The Presidential Question

Dear Mr. President,

I'm sorry to say Mr. President that I cannot give you a selfie picture with God.

I know that at your age, that you may be nearing the valley and that is why you are asking for the improbable, despite the strong need to address other more pressing worldly concerns.

If I could, Mr. President, I would.

But that is beyond me.

I can understand how you may be feeling right now. When my grandfather was about to die a couple of years ago from cancer, on his death bed, he made one wish, "that he could be young again - like a child."

It baffled our family during a very difficult moment.

But we all knew, that we can never turn back the hands of time.

We could not time travel to fix regrets, correct some mistakes we did and alter whatever it is that we have decided, done or what has been done to us in the past.

And that's part of the beauty of life - and death. There can only be one time that we could right all the wrongs, and that is the present.

Nobody could ever convince you Mr. President, if there is a God or not. No amount of logic could erase all the pain, all the regrets and all the questions and doubts floating in your head.

As it is, Mr. President, the same question is being asked by any child who is begging for alms in front of a church. The same question is being asked by the families of victims unjustly killed by an unrelenting state. The same question is being asked by the poor and the suffering. The same question is being asked by so many.

I am asking the same question too, but unlike you, I do not have the power to stop the killings and the murder. My words, are of so little consequence that they cannot temper the actions of men. I have no men who follow my orders, Mr. President. I cannot order anybody to, "Feed the poor. Clothe the naked. Love the unlovable. Stop the killings and bring justice for all."

But you have, Mr. President. You have that power.

Right now, a daughter is grieving the violent death of her father. She may be asking, "Where is God? Where is justice in all of these insanity?"

No righteous answers are given to her, Mr. President. Only words of pain, condemnation and anger.

"Your father was a drug lord, he has to die." is a sentence that keeps repeating again and again in her mind as they bury the dead tomorrow.

Words can bring life, justice, love, honor - but they can also bring death, destruction, pain and agony.

And tomorrow, these are the words that will be spoken:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.

Leadership that Inspires: Part 2 The Assassination of Mayors

Justice Denied

I remember an episode of Marvel's Agents of Shield, season 4 episode 13.

Senator Nadeer was a political nemesis of SHIELD and one of its staunchest critics. Later on in the series, she got assassinated by her allies, the "Watchdogs", an anti-meta human group that espouses exterminating meta-humans.

SHIELD director Mace's dialog with Quake after the event went like this:

We're just getting confirmation from the FBI.We have four confirmed casualties and one positive identification.We are sad to confirm that Senator Ellen Nadeer, leader in the Humans First movement, is among the dead.Reporting live for CNB, we'll send it back Okay.
Quake: Well, we can't be too sad.Quake: She did try to have you killed.Director Mace: She could've been brought to justice.Director Mace: Now we won't get that chance.

Back to Reality...

Today, the Mayor of Tanauan City was assassinated in broad daylight, during the flag ceremony, along with City Hall employees - while singing the national anthem.

Malacanang was quick to denounce this. [Source: Rappler "Malacañang vows punishment for Tanauan mayor Halili killers].

Malacanang's statement is important. Malacanang usually says 'other things' when mayors who are suspected of having narcotic linkages are killed.

It could mean that unlike other mayoral assassinations,  this event wasn't state sanctioned, covertly or overtly.

It is chilling to see the event play out on social media, youtube and various news websites. I won't share the links as I think everybody has had enough of the macabre display of anarchy and violence.

Notes

Mayor Halili of Tanauan City was known to exercise unorthodox methods of 'shaming' narco traffickers and criminals. He did so by parading them on the streets beginning May 24, 2016 when international media covered such events.

May 24, 2018: Daily Mail UK. "Drug dealers in the Philippines forced into a mass walk of shame while wearing signs reading 'I am a pusher, do not follow me'" 

It should be noted that the Presidential elections were held on May 9, 2016 where President Duterte won with 16 million votes, on a platform of launching a war on drugs, "turning Manila Bay red" and "executing criminals and drug personalities"

Human rights defenders are quick to denounce such practices.

Surprisingly, some Born Again Church leaders I used to look up to, were quick to defend this practice of parading suspects, by utilizing ad hominem tu quo que or the "you too" logical fallacy.

