Monday, April 14, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
POWER OF THE ROSARY
In turn, you may post this again to your blog. Thank you.
Jim Castle was tired when he boarded his plane in Cincinnati ,
Ohio,that>night in 1981. The 45-year-old management consultant had
put on aweek-long
series of business meetings and seminars, and now he sank gratefully
into his seat ready for the flight home to Kansas City , Kansas . As
more passengers entered, the place hummed with conversation, mixed
with the sound of bags being stowed. Then, suddenly, people fell
silent. The quiet moved slowly up the aisle like an invisible wake
behind a boat. Jim craned his head to see what was happening, and
his mouth dropped open.
Walking up the aisle were two nuns clad in simple white habits
bordered in blue. He recognized the familiar face of one at once,
the wrinkled skin, the eyes warmly intent. This was a face he'd seen
in newscasts and on the cover of TIME. The two nuns halted, and Jim
realized that his seat companion was going to be Mother Teresa! As
the last few passengers settled in, Mother Teresa and her companion
pulled out rosaries. Each decade of
the beads was a different color, Jim noticed. The decades
represented various areas of the world, Mother Teresa told him
later, and added,"I pray for
the poor and dying on each continent." The airplane taxied to the
runway and the two women began to pray, their voices a low murmur.
Though Jim considered himself not a very religious Catholic who went
to church mostly out of habit, inexplicably he found himself joining
in.
By the time they murmured the final prayer, the
plane had reached cruising altitude. Mother Teresa turned toward
him. For the first time in his
life, Jim understood what people meant when they spoke of a person
possessing an "aura". As she gazed at him, a sense of peace
filled
him; he could no more see it than he could see the wind, but he felt
it, just as surely as he felt a warm summer breeze. "Young man,"
she
inquired, "do you say the
rosary often?" No, not really," he admitted. She took his hand,
while her eyes probed his. Then she smiled. "Well, you will now."
And she dropped
her rosary into his palm .An hour later Jim entered the Kansas City
airport, where he was met by his wife, Ruth. "What in the world?"
Ruth asked when she noticed the rosary in his hand.
They kissed and Jim described his encounter. Driving home, he said.
"I feel as if I met a true sister of God." Nine months later Jim
and
Ruth visited Connie, a friend of theirs for several years. Connie
confessed that she'd been told she had ovariancancer. "The doctor
says it's a tough case," said Connie, "but I'm going to
fight it. I
won't give up." Jim clasped her
hand.
Then, after reaching into his pocket, he gently twined Mother
Teresa's rosary around her fingers. He told her the story and said,
"Keep it with you Connie. It may help."Although Connie wasn't
Catholic, her hand closed willingly around the small plastic beads.
"Thank you," she whispered. "I hope I can return it.
"More than a
year passed before Jim saw Connie again. This time, faceglowing, she
hurried toward him and handed him the rosary "I carried it with me
all year," she said.
"I've had surgery and have been on chemotherapy, too. Last month,
the doctors did second-look surgery, and the tumor's gone.
Completely!" Her eyes met Jim's. "I knew it was time to give
the
rosary back." In the fall of 1987, Ruth's sister, Liz, fell into a
deep depression after her divorce. She asked Jim if she could borrow
the rosary, and when he sent it, she
hung it over her bedpost in a small velvet bag. "At night I held on
to it, just physically held on. I was so lonely and afraid," she
says, "yet when I gripped that rosary, I felt as if I held a loving
hand."Gradually, Liz
pulled her life together, and she mailed the rosary back."Someone
else may need it," she said.
Then one night in 1988, a stranger telephoned Ruth. She'd heard
about the rosary from a neighbor and asked if she could borrow it to
take to the hospital where her mother lay in a coma. The family
hoped the rosary might help their mother die peacefully. A few days
later, the woman returned the beads. "The nurses told me a coma
patient can still hear," she said, "so I explained to my mother
that I had Mother Teresa's rosary and that when I gave it to her she
could let go; it would be all rosary in her hand.
Right away, we saw her face relax. The lines smoothed out until she
looked so peaceful, so young." The woman's voice caught. "A
few minutes later she was gone." Fervently, she gripped Ruth's hands.
"Thank you." Is there special power in those humble beads? Or is
the power of the human spirit simply renewed in each person who borrows the
rosary?
