Sen Cayetano: How democratically AUTOCRATIC could you utterly get?

OF "SMART" WOUND ANALYZER TO "TWERP" DEMOCRACY GAUGE

Senator Cayetano needs badly this new discovery: "smart bandage" that's actually a wound analyzer.

Why? Well, Sen Cayetano is badly wounded. He is venting his ire on Iqbal, the BBL and the entire Bangsamoro based on his diatribe style of inquiry.

His panic attack is censorious; nothing Democratic in it.
On the contrary, we are doubting HIS own "Democratic preparedness" by way of his maniacal inquiry. He was utterly AUTOCRATIC! Is this the kind of Senator who staunchly advocates "democracy"?

Before he completely lose his IQ and be branded a certified twerp on "democracy preparedness"?

He ought to enrol asap in a "personal disaster preparedness crash course " with anger management and stress debriefing freebies to boot!

Oh, Senator! Buy a dork "democracy analyzer" too, please!

TERRORISM of Pharaoh, King Herod and Hoarders of Nuke Weapons WMD

Up to today, mankind has not invented yet
an "extremism gauge."
Indeed, extremism cannot be quantified but can only be described in its various manifestations.

Extremism has two sides to it..
It can either be good or bad.
There is nothing bad with extremism
when it comes to ibadah like sadaqah
or piety generally speaking.
One can even be badly fanatical about a Hollywood
actor or a pop singer.

However, what is alarming with extremism is when it becomes violently lethal. Violent extremism is deadly when it kills, attacks or destroys people or a single group-without any just cause.

Extremism goes a long way in history. It comes in many forms: political, religious, economic, social, physical etc

Let us trace extremism as far as Egypt when Pharaoh ordered the summary killing of male babies so that our Prophet Moses AS won't exist. It was extremism. That was terrorism. Likewise, when King Herod ordered the killing of male babies so that our Prophet Jesus AS won't exist. That was terrorism. That was extremism.
Tragically, nowadays people start to draw the line into two non-terrorists and Muslim terrorists. This is alarming.

Terms are created so things will become real even if they don't exist. We must redefine terms and how these operate to sow terror and paranoid attacks in the hearts and minds of people across the globe. There is no such things as Islamists or jihadists. But there is Muslim, Islam, jihad and mujahideen. There is fear of ASG, terrorists and ISIS but why is there no ASGophobia? No terroristophobia? No ISISophobia? Fears about terrorism has turned into Islamophobia.
Why do they stereotype and label terrorists as exclusively Muslims and attribute it to Islam? Of all the billion population of Muslims, you can count by the hand the terrorists who are Muslims.

The irony of it all is that the nations who wage counterterrorism campaign and the war against terror are those who own arsenal of nuclear weapons of mass destruction.
This is utterly dangerous!

Now ask yourself, who are the real terrorists? Who are the real enemies?
The real enemies are distrust, bigotry and intolerance that besieged our minds and hearts due to extreme paranoia and ignorance. -my reply to the question:"How do you gauge extremism?"

 Joan B Kroc Institute of Justice and Peace conference on DEFYING EXTREMISM: Gendered Approaches to Religious Violence

ISIS: Independent SULU Islamic State

ISIS: Independent SULU Islamic State

The ISIS Vaccine of Sulu

non-terrorist, non-extremist sovereign
using Abode of Peace paradigm
Brunei Darussalam model

 

Braveheart in Bright Jersey

Braveheart in Bright Jersey

Photo Credit: Gigi | @Sundilyn Bedro | 17 Feb 2015 | Don Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex

 

That countenance
asks not one silent
question
perplexed
his brows knitting
Yet he stands erect
looking straight
at the unseen camera
trained on him
amidst the background
of basin, pail and dipper
immobile ball
green, faded red unpaired
slippers
crushed plastic cup litter
armed with ethnic necklace
bright colored jersey shorts
and boots
he longs for play
and firemen to salvage
his home now lost
we hope not forever
we hope not forever | Warina Sushil A. Jukuy- PAHRA WesMIN | Hijaab-Niqaab Advocacy Network-HAN | Resilience of Uprooted IDPs in Zamboanga City to Thrive in Alien Homes ie Sports Complex Evacuation Center | IDPs Under Siege and Hostaged by POLITICAL NEGLIGENCE for 17 months now |

Photo Credit: Gigi | @Sundilyn Bedro | 17 Feb 2015 | Don Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex

ZAMBO IDPs: Under Siege and Hostaged by Political Negligence for 17 months now

Photo Credit: Gigi | @Sundilyn Bedro | 17 Feb 2015 | Don Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex

