20110729

Salutation #44

(Interdependent Human Community)

To my one Filipino nation -

all my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

peace - mabuhay.

Our one Republic is part of a great family of nations,

each engaged in the labor of building up the earth

as its own undertaking of Country,

of this we can be sure, my honorable compatriots,

especially in this new age of interdependent human community -

no Country matures on its own,

no nation learns the truth about itself by itself alone,

above all, our failing world can not long endure the darkness ahead

without the LORD, the God of all nations.

For the Peace of the LORD is our pledge of unity

and this unity is the guarantee of our victory

- as nations dreaming together this time -

against the darkness in our midst

wrought by the War in heaven

and division in the human heart.

- selah -

Therefore,

In this house, in this Country,

my fellow Filipinos -

we shall serve the cause of our victory.

Glory to God in the highest!

Adoration to Jesus Christ the Lord.

Peace to our nation and to all our kindred nations.

Good will to all men and women of peace.

---<--@

A Picture of War in the Heart

During the Holocaust, in Auschwitz, there is an old picture of the selection process where people who were to live (at least for the time being) and people who were to die at the gas chambers were sorted immediately upon their arrival by the camp authorities.

This is for me by far, the best pictorial representation of War in the heart.

It is a spirit which is still very alive in our world today. It is the bane of all nations. It will surely prevent us from entering into this new age in peace.

But we are not without help for we have God and we have each other - as human beings and as human nations, citizens and keepers, each to the other.

---<--@

An Example of Human Solidarity -

It was reported in Egypt, during the recent upheavals that delivered that great nation to a return to promise, that when the Muslims prayed, the Christians protected them, and when the Christian prayed, the Muslims protected them.

I salute you, honorable Egyptians, for this necessary example of the shape of things to come for my Country as well. May both our nations be blessed by God with peace and prosperity as we write a brave, new chapter of our history together as a noble undertaking of Country upon the earth, thank you - mabuhay!

My fellow Filipino compatriots -

Let us bear into mind and heart the example of brave Egypt and, despite what darkness there is in our midst, consider once again our own national minimum:

A Filipino is a Filipino is a Filipino.

All honorable religion comes from the reality of God, my noble Republic of the Philippines, its fruits make us human.

Therefore, prayer itself is a common human need.

It is a need (like hunger, thirst, etc.) protected by the Eternal Law of God and by the law written in our heart of hearts.

This is most especially true within the Abrahamic Peace we share as Christians, Jews, and Muslims together and is the engine of our national progress as human beings and as citizens to each other, as Filipinos.

---<--@

Mabuhay po tayong lahat! Peace. Salaam. Shalom. God bless all His nations of the one family of the nations of Mankind.

The National Minimum

Promise of Old

Healing Work

20110709

There is an old Chinese saying - "when seeking prosperity, first build a road." I personally subscribe to the timelessness of this wisdom.

Essentially therefore, poverty alleviation in this Country of ours must begin with connection...

Salutation #33

(The Common People)

Why do you find it so difficult to believe?

Filipino ingenuity lives everywhere in our people.

There is passion in our hearts - we are a people with a lot of love to give.

Because of this fire, there is bravery too.

Sometimes, this bravery can be misplaced

and so we must open a way for courage to profess itself

- within the Republic -

in a manner that is not divisive.

Valor must find its way back to its immortal beloved

in the reality of the nation we all must cherish and protect.

There is a mighty patience in our people.

Perseverance is truly present in the soul of the nation -

if it were not so, my honorable compatriots,

we would have descended long ago

into the pits of anarchy and - consumed by endless battle -

we would have ceased to be in our heart of hearts.

Everywhere in our people

- there are willing hearts and humble hands -

productivity is rampant even in the poorest of the poor!

Is this not a reason to be glad?

For productivity when it is duly recognized

leads to more productivity.

Why be so bitter and unbelieving then?

You are not a citizen were it not for citizens like yourself.

Wise up.

We have what it takes to succeed as a nation.

We only have to return once again to an understanding

of ourselves as ourselves.

---<--@

Ignorance breeds fear for lack of understanding.

What's strange about it all is that people seem to fear the understanding more than the ignorance itself.