I can only shake my head in sadness for all of us.

Where does this lead us?

It is not a war, if the other side doesn't shoot back.

The Tanauan event was broadcast in social media and many news outlets again and again - it was a clear message. A message of fear for all of us.

Thus, it is within the realm of possibility that these things will escalate - and when they do, they could become a pretext for an authoritarian regime with no limits and bounds to what the government can unleash. They only need a reason and a justification for such an event.

Leadership inspires.

What our leaders imbibe on us, through their words, through their actions will get copied and replicated by others.

I remember before May 2016, that I once had a conversation with some of my real estate broker friends.

I remember saying, "Unleashing a leader like this, will only spur copycats and many, many, many abuses."

My prediction came true.

Turning away from the Christian God is a renunciation of the supreme law handed down to Moses.

Thou shall not murder. 

Once again, I implore all reasonable minded individuals and leaders to recognize that 'leadership inspires'. Theirs, the Presidents and other leaders. If we are to descend into chaos and oblivion, and if these tides of violence are insurmountable - the very least that we can do as individuals, is to pray.

Pray against the Pandora's box that we have all unleashed upon ourselves.
 

The Insecurity of the Filipino Braggadocio

""Valar Dohaeris". All men must serve. Faceless Men most of all."

―"Jaqen H'ghar"


It is not very uncommon to see a Filipino admit they were wrong. 

It is rarer for you to see a Filipino who will say, "I'm sorry, I was wrong." - and then actually atone for the mistake and then some more.

What you almost always see rather, are these two: projection and deflection.  



This permeates Filipino social discourse all throughout and on all levels.

Sometimes, I even think that my generalized statement is mostly accurate because of cultural factors.

In the era of fake news and an over-saturated social media stream, the best narcissist always takes center stage.


I know that this may also be true for other cultures.

But then again, I am constantly confronted with the swagger of the Filipino braggadocio.

The braggadocio, swishes his sword of greatness with words like a red ribbon on a Chinese New Year


Hidden in crass language, the Filipino braggadocio is an expert at word play.

Some would say it is a form of philosophy (small P) in and of itself

But that would be an insult to Philosophers (big P)


Self Aggrandizement

Have you ever attended a conference, a seminar or a group activity, where the speaker actually and sincerely downplays his actual achievements? Never.

Sometimes, I fancy attending one and it would be in the form of:

Speaker: "Hello, I am Mr. So and So, and I am nobody, no one and nothing."

Audience: Silence.

Speaker: "I, a being of nothing, humbly come to you in the hopes that something would come out of nothing."

Now, at the end of the talk, the audience would be fascinated, enthralled and actually thrilled that their 3,500 peso seminar fee was not put to waste.

It would only be at the end, the very end - when the audience have already left and are already in their vehicles going home, that they would find out that they have spoken with somebody.

Those days of powerful silence and humility are gone.

Leadership That Inspires

A long time ago, the Catholic Church held a very strong sway in the voting behavior of Filipino citizens. Hence, in politics. This was seen in delayed or aborted legislation concerning contraception, abortion and divorce. This was seen in the first EDSA peaceful revolution and many more.

I'll leave it up to you to do your own historical research.

Duterte's election was a pivotal turning point against this 'traditional Catholic vote'

Fast forward to 2016...

Duterte seemed to be the candidate who usurped everything that traditional politicians exemplified. He was outspoken against the Catholic church. He was decisive in curbing the narcotic problem. He was uncivil and uncouth - a man who bowed down to no one, (except maybe Xi Jinping). He seemed to be the one who will overturn the traditional structures that gave and made the Philippines its character for the last decades.

He definitely isn't a traditional politician.

That anti-thetical character appealed to enough voters to change the tide of history. Many of the non-Catholic segment of the population wanted something fresh. They wanted something out of the traditional Catholicism.

Their mantra of "Change is Coming" came true.

Change came indeed.

The question is, what kind of change did it bring?

It sickened me to hear Protestant and Born Again spiritual leaders utter words like, "I'm friends with Duterte or Bato." in the middle of their preaching while teaching about Christ.

