On the 28th of July, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will, for the 7th time, address the joint session of Congress to make her “State of the Nation Address” or SONA. Pulse Asia has come out that only ONE out of ten believes in the truthfulness of her SONA. This “unbelief” or skepticism invites all and sundry to take a serious or a hard look at the realities confronting the nation. There are actually three possible responses to the scheduled SONA.

The first is to simply ignore it. It is a show of indifference and apathy that the greater majority of the Filipino people have become through the long years of GMA Presidency. This “cynicism” has crept in beginning with the “implosion” of GMA’s credibility and “loss” of her moral authority to govern due to the infamous “Hello Garci” tapes. The Filipino people has already decided that the SONA is yet another lie - a practice in self delusion projecting a world of fantasy or of fancy! To them, GMA’s SONA and the whole Congress included are simply non-event, at best and completely irrelevant, at worst! They are already inured to the vagaries and immorality of government thus they prefer to continue doing their things - ecking a livelihood that would give them a better chance to leave this country and work abroad.

The second group is the people you will find in the “protest movement”. The “protesters” will mount yet another mammoth rally both in Makati and Commonwealth Avenue. The various sectors that compose this group will unfold another SONA that is exactly opposite to the one that GMA will deliver at the opening of Congress. Some of you like me are active participants in this protest movement. Being veteran of the mass movements for years, it amazes me that after months of protesting in the streets, we are still in the process of finding common thread that would unite us in a common agenda.

The protesters’ SONA would be as diverse as the groups that compose this very disparate movement. They compete for platform for the causes that range from government transparency to “GMA Resign” to the “Ouster of GMA” and the entire Government. Out there in the streets, it has been an exercise in patience and endurance to identify the differing colors in this so-called “rainbow mass movement”.

Suffice to say that almost a third of this group remains the “Erap crowd”. The clamor of this group is “ibalik si Erap” or “Erap in 2010”. Some people will claim that this is a “paid” group. But paid or loyalists is a label that is irrelevant in the Filipino-style politics characterized by money, power and religions. In the final analysis, the really important thing is the fact that the group can easily command a crowd from 30,000 to 100,000 live bodies to march in any street in Metro Manila.

Erap and his crowd now bask on the “alleged” admission by the Catholic Church on the “wrongness” of the support given to EDSA 2 that led to his “illegal” ouster and rise of the “illegitimate” GMA Presidency. The “Hello Garci” scandal in the 2004 National Elections has only exacerbated the already “questionaable” legitimacy issue of GMA Presidency. Notwithstanding the decision of the Supreme Court that Erap had effectively resigned as President of the Republic, the issue of legitimacy has continued to hound the GMA Presidency and by implication the legitimacy of her SONA from day one.

The other third of this movement belongs to the “Progressive” or the “Democratic” Left. How progressive or democratic the left is, is yet another issue or rather irrelevant to our present discourse. The “Democratic Left” is the politically correct label after the 1989 collapse of the Berlin Wall. In the Philippines, however, the 1989 historic event hardly makes a difference when it comes to political “alignment” that continues to separate the “committed” along ideological divides.

Both the “ideologues” and many of the Catholic Church’s mainstream “eminences” and “excellencies” continue to see the Philippine struggle from the “unmoving” and archaic ideological perspective. The mainstream Catholic Church remains wary of the “causes” espoused by the so called “Democratic Left” and anytime they will readily embrace GMA and serve as GMA “acolytes” in her project to wipe the “Left” by 2010 with or without the “rule of law”.

Against the backdrop of “GMA-CBCP Tango”, there is a marginal strain within the Church that contests the status quo. For one, the Association of the Major Religious Superiors of both Men and Women and few members of the Philippine Hierarchy have, rightly or wrongly, “distance” themselves from the mainstream politics of the majority churchmen. For the religious, it is “normal” to find them in the “protest movements” since their “liminal” or prophetic call demands so. Definitely, the presence of the institutional church in the protest movements is a refreshing sight! It fascinates me no end to see the “purpled” Monsignori in rallies and marches. The likes of Archbishop Oscar Cruz (Lingayen-Dagupan), Archbishops Angel Lagdameo (Jaro), Bishops Deogracias Iniguez (Caloocan City), Antonio Tobias (Novaliches), Teodoro Bacani, and Bishop Navarra (Bacolod) are welcome sight that gives the young hope and faith in the Church. The most fascinating of this type is the old man Bishop Julio Labayen who in his 80’s is still full of fire and zeal in solidarity with the struggle of the poor. He epitomizes that prophetic strand in the Church in season and out of season.