They hold each other's hands
Smiling
holding on to the solid railing
for support
a telltale weakness
yet holding the broom
showing juvenile grit
to sweep the "mess"
"juvenile-adults" made.
And the brackish water looms
down under
mirroring not the kids' smiles. | Warina Sushil A. Jukuy- PAHRA WesMIN | Hijaab-Niqaab Advocacy Network-HAN | Resilience of Uprooted IDPs in Zamboanga City to Thrive in Alien Homes ie Sports Complex Evacuation Center | Under Siege and Hostaged by Political Negligence for 17 months now

Photo Credit: Gigi | @Sundilyn Bedro | 17 Feb 2015 | Don Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex

Hearts Come and Go in Different Shapes and Forms

Hearts Come and Go in Different Shapes and Forms

Look at the Man's Pants...HEARTS! Photo Credits: Gigi | Sundilyn Bedro | 17 Feb 2015 | Don Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex

 We almost lost our hearts heart emoticon yet found it again
when we were assailed by the indomitable spirit
of their smiles
Zamboanga IDPs Home Now!

Emblazoned on TSHIRT: I AM A HUMAN [BEING] WITH RIGHTS! MY LIFE, MY DIGNITY!

UPHOLD RIGHT TO LIVE

| Warina Sushil A. Jukuy- PAHRA WesMIN | Hijaab-Niqaab Advocacy Network-HAN | Resilience of Uprooted IDPs in Zamboanga City to Thrive in Alien Homes ie Sports Complex Evacuation Center | IDPs Under Siege and Hostaged by POLITICAL NEGLIGENCE for 17 months now |

Photo Credits: Gigi | Sundilyn Bedro | 17 Feb 2015 | Don Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex

War Is Bloody Real: Justice is Blind and Truth is a Silent Witness

War Is Bloody Real: Justice is Blind and Truth is a Silent Witness

Where in the world would you see combatants being sent by superiors to a mission where only triumph-victory-death is the constant, and when combatants come back lifeless...superiors would cry out:

"Foul!"

"Unfair!"

"What did you do to my men?"

"This is an overkill!"

"I should have gone with them...and died with them, too!"?

High-powered or not, guns and live ammo are for engagement in the battlefield of law enforcement agencies and belligerents. Not engagement to be married.

One is armed in full protective and destructive battle gear to fire out in offense or to fire out in defense. This is true for both sides of the combatants be they state or non-state groups.

Bulletproof vests are supposed to serve its purpose. To thwart from being fatally wounded when hit.

Rule of law must be upheld at all times. Law goes after criminal and lawless elements; be they low value or high value targets. Sadly, no POP for any cop will register in memory when you are in an unfriendly alien territory and your longevity is suddenly placed at high maximum risk; the instinct for authorities is just self-preservation.

The superiors and their men KNEW the odds.

BUT as it is when the insidious odds did happen;

They cannot face it.

They cannot accept that they have sent their own men to their own death.



Yes, the superiors did it when it ignored AHJAG- a crucial security coordinating mechanism that the covert mission couldn't do without; a mechanism whereby PNP-AFP and the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) can effectively coordinate, not sacrifice, the security imperatives that need to be met in order to interdict criminal groups, while upholding  the primacy of the peace process.

    The AHJAG is the cooperative mechanism between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)  that responds to criminality and terrorism in areas with MILF presence... AHJAG's Revised Guidelines aim to advance coordination efforts  among the government agencies involved in law enforcement, namely the PNP, the AFP and the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) which is supervised by the government negotiating panel.

In order to enhance its security mechanisms and address lawless elements in conflict-affected areas of Mindanao, the Government of the Philippines (GPH) issued the Revised Joint AFP-PNP Operational Guidelines for the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group or AHJAG.

What we see on TV and social media network tells us that there is definitely no uniformed reaction from the public be they educated or deprived of education; literate or illiterate; be they incline to analyzing events or devoid of any semblance of analytical capacities.


But what is clear in the aftermath of the botched up Oplan Wolverine in Mamasapano- from the President of the Philippines down to the last of its Filipino citizen: everyone is besieged with haunting questions. Until now. Until when? Will we ever know: Just exactly what happened?

Taunting our wild imagination to go berserk against the injustice that conforms to our personal definition of justice replaced our idleness and so we resort to answering our questions with rhetoric bordering on satire, frivolity or utter severity which make it all far worse botched up than the botched up Oplan Wolverine!


War is bloody real. It is not unlike any of the best war films that reaped awards from film festivals and that questioned your own humanity as you questioned the humanity of those involved in the film; actual war such as we have personally witnessed cannot be labeled as a good cry. Simply because our own wars are raw and real.

We all cried in conformity to the deep emotions stirred within us.

Some of us cried and almost cried on television, onstage, in peace rallies, online with or without memes.

Some of us wept either loudly or silently together while some wept alone.


Justice is blind.

