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.
---<--@

Salutation #179

All true renewal comes from the center, so it is with us:

Our Nation has a center, and it is found in God - our one, true Sovereign.
Our Government has a center, and it is found in the Office and the person of the President.
Our Republic has a center, and it is found at the heart of every citizen who yet believes, We are.

(Rule by Council)

Leaders beget leaders;
true servants beget no slaves.

a President is not a ruler,
a President is chief steward to a Ruler -
a servant of free and human government
and a choice instrument of Divine Providence
being the primary caretaker of a Republic
chosen by freedom to do Liberty Justice

in person and in Office, a Shepherd 

to an orphaned and wounded people -
our humblest Servant, and bravest Defender,

the one most accountable to the Nation

and the one most responsible to God.

So rule by Council,
to the voice of Wisdom, give ear -
give patient ear, listen and learn to listen.
Hear for the sake of hearing and
know for the good of knowing,
ever in the quiet of thy heart -
always discerning a path,
always looking for ways,
always seeking for solace,
always thirsting for answers
- in behalf of thy people
and on their good behalf -
bearing together with many voices
seeking in the number of their counsel
to decisively arrive in freedom and safety
to the Several Pillars that give to thee
thy own strength of understanding
that thou mayest decide
for thyself alone
what is truth
and pray that God
may confirm it for thee.

Remember always
thy service to thy people
is a Calling - not an ambition.

Therefore,
pay good attention to Who calls thee
and Whose pleasure it is that raised thee
to the glorious Calling of thy own election.

Recall to thy heart -
it is a noble thing indeed
to be called a Servant to thy Nation!
For thy calling is to freedom; to the Liberty
that breathes life and hope to all thy generations.

So remember the chains - lead and exhort thy brethren -

and work with all of thy people through thy one Republic
to break the long bondage that keep thy Nation Earth-bound

walking humbly before thy God, our Holy Redeemer,
in the path of those great Liberators of old,
the Peace Bringers and Defenders of the People,
who at many times in the History of Mankind arose
to lead the Nations and to break the Evil which prevents -
for thou art called to walk in faith and grace as one of those
who knew, named or unnamed - leaders beget leaders,
and true servants beget no slaves.

Thus, govern by principle,
and serve the Justice of thy Peace -
Enlighten thy people, speak sparingly
and exemplify thy own truth in thy own life,
however you can, with what Grace you should,
ever in harmony with thy own sufficiency,
ever at peace with thy self and thy God,
standing steadfastly.

Do not rule by dictate.
Do not govern by personality.
Do not pander to base instincts.
Do not seek infamy with the venal.
Do not be filled with pride.
Do not be sorrowful.
   (Cultivate a joy in thy soul
   greater than all the sadness
   this world may inflict)
Do not be envious.
Do not be vain.
Never despair.
---<--@

To humble men and great presidents alike... salamat po.

A Nation's Prayer for Good Public Servants

Public service is a calling not an ambition.

Therefore, if the calling is present and the person freely responds and God blesses his or her decision, no one loses out - everybody wins!

So must we always pray for God to raise among our people, good public servants - shepherds after His own heart!



May God inspire in our hearts
a discerning love of the true shepherds
of the common people -

May the LORD cause us
to exhort and support them,
to recognize and to love them,
and to appoint them, wherever necessary,
in free and peaceful elections -

May the generous and good God, our Father,
deign it acceptable to enrich our national communities
with their vigilant and beneficent stewardship
in all levels and across all distinctions
within our one nation.

AMEN.
---<--@



It is said that one only receives the love one thinks one deserves. As a nation, my people, what kind of love do and can we reasonably and realistically expect from government?

In a democratic society, these expectations matter. For these expectations of ours inadvertently shape the custom and the norms that help or hinder the rise and the success of those who are in government to serve or to be served.

Those who expect corruption when and where it suits them in the citizenry provide those who are corrupt in government a means to be corrupt.

Those who expect excellence and all manner of praiseworthy things from our public servants in the citizenry provide those who are true in our government a means to remain so.

Those who do not know what to expect will likewise reap the same uncertainty for their lukewarmness and timidity of spirit in public participation.

Liberty is an exercise, not an excuse.

Lateral responsibility precedes horizontal authority.

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

Salutation #81

Kung walang corrupt, pwede na uling mangarap.