Jim only knows that requests continue to come often unexpectedly. He
always responds though whenever he lends the rosary. He says, "When
you're through
needing it, send it back. Someone else may need it." Jim's own
life has changed, too, since his unexpected meeting on the airplane.
When he realized Mother Teresa carries everything she owns in a
small bag, he made an effort to simplify his own life. "I try to
remember what really counts - not money or titles or possessions, but the way we
love others," he says.
MAY GOD BLESS YOU ABUNDANTLY, MAY MOTHER MARY ASK HER SON JESUS TO
>SHOWER YOU WITH GRACES
Jim Castle was tired when he boarded his plane in Cincinnati ,
Ohio,that>night in 1981. The 45-year-old management consultant had
put on aweek-long
series of business meetings and seminars, and now he sank gratefully
into his seat ready for the flight home to Kansas City , Kansas . As
more passengers entered, the place hummed with conversation, mixed
with the sound of bags being stowed. Then, suddenly, people fell
silent. The quiet moved slowly up the aisle like an invisible wake
behind a boat. Jim craned his head to see what was happening, and
his mouth dropped open.
Walking up the aisle were two nuns clad in simple white habits
bordered in blue. He recognized the familiar face of one at once,
the wrinkled skin, the eyes warmly intent. This was a face he'd seen
in newscasts and on the cover of TIME. The two nuns halted, and Jim
realized that his seat companion was going to be Mother Teresa! As
the last few passengers settled in, Mother Teresa and her companion
pulled out rosaries. Each decade of
the beads was a different color, Jim noticed. The decades
represented various areas of the world, Mother Teresa told him
later, and added,"I pray for
the poor and dying on each continent." The airplane taxied to the
runway and the two women began to pray, their voices a low murmur.
Though Jim considered himself not a very religious Catholic who went
to church mostly out of habit, inexplicably he found himself joining
in.
By the time they murmured the final prayer, the
plane had reached cruising altitude. Mother Teresa turned toward
him. For the first time in his
life, Jim understood what people meant when they spoke of a person
possessing an "aura". As she gazed at him, a sense of peace
filled
him; he could no more see it than he could see the wind, but he felt
it, just as surely as he felt a warm summer breeze. "Young man,"
she
inquired, "do you say the
rosary often?" No, not really," he admitted. She took his hand,
while her eyes probed his. Then she smiled. "Well, you will now."
And she dropped
her rosary into his palm .An hour later Jim entered the Kansas City
airport, where he was met by his wife, Ruth. "What in the world?"
Ruth asked when she noticed the rosary in his hand.
They kissed and Jim described his encounter. Driving home, he said.
"I feel as if I met a true sister of God." Nine months later Jim
and
Ruth visited Connie, a friend of theirs for several years. Connie
confessed that she'd been told she had ovariancancer. "The doctor
says it's a tough case," said Connie, "but I'm going to
fight it. I
won't give up." Jim clasped her
hand.
Then, after reaching into his pocket, he gently twined Mother
Teresa's rosary around her fingers. He told her the story and said,
"Keep it with you Connie. It may help."Although Connie wasn't
Catholic, her hand closed willingly around the small plastic beads.
"Thank you," she whispered. "I hope I can return it.
"More than a
year passed before Jim saw Connie again. This time, faceglowing, she
hurried toward him and handed him the rosary "I carried it with me
all year," she said.
"I've had surgery and have been on chemotherapy, too. Last month,
the doctors did second-look surgery, and the tumor's gone.
Completely!" Her eyes met Jim's. "I knew it was time to give
the
rosary back." In the fall of 1987, Ruth's sister, Liz, fell into a
deep depression after her divorce. She asked Jim if she could borrow
the rosary, and when he sent it, she
hung it over her bedpost in a small velvet bag. "At night I held on
to it, just physically held on. I was so lonely and afraid," she
says, "yet when I gripped that rosary, I felt as if I held a loving
hand."Gradually, Liz
pulled her life together, and she mailed the rosary back."Someone
else may need it," she said.
Then one night in 1988, a stranger telephoned Ruth. She'd heard
about the rosary from a neighbor and asked if she could borrow it to
take to the hospital where her mother lay in a coma. The family
hoped the rosary might help their mother die peacefully. A few days
later, the woman returned the beads. "The nurses told me a coma
patient can still hear," she said, "so I explained to my mother
that I had Mother Teresa's rosary and that when I gave it to her she
could let go; it would be all rosary in her hand.