Justice won't judge you according to your face, color, gender, status, profession, race, creed, faith, not even will Justice judge even if you lack any of those mentioned.



Justice is blind. It doesn't see us and we don't see it either.

No wonder we cry out for it to manifest.

Justice! All out Justice!

Or did we mean vengeance, "all out vengeance!"?

Where is Justice?

Or are we just frustrated that there is no presidential command of all out war?

Consequently, we pour all of our putrefied vindictiveness on BBL because we feel it sinisterly looms like a giant menace far larger than our own baleful paranoia enhanced by our own ignorance for what BBL actually is.Thus, can you blame me if I join the commotion of emotional rhetoric:



    I echo the consternation of those who feel that BBL will be immolated as an appeasing sacrifice for the death of SAF44, yes, two of them are my Muslim kindred.

Will Congress slaughter BBL or Bangsamoro Basic Law?
Just like Congress killed MOA-AD then?
Is Congress now the abattoir of Right to Self-Determination and Peace?
Are we indigenous Bangsamoro by the millions part of the national fabric?
Is there us and them in the Philippines? 

     "History teaches us that the failure to uphold these rights and freedoms can actually fuel violent extremism," Obama said at the U.N. "When it comes to America and Islam, there is no us and them, there is only us -- because millions of Muslim Americans are part of the fabric of our country. So we reject any suggestion of a clash of civilizations."

 United States is weaning off itself from bigoted Islamophobia-xenophobia mindset despite its decisive counterterrorism efforts globally but is gravitating towards religious tolerance and fulfillment of human dignity and RSD as an option for peace. Can the same be said of the Filipino nation?

When we start to draw lines; we only widen the existing gap. When we stereotype and label; we nurture bigotry.  We cry out for justice out of frustration, out of anger, out of pain. So immense that we cry for justice bathed in blood.

We start to label, stereotype each other forgetting our own frailties.

Have we realized that this tragedy stripped our hearts of its contents just like what happened to the Pandora box?



We see the other as enemy, from the comfort zone of our point of view.

We evaluate war just like we do in movies: good guys versus bad guys.

We see what we want to see; and we ignore what we wish to ignore.

It is so easy for us to point out who to blame.

Ironically, we chose in order to survive NOT to point out the elephant in the room.

We either leave the room or continue to thrive in it by convincing ourselves that it does not exist. Even if it does.

Now, you probably understand why Justice did not use a horse's blind and why Justice chose to blindfold itself.



Truth is a silent witness; while falsehood is noisy. So noisy that it overpowers the lone voice of truth.

Oftentimes, truth remains silent to maintain peace.

It weighs the harm and the benefit for humanity before it ultimately speaks.

Truth can be painful for those who choose to live with their own versions of truth.

I wonder why is it so easy for most of us to confound truth with falsehood?

And even when it becomes imperative for us, can we summon our remaining scruples not to knowingly conceal the truth?



Indeed, only the compassionate, the just, and the true can honor a pact and can love peace without resorting to senseless bloodshed and violence.



For those of us who thirst and hunger for peace, and for those of us who thirst and hunger for war, and for those of us who thirst and hunger for food and water… for love, fame, power, and money…only you and your Creator know what you really thirst and hunger for in the recesses of your minds, hearts and souls- that is- if we have not lost our minds, hearts and souls…yet. Same goes to all parties who have struggled at all cost to sign and ink a peace agreement…I’d prefer ink and not write it as: “to sign and forge a peace agreement.”

    Trust is not trust which alters when its alteration finds; or bends with the remover to remove. O, no TRUST just like love is an everlasting mark that looks on tempest and is never shaken…if this be error and upon us proved, we never writ nor no peace panels ever trusted nor loved!

   

    War Is Bloody Real: Justice is Blind:Truth is a Silent Witness:and they did say War just like Cupid is stupid.



Oh, well! These luminaries who justify the rejection of BBL by romanticizing waywardly the GPH-MILF peace panel relationship that is now rocked by loyalty-trust-challenged from some if not ALL in their midst and from without inspired me to misquote Shakespeare’s Sonnet CXVI.

    Ignorance is a misfortune;

    BUT ignorance of statesmen and legislators

    about historical Injustice committed against Moros

     is a tragic misfortune!

    To Almighty ALLAH The Peace, The Most Just, The Truth, The All-Knowing and The Omniscient, we supplicate patiently for guidance as we exhort each other towards truth, peace and justice, as we exhort each other not to be among those who cause mischief as well as corruption on Earth; for whosoever ALLAH misguides no one will guide him and whosoever ALLAH guides no one can lead him astray. And indeed only You O ALLAH can avert the imminent death of Peace and Social Justice by its slayers in the Hallowed Halls of Congress...Ameen Ya Rabb.