(Dream the Dream)

Dream the dream -

Encourage each other.

Expel the spirit of War

even while we are in the midst of it.

Expel the sins of the last great age of War

by our common ascent into the unity of Peace.

Re-establish the Republic from its roots

and know thy own Country to the last fruit.

Re-constitute our culture of peace and good will

and stretch it forth across all our 7,107 islands -

Reclaim our beloved archipelago from the darkness:

A Country led by a vision, bound by law -

An undertaking of human civilization wrought

upon the unknown earth by a people, faithful and true -

One nation, virtuous and free -

One nation fortified by history, unified by charity

and made meaningful in the truth.

One nation united across all our generations

into one labor, one heart, one destiny.

Strengthen this one nation - from the center -

manifesting a responsible citizenship, each to another;

one true belonging from among many other true belongings

faithful to God and to each other as keeper and friend.

Nurture the sheltering wings of our one Republic peace

growing in thy hope and in thy love and in thy labors

embracing all in All - until all is one vision -

and the rest is darkness.

Disown the darkness.

Defend against it.

Do not fight it.

Defend.

---<--@

Think about it -

It is human to fight for right causes. It is not human to fight against Justice.

It is human to know when to stop fighting. It is not human to forsake the cause of Peace.

It is human to hope for self and for others. It is not human to despair of either self or of others.

It is human to fight for love. It is not human to fight for hate. For when we fight for love, we defend. When we fight for hate, we only fight.

Salutation #51

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

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

(Servant Leadership)

Take heart, O friends of the LORD!

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

Come alive to courage, defenders of the people!

For God does not choose anything without merit,

there is always wisdom in His choices.

Peace, I salute you!

Good human leaders know to follow,

know how to fall and follow again,

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

never losing hope while giving hope to others,

never losing faith while others lose theirs,

never losing love while love seemed to have lost them,

never losing God because God never has lost them.

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

If we cling to Him, if we persist,

no matter the depth of the darkness,

nor the measure of our unlove,

He will bring into bloom

the full reality of our human natures

and bring our being into perfection,

- for ourselves and for others like ourselves -

here and into the next life, life and abundance.

Being chosen, one should accept and rejoice,

being accountable, one should rejoice and accept,

for in so doing the LORD holds you back from sin

and prepares your heart

to serve your fellow human beings.

- selah -

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

reparation for evil and a constant pleading to God.

If we are called to serve, judge not,

but serve and serve all souls without distinction,

loving humanity in it's entirety

for love of God

and the salvation of our own souls.

Our human obligation lie not in judgment

but in reparation for evil and through reparation,

the alleviation of human suffering.

Therefore,

we are required to include

all of human suffering

and to discern not which one is punishment from God

and which other one is a person's own misfortune

or another one his or her sin

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

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

being called to serve must understand

that they are called not because they are good,

for Who alone is good but God,

they are called because they are accountable

not to themselves, for they did not choose themselves,

but to He Who by His authority wills into reality

all that He wills and sustains them,

directing them to purposes outside the scope of human thinking.

But to remain unchanged and unbowed,

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

- selah -

War lusts after the life of all our nations.

Like a man perish from sin, so have civilizations entire

perished because sin was in the heart of Country.

To recklessly allow the vessel of Country to break

is like the murder of a woman pregnant

with a multitude of unborn lives in her bosom

- a crushing and unbearable burden

of unspent promises recorded against thee -

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

to the very last hairs on their head.

For it is written in Scripture

and in the heart of Mankind - both -

that all of a Country's debt of Sacred Life

- across time and dimensional space -

will be accounted for by the Justice of God

before the one Creditor of All life.

For all living things have a purpose in God.

Indeed, each individual human being will be accounted for,

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

So be aware of the darkness that persists in the Night

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

To speak the truth and not to lie

for these are the mother tongues of heaven and hell.

To be honest, sincere, and willing to serve

with a heart of love and a will of understanding.

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

- Who will refer them back to you -

and from you to the people and back again

as a continuous flowing in time - a mighty river -

enduring from generation after generation.

Be mindful of thy guardianship of the people.

Defend; neither falling short

nor exceeding the will of the defense.

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

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

Ensure a just equality before the law;

that thy laws may serve the life of thy citizenry,

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

so that every human being is given the most possible potential

out of his or her social identity

to aspire without fear

and to triumph without feeling defeated.