Right away, we saw her face relax. The lines smoothed out until she
looked so peaceful, so young." The woman's voice caught. "A
few minutes later she was gone." Fervently, she gripped Ruth's hands.
"Thank you." Is there special power in those humble beads? Or is
the power of the human spirit simply renewed in each person who borrows the
rosary?
Jim only knows that requests continue to come often unexpectedly. He
always responds though whenever he lends the rosary. He says, "When
you're through
needing it, send it back. Someone else may need it." Jim's own
life has changed, too, since his unexpected meeting on the airplane.
When he realized Mother Teresa carries everything she owns in a
small bag, he made an effort to simplify his own life. "I try to
remember what really counts - not money or titles or possessions, but the way we
love others," he says.
MAY GOD BLESS YOU ABUNDANTLY, MAY MOTHER MARY ASK HER SON JESUS TO
>SHOWER YOU WITH GRACES
Sunday, March 30, 2008
TWO-TIMER
what should you do if you discover your boyfriend/girlfriend is a “two-timer?” two simple steps:
1. Forgive Him/Her
2. Dump Him/Her
This may seem contradicting but read on
Cheating is define as when someone has clearly violated a commitment to his/her “special someone.”
The word “commitment” is very important. Until there is a commitment, there really cannot be cheating. If you two have gone out on just one date, you can’t get upset if you see your date with someone else the next week—the two of you may not yet be at a commitment stage. Dating/courtship is very serious in Filipino culture. Regardless, still until you have verbally expressed a commitment, do not make assumptions.
“Clearly violated” is also an important phrase. This speaks of a situation where a boyfriend/girlfriend is romantically involved with another and you know this to be true.
Overly jealous types may misinterpret certain behaviors as cheating—even with a faithful girlfriend/boyfriend. If you get upset every time your boyfriend/girlfriend says “hello” to the opposite sex, you probably need to relax.
Having explained all of this, let’s go back to a cheating scenario. Let’s pretend that you are 100% sure that your boyfriend/girlfriend has cheated. Just apply my two steps:
1. Forgive Him/Her
Forgiveness is essential to following Jesus (Matthew 18:21-22). When you forgive someone, it means that you are forgiving them for the hurt they have caused you. It means that you will not try to get revenge. It means that you wish blessings and not curses upon this person.
2. Dump Him/Her
Although you have forgiven this person, continuing the relationship is probably not a good idea. As I have mentioned before, trusting someone is different from forgiving and loving him/her. Trust must be earned and trust can also be lost. Jesus loved everyone, but He did not trust everyone.
If cheating has occurred, trust has been completely destroyed. Realistically speaking, the cheater has revealed his/her true character. Someone who cheats once is very likely to do it again. There may even be other boyfriend/girlfriends out there that you just haven't found out about.
Can a cheater change? Absolutely. Remember, however, that people must desire to change (see also: Three Stupid Words that Women Say). He/she may never decide to change. Even if a cheater decides to change, it will probably take a long time for him/her to fully correct this character defect and be trustworthy. Don’t waste your time waiting around on this process. Find someone else.
Source: Kuya Kevin
1. Forgive Him/Her
2. Dump Him/Her
This may seem contradicting but read on
Cheating is define as when someone has clearly violated a commitment to his/her “special someone.”
The word “commitment” is very important. Until there is a commitment, there really cannot be cheating. If you two have gone out on just one date, you can’t get upset if you see your date with someone else the next week—the two of you may not yet be at a commitment stage. Dating/courtship is very serious in Filipino culture. Regardless, still until you have verbally expressed a commitment, do not make assumptions.
“Clearly violated” is also an important phrase. This speaks of a situation where a boyfriend/girlfriend is romantically involved with another and you know this to be true.
Overly jealous types may misinterpret certain behaviors as cheating—even with a faithful girlfriend/boyfriend. If you get upset every time your boyfriend/girlfriend says “hello” to the opposite sex, you probably need to relax.
Having explained all of this, let’s go back to a cheating scenario. Let’s pretend that you are 100% sure that your boyfriend/girlfriend has cheated. Just apply my two steps:
1. Forgive Him/Her
Forgiveness is essential to following Jesus (Matthew 18:21-22). When you forgive someone, it means that you are forgiving them for the hurt they have caused you. It means that you will not try to get revenge. It means that you wish blessings and not curses upon this person.