7 Feb 1974: This is MY Story; What's Yours?

ISN'T IT ABOUT TIME? To chronicle undocumented war for PEACE?

Today is Saturday February 7, 2015.
It is the 4th month of Hijrah Calendar: 17th day of Rabi’II , Year 1436.
Forty one years ago, it was still February 7 but not Saturday; it was on a Monday, year 1974.
It was the 12th month of Hijrah Calendar: 13th day of Rabi’II , Year 1393.

Just what did happen last February 7, 1974 in the town of Jolo, province of Sulu?

This is my story...what is yours?

Feb 7, 1974: Montage From A Kid's Memory Bank

by Warina Sushil A. Jukuy

Originally published: Jihad al Akbar Bilingual Magazine 2003
Greatest Jihad Against the SELF: A Catalyst for Proactive Change
(Written in Tausug dialect and in English language)

7th of February 1974. “Batih na kamu, yanna simud in mga mawisss!” (* Mawis= Tausug pidgin for Maoist referring to the mujahideen or MNLF freedomfighters) “Wake up, the mawiss are here!” Seems just like a moment ago to my reverie, I can still vividly recall, waking up at early dawn hour of prayer, I heard the muezzin’s call emanating from Chinese Pier mosque, resonating in my ears, as it assailed my senses. The reverberating sounds (of adhan and the Herald’s shout) pitted to hound each other simultaneously like the speed of sound and light. (Was it because my mind was hazily asleep from abrupt wakefulness? Or my mind in its juvenile state was indeed soporific not merely out of drowsiness?)

    The montage of war is still vivid in my mind; of mortar shrapnels and bullet shells wheezing by to deadly thud on the ground. How many coconut trunks were devastated? How many human bodies were strafed down by stray bullets and shrapnels? How many old and young people, men and women alike? Was there anyone who even bothered to count? Roaring thunder rolled across Lupah Sug’s sky as well as across the horizon of Sulu’s Ocean; not borne by Nature but by the AFP during Marcos’ regime. We were bombarded by airplanes from above and by navy boats from across the seas.

    We, young and old civilians, were merely crammed between the firing exchanges of two factions of combatants: we were sandwiched in the middle by our freedom fighters on one side and by government-soldiers (the civilians’ so called defenders) on the other side. Nevertheless, it was us--vulnerable civilians-- who were severely devastated, oppressed--- because we did not have weapons to defend ourselves, we did not have the means to defy them and fight back; our fate was akin to animals whose destiny were to be slaughtered in the abattoir, stripped of choice. Qadar ALLAH! These memories indelibly clung inside our hearts as Time fleeted by.

    Scurrying civilians were overwhelmed by fatigue as they wearily trudged the shorelines of Sulu Sea. The strength of their arms and limbs were too overcome by defeat to issue a protest: “Enough please!” Well, the burden that they were lugging in the course of fleeing was sufficiently heavy as well. Cumbersome loads of personal belongings that they carry on their head, hunching their napes, not to mention the burdensome weight that they carry inside their heads as well as the weight they heave inside their chest. Notwithstanding, they willfully trekked and traced the shorelines as they scampered away from their Home, burning aflame.

    Others have said that it (burning) was the machination of the government so that the freedomfighters would be shooed out of their sanctuaries. Still others have said that the culprit was the military who initiated the burning but thereafter “the martyred witnesses” who valiantly fought in the name of Ancestral Homeland, Indigenous Race and Islam--- were the ones who set further ablaze the fire. Where are the vestiges of the MNLF history in 1974? Where have all the widows and orphans of the martyred ones gone? What Fate has befallen the unforgotten heroes’ widows and orphans? Were the traces effaced from the pages of Bangsamoro history? Or, were these narratives have actually never even been inscribed on the pages of our history? Not even were they inscribed on the pages of our human minds? How long have they really held Jolo under siege? We wonder about the Truth. Did the Truth dissolve into oblivion along with the shahids just like how “ The Witnesses” vanished into their hallowed graves?

    Smeared in blood by a martyr’s fingers, these words of proof congealed on the walls of the Notre Dame of Jolo College’s rooftop:

    “Kami nagparang sabil ha ngan sin Hulah, Bangsa iban Agama…”

[We chose martyrdom for Allah's sake in the name of  Homeland, Nation, and Way of Life-Islam]

PHOTO CREDIT: abuazzam | MNLF

Inna lillaahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un....To ALLAH we belong, and to ALLAH we all shall return....

O Allah, forgive our living and our dead, those who are present among us and those who are absent, our young and our old, our males and our females. O Allah, whoever You keep alive, keep him alive in Islam, and whoever You cause to die, cause him to die with faith. O Allah, do not deprive us of the reward and do not cause us to go astray after this). Ameen, Ameen. Ameen Ya Rabb!