Lead unto unity and forget not the justice of thy peace

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

- is one and constant and alive -

where the people rejoice, all are inclined to rejoice,

where the people laugh, they laugh together,

where they play, they play together,

where they work, they work together,

where they grieve, they grieve together.

Therefore,

love the LORD and love the common people

serving thy undertaking of Country with one love alone.

For a heart that has many loves

each with different shades and degrees of scope and intensity

for each their different uses and objects and persons

does not know love,

and one who does not know love

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

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

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

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

wicked, adulterous, restless and never at peace?

How can the public trust be maintained

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

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

around a heart that possesses none of these things?

How can the peace of any nation

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

- selah -

Indeed,

the charity that must be thine by election

must burn with one love alone;

a love that obtains to God

and not a love that obtains to men -

or it is but an illusion of love.

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

because despite everything and in spite of thy self

- it is God and always God -

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

For thy vision depends not on conditions external

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

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

at the level where true unity and cohesion is

- in the LORD and for the LORD -

at the very heart of a person

most especially thine.

For thy values are the values of peace.

---<--@

Miss Universe 2011 -

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

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

Congratulations, Shamcey! Please continue to inspire our youth.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas ! God bless us all.

Sheltering Wings

The Circular Relationship of the Four Causes

The Peace of the Brotherhood of Mankind

20110806

Awakening the Dream

IF WE ACHIEVE THE DREAM of peace in our times, my honorable compatriots, we shall unlock the true potential of our nation meaningfully engaged in realizing its promise as the one Republic of the Philippines - for all our people and for all our generations - a home away from Home for all Filipinos.

Achieve the political peace by or before the end of 2012. This is one of the conditions necessary for our nation to enter into the new age in peace with God and in harmony with the season that the LORD has set forth before all nations.

The political peace is the negotiated peace between the GRP and the MILF and represents the will of our leaderships to mend the internal disagreements that have led to the conflict.

This peace on paper is distinct from the national peace which is the actual work of mending our communities, of accommodating, reconciling and realizing our common hopes, one with another.

To set our own expectations aright, my fellow Filipino compatriots, the process of obtaining from the LORD, our national peace, is a distinct labor apart from the political peace process being undertaken by the GRP and the MILF and must be understood as such.

The national peace is the labor of our national whole.

Achieving the national peace (2012-2045) for our one Republic will take us much longer and will require a deeper conviction but is a labor which we can not begin nonetheless joined together as one Republic undertaking of Country without a prior peace on paper.

God shall bless our nation for being loyal to the mission He has invested in all human nations which is to give shelter to its communities against War and the darkness of exile as a particular endeavor of Country upon the earth and through these necessary graces, deepen our conviction to prosper the peace for ourselves and our posterity.

I should remind us now that most of us here today have never even known this peace.

Our leaderships at this point in time must also bear in mind and heart that peace in its general form is absolutely present in the greater will of the one Filipino nation from whom they all draw their sovereign authority and unto whom we all belong by birth, by common desire, and by the will of Divine Providence.

In this world caught adrift in the ebb and flow tides of exile time, my beloved brothers and sisters of the Promise, from the nation we all shall begin, from the nation we all shall return.

So let us take this truth to heart and put a paramount value on the peace of our national communities.

- selah -

Truly, my beloved people, there is a greater season at work here and we should be mindful of it because it involves matters much larger in their scope than our internal divisions. I hope all the recent goings-on in our world gives our own peace process a deeper perspective.

Having said this, I am encouraged by the recent meeting between President Noy and Chairman Murad in Tokyo - mabuhay po kayo!

I am also thankful for the government of Japan for getting better involved in this vital process for my Country reminding all concerned parties that achieving peace in our Philippines will also add to the greater good of our local region and of our home continent of Asia.

---<--@

A Word on Philippine Electoral Culture -

There are no losers in an honest election. But in a dishonest election, the whole nation is the loser.

---<--@

The Highest Office -

The highest Office in a Republic is the LORD's as the one Sovereign of all nations, God, our first defender and one Source of all our relationships.

All other Offices are established according to their nobility. Nobility, of course, being a substance of character that bears a quality of love for the common people.