2. Dump Him/Her
Although you have forgiven this person, continuing the relationship is probably not a good idea. As I have mentioned before, trusting someone is different from forgiving and loving him/her. Trust must be earned and trust can also be lost. Jesus loved everyone, but He did not trust everyone.
If cheating has occurred, trust has been completely destroyed. Realistically speaking, the cheater has revealed his/her true character. Someone who cheats once is very likely to do it again. There may even be other boyfriend/girlfriends out there that you just haven't found out about.
Can a cheater change? Absolutely. Remember, however, that people must desire to change (see also: Three Stupid Words that Women Say). He/she may never decide to change. Even if a cheater decides to change, it will probably take a long time for him/her to fully correct this character defect and be trustworthy. Don’t waste your time waiting around on this process. Find someone else.
Source: Kuya Kevin
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Don't be religious, Be Spiritual
Do you know people who are religious, but not spiritual? By that I mean you see them at church or other religious activities, but in their life you don't see the fruits of the Spirit.
So whats the difference between religious (pertaining to religion) and spiritual
A simple definition of religion is that religion is man's attempt to reach God. Being spiritual is opening ourselves to God's influence on our whole being. Let us draw some contrasts between these two definitions.
Religion focuses on what pleases man. Being spiritual focuses on what pleases God.
Religion involves emotions and externals while spirituality involves the whole being.
Religion follows man's standards while spirituality follows God's standards.
Don't be religious, Be Spiritual
So whats the difference between religious (pertaining to religion) and spiritual
A simple definition of religion is that religion is man's attempt to reach God. Being spiritual is opening ourselves to God's influence on our whole being. Let us draw some contrasts between these two definitions.
Religion focuses on what pleases man. Being spiritual focuses on what pleases God.
Religion involves emotions and externals while spirituality involves the whole being.
Religion follows man's standards while spirituality follows God's standards.
Don't be religious, Be Spiritual
Monday, March 3, 2008
I UNDERSTAND AND EMPHATIZE
A THOUGHT OUT FROM HIS EXPERIENCE, I UNDERSTAND AND EMPHATIZE SIR! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING TO US YOUR EXPERIENCE AND INSIGHTS.
Theres The Rub
Truth serum
By Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:08:00 03/03/2008
- They tried everything to stop the rally, or at least
stop it from becoming the flood of humanity it became.
They tried scaring people off the streets. A couple of
nights before, last Wednesday, checkpoints had already
sprung up all over Metro Manila. I know because I ran
across a couple of them at about midnight. The cops
manning them were fairly courteous, but that did not
make up for the not very pleasant sight of them in the
dead of night flashing flashlights inside cars, or
indeed in the faces of drivers, while toting heavy
firearms. The fellow who materialized before my window
told me I should automatically switch off my lights
and lower my windows whenever I approached a
checkpoint. I told him--after showing him my press card
of course; I am not that reckless--that as far as I
knew people did that only when entering military
camps. I asked him if we were already under martial
law and Metro Manila had been turned into a military
camp. He shrugged my comments off and waved me on.
They stopped people outside Metro Manila from joining
the march. The day before, the military and police
were already in full force halting marchers dead in
their tracks north and south of the capital. Eddie
Villanueva would tell me at the rally last Friday
their ranks would have swelled like God's wrath if
their out-of-town flock had managed to get through.
Last I looked at the Constitution, the Bill of Rights
said the citizens had a right to peaceably assemble.
Preventing people from doing so because they might not
be peaceable is prior censorship. I don't know why the
lawyers aren't busy right now badgering the Supreme
Court to issue a ruling stopping that atrocity.
They threw a security ring around Makati. Earlier that
morning Avelino Razon and ilk kept warning that the
PNP and AFP were prepared to deal with troublemakers
at the rally--to a public that knew the only
troublemakers to be found there were those who
proposed to deal with them. At the North station where
I took the MRT to Makati, I saw Razon's life-size
cutout that proclaimed him to be "Mamang Pulis," an
effort (quite possibly a future campaign line as well)
to turn the Armalite-toting goon-in-uniform into your
friendly neighborhood pavement-pounder. It just made
me wonder again what happened to him. In lieu of
"Mamang Pulis," all I could think of was the caption,
"Pulis, pulis, t--ing matulis." Or in this case,
"Pulis, pulis, iping matulis."
They tried everything, and still they got nothing.