Allaahu akbar! Allaahu akbar! Allaahu akbar! “Allaahumma ighfir lihaayina wa mayitina wa shaahidina wa ghaa’ibina wa sagheerina wa kabeerina wa dhakarina wa unthaana. Allaahumma man ahyaytahu minna fa ahyihi ‘ala’l-Islam wa man tawaffaytahu minna fa tawiffahu ‘ala’l-eemaan..Allaahumma laa tahrimna ajrahu wa la tadillanaa ba’dahu.

TAUSUG VERSION 

Petsa 7 Tahun 1974: Patta-Sarsila Dayng ha Panumtum Mussik

[Feb 7, 1974: Montage From A Kid's Memory Bank]

lyukis hi Warina Sushil A. Jukuy

Originally published: Jihad al Akbar Bilingual Magazine 2003
Greatest Jihad Against the SELF: A Catalyst for Proactive Change
(Written in Tausug dialect and in English language)

Petsa 7, tahun 1974. “Batih na kamu yanna simud in mga mawisss!” Biyah kahnu-kahnu ra yaun, katumtuman ku pa, nakabati aku sin waktu subuh, dyungug ku daing ha masjid sin Tinda Laud in azan daing ha bilal maglagublub pa---bang sumandung pa pikilan. Agad magdungan in katingug sin azan iban gasud biyah mag-agaw mag-apas sapantun katingug iban sahaya nag-aabay karuwa. (Unu baha lahpung pa in pikilan ku ha karu? Atawa in pikilan ha kabata asal lahpung misan way kiyakaru?)

Marukut pa ha pikilan in mga patta katumtuman. Supik mortar iban kalsu-punglu maghaging sadja lumabay sartah matanak pa lupah ha tingug kamatay. Pila batang niyug in nasapsay? Pila manusiyah in nasabat? Maas , bata, kausugan iban mga kababaihan? Awn pa baha nag-itung? Lagublub sin daugdug ha babaw langit sin Lupah Sug iban daing ha Laud Sug in karungugan. Bukun kariyasali sah kakahinangan sin AFP ha waktu pamissuku sin Pamarinta-Marcos.

Hat kami bata-maas sibilyan nakapa-ut sin karuwa-hansipak nag-aatubang: ha gihtungan sin mga mujahideen natu iban sin mga sundalu-parinta isab ha hansipak. Sumagawa, kami mga sibilyan in landuh nahansul-kiyalaugan ---anduh kailu---pasalan way sinapang namuh, di kami maka-atu, biyah kami mga binatang in qadar sumbayi-un, di na makapagbayah. Qadar ALLAH! Ha limabay waktu, in mga pangitaan ini dimukut ha lawm pangatayan namuh.

In mga sibilyan-paguy hapu na ha pagsusulan sin kahigaran dagat sin Sug. In mga siki-lima nila diyaug kusug di na maka-iyan “sarang na!” Sarang da isab in buggat sin idarahan nila pamusut hiyahambiyul ha pagpaguyan. Pangdara liyulutu ha taas-u, kuttung na kailu in buli-pugay, dugaing pa in liyulutu ha lawm utuk iban buggat piyapahsan ha lawm daghal. Matilusa nila siyusul, iyurul in higad buhangin ha pagpaguyan, lumayu ha Hulah iyangpud na.

Laung sin kaibanan, parinta in tag-kahinangan hasupaya maruy paguwah ha pyagkyukupalan laung nila sin mga mujahideen. Laung isab sin kaibanan, tiyagnaan sin military sah siyunuan da dyahpugan sin sila mga nashahid ha pagparang sabilan ha ngan sin hulah, bangsa iban agama. Haunu na in tandah sin silsilah sin MNLF ha waktu 1974? Nakapakain na in mga kabaluhan iban kailuhan sin sila nagka-shahid? Unu na baha in sukud myabut pa mga ilu iban mga balu sin mga gagandilan natu nagkashahid? Napapas na ha gikap sin silsilah sin Bangsamoro? Atawa kagaid wala kiyagikapan? Misan da kuman ha pikilan? Byadiin in lugay nakapalawm lima nila in Lupah Sug? Unu baha in kasabunnalan? Miyagad na baha pa lawm gumi biyah ra sin mga nagkashahid miyagad kanila timalbang?

Liyukis ha duguh sin gulamay lima sin hambuuk shahid, in mga kabtangan ini karnah

panaksi timahay ha dingding sin rooftop sin Notre Dame of Jolo College

: “Kami nagparang sabil ha ngan sin Hulah, Bangsa iban Agama…”

Inna lillaahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un....To ALLAH we belong, and to ALLAH we all shall return....