It was paradoxical.

It is the ultimate embodiment of Protestant church leadership desperately clinging on to worldly ways just to find a means to solve the gargantuan spiritual problem of worldliness, narcotics and social apathy.

In a way, one can say that to solve the narcotic problem that many Protestant pastors and Born Again ministers have had to grapple with among their flock - they struck a deal with the devil.

The means to justify the end.

Lo and behold, we are all learning now about how that contract would turn out to be.

Now, these churches complain when Duterte called God stupid.

In silence these non-Catholic ministers may have been snickering in glee as Duterte embarrassed the Catholic church - never thinking for a second that one day, the devil they unleashed would come to bite them back.

And it did. And it will continue to do so.

You never strike a deal with the devil.

Not only that, it brought along something that is far graver than the petty bickering among different religions.

Remember, leadership inspires.

If this leader rebels against God, we can expect others to follow suit. Indeed it is already happening. A slow and morbid moral decay that is festering like an untreated wound. Full of pus and full of maggots, it eats away not just flesh, but the spirit.

In this day and age of technological marvels, this kind of thinking can only lead to one thing: perdition and a further degradation of the Filipino soul. 

Falling on Deaf Ears: Duterte Curses and Calls God Stupid

Study: People who use the Internet a lot tend to have less religious tendencies. 

"Tinkering with Technology and Religion in the Digital Age: The Effects of Internet Use on Religious Belief, Behavior, and Belonging" McClure, Paul K. 13 December 2017. https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12365

Dear Mr. President, 

You cannot have or give love, 
if you do not have free will. 
Love is consensual. 

Love can only arise if we have the option to say 'No we don't love... '
For it is in the voluntary act of saying that 'we do' or 'we love' 
that our faith is affirmed.

As the 'created', 
we would be nothing more than automatons (robots).
compiled, made and executed to do God's bidding if we cannot 
dare say 'no'.

Regards,

Man's Great Spiritual Turmoil

Something more disconcerting than the President's tirades are the reaction of people through the comments section of various social media sites. Some openly hate Duterte's anti-progressive, anti-liberal and anti-human rights stance. Yet when it comes to badmouthing the spiritual belief of others, they are all for it.

"I hate Duterte, but maybe he can make atheism more mainstream." quipped one.

Indeed, we are living in troubled times and the problem seems to be graver than I originally thought.

The world is experiencing great spiritual turmoil amidst collective challenges that put humanity's faith to the extreme.

So many moral questions, human paradoxes,  prolonged and devastating conflicts point to the need for drastic and decisive action. Unfortunately, for expediency and for want of resolution, we as a race have foregone God's guidance and let our own passions rule us. Our own mortality, our own failures and our own weaknesses have crippled us, so dear.

Prophecy Being Fulfilled
As it is, my hypothesis is that these are all in line with God's plan.
These events must come to pass.

Revelations 13:5

The beast was given a mouth to speak arrogant and blasphemous words, and authority to act for forty-two months. 6And the beast opened its mouth to blaspheme against God and slander His name and His tabernacle—those who dwell in heaven.…

Kumusta na Pinoy Freelance Writer?

Dear fellow freelance writer,
Kumusta? (How are you?)
I hope you're in great spirits. It's quite rainy where I am now and it's always cloudy. I'm beginning to think that Google's weather app is broken because it keeps showing me this icon for the next 10 days or so.

I also hope that you're doing great in your freelance writing projects. Now, on to the blog post! 

http://writers.work review

After finishing a very lucrative freelance project, I've started looking for another gig. That's when I found http://writers.work via Google.

I dunno...

I can't write a proper review of it since you need to shell out $47 to get in. But everything in their video is everything a freelance writer could dream of:

• Appropriate pay (I'm reticent to put "High", since I haven't tried it yet.)
• Flexible working hours (Duh)
• Guaranteed pay dates (Really now?)
• No fees (Mmmm)

Note that they have a "Pay Disclaimer" at the bottom which states:

"While we make every effort to ensure that we accurately represent all the products and services on this website and their potential for income, it should be noted that earnings and income statements made by Writers Work LLC or anyone of its partners are only estimates of what we think you can possibly earn online. There is no guarantee that you will make these levels of income and you accept the risk that the earnings and income statements differ by individual."