Now, the noblest Office in a Republic is the Office of the President and forms at the center of the sheltering wings of government; wings that must fully embrace our one nation in the Peace of an undertaking of Country and this Country for us is the one Republic of the Philippines.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Mabuhay ang Japan! God bless us all.

Being Present for Peace

20110801

Our Philippine Marines is a vanguard force. It is their arms that protect the very limits of our sovereignty. It is their vigilance that preserve our one Republic at her frontiers. Go the Marines!

Let us call a spade a spade -

I will admit to you, my fellow Filipinos, I am personally grieved at the recent event in Jolo.

What the ASG did to our marines is utterly condemnable.

But I will not allow myself to become so blind as to become divided in my own heart about our nation. I see and I recognize the virtues of our Muslim compatriots apart from the darkness that is being wrought by those who seek the overthrow of our nationhood.

The President is pursuing an aggressive stance against the ASG. This is well and good. The ASG, as they themselves have so lucidly demonstrated, if they are not engaged in acts of terrorism is engaged in common banditry against our nation and other nations and have not impressed upon anyone any kind of ideal whatsoever worth considering besides force of arms.

My concern belongs entirely to my Muslim compatriots who are honest citizens of this Republic undertaking of Country, who are our fellow Filipinos, brothers and sisters of the Promise.

In this season of Ramadan, they together with the families of the fallen soldiers are the most vulnerable products of this untoward incident.

Indeed, they deserve our kindness, concern and assistance. It is only right.

And prayers for the souls of our fallen warriors.

I have no doubt the cause for which the ASG is now presently engaged is a doomed cause. Clearly, their fallen ideal have left them with no remaining excuse outside the criminal.

But if we forget ourselves, my brothers ans sisters of the Promise, if we shall neglect our peace as Filipinos, we undermine the proactive strength that will bring us closer and closer to the day when peace for our Republic is a greater, much binding force than conflict and division.

Let us today make the distinction.

Our one Country must become empowered by our our nation becoming enabled to embrace and protect - by the sheltering wings of our peace - all our decent citizenry from the scandal of those outlaws posing to act under the banner of any honorable religion - ASG or not.

My honorable compatriots, the future we are choosing to bring forward today belong to all Filipinos - it shall belong to all Filipinos or none at all.

Therefore, all our national communities across our one Republic whole must be able to condemn what is not permissible to our civic culture.

What offends the peace of our greater civic order as a nation must be deemed offensive to all Filipinos in all truth and without prejudice. And all Filipinos should be able to discern this for themselves individually, freely, and without fear.

So may the LORD bless us and favor our nation with His Peace.

Peace be to all Filipinos in this season of Ramadan - Ramadan Mubarak!

---<--@

Finally, let us say a prayer of peace for the soul of our own Corazon Aquino. Let us remember her gift with thanks to her and to our Creator as well as the hopes she has entrusted to our present care.

T

oday is the 2nd year anniversary of her passing away.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Peace be upon you, O Man,

in this season of Ramadan.

20110620

Salutation #17

(Common Identity, Common Destiny, and the Republic Vision)

If we succeed in our time

to achieve what in our own Day

is necessary for this generation to prevail,

we will have begun for our people

a new age for our Country.

The peace of these present times

require us to return to the timeless memory of ourselves as ourselves;

a Republic with a heart of peace

built upon the strength of a people with soul of submission

- that is -

a nation unified under Almighty God

being sheltered by the prospering peace

of the one Republic standing faithfully

in our defense forever.

Therefore,

if we remain true to the spirit of our undertaking of Country

and obtain to the strength at the heart of the nation in ourselves,

we will succeed in this labor of our times

for it is by the command of God that we are so arrayed

and by this same command we shall prosper.

As every nation is possessed of its own destiny -

a Republic undertaking of Country is led

by the vision of the national success.

This vision that must faithfully lead us

across the exile darkness of the unknown earth

as an undertaking of Country

and the hopes that

through common human needs

bind our generations together

is the soul that sustains our conviction

that we are

- as human beings and citizens to each other -

one nation entire.

More than anything,

my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

it is a remembrance of these things,

common identity and common destiny,

that must lead us ever onward

and forward against the darkness

to establish upon the unknown earth

the life of our national communities

like a multitude of living lights.