 

Magsukul tuud Carolyn O. Arguillas​ of Mindanews​ for the photos, as a child of war... I need to see those imageries and compare it with those in repose at peace from my reverie...somehow in ALLAH, we peacefully retain our sense of equilibrium to avoid reeling from the vertigo of war blues. Big hugs, Carol, big hugs.

The Beth's Studio owned by Jose Duarte Sr

 

shared via Carol Arguillas'FB | The JOLO-CAUST by SAID SADAIN.

PHOTO CREDIT: mnlf.net

by Carolyn Arguillas | MindaNews. 1st published at www.mindanews.com on 7 Feb 2004. 30th Anniversary of the Burning of Jolo...

Let us chronicle the undocumented narratives from the survivors of the Feb 7 1974 Siege of Jolo, Sulu!

Share your personal narrative, fotos, voice clips, snitches of accounts in Bahasa Sug or otherwise.

This is Your Voice. This is Your Story. This is OUR History that was never written.

TO SHARE PLEASE CLICK:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pamuwng-Kaw-Speak-Up/576844155694820

TO SHARE PLEASE CLICK:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Riwaya/1497000680518262

Mamasapano, the President, and the Bangsamoro Basic Law

Mamasapano, the President, and the Bangsamoro Basic Law

Rev Fr Joel Tabora SJ, president of the Ateneo de Davao University.  
Posted on January 29, 2015
wordpress blog, taborasj

Mindanao’s soil was soaked in the blood of its sons and daughters. The MNLF, then the MILF took up the cause of Muslim independence, now on a more serious plane. This was countered by the national leaders from the north. But supported by Muslim powers from abroad. The armies from the north were sent to conquer the armies of the south. They did not. They could not.

The President has called for a day of mourning for those who perished in Mamasapano. When we fly our flags at half mast on Friday, and call upon the God whom we know to be merciful and compassionate, I shall be mourning the deaths of the policemen who died on mission to serve warrants of arrest on known terrorists.

But I shall also be mourning the deaths of the members of the MILF and of the BIFF who perished in the same encounter. I shall mourn them, Filipinos all, driven to foolhardy carnage or savage violence by obedience, ignorance, recklessness or fear. In silence, I will pray for peace.

I will also pray that we not be deterred from the path of peace. This has been an arduous path travelled with much sacrifice and pain. But it is the only way of hope.

Recalling the causes of war and violence

For me, travelling the path means recalling the causes of the wars and violence in Mindanao, almost too traumatic for people from the south to remember and too embarrassing for people from the north to admit.

Just some instances: Nur Misuari emerging in the wake of the the Jabiddah massacre; the reckless adventurism of Marcos in Sabah that ended in the Jabiddah massacre; the homesteading policies from the north which ultimately deprived Muslim and Lumad Mindanaoans of their lands and altered the Mindanao landscape forever; the “Filipinos” from the north who sided with the Americans in “civilizing” the Muslims who had not accepted the ways of the “little brown brothers” of white foreigners; the “Filipinos” who stood by as the Americans massacred Muslims in Bud Dajo and Bud Bagsak in Jolo; the Muslims had fought valiantly to defend their Muslim faith, culture and independence from the foreigner; the treaty of Paris in which Spain sold the Philippines to the Americans along with the sovereign Muslim sultanates that the Spaniards had never conquered; 300 years of Moro wars that frustrated the Spanish will to conquer and convert them; 200 years of presence and matured civilization in the Philippines before the arrival of the Spaniards.

Among the causes of war and violence in Mindanao has been injustice from the north brought on Moro identity, political sovereignty, and integral development.

The path to peace means that Filipinos from the north respect Filipinos from the south. Mindanao is not a tool for the development of the north; it is not an “opportunity” for the development of the national economy, nor a tool for the advancement of national politicians; its peoples, histories, and civilizations are not instruments for the development of those of peoples from the north. Unless this is respected in the cultures, policies, and laws for which we take responsibility, the path to peace is not travelled.

There was a time when a Muslim, frustrated by the lack of justice and respect accorded him by national leaders from the north north, called for Muslim independence. Just the call for independence sowed terror in the hearts of non-Muslim Filipinos in the south. Terrified, they thought the best way of defense was offense. The terror of the Ilagas began. It spawned the counter terror of the Blackshirts and Barracudas. It brought the Manili massacre and the battle of Buldon.

Mindanao’s soil was soaked in the blood of its sons and daughters. The MNLF, then the MILF took up the cause of Muslim independence, now on a more serious plane. This was countered by the national leaders from the north. But supported by Muslim powers from abroad. The armies from the north were sent to conquer the armies of the south. They did not. They could not.

Path to peace on a higher, more noble plane

The only thing that could stop the wars was the mutual insight that guns, violence and wars do not solve problems, but only increase the need for guns, violence and wars. That insight put us on the path to peace. First, in partnership with the MNLF. Now, in partnership with the MILF. It is a path from which we must not stray.