Well, there you go. 

Their selling tactics notwithstanding, like the countdown timer, the psychological assurance of receiving guaranteed pay, the cartoon playing with your mind - the fresh site appeals because it's new. 

Freelancer, Upwork and such, have been cornered by the "mass content producers" who will outbid you and are also oftentimes plagued with employers who simply don't pay.

Homeworking club gave a very long review, which ended with a referral link. 

https://www.homeworkingclub.com/writers-work-review/

So there you go.... 

I'm going to put it in the backburner, browse around a bit and hope that my previous employer messages me again on Skype.

Diktatura, Kriminalidad at Kung Saan Papatungo ang Ating Bayan

Jesus Before Pilate and Herod 

66 At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and the teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them.

67 “If you are the Messiah,” they said, “tell us.”
 Jesus answered, “If I tell you, you will not believe me, 68 and if I asked you, you would not answer. 69 But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.”

70 They all asked, “Are you then the Son of God?” 

He replied, “You say that I am.”

71
Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips.”

Luke 22

Trials should be won. But what really happened here? 

The Filipino nation is on the brink, or in the cusps of a change in a cycle that has been there since the dawn of civilization as we know it. The cycle I am speaking of is the ebbs and flow between freedom and authoritarian rule. The groundwork is being prepared for a more stringent regime. 

• Lawyer files graft complaints vs. Noy, Sereno - February 26, 2018
• BIR slaps P133.8M tax evasion case vs. Rappler's parent firm and Maria Ressa - March 8, 2018
• Gordon: Duterte can order arrest of Int'l Criminal Court investigators - April 15, 2018
• Duterte: 'I ordered Australian nun’s probe' - April 19, 2018

When analyzing these key events, sometimes, mas mabuti pang tignan yung mas malawakang implikasyon at motibasyon kaysa mga detalye at teknekalidad na bumabalot dito. Gusto ng maraming ibalik ang diktatura o ang isang uri o porma nito. 

Why do Duterte supporters clamor for an authoritarian regime?

Maybe, it's because of things like this video:

• Nostalgia. 
• Disappointment of older people with the new generation.
• Disappointment of older people with how things are today. 
• Overcrowding in urban centers. 
• Internal and External threats. 
• Lost loved ones due to drug abuse (as victims of drug violence and as users).
• Lack of discipline today.
• Disregard for the rule of law.

Somebody said online that some people are ascribing the existence and proliferation of methampetamines to the Cory Aquino administration. 

Ibinibintang nila ang pagkalat ng droga sa isang pamahalaang nasa bingid ng mga kudeta, rebelyon, masugid na oposisyon at mahinang ekonomiya nung mga panahong iyon.

Sinamantala ng mga kriminal na elemento ang nakita nilang 'mahinang pamahalaan' ni Cory Aquino. Ito rin ang dahilan kung bakit binoto ng mga Pilipino si Fidel V. Ramos matapos ang termino ni Cory Aquino. Si Marcos ay namatay nuong September 28, 1989. Si Ramos ay naging pangulo nuong 1992.

Si Ramos nuon ay isang military man, na sa kuro kuro ng marami ay mas magiging matatag laban sa mga rebelyon, kudeta at mga elemento sa militar na gustong ibalik ang martial law o ang pamumuno ng mga Marcos. 

Ang karaniwan ngang isinusulat nuon sa mga pahayagan ay ang takot nilang ibalik ni Ramos ang martial law. 

Eventually Ramos' statesmanship and West Point background, prevailed. Nanatili ang Demokrasya natin bagamat hindi pa rin nasolusyunan ni Ramos ang problema sa kriminalidad. 

Ang kriminalidad ang naging isa sa mga plataporma ng sumunod na pangulong, Joseph Estrada. Bagay na nagbigay daan sa paggawa niya sa PACC (Presidential Anti Crime Commission, later on, PAOCTF sa pamumuno ni Panfilo Lacson). Uso kasi nung mga panahong iyon ang Kidnap For Ransom at mga balitang kahindikdik ukol sa kriminalidad na bumabalot sa kamalayan ng mga mamamayan.