Its brightness in each ourselves

advances our cause of Country into its ages in time

for this vision is a thing written entirely in our hearts,

its outline is but a sketch in our Constitution -

it is spirit more than words, meaning more than form

being wrought more through action than inaction

for we must not only be Filipino by name or paper alone

we must work to become its actual merit in ourselves

by the virtues consistent to our common identity -

virtues preserved in the memory of our heroes

and in the bravery of our common peoples.

For how else can we become the citizen in ourselves,

my fellow Filipino compatriots,

than to know with conviction of heart

that we are who we ought to be

in time and in eternity?

How we appear, how we sound,

what we hold and possess in our hand today,

our family lines, our tribal affiliations,

all these things might influence our history

but it is remembrance that truly rules our destiny

as a nation distinct but not apart

from the one family of the nations of Mankind.

Mabuhay, let it be so.

---<--@

Sources of Prosperity

The LORD, our one Sovereign, will ask of you, O my nation - "Where now are thy treasures, O valiant Republic?"

"Where now are thy offerings to thy one, true and faithful God, thy most gracious King and stalwart Defender?"

"Do I not deserve thy love, thy allegiance and thy loyal tribute?"

"I, the LORD, speaks!"

Prosper therefore, abiding in thy common human hopes and rendering meaningful service, one to another - for the greatest treasure of this nation is its people.

As thus, the greatest accolade this Republic undertaking of Country may give to the LORD, our Holy Sustainer and Most Beneficent Provider is the spreading of its own sheltering wings of peace - the peace that prospers, O my people, the Peace that is over War!

Now, the nine common human needs, eternally protected by God and sanctified by our nation in time, are, in and of themselves, sources of prosperity.

These nine common human needs underpin as well as drive the prevailing reality that necessitates our gathering together into the divine endowment that is our nationhood.

They form the foundation of our industries.

Rightfully understood and individually expounded, these nine common human needs also co-relate to the UN MDG's which are a mirrored expression - observed in our behalf by our family of nations - of our particular national deficiencies in protecting and sanctifying these hopes in each ourselves as citizens to each other within the peace of our one Republic whole.

The catalyst for national prosperity, of course, is a strong national identity.

A strong national identity is like an electromagnet - it will necessarily reach out as mightily as it is enabled in itself to do so toward its own self-cognizant destiny.

And remembrance is its requisite expression - its electricity, as it were.

So let us remember, if we remain true to the nation in ourselves - time is on our side. Because however long this night might be, if we are who we ought, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, it can not last forever.

Have thou now forgotten

that promise long ago?

Return now to the wonder

and never let go.

---<--@

If in Rizal is our patriotic hope, then in Bonifacio is our patriotic daring - one completes the other, they should both be our national heroes.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Common Human Needs

20110613

The Spratly Dispute

Our one Filipino nation has intimate cultural ties with the one Chinese nation. These historical ties are built upon the strength of common blood ties as well as by the pull of national necessities that flow naturally from the geography of our growing region.

Because of this, it is very difficult (but not impossible) for me to visualize our one Republic in open armed conflict with the People's Republic of China (PRC). And I am reasonably sure that the PRC feels the same way.

Armed conflict between any nation is truly an option of last resort and one not to be entered into lightly.

Therefore, what we must guard against is the unnecessary escalation of tension.

It is vital that reporting (from all sources) on the Spratly dispute respects and represents this fact of our national life - peace is our prerogative. No one in his or her right mind would want our whole region to descend into open war.

This is our first and foremost consideration - War serves no nation.

We are duty-bound both by honor and charity, to repel all threats that impugn the sovereignty of our one Republic however - and this consideration above all is what must drive our will to see to it that this issue is resolved - properly and using all available means.

Indeed, every citizen of every nation is bound to the common defense of their Country from every and all elements that threaten their peace and good will both internal as well as external.

Defense is a reaction. So what are we reacting to in the case of the Spratly issue?

There really is only one worthwhile cause for a shooting war - a clear, imminent and direct threat to the life of our nation i.e. our population and its posterity. This cause above all other causes absolutely compel the conduct of the defense. For it is the very cause of our existence as a nation.

Everything else must lie squarely within the realm of statecraft and diplomacy - until it fails and we have to go to war. God-forbid this should happen but it has happened before in the history of our nations - and many, many times.