For lo and behold, as that magical line in "Field of
Dreams" put it, "If you build it, they will come." And
come they did, from far and wide--or at least as far as
the faraway groups could squeeze through the police
mesh. But there was no mistaking the wide: bishops,
priests, nuns, Catholic lay people, civic groups,
lawyers, businessmen, teachers, students, housewives,
househusbands, ordinary folk, uzis. Even the sellers
of water, fishballs, dirty ice cream, toron,
cigarettes, menthol candies, and samalamig came, and
they weren't all just shouting their wares, some were
shouting their disgust at a world that had brought
them to this pass.
If you had been there last Friday, you would have felt
anger and joy, outrage and euphoria, busting through
your heart all over again. If you had been there last
Friday, you would have felt the exhilaration of
release and freedom all over again. The marchers
themselves would estimate their ranks at around 80,000
at their peak. The police would say 18,000. But that
was only after the police had prevented ABS-CBN from
flying a helicopter above Ayala to take an aerial view
of the crowd and let the public judge for itself. Last
I looked too, the Bill of Rights said the press had
the right to be free and the people to know. I don't
know why the media groups aren't now violently
protesting the atrocity.
The conservative--or bought--sector of the CBCP insists
that what we need today is not to act but to discern,
not to kick GMA out to the streets but to kick truth
into our hearts. A sentiment echoed by the Iglesia ni
Cristo and El Shaddai, all of whom manage to make a
strenuous case for converting to Buddhism or plain
atheism. You cannot discern the truth right before
your eyes, you do not need to pray, you need to see an
optometrist. Although as the local saying goes, "The
hardest person to wake up is the one pretending to be
asleep." The hardest person to enable to see is the
one pretending to be blind.
There and then last Friday, you saw and heard and
smelled and tasted and felt Truth such as you had
never done before. There before you was the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the truth. There in front,
beside, and behind you was the insistent, dogged and
inescapable bursting of the truth: The truth of a gang
of criminals desperately trying to hide the truth, and
truth of a risen people joyfully proclaiming the
truth. The truth of hell and heaven, the truth of
death and resurrection, the truth of Good Friday and
Easter Sunday.
There and then before you was the truth of a
non-president ordering her officials to not appear in
public to tell the truth, the truth of a police state
kidnapping a witness to prevent him from telling the
world the truth, the truth of goons in uniform
preventing people from gathering anywhere to bear
witness to the truth. There and then before you was
the truth of the leaders of true faiths come to
trumpet forth the truth, the truth of an outraged
people come to build a scaffold for those who would
not tell the truth, the truth of an awakened nation
come to build a scaffolding for the truth.
For the first time in a long time, I believed again in
the power of those words: The truth shall set you
free.
Theres The Rub
Truth serum
By Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:08:00 03/03/2008
- They tried everything to stop the rally, or at least
stop it from becoming the flood of humanity it became.
They tried scaring people off the streets. A couple of
nights before, last Wednesday, checkpoints had already
sprung up all over Metro Manila. I know because I ran
across a couple of them at about midnight. The cops
manning them were fairly courteous, but that did not
make up for the not very pleasant sight of them in the
dead of night flashing flashlights inside cars, or
indeed in the faces of drivers, while toting heavy
firearms. The fellow who materialized before my window
told me I should automatically switch off my lights
and lower my windows whenever I approached a
checkpoint. I told him--after showing him my press card
of course; I am not that reckless--that as far as I
knew people did that only when entering military
camps. I asked him if we were already under martial
law and Metro Manila had been turned into a military
camp. He shrugged my comments off and waved me on.
They stopped people outside Metro Manila from joining
the march. The day before, the military and police
were already in full force halting marchers dead in
their tracks north and south of the capital. Eddie
Villanueva would tell me at the rally last Friday
their ranks would have swelled like God's wrath if
their out-of-town flock had managed to get through.
Last I looked at the Constitution, the Bill of Rights
said the citizens had a right to peaceably assemble.
Preventing people from doing so because they might not
be peaceable is prior censorship. I don't know why the
lawyers aren't busy right now badgering the Supreme
Court to issue a ruling stopping that atrocity.
They threw a security ring around Makati. Earlier that
morning Avelino Razon and ilk kept warning that the
PNP and AFP were prepared to deal with troublemakers
at the rally--to a public that knew the only
troublemakers to be found there were those who
proposed to deal with them. At the North station where
I took the MRT to Makati, I saw Razon's life-size
cutout that proclaimed him to be "Mamang Pulis," an
effort (quite possibly a future campaign line as well)
to turn the Armalite-toting goon-in-uniform into your
friendly neighborhood pavement-pounder. It just made
me wonder again what happened to him. In lieu of
"Mamang Pulis," all I could think of was the caption,
"Pulis, pulis, t--ing matulis." Or in this case,
"Pulis, pulis, iping matulis."