Ang kriminalidad

Marahil sa hindi ay hindi naiintindihan ng karaniwang tao kung paano nga ba nagiging kriminal ang mga tao. 

Iba't iba ang dahilan. 

• Nariyan ang kultura at ostrasismo ng mapaghusgang uri ng kamalayan. 
• Nariyan ang kahirapan at kawalan ng "purpose" sa buhay at economic opportunity  
• Nariyan ang damdamin, o mga crimes of passion
• Nariyan ang kamangmangan, at kaakibat nito ang persepsyon ng mangmang ukol sa tama at mali, legal at hindi ayon sa nakikita niya sa kanyang komunidad, paligid o sa mga napapanood sa pelikula.
• Nariyan ang droga, na nagbabago sa pag-iisip ng tao, sumisipsip sa mga oportunidad na magkaroon ng silbi ang buhay. Nagbabago sa persepsyon sa realidad. 
• Nariyan ang kasakiman, inggit o ang pagnanasa na makakuha ng mga materyal na bagay na nakikita nilang tinatamasa ng iba.
• Marami pang iba, pero ang puno't dulo ng lahat ng ito ay iisa lamang:

Ang Kriminalidad ay Bunga ng Kasalanan (Sin) at ang Pagkawalay ng Tao sa Diyos

The Commissioning Pastor ng Isang Non-Profit Educational Foundation

Hindi ka ba namamangha... kung gaano sila ka-walanghiya?

Sometimes, you reach a certain age, when you realize that everything you stood for - meant nothing.

Hindi makalabas ang mga salita lalo na't kapag parang dinuduguan mo ang sarili sa bawat sambit ng katotohanan. Parang isang patalim sa iyong pulso. Dahan dahang dumadampi ang pagkitil.

Pastor ng isang Non-Profit Educational Foundation: "Magkakano ba ang sa akin pag binenta mo ang lupa ninyo? Kasi MARAMI kaming kakilala. Mga taga abroad. Mga poriner. Sila ang popondo sa amin. Gusto kasi naming magtayo ng isang Christian school."

Ako: "Ah, eh... (nagisip ako sandali) licensed real estate professional po ba kayo? May lisensya po ba kayo? Kasi po, sa batas natin, sa RA9646, hindi po maaaring magbili ang mga hindi lisensyado."

Pastor ng isang Non-Profit Educational Foundation: "Hindi. Wala. Pero sa'tin sa'tin lang. Kasi ang kalakaran sa ganito e 5% kapag nabenta. Kailangan ko kasi ng pambayad ng kotse ko. May hinuhulugan kasi ako e."

Ako: ... (Putangina mo.)

The Gardener's Son

The wind was strong. The skies were foreboding. Many things were on my mind.

I went out to buy cigarettes and egg from the neighborhood sari-sari store.

Outside our gates waiting, was our gardener.

She also waited with something on her mind.

I was caught unaware, unprepared. Her son had to make a plea in the courts soon.  Her son is accused of attempted murder.

Then I remembered Tito Joey Lopido's Bible studies several years ago at our home. He once quoted Deuteronomy 21:18-21.

"A Rebellious Son
18 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21 Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid."

I took this with a grain of salt as with many others who attended that bible study. At the time, it was hard to put into context. These stories came from an ancient text of an ancient people. It was hard to reconcile this with the Philippines' judicial system. It was hard to take it literally. 

Now more than 5 years later, one of the bible study's attendees, the mother, asked me, "What should I do?".

"Sabi ng abogado namin 'paaminin niyo na lang, para mababaan ang sentensya. Tutal menor de edad siya.'"

(Our lawyer said to enter into a plea bargain, after all he is a minor.) she said.

I looked at our gardener's eyes - the eyes of a mother begging for answers.

I gathered as much of my wits as I could on that cloudy morning. Thoughts of different things swirled in my head like an unplanned soup.

I managed to blurt out. "First of all, I'm not a lawyer, whatever I tell you could be wrong. Second, do you trust your lawyer? If you do not trust your lawyer's advice, you will have to find another lawyer. Third, tell your child to tell the truth. Fourth, you have to accept whatever the judge's verdict will be. We have to learn how to accept judgment."