Personally speaking, I am not convinced that we are presently reacting to a clear, imminent and direct threat to the life of our nation.

But if we remain confused or undecided about how we might as a Republic react to this threat, it might come to pass that we shall find ourselves treading a path we did not set out to take. Fear is only good if it keeps us alert to the truth.

What is in our hearts, my honorable compatriots, matter. We can not react passionately about this issue. Nor can we allow vague sentimentalism to rule our love of Country.

The Republic we serve is real, the people it shelters is all too real. As regards to the Spratly issue, there exists also a real threat - but the conclusion most favorable to our nation (and therefore, to all nations in the long-term) depends on how well we are able to penetrate today the confusion that must surround it.

Defense is a reaction. How well we handle ourselves matter above all because how well we handle ourselves (especially in the midst of adversity) is a reflection of how well we know ourselves both as a nation and as a Republic whole. And according to how much we know ourselves, we are able to glimpse also into the humanity of other nations as well.

Here is my analysis on the matter:

There are in reality two States that serve the one Chinese nation. For our intents and purposes, we shall refer to them as the elder and the younger States i.e. the mainland and the island ones.

The elder State is authoritarian in form. Her language therefore, will reflect this form. She is a Republic and therefore, very protective of her own. But so are we.

Though she does not always represent the actual desire of her nation - fact is, the elder State is still representative of the authority to represent that desire. If we know ourselves, we know to understand what this desire is.

But since we are a fully functional emerging democracy - the way by which we intend to achieve the end for which this desire exists in our people is very distinct though not different from her.

Where this desire intersects is where the common ground for the Spratly dispute may be found not in its distinctions.

Since this is a dispute, we can not meet her at her language. We have to stay with our own. We must reiterate the facts without inflaming the passions that underlie the tension. We must agree to use a common terminology that is neutral.

We have to consolidate our own collective will to preserve our peace and use this opportunity to press forward with our own internal national reconciliation processes strategically synchronizing these with our national development agendas (their tactical requirements as it were, including the modernization of our AFP, PNP, BFP, BJMP, etc.) without which our Republic can not obtain to its fullest potential.

ASEAN has a large part to play in this, of course. I am mystified as to why the knee-jerk reaction is to fly to the US and not to our partners in the region first. Our region is important enough to consider and one that is collectively possessed of interests of its own - more importantly, these interests are shared interests and they must be represented by our ASEAN.

The US is an ally (and a valuable one too) but she is not the only one. We have to learn to place a real value on our friendships with other nations as a matter of completing our remembrances.

The US is in principle an ally of the defense - and so are all the other nations (each to its own degree) of our one family of nations in the United Nations, China included. Our own worst enemy here at the moment is the perceptions we create in ourselves and therefore in other nations.

We must be clear and we must be resolute, above all we must base our thinking about the matter on relevant facts and our understanding of its favorable resolution on the force of law.

We must take to the side of the defense and undertake to properly understand it and the peace that it serves.

War serves no nation. I am not saying that fighting for the defense of our nation is not good, I am meaning precisely that. Fighting for the defense is good and when it is, it ultimately leads its nation to victory.

What we presently need here is an order of business not an order of battle.

The contested areas are not viable population centers in the near to mid-term therefore, the core of the dispute is really and specifically economic in nature.

There is a great possibility that the area is rich in petrochemical resources. I am of the conviction that diplomatic tact and business acumen not military force will best serve the national interests of all parties concerned as well as preserve the stability of the greater region.

We must specifically and strictly confine the Spratley dispute into the realm of strategic, regional economics. We may ask ourselves, "what regional economic goals may it serve?"

And this strategy must be geared towards the eventual de-militarization of the region.

Owing to the times, the actual causus belli of the Spratly issue - i.e. the resources - is limited by time itself so that the further we remain indecisive on the matter, the less and less probable that any nation will succeed in harnessing and therefore, profiting from the true potential of the area.

Research is parallel to available information and in the age of information, sans the paradigm of War, research will only go exponentially fast. And all research is driven by necessity.

My thinking here is that if we sit on this issue long enough without actually going to war, it will probably go away (at least in terms of significance).

And it is most likely that this is the outcome, disadvantageous though it may be (in terms of economic gain for the entire region), that is most advantageous to all parties concerned, if the region remains indecisive.