---<--@

"Bless our one Filipino nation,
O LORD and Giver of all good things,
each and every Filipino heart,
that yet believes with conviction
in this endeavor of Country
that we may by our own willingness
be transformed by Thy abundant mercy."

- From Prayer to God as First Defender of the Republic

(See Sidebar)

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The National Minimum

20110325

An Angel Weeping

I SAW
in my heart of hearts
an angel weeping,
saddened but not bowed,
shedding holy tears,
shed for Love.

"O hellfire!",
said the presence
within the comforting silence
of our hearts' mingling,
"The greatest abomination
is not thy existence!"

"I weep not
for thy blasphemy
and the abominations
that you relentlessly hurl
in the face of my Creator."

"I weep
with tears
that is shed
like the rain
filling the rivers
that flow in time
from the golden deep
of the Eternity of my LORD."

"I weep
because I am wounded
but not by thy evil
O reprobate sink
of wasted creation."

"I weep
not because of thee
O hellfire
for I am hurt not
by the bankrupt nature
of the Devil and his demons
and the reprobate men
who condemn themselves
by their unwavering
and immovable
allegiance
to the everlasting death
that was decreed
from Eternity."

"I weep
because of Love
knowing the unbearable hurt
of the terrible affliction
that thy rebellion
have inevitably caused
the most beneficent nature
of my most loving and most merciful
one LORD and only Creator."

"O hellfire,
thy existence
is a curse,
right by Justice,
but a transgression
against the infinite
dignity of Love!"

"I weep
because I am hurt
but not by thee,
O hellfire,
I am sorrowful
not for thy eternal woe
and the crushing depths
of the gravity of thy fiery defeat;
not for thy reprobate evil
do I shed these tears."

"I weep
because I am hurt
and I am hurt
because my God is hurt,
my LORD and my only Creator."

"I weep
with all the love
that longs for Itself
and I shall weep
profusely
in great torrents
like the rain
to fill the rivers
that flow in time
into you, O nations,
into you, O my beloved,
into those new seasons of life
that advance the cause
of suffering Mankind
and serve my one LORD
being like unto my God,
extending the glorious will
of my divine Sovereign
until my only Creator,
most forgiving
and with kindness
unsurpassed
wipes away the tears
at the springtime beginning
of all things new."

"And thou
O hellfire
and all thy
countless
abominations
that fight against
the rivers that flow
becomes to me
a forsaken season
shed like these tears
and overwhelmed like the darkness,
at the final winter of my memory,
and the daybreak of the everlasting peace."

"Alleluia, glory to our Creator,
holy, holy, holy is our one Sovereign,
alleluia to the LORD!
Beloved to God are those that weep
and labor in their hope,

dwelling always in good will
and believing with conviction of faith
that all will be well,

all will be well, peace,
amen, alleluia."
---<--@

OFW Drug Involvement

It was recently reported by our news agencies that the three condemned Filipino drug mules in the People's Republic of China will be executed. I am saddened by the fact that their courts have decided to uphold the death sentences for the three.

My fellow Filipino compatriots, I am no proponent of capital punishment. What I am convinced of will serve to further strengthen the cause of Justice in our own lands is a more efficient justice system; one that is swift, vigilant, and above all human (and therefore, humane).

I personally disagree with the punishment meted out by the court in China that convicted the three. I simply believe it does not fit the crime. The judgment however, is sound. For the three did what they did (in a strictly objective sense).

If it were otherwise, I do not think we would find ourselves hoping for a commutation of the prior death sentence to the lesser, in my own view, more fitting punishment of life in prison. I myself had hoped for a commutation of the punishment, and were the judgment not sound enough for me, I would not have felt realistic in my hope to make the plea that I had previously aired on this blog on 20110217.

The date for the executions was set at March 30. The Chinese Embassy in Manila had released a statement that the verdict is final. In a last ditch effort, our government is still hoping to strike a reasonable deal with China and save their lives.

Indeed, we still have reason to hope. But I should like to prepare us now for the worse. Let us first be appreciative at least for the reprieve that our fellow Filipinos had received. That it was granted is a fact, the conditions it implied were also evident - the courts in China decided that the sentence be suspended.