Where we once thought guns and warfare could forge peace, we have now agreed to embark on a path to peace on a higher, more noble plane, the path of human conversation, of merging dreams for peace, negotiation, rational debate, and forging agreements for peace under the parameters of a shared constitutional democracy. Those agreements belong to the essence of the path of peace. They are made in good faith, and kept in good faith. Otherwise, the peace is imperiled.

One of the agreements for peace occurred as hostilities ended in 1997 in the Implementing Operational Guidelines of the Ceasefire Agreement: “Police and military actions and administrative/logistic activities shall continue to be undertaken by the GRP throughout Mindanao and the entire country. In the pursuit thereof, confrontational situations between the GRP and the MILF forces shall be avoided by prior coordination with the latter.” (Article II) It is an agreement made with our formal partner in the peace process, the MILF. It is not an agreement which can be unilaterally set aside or disregarded.

The reason we entered into the agreement is presumably because we are aware that the path to peace is arduous and dangerous. Peace has its enemies. It is attacked by the interests of traditional centers of political power, powerful armed clans, shameless avarice, the arms trade, foreign interests, religious extremism and even local and national terrorism.

Our partners know of these enemies of peace. They are more intimate with their dynamics than any planner from the north can be. The peace process does not mean that these enemies of peace have been overcome. The peace process means that together we are journeying towards peace, and that overcoming the enemies of peace is in our shared interest. In Mindanao, the government’s partner for peace is the MILF.

It is a partnership that has been premised on trust, and a partnership that can only grow in trust. It is a partnership, the President says, that has many times borne fruit: “We have already made such great strides because we trusted one another. We have proven that we can work together.”

Why was our partner in peace in Mindanao not engaged?

It is therefore incomprehensible for me why our partner in peace was not engaged, as our 1997 agreement stipulates, in order to meet the problem of the presence of the two terrorists in the very sensitive town of Mamasapano.

In this context, President Aquino's speech was opaque. He said the agencies involved in the pursuit of terrorists “are not always required to obtain my approval for each and every one of their operations, because it would be impractical for them to wait for my clearance before proceeding.”

Here he is saying he did not necessarily have to approve the operation. He does not say that he did. He seems to say the approval came from below him. Apparently, he was working with operatives in subsidiarity. “They decided to take action and serve the warrants of the two individuals.”

Without admitting he was briefed about this particular operation, he was being briefed generally. “In the briefings the PNP gave me about the continuing operations against Marwan and Usman…” In these briefings, he was giving instructions: “I repeated countless times the need for proper, sufficient, and timely coordination between the SAF, the military.”

Referring to volatility of Mamasapano, he says, “Strangers cannot just enter this territory.” Yet he says immediately thereafter: “Our troops needed to enter quietly and carefully….” But why did he not also instruct the operatives to coordinate with our partner in peace in Mindanao, the MILF. Or why his subordinate did to give this instruction. Was it ignorance of the agreement? Or mistrust of the peace partner? Or northern arrogance that thinks Mindanao is its back yard and Maguindanao a bed of roses without thorns?

Who failed to coordinate with the one group that could have helped government achieve its objective and prevent the carnage – not in the ways of the north, but in the ways of the south?

Why was trust placed more in a secret commando apparently headed by a man of tarnished repute? Was the path of peace abandoned for 30 pieces of silver?

Bangsamoro Basic Law should not be derailed

With the President’s statement, it is all the clearer to me that the peace process leading to the approval of the Bangsamoro Basic Law should not be derailed. The brutal manner in which human beings were killed in Mamasapano can never be excused. We cannot close our eyes to this. But blame cannot be laid solely at the feet of the MILF, as Senator Allan Peter Cayetano does inanely. The reckless planning and shoddy execution of this operation, whose responsibility lies with its author, caused the disaster.

But the disaster should not include the Bangsamoro Basic Law. On the contrary, it makes its passage – through “the wisdom of the Congress of the Philippines” – more urgent. Here, we need the wise legislator, the statesman obedient to the common weal. This is a longstanding debt to the Filipino Muslims in justice. We owe it to them in respect. We have agreed to this. We owe it to them in self-respect. 

Tactical Face Palm: From normalization to paranormalization to ghost hunting

Tactical Face Palm: 

From normalization to paranormalization to ghost hunting

 

tactical facepalm (tak-ti-kuhl feys-pahm)
–noun
1. A maneuver performed by a unit of Internet denizens in response to an overwhelming onslaught of ignorance. The maneuver involves each member of the unit performing a standard facepalm in unison. Executed properly, the tactical facepalm is the only known defense against spontaneous cerebrofulmination—also known as "exploding head syndrome" (EHS)—resulting from exposure to extreme stupidity.