If we remain divided on the issue - the best outcome is to prevent an open, armed conflict. If we are to find some common ground on the issue - the best outcome is an economic one. Therefore, the less politics involved the better it shall be.

---<--@

The Culture of Death

A famous saying goes, "home is where the heart is." This is true because a house is not always a home.

Now, the culture of death is like a house built on four foundations.

1. Heretical Materialism - the social doctrine that both the goal and the substance of life is purely material because the physical universe is really all there is.
2. Atheistic Secularism - the religion that imposes the belief that there is no God because Man is independent and self-sufficient by himself alone.
3. Moral Relativism - the lie that believes that justice is arbitrary because there are no moral absolutes as both good and evil come in convenient shades of gray.
4. Social Darwinism - the lie that believes that brute force is the singular social requirement, in the absence of virtue and truth, that measure the excellence of nations or individuals.

A culture of death is a culture of contempt for Sacred Life. This is the house that breeds the darkness that sustains the Beast of War.

It is a house that must rely on division being held up purely by its opposition to the truth. It is therefore, a house built invariably on persecution of whatever form and spirit.

It harbors a great disregard for our common humanity.

It must necessarily hold the universal spirit of Mankind in utter contempt, disrespecting the virtues embodied in its heroes - all our patriarchs, prophets, judges, kings, queens, apostles, bishops, martyrs, virgins, doctors, saints, holy personages, leaders and teachers - from all times and from all peoples, known and known to God alone, all those who are particularly beloved of every honorable religion, and therefore, to one Creator of all Sacred Life in all His revealed mystery.

It abhors wisdom in all its forms and seeks to scandalize the common people and undo the peace of the nations.

This is not our house.

Another thing about the culture of death, this house is parasitic. We only have to return to our original foundations and work to reverse its lies in ourselves to find our home (away from Home) once again.

---<--@

Sheltering Wings

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.

Now, the peace of the Responsible State are like sheltering wings - everybody is engaged from the center in a lateral hierarchy that embraces the nation.

This is a liberating embrace - one that both preserves the dignity of the individual citizen as well as unleashes their promise in the service of the national good - everybody ascends with but one ascending to the vision of Country being in itself true to the first principles of nationhood.

The opposite is the grip of a tyrant. And we all know this from common experience.

This is the shelter we are presently trying to obtain for our nation - not for winter's sake but for the spring. This is the cause of our allied generations begun in 2009 (prior to 2009 there was no choice and after 2012, this choice will be no more).

---<--@

Salutation #13

(Completing our EDSA)

To all our national communities, Peace -

A significant part of the peace of the times, my people,

as it concerns our nation, the Philippines,

involves bridging the gap between generations

and between administrations.

There are specific moments in our history

that we need to re-examine in light of these times.

And we shall do this not to scatter

either our belongings to each other

or our remembrances together

but to more fully gather them together

in and amidst ourselves.

For if we know ourselves as ourselves,

we can no longer be a nation

swayed hither tither by a dark night.

If we find confusion in our hearts about the past -

especially from 1986,

now is the time to re-examine these pivotal events.

And we shall do this with a view to establish the facts

upon more familiar grounds of fundamental truths

we have now re-discovered about ourselves as a nation

as well as about our nation in the context of its God-given right

to prosper and advance

under the peace of a Republic undertaking of Country.

Look upon these present times yourselves, my honorable compatriots,

and see the coincidences for what they are - signal graces.

My intention here is to guide you -

but you have to let yourself be led.

And not by me.

- selah -

All our Presidents have had something to give to our Country.

It is up to us to discern what good there is

that we have inherited from past Presidencies.

For if we remember only the problems,

we shall fail to build on the strength

of previous administrations.

It is only natural for every generation

to inherit a degree of evil

(to test their strength and commitment to the truth)

but sufficient for this evil - always -

is the good of the prevailing day.

We have come to remember

the faults of our Presidents

and may God allow it to serve our vigilance well.

But to the point that we tend to almost always forget their virtues,

we are consigning ourselves to a labor of unending beginnings.

For it is these virtues that connect our lineages together

and it is by the strength of these connections that we prosper.

If we are wise, my people,

and if the LORD, our God, blesses us,

even what darkness there is may lead us to the light.

Only those who are without remembrance remain in the dark.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Sheltering Wings

The Circular Relationship of the Four Causes