The answer didn't satisfy her, so we kept on repeating ourselves for a while.

I told her to come back later as the winds were too strong for garden work.
Maybe later, the sun would come out of the clouds and give its warmth and light.

The Great Leader and the spirits that go along with him

The separation of Church and State shall be inviolable. (Article II, Section 6), and, No law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

 ~ The 1987 Philippine Constitution

Photo by Sebastian Pichler on Unsplash

Religion, spirituality and leadership are (and should be) distinct from politics. And yet, in a strange, inevitable and weird way almost always, two sides of the same coin. 

Perhaps it is due to history. Maybe it is because of culture. Or maybe because leadership down to the grass roots level of the basic unit of society has always been spiritual (or not). The same goes for atheist, agnostic families or even up to secular states. The lack of spirituality, of soul, of deference to a higher authority leads to the kind of structure in a family that's reminiscent of anarchic tendencies. Broken families. Anarchic states. One could argue that the same goes for religious states where dissent is suppressed and destroyed.

This is why we have a 'communist' China that has deep reverence for Chairman Mao and the little red book. That is why even godless North Korea, treats the Kims with deity like status. We need to come to the sobering conclusion that the masses, the illiterates, to the lowest of levels will almost always devolve (or maybe has to) subsume themselves to some form of belief structure in their belief system. 

Hence, "Religion is the opium of the masses". But what if the masses have no religion? What will be their opium but opium itself.

In Christendom, this defaults to Christianity. In pre-Christian Roman Empire, it runs the gamut from pantheistic, polytheistic paganism and/or local deities of mythological significance. In Islamic countries, to Islam.

I'm not saying whether it should, or should not be - I'm just saying that "it just is."

Why?

A government of the people, for the people and by the people would always differentiate on "what should be" if the belief systems for "what should be" is arbitrarily defined by the greater number of people. Some would argue that this should be enshrined in the Constitution. The freedom to do whatever. But that runs into conflict, once a group of people run into conflict from within that framework. Oftentimes, this issue of conflict is also resolved through the Constitution - but what if the Constitution is no longer revered and is even questioned, loathed and destined to perdition?

In my native Philippines, our Constitution in its pre-amble states in maybe overly dramatic fashion: 

We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God, in order to build a just and humane society, and establish a Government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity, the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace, do ordain and promulgate this Constitution."

Apologies for the color emphasis. This is where it gets tricky. 

Much of the Philippines claims to be of Catholic Christian allegiance - yet this is only practiced in tradition. The masses, (again) have no appreciation of the intricacies of Christianity itself but rather treat religion as an obligatory tradition. It becomes meaningless in the face of rabid consumerism which I would say is the new real religion of this country. We have a rabid consumerist capitalist society. 

A good example of this is the barangay fiesta. Fiestas are supposed to be feasts commemorating a Barangays patron - but what actually happens is that relatives, friends, neighbors congregate to eat, drink and be merry. So, one would actually see a fiesta that would remind you more of a red light district rather than a religious commemoration. This is further bolstered by the fact that fiestas traces their origins to pagan traditions (as is most Catholic practices).

In short we do things because we have to do things, but we do not necessarily know why we do things.

Hypocrisy and Cognitive Dissonance
As a general rule, we are all hypocrites. I could not count the times I've heard a neighborhood istambay (for "standby", meaning 'idle men') lash out at the community priest for being (blank), (blank) and (blank). Or to the religious oldies who go to Church religiously every Sunday but do (blank), (blank) and (blank) right after going to church. 

Yes, that's true! 

But to me, going the religious route is first and foremost - an admission - an admission of frailty, weakness and sin. The second one is of forgiveness and grace. 

Now, a lot of things that are happening in Filipino society these days (as well as the leadership) is borne from what I would say is a greater cognitive dissonance. In a society disillusioned by the failings of religion, men of faith (or supposed to be) AND - leaders of great character, we find ourselves in the midst of a moral dilemma that cannot and will not be resolved by the masses. What do you do if a certain segment of the population, fall into the trappings of their own freedoms? 