While the clarion call of the Democratic Left has moved from GMA Resign to GMA Ouster, the alternative that they offer is, yet unclear. This ambiguity and “acceptability” issue of the “Left” in a largely conservative Philippine society, particularly the “ubiquitous” Catholic Church, makes the viability of the Democratic Left as an alternative still remote. While certain voices of the Left are now heard in mainstream politics, they are outnumbered, underfunded and often harassed in all fronts – from arrests to arbitrary killings and involuntary disappearances of their leaders and supporters, especially in the countryside.

The other third is the group of people who considered themselves as “moderates” yet completely revolted by the immorality (mainly referring to election cheatings), arrogance power and blatant corruption of GMA and her government. With the Private Sector and former Government Senior Officials, they continue to call for greater transparency and accountability in government. It originally launched the call for GMA resign and would prefer a sort of “constitutional” transition even taking the “bitter” pill of a “Noli Presidency” during the transition. But the call never galvanized into a political “tsunami” that would topple GMA. The group has become even more frustrated by the seeming apathy of the Filipino people vis-à-vis the issues raised against GMA.

With all the SONA’s to be delivered on the 28th of July, the bottom line is the real issue is the “evil” associated with GMA. I believe that her primary sin is her destruction of democratic institutions and utter disregard for the principle of check and balances in government. Money politics, payolas and power have defined, rightly or wrongly, the once upon time revered democratic institutions like the Congress of the Philippines, COMELEC, Government Departments and bureaucracies, Constitutional Commissions, Civil Service, Military & Police, the Justice System and institutions like the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and other Churches’ Councils through innuendos of payolas, donations and direct support to diocesan programs like values education and interreligious dialogue.

Second Sin is crystallized in the slogan: “Moderate your Greed”. The scandal of the NBN deal, North and South Rail Projects, Airports and Seaports Projects are few examples that speak of massive graft and corruption in government in unbelievable magnitude. It is money politics at its height. Everyone has a price and everyone can be bought!

The third is the tragic exodus of Filipinos overseas, particularly of our young people. The government has not offered any vision for the present and the future. The nation’s youth look outward for employment and their future. This “exodus” and “look outward” are indicators NOT of a “Strong Republic” but a classic “Failed State”.

A week ago, while attending the BBC General Assembly, a prominent business man of Makati struck me with his analysis of the Philippine realities. In our group, he said that the Philippines is facing an almost perfect storm. Political Crisis, Food Crisis, Energy Crisis, and next that will hit us, perhaps, is Monetary Crisis. The Philippine Government, with such low social capital, low credibility, and extremely low approval rating, cannot face this fast approaching perfect storm. As is…, the government will, definitely, list and sink ala the ill fated MV Princess of the Stars of the Sulpicio Lines.

There are no if’s and but’s, we are confronting a situation of emergency. GMA to survive will, in time, also demand for emergency powers to be able to “govern”. This kind of reading is now gaining currency. For this reason, talks, conspiracy and alliances are afoot giving rise to yet two major trajectories. The first is GMA trajectory, that is, GMA with emergency powers without ruling out martial law; and the second trajectory is the ouster GMA and her government and pave for a transitional arrangement with plenary powers that will restore first the democratic institutions, then write a new charter and return to normalcy after elections.

Whatever our politics are (the Erap strand, the GMA strand, the Left Strand or the more moderate strand) will matter little when the full storm hit us. Draconian measures will be demanded for survival and the questions that we need to resolve or be reconciled with is the issue of GMA with martial law powers or a Transition Government without GMA. The former will be done through money politics while the latter will be accomplished through extra-constitutional way.

Each one has to make a choice. If we have decided not struggle, the many and contradictory SONA’s are clear indicators that it is time to abandon ship in order to survive! I do not blame the many Filipinos that have taken that way. If I were in their shoes and still young, unless, I am willing to fight… I, too, will scamper for a “life jacket”, abandon ship and live!

Last Tuesday, the 15th of July, I attended the yearly Special Academic Convocation of the Ateneo de Manila University for the Conferment of Traditional University Awards. There are usually six awards and an honorary degree on humanities for this yearly fete in line with the university’s celebration of St. Ignatius de Loyola feast day that falls on 31st of July.

For the school year 2008-09, the Ateneo de Manila University has conferred five awards. They are as follows: Bukas Palad Award upon Very Rev. Antonio Pernia, SVD – the first Asian and Filipino Superior General of a major international religious congregation/order of men in the Catholic Church; Eugenia Duran-Apostol, the Parangal Lingkod Sambayanan “in recognition of her pioneering work in keeping the flame of hope in the dark days of Martial law and beyond, and her leadership in promotion of community-based education in the country”; Gilda Cordero-Fernando, the Gawad Tanglaw ng Lahi “in recognition of her outstanding achievements in creative writing, publishing and theater arts, her championing of the Filipino artistic genius, and her unequivocal faith in the cultural greatness and spiritual destiny of the Filipino”; the Sumilao Farmers with Atty. Arlene Bag-ao, the Ozanam Award “in recognition of their faith and courage to seek justice through active non-violent way, and for letting their light shine on the entire nation”; and Fernando Hofileña, MD, the Lux in Domino Award “for his inspired leadership and immense contribution to the fields of Pediatrics, Child Psychiatry and Special Education in the Philippines; for shining his light on the acts of heroism and contribution to his fellowman; for constantly answering the call to serve with a resounding “yes”; and for embodying the Ignatian spirit of “magis” in the twenty-first century”.

All the awardees are, truly, exemplary both by their lives and their works. There are two things that fascinated me in this annual conferment of awards by the Ateneo. The first is the marked absence of a recipient of the Government Service Award. The big puzzle to me is why with the number of Government people nationwide, none is found worthy for the said award. Me thinks that the deafening absence is either indicative of the level of “morality” that public service has fallen or simply an oversight of the Awards Committee. If the reason is the former, this is something very serious… and the absence of a recipient out of hundreds of thousands in public service is a prophetic indictment.

The second fascination is the Ozanam Award conferred upon the Sumilao farmers with Atty. Arlene Bag-ao. The Award is named after Frederick Ozanam, the great French leader, who founded the Society of St. Vincent de Paul dedicated to the relief of the poor. The purpose of the Award is to give public honor to people who have given distinctive and continued service to their fellowmen in accordance with the principles of justice and charity. The Award is intended to emphasize the importance of closely living the social teachings and prophetic tradition considered as the best guarded secrets of the Catholic Church.

I have asked permission from Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, SJ, President of the Ateneo, to freely quote from the citation read during the conferment. I have been deeply touched by the witness and values that the Sumilao farmers and Atty. Arlene Bag-ao have exemplary stood by in their struggle for their land in Bukidnon.

The narrative began in October of 2007 when fifty five (40 men and 15 women), many of them from the Indigenous Higaonon tribe started a historic march that would bring them from a small town called Sumilao in Bukidnon to the streets of Metro Manila. They traveled on foot for more than 1,700 kilometers for more than two months, reaching the nation’s capital region on the first week of December 2007.

The Sumilao farmers called their march a “Walk for Land, Walk for Justice.” They were fighting for a 144 hectare land that had been given to them more than ten years ago under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law. This land was then unjustly taken away from them by virtue of an order from the office of the president that gave the landowner the permit to convert the prime irrigated agricultural land to an agro-industrial area. The Supreme Court subsequently upheld the conversion order on technical grounds.

“The Sumilao farmers’ story is not just about the land case or about the land. It is about a long arduous walk that was gallantly done with faith. It is about the journey for justice that a community of powerless farmers collectively pursued, and the solidarity that it engendered.”

“The march was a walk to uncertainty. There was no assurance that upon reaching Metro Manila, the farmers would have a favorable resolution of their case. The only thing certain was their resolve to seek justice and to present their case and their cause. This enabled them to overcome the hunger and the fatigue, and to endure the heat and the rains. They were determined to reclaim their land and they strongly believed that somehow they would.”

“The march was a call for solidarity. Throughout the march, the Sumilao farmers attracted the attention of people from all walks of life. Bystanders were transformed into supporters. People from both the rural and urban areas, religious and lay alike, joined the marchers as they walked, ate, and rested, and as they discussed their quest for justice.”

‘The destination of the march that started in Sumilao, Bukidnon was not the streets of Metro Manila. The march was not just the walk of the farmers; it was the walk of an entire country. The destination of that journey for justice was the farmlands of Sumilao, Bukidnon. It was the walk of a nation seeking to correct an age-old injustice. It was a journey to bring home the Sumilao farmers to the land that is rightfully theirs.”

“The word ‘Sumilao’ refers to ‘shining light’. As farmers walked, step by step, day after day, they served as beacons of hope and inspiration, of faith and justice, traversing the dark straits of our country.”

The Sumilao farmers with Atty. Arlene Bag-ao got a standing ovation from the crowd who were touched and inspired by the story of their “Walk for Land” and “Walk for Justice”.

There are people who keep asking on practical approaches to peace building. There are no easy paths or quick fixes to peace. The discussion and debates among bloggers in this blog show the passion and temper when certain sensitivity is touched. Yet, if we look for practical approaches to peace, they are not found in textbooks but in the lives of people on the ground that has been living together for years. They teach us lessons drawn from actual living together as neighbors. The seven “Golden Rays” constitute actually a sort of “neighborhood approach” to Peace Building. This is a logical consequence of the saying that all politics is local so all peacemaking is also local.

The first is to establish a good relation with your neighbors. A Dominican experiment in Kabul years back before the rise of the Taleban tried an “open house” often described as a neighborhood where people readily “share and borrow” bread and salt for their daily life. The old town of Dulawan in Maguindanao is known for a neighborhood spirit that characterizes the peaceful living together of Muslims and Christians for years.

This spirit of neighborhood is “entrenched” in the psyche of people when they see friendship between and among religious leaders in their community (Pastors, Parish Priests, Ustadz and Ulama).

A clear indicator that this spirit is alive when people are able to celebrate festivals and feast days together like Christmas, Easter, Idul-Fitr and Idul Adha. As neighbors they are also present and participate in big occasions in the communities like weddings, graduation, career promotions, gathering at wake and celebrations of the third day and seventh day after death.

The second flows from that spirit of neighborliness that forges a sort of “Partnership” in common actions for the benefits of the community. The spirit of bayanihan is NOT dead. People have dug deep well to provide access to potable water to local school and health facilities. I have seen people of differing faith traditions build farm to market roads and other local infrastructures like water dikes during the time when community assistance or aid is given in the form of “food for work”.

The third arises from the communal and immediate humanitarian interventions to emergencies and crises. These are communal actions across faith frontiers and boundaries. They act as one people when they quell fire in the community. They provide shelters, food and clothing for refugees or displaced people during war. They help the victims rebuild their homes and livelihood. And in times of disasters, they look at each other as responsible stakeholders for the community.

The fourth is the capacity of local leaders in settling disputes in the community. They act as MEDIATORS that render justice to all parties concerned in the spirit of principled “kasunduan”. The parish priest, pastor, Imam, respected elder, School Principal are natural mediators. In olden times, there was the institution of “jues de paz” in each municipality. Before this institution was “professionalized” by lawyers, the jues de paz was not a lawyer but he or she was a highly respected elder in the community that acted as arbitrator and mediator to maintain peace and good neighborhood in the community. This institution was destroyed when it was “professionalized” that has transformed mediation and litigation a very expensive endeavor. The Hukum Baranggay keeps trying to recapture the spirit of arbitration at the baranggay level.

The fifth results from the ugly face of war. When people see local churches, mosques, convents, madaris and schools become places of refugee for victims of war. The institutions become sacred places for healing and reconciliation. There they tell their stories and the victims are cared - a powerful testimony of “damayan” in the community.

The sixth is the capacity to mobilize community energy usually led by the religious leaders to become a “forceful call” for cessation of hostilities and a pressure on the warring parties to go back to the negotiating table. The establishment of “peace zones” and “spaces of peace” is few examples of the communal peace initiatives at the grassroots.

And the seventh is when the community is able to build local institutions/mechanisms like Councils, Committees and Task Forces that shall empower them participate in a peace process and actions that sustain community peacemaking, peacebuilding and peacekeeping.

People claim that that any peace process to be sustainable must be community based. This gives rise to the triple slogan that was popular at one time during the Presidency of Fidel Ramos. Peace Process is genuine when you see on the ground “community based peacemaking; community based peacebulding and community based peacekeeping”. Peacemaking refers to actual negotiation that leads to a peaceful yet principled settlement of the conflict. Peacebuilding refers to the re-construction of lives, livelihood and community affected by the conflict. And peacekeeping refers to the vigilance of the stakeholders in preventing any signs of recurrence of conflicts in their community.

"Lord, make us instrument of your peace …" is a prayer of St. Francis of Assisi who first uttered it asking God to make him an instrument of peace, to sow love where there is hatred; give strength, where there is weakness; hope, where there is despair; light, where there is darkness. As such, it is a prayer that comes out of need. It is a cry out of anguish and weakness, out of helplessness and lack of power, out of faithfulness and disobedience, out of the conflicts and unpeace that continue to pervade the land, out of lack of justice and equity in the economic, social and political life.

The aspiration for peace is not only the aspiration of our people and the peoples of the world, but also God's own aspiration and concern. Peace is at the heart of God's aspiration and concern for the world. In Jesus' baptism in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit that descended upon Him came in the form of a dove – that powerfully powerless symbol of peace and good tidings. Again, when the risen Lord first appeared to the disciples, peace was the first word he uttered. It is a concern that we cannot escape or neglect. It is an aspiration and a concern that must always be at the center of the Church's concern.

We are committed to peace. On this matter, there can be no equivocation on our part. It is a commitment that is not born out of the practicalities of political adjustment or on the vagaries of military strategy. It is a commitment, on the contrary, that is rooted in our being as Christians and in our calling as ministers of the Church. Peace is what the Ministry of Christ is all about. It is for peace that Christ came and gave His life for the life of the world. It is at the heart of God's own work in this world. "He shall", writes the prophet Isaiah, "judge between nations and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore" (Isaiah 2:4).

We are inheritors of this work for peace. We believe in the vision it projects of a society and a world in which people need no longer or teach the ways of war. As such, we are called to be ministers of peace. Our task is to be peacemakers and to help in building the foundations of true and lasting peace in our planet.

God's peace as we all must know is not our peace. It is not the peace that offers pacification, nor is it the peace that only involves the absence of conflict. It is as Isaiah puts it, peace that is the fruit of righteousness, the peace that comes over dwelling places and the security of homes after "Justice dwells in the desert and righteousness lives in the fertile land” (Is. 32:16). It is shalom/salaam, where the vision of peace and wholeness is grounded in the work of justice. It is that peace which has been "brought near by the blood of Jesus Christ through whom the dividing wall of hostility has been broken and by whom we have all been made one” (Eph. 2:13 ff.).

We all need to give fuller expression of what all of this means. What does it mean for us to bear witness to this peace and be ministers of it amidst the sufferings and struggles of our people? What does it mean for us to be instruments of God's peace amidst the many wars and conflicts among nations and peoples, and in the light of the painful and tortuous struggle to build and establish a new world order of human equity, dignity and freedom? What does the peace of God mean amidst the incredible despoilage of nature and the rape of God's creation? These questions are not only a matter of theological clarification; they also demand a critical analysis of what is going on in our society and in our world.

"Lord, Make Us Instruments of