings in Turkey and in hoping with their hopes, send all our kindred concerns to the one God of all human beings - the God Who is - the LORD, my people, He is God!

To all my Roman Catholic brother and sister Filipinos, let us especially take these prayers as well as our prayers for the peace of our Country to God, the Father of our Holy Redeemer, at Holy Mass - tomorrow and every Wednesdays with our Lady of Perpetual Help, on Fridays through the Sacred Heart of Jesus, at sundry times from feast to feast, but above all on Sundays through Jesus Christ and all Christians in Jesus Christ, alleluia.

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Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The War in Heaven is in the Heart -

Revelation 12: 7-9

A Prayer to the King