They tried everything, and still they got nothing.
For lo and behold, as that magical line in "Field of
Dreams" put it, "If you build it, they will come." And
come they did, from far and wide--or at least as far as
the faraway groups could squeeze through the police
mesh. But there was no mistaking the wide: bishops,
priests, nuns, Catholic lay people, civic groups,
lawyers, businessmen, teachers, students, housewives,
househusbands, ordinary folk, uzis. Even the sellers
of water, fishballs, dirty ice cream, toron,
cigarettes, menthol candies, and samalamig came, and
they weren't all just shouting their wares, some were
shouting their disgust at a world that had brought
them to this pass.
If you had been there last Friday, you would have felt
anger and joy, outrage and euphoria, busting through
your heart all over again. If you had been there last
Friday, you would have felt the exhilaration of
release and freedom all over again. The marchers
themselves would estimate their ranks at around 80,000
at their peak. The police would say 18,000. But that
was only after the police had prevented ABS-CBN from
flying a helicopter above Ayala to take an aerial view
of the crowd and let the public judge for itself. Last
I looked too, the Bill of Rights said the press had
the right to be free and the people to know. I don't
know why the media groups aren't now violently
protesting the atrocity.
The conservative--or bought--sector of the CBCP insists
that what we need today is not to act but to discern,
not to kick GMA out to the streets but to kick truth
into our hearts. A sentiment echoed by the Iglesia ni
Cristo and El Shaddai, all of whom manage to make a
strenuous case for converting to Buddhism or plain
atheism. You cannot discern the truth right before
your eyes, you do not need to pray, you need to see an
optometrist. Although as the local saying goes, "The
hardest person to wake up is the one pretending to be
asleep." The hardest person to enable to see is the
one pretending to be blind.
There and then last Friday, you saw and heard and
smelled and tasted and felt Truth such as you had
never done before. There before you was the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the truth. There in front,
beside, and behind you was the insistent, dogged and
inescapable bursting of the truth: The truth of a gang
of criminals desperately trying to hide the truth, and
truth of a risen people joyfully proclaiming the
truth. The truth of hell and heaven, the truth of
death and resurrection, the truth of Good Friday and
Easter Sunday.
There and then before you was the truth of a
non-president ordering her officials to not appear in
public to tell the truth, the truth of a police state
kidnapping a witness to prevent him from telling the
world the truth, the truth of goons in uniform
preventing people from gathering anywhere to bear
witness to the truth. There and then before you was
the truth of the leaders of true faiths come to
trumpet forth the truth, the truth of an outraged
people come to build a scaffold for those who would
not tell the truth, the truth of an awakened nation
come to build a scaffolding for the truth.
For the first time in a long time, I believed again in
the power of those words: The truth shall set you
free.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
TRUTH ABOUT THIS STATEMENT
On the 22nd anniversary of People Power One and on the second anniversary of their incarceration for allegedly planning to withdraw support from Gloria Arroyo, the 28 officers led by Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, issued the following statement:
We are soldiers. We are also citizens. We, together with our families, are so much a part of the community more than our beloved organization. We are not faceless automatons incapable of thinking, feeling and discernment. We feel the pain of our neighbors as much as their anger. We see their oppression and sense their hopelessness. Of course, their happiness is ours too. But they are not!
We, too, can distinguish good from evil, a truth from a lie, an honest one from a cheat and a thief. But it would be our most grievous sin if we tolerate and do nothing about it.
In the 2004 elections, a misguided and partisan few from among our ranks went out of our barracks not with a noble intent….but to commit a crime against the people. The rest of us stayed behind and watched as it happened. These criminals in uniform strayed away from barracks not to protect the people, but rather to subvert the will of the people. They are still out of barracks trying to cover up for the crimes they committed while suppressing the truth. Sadly, more are being lured out of barracks to partake of the loot.
