For days, the sound bytes for all-out war, all-out justice and all-out peace have captivated every Juan and Abdul with frenetic fever following the debacle of the so-called ‘test mission’ in al Barka, Basilan by special forces training for scuba diving.

It was a very costly ‘test mission’ not only in terms of human lives but also in terms of ‘re-igniting’ the hormonal imbalance of every Juan and Abdul in a contest for a raw display of testosterone.

But what is truly amazing is the fact that those distant and armchair wannabe ‘warriors’ have the farthest reach in a ‘pissing’ contest of war sound bytes. Metro Manila and other big urban centers far from the areas of conflict have the loudest call for the all-out war.

It is not surprising that the people far from conflict are the ‘boldest’ in calling for war so long as the desired war to paraphrase the old Mindanao song would take place in ‘the far - far Mindanao’.

Would the ‘brave’ armchair ‘warriors’ and the ‘war mongers’ change their tune if the war they desire would take place right at their very door steps?

Most people in these enchanted islands have experiences of war only in movies or through war reportage via cable news or through telenovelas. They are romantic experiences to say the least.

Prior to the 70’s, the only war experiences I had were through the stories of the 2nd World War narrated by my folks as they lived the Japanese ‘times’. To my folks, it was an experience that made them declare: ‘War, NEVER AGAIN!

The other experience of war was the TV series ‘Combat’. But it was a very romantic and one sided war, where the American GIs were always the victors and the German soldiers appearing so foolish.

Yet, to my big surprise while watching the first Papal Visit to the United Nations television coverage, on the 4th of October 1965, on the occasion of the UN 25th foundation anniversary, that slogan was the exact message of Pope Paul VI: ‘jamais plus la guerre, jamais plus la guerre! C'est la paix, la paix, qui doit guider le destin des peuples et de toute l'humanité!’ (never again, war, never again, war! It is peace, peace that should guide the destiny of people and the whole humanity!)

I began to understand its meaning during the war in the 70’s in Mindanao. The senseless blood letting and the victims were mostly the civilians and the young fighters on both sides.

War brings out the worst in humanity. The pillages, killings, massacres and mutilations of the fallen were no longer sound bytes or some romantic stories but real things that made you puke in revulsion!

We lived in fear and endless prayers when we traveled through ambush sites. We jumped and laid flat on the ground every time shootings began. People were taught not to trust the enemies and they learned to fight them with all they had!

We knew no peace and we had mastered the types of calibers by their sounds. We became familiar to the booming of the 105 howitzers and mortal shells.

They were evacuees everywhere (now, they are called internally displaced persons or IDPs). Informal settlements began to mushrooms in cities like Campo Muslim in Cotabato City, Campo Muslim in Zamboanga City. Farmlands abandoned and remained fallow for years! Houses burned and people learned to live in make shift evacuation centers.

The Estrada War of the year 2000 was a very costly one and for what? For war fetish and the flag-raising rituals that were only good for photo ops and that was it! Then the ‘fall’ of Camp Abubakar came and behold the actor Estrada appeared in a fatigue uniform like in his old movies and led the pack in feasting on lechons.

It was truly amazing that he acted and believed that he won the war in 2000. Yet what he won was a simple and fleeting battle. No doubt, that the Estrada’s of this world and their likes would always have their wars and most likely win their battles. It is after all a way of ‘prolonging’ their ‘favorite’ adolescent war games. Only this time, it was for real and other people paid for these ‘war games’ with their lives!

They know or pretend NOT to know that they will never win the war! War is never won by arms or by simple superiority of armaments.

There are enough lessons worldwide to tell us how war can be won! NOT by armaments but political settlements with dignity and justice to all!

In the era of globalization and the great wonders of technology and science, NO nation and NO people, today, stands alone, both in war or in peace. Either we stand together and survive or stand alone and perish! We need one another not as enemies but as partners. Unless we learn this basic fact of life, we have shall have NO future!

‘PEACE and NOT WAR should be the guide that shapes the destiny of peoples, nations and the whole humanity!’