In the battleground of hearts of minds

In the battleground of hearts of minds, "all out truth; all out justice; and all out peace " is the unified battle cry!

Rage blinds the heart
To the point of extremism
The one who accuses
the other of terrorism
Becomes the terrorist himself.

‪#‎reflection‬

 #‎Fatabayyanu‬
Investigate!
‪#‎Fatathabbatu‬
Verify the source; be still; don't take action until you are certain

 Do not confound truth with falsehood nor knowingly conceal the truth. 

Quran 2:42 

No justice without truth

 ‪#‎bejust‬ ‪#‎shunbetrayal‬

Why wage WAR 4 PEACE?

Soldiers thrown like logs to the peace bonfire? 

Death is absolute in war; there can be no victory or defeat without death; ironic, the living mouthed: rest in peace for the dead!

Every man and woman in uniform knows the three constants: victory, defeat, death. Col Danilo Pamonag

9.8 trillion dollars is the global impact of violence in one year alone
9.8 trillion dollars a year could have been divested to peace & development impact
The financial impact is quantifiable but in the aspect of spiritual and moral impact, violence defeats quantification.
UN vows to help fragile PH peace process http://t.co/azWuydZtQm

MIKE ONE BINGO! $6M JACKPOT CALL goes zilch!

MIKE ONE BINGO!

$6million dollars JACKPOT CALL alerted other players: zilch!

In the contextual definition of wikipedia, bingo sounds like an innuendo.
Read on...

BINGO IS A GAME OF CHANCE
played with randomly drawn numbers
which players match against numbers that have been pre-printed on 5x5 matrices.

The matrices may be printed
on paper or card stock,
or electronically represented,
and are referred to as cards.

Many versions conclude the game
when the first person achieves
a specified pattern
from the drawn numbers.

The WINNER is usually required
To call out the word "Bingo!",
which ALERTS the other players
and caller of a POSSIBLE WIN.

All wins are checked for ACCURACY
before the win is OFFICIALLY confirmed
at which time the PRIZE IS SECURED
and a NEW GAME IS BEGUN.

In this VERSION of bingo, PLAYERS COMPETE against ONE ANOTHER for the PRIZE or JACKPOT.
Alternative METHODS of play
TRY to INCREASE participation
by CREATING EXCITEMENT.

Since its invention in 1929,
MODERN BINGO has evolved into multiple variations,
with each JURISDICTION'S GAMBLING LAW *regulating,* HOW the game is played.

There are also nearly unlimited PATTERNS that may be specified for play.
Some games require only ONE number to be matched,
while COVER-ALL GAMES
award the jackpot for covering an entire card.

There are even "games that AWARD to players" for matching NO NUMBERS or
ACHIEVING NO PATTERN. See "Variations" for more details.

-----------------*********------------
I HATE GAMES OF CHANCE
I AM NOT A RISK PLAYER.
BUT LIKE REP Sitti Djalia Turabin I BELIEVE THAT THE RISK OF PEACE IS WORTH TAKING THAN THE RISK OF WAR.

http://abcnews.go.com/…/dead-philippines-awaits-answer-cost…

Filipinos Yearn to hear Right Words from President Noynoy But Which LEFT Him

Filipinos are yearning to hear the right words from their President Noynoy
But how can you force the right words to emanate from the President's mouth when those right words do not exist in his heart?

We all have our own defense mechanism to survive this overwhelming upheaval: perhaps his is feigned stoicism. He's only human but he is also the President of the Republic and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Everybody wants their President to be a "humane President."
BUT, the President's "bosses" must ask themselves, are they likewise being humane as they jeer and thirst for the blood of fellow human beings?... by issuing a generalizing battlecry: "All out war! Pulbusin na lahat ng mga *p_ny_t_ng mga Muslim na yan! mga terrorista!!!"?!?

Indeed, nobody can please everyone, for if you try hard you'd end up carrying your own ASS (burro) over your head.

The President (just like the general public) is just being honest with how he feels; yet the public hates it when he is. Kailu.

And so understandably the public is consumed with hatred and rage now because that is exactly how they feel. Cathartic process. You can't just click it off like a switch.

Yes, Sir Gus Miclat, when the battleground is the BATTLEGROUND OF HEARTS AND MINDS IT IS HARD TO FIGHT AND QUELL THE "PERCEIVED" ENEMY!
FOR HOW CAN YOU KILL HUMAN HEARTS AND MINDS WITHOUT RUINING YOUR OWN SELF?!

‪#‎clueless‬
‪#‎AllOutTruthJusticePeace‬
‪#‎fallen44‬
‪#‎fallen120000‬
‪#‎4gotten1100000‬
‪#‎moro4peace‬