EDSA 1 and today are no more different. In fact, today is worse than the conditions that prevailed before. There are more compelling reasons for the soldiers to go outside of its barracks. The mess that was created in 2004 either by direct participation and/or by silent complicity needs to be cleaned. It would be the height of insensitivity and callousness to let alone the people do the cleaning when we, ourselves, were so much a part of it. Going out of barracks to join the people in communal action to rid the ills that befell our nation is a Constitutional duty. In fact, it is demanded of us, as soldiers, by the very people whom we failed. Let us not, this time, fail them. Let our voices be heard from the barracks. Let our sense of community be felt from the barracks. And let our actions be seen in and out of the barracks.
After everything has been said and done…. We appeal to the Filipino people to bring us back to barracks and keep us there. Keep us forever in barracks by electing responsible public officials and holding them accountable, by being ever vigilant and by strengthening your sense of community. We, your soldiers, will then march back to barracks to settle to the task of keeping your worthy trust and respect. Let that be our covenant.
Keep the spirit burning and MABUHAY KAYONG LAHAT!
Opinion
In matters of keeping and obeying rules, perhaps some Philippine marines, air force and military members are confused right now if they are still protecting the nation or only the present administration. Perhaps some of them fulfill their duties against their will. And maybe some redefine their job responsibilities from being apolitical to political. Pacification of their actions is the only defense mechanism they have to counter attack the anxieties they are feeling right now. Who else would protect the first family is it not these people?. Their withdrawal is very crucial to the downfall of the present administration. When they (pnp, marines, air force) had their unity walk yesterday which they claimed as spontaneous of which i doubt was not I could see a phony reflection which speaks how weak these people are. That was a pretense that they are united, that they are strong enough to protect the government. But I dare say most of them who join that walk were just pressured to take side of the administration no matter what, no matter how ugly and scandalous the government is. And the question is how long will they take all of these?
We are soldiers. We are also citizens. We, together with our families, are so much a part of the community more than our beloved organization. We are not faceless automatons incapable of thinking, feeling and discernment. We feel the pain of our neighbors as much as their anger. We see their oppression and sense their hopelessness. Of course, their happiness is ours too. But they are not!
We, too, can distinguish good from evil, a truth from a lie, an honest one from a cheat and a thief. But it would be our most grievous sin if we tolerate and do nothing about it.
In the 2004 elections, a misguided and partisan few from among our ranks went out of our barracks not with a noble intent….but to commit a crime against the people. The rest of us stayed behind and watched as it happened. These criminals in uniform strayed away from barracks not to protect the people, but rather to subvert the will of the people. They are still out of barracks trying to cover up for the crimes they committed while suppressing the truth. Sadly, more are being lured out of barracks to partake of the loot.
EDSA 1 and today are no more different. In fact, today is worse than the conditions that prevailed before. There are more compelling reasons for the soldiers to go outside of its barracks. The mess that was created in 2004 either by direct participation and/or by silent complicity needs to be cleaned. It would be the height of insensitivity and callousness to let alone the people do the cleaning when we, ourselves, were so much a part of it. Going out of barracks to join the people in communal action to rid the ills that befell our nation is a Constitutional duty. In fact, it is demanded of us, as soldiers, by the very people whom we failed. Let us not, this time, fail them. Let our voices be heard from the barracks. Let our sense of community be felt from the barracks. And let our actions be seen in and out of the barracks.
After everything has been said and done…. We appeal to the Filipino people to bring us back to barracks and keep us there. Keep us forever in barracks by electing responsible public officials and holding them accountable, by being ever vigilant and by strengthening your sense of community. We, your soldiers, will then march back to barracks to settle to the task of keeping your worthy trust and respect. Let that be our covenant.
Keep the spirit burning and MABUHAY KAYONG LAHAT!
Opinion
In matters of keeping and obeying rules, perhaps some Philippine marines, air force and military members are confused right now if they are still protecting the nation or only the present administration. Perhaps some of them fulfill their duties against their will. And maybe some redefine their job responsibilities from being apolitical to political. Pacification of their actions is the only defense mechanism they have to counter attack the anxieties they are feeling right now. Who else would protect the first family is it not these people?. Their withdrawal is very crucial to the downfall of the present administration. When they (pnp, marines, air force) had their unity walk yesterday which they claimed as spontaneous of which i doubt was not I could see a phony reflection which speaks how weak these people are. That was a pretense that they are united, that they are strong enough to protect the government. But I dare say most of them who join that walk were just pressured to take side of the administration no matter what, no matter how ugly and scandalous the government is. And the question is how long will they take all of these?
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