What do you do if the ones in charge of solving these problems no longer see the law or the Constitution as a pseudo sacred credo enforced with zeal? 

You suddenly have law enforcers who have become the law themselves. 

The masses including the middle meanwhile, carry on with their narcissistic escapism into the new world of things, gadgets and pleasure. 

Leadership and the spirits that lurk around him
Whether one believes in the unseen phenomenon or not is an issue for another blog. But any leadership can come with a credo, it can also come with a flaming fist, or with the benevolence of heaven, the mandate of the divine, or a dislocated camera with planted evidence, a whole lot of blood, several corpses and macabre destruction.  

Behind any kind of leader would be the stalwarts who would defend him.Behind these stalwarts would be the minor apologists, the shills, the 'Ayes' and the pitchfork bearers. Against them would be the rebels, the rebels without a cause, the heroes, the wannabe heroes, the intellectuals, the misguided rebels, the "Naysayers", the nitpickers, the truants, the guilty, the apathetic merchant whose trade was affected and others.

In these morally obfuscated times, it becomes difficult to ascertain black from white, especially knowing that white comes along with a myriad of other colors. 

Of course, everyone would lay claim to the 'truth'. Of course everyone would lay claim to be 'the just one'. Of course, everyone would lay claim to 'moral ascendancy'. The masses would clap, jeer, leer, jump, roll, shout and carry their pitchforks - and in these unfortunate viral online mentality, these minor instances or 'online points' are memefied to obscene proportions.

Only one thing could be clear and that is - the direction of thought. 

• Where is this all leading us? 

• Where are all of these taking honest and straightforward discussion? Micro analyzing each event and coaxing positive or negative reactions is like the minutiae of a body's immune system, like a rabid virus being attacked by the anti bodies. 

Of these, only one thing can be sure, and that is the body is sick.

The Truth About ______________

My frozen fingers have lost their touch. Yet the warm laptop continues to warm the lower part of my belly. There were times when my fingers danced to the tune of chaos or of jubilation. Now, they tread softly, with remorse, with prohibition and with a dreadful mindfulness.

These words are frozen in time. Lost in the sewage of cacophony. The blaring bass filled vibrations echoing in my head signals the wandering in the wilderness. I knew this time would come. The time when the words ceased flowing like the river of justice. Now, they're just a dam. Accumulating.

The truth about he, whose name must not be spoken is that he was merely a magnifying glass and a mirror. A mirror into the soul of the Filipino. He is rage personified. He is vengeance unleashed in a calculating manner. The Punisher. He will be what he will be. And the Filipinos soul will be exposed for what we all are.

No amount of dazzling coronation rendered meaningless by the stain of truth. As if somebody threw a bottle of black ink on a wedding gown. It was there all along. The raging beast, the agonizing chattering of teeth, the petulant bickering seen so many times in the slums of Tondo and in some decrepit province. This is what Filipino discourse has devolved into.

So many screaming voices with raging fists, make the little children clasp their ears tightly. The noise of the unceasing fights, like a domestic spat or a maelstrom of demons and evil spirits.

Pandora's box was opened. I tried to warn everybody, yet everybody insisted on opening it.

Now we are bound by fate to make harried decisions on things beyond our control. Ecclesiastes 1:9-11 aptly sets the context. The Holy and Mighty Roman empire that never was, will most likely crumble before it ever came to be.

So many revelations unfolding like the rolling of the bloody red carpet. Yes, the Filipino is unveiling itself in a monumentally blundering manner for all to see and to snicker at. It would have been a funny and tragic comedy were it not that the whole world is also unraveling itself.

Sometimes, I question myself. I question time and age. Do things really unravel in this manner at my age? Or do I just have a blunted perception of the reality of instant and real time news? Yet we are enamored by it. r/worldnews, r/philippines and dear Lord, facebook.

It seems that the only way to go forward in the mindless and heartless bleed out is the painstaking hobbling forward. Like hobbling forward with a bullet hole in the head. Keeping on keeping on, despite the fact that everything is rendered moot and academic by the time all the blood has been shed. Upon reaching the destination, the weary traveler simply succumbs. Yes, we have reached the end.

There we shall rest.