In the event that the sentences are carried out, if ever - for even now I still find myself hoping for a commutation of the death sentence to life in prison - I shall have to agree to disagree with China on those points of divergence and respect the discipline and sovereignty of their judicial processes.

Now please, we shall waste no time to remember as a nation what is now potentially being lost to us in the lives of Ramon Credo, Sally Ordinario Villanueva, and Elizabeth Batain (and others like them) -

Compact Against Demon Drugs

Many of our people may be equating this tragedy to politics, or the Spratley issue, or are outright indifferent or even hostile to the plight of Ramon, Sally, and Elizabeth. These tendencies I often find baffling.

There are opinions out there from among our own people about the fate of those three that vex me to no end. The truth of the matter is that there are hundreds if not thousands of our own people who are presently faced with the same troubles.

Shall we also leave them to their fates and say, "dapat lang yan sa kanila"?

It is vital that we keep our eyes and our hearts fixed on the ball, as it were - to the core nature of the evil that betrayed our countrymen and the social ills arising from it that sold them all to this evil fate.

If we do not - if we do not address these particular evils, how are we to remember those people in our memory? Shall we just live to forget what the pain of these things teach?

How is our nation to account for their lives to the one Sovereign of all nations?

Out of love for the memory of those who are suffering, we are as a Country always compelled to give ear to the grievances that has afflicted, still afflicts and will afflict our generations - which in this particular regard, my honorable compatriots, is the evil of the manufacture and trafficking in narcotics and other dangerous and illegal chemical substances.

True citizenship does not make deals with the evil in all evil things.

I will not take you on a tangent about this - if we are angry about any of this, let us be angry about the root cause of this pain in our hearts; a pain brought about by the evil that brought to so many Filipinos like Sally, Ramon, and Elizabeth, a sad and completely unexpected fate - the evil of the illegal manufacture and trafficking in narcotics and other dangerous and illegal chemical substances.

Some of us are like children in the way that we hold on to our hope. As a people, we still believe in happy endings. And rightly so, because of such a substance is our national destiny.

We do not cling to our self-identity because it is not a wonderful thing. It is a wonderful thing to be and to belong together as a nation.

We say we are Filipino and deep in our hearts perhaps very deep, and therefore, even more profoundly felt once revealed, we have a certain sense of expectation, even joy. Somehow we understand that it is a good thing to be Filipino. Else we would not even bother looking to find who we really are as a people.

If what nationhood is all about is just pain and evil - an empty and defeated promise - our own souls would not be able to comprehend this innate, completely human desire to belong. A nation is a people under God - lawful, ordered, beneficent, peaceful, and good - even very good. Else it is not a nation but a mob.

My fellow Filipino compatriots, how we feel about our national identity is a thing felt as something good because first and foremost, it is a gift.

So we have every right to hope as children hope - because we have this gift. Truly, many of us have sacrificed much in the name of this gift - for the sake of all our generations.

Shall we be bereft of such a heart these days?

For these are the days we need shepherds for the flock, laborers for the field and servants for the LORD. For it is God Who protects these hopes. He is the LORD, my people, our God.

Sally, Ramon, and Elizabeth had such a hope - a hope betrayed by evil allurements yet a hope in common with ours all the same. For their being in need, they were victimized and exploited by the lie of those whose hearts are far away from theirs. Shall we also stand aloof from them now in their greatest hour of need?

A Filipino is a Filipino is a Filipino - that's the bottom line.

How are the shepherds to account for these missing sheep? How are the laborers to explain this lost harvest? How are the servants to explain these stolen lives?

You, my honorable compatriots, are kindled in your hearts to anger because each of us is indeed responsible for each of us. We are each to another, a keeper and friend. Now with this feelings at heart, I bid us once again to re-examine the issue at hand:

How are we to account for this lost promise? By binding the evil that lie at its very root. We shall make a Compact Against Demon Drugs.

Indeed, I have put much thought into this problem of demon drugs. I myself am a recovering addict. I am personally familiar with the pain and the darkness of drug addiction. Over several posts of this same label, Compact Against Demon Drugs, we shall begin to examine closely the spiritual root of drug addiction, its evil purpose and anti-human design.

I will present to you what I have learned, relate it to the greater context of the nation, and place it squarely in the service of the national good.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The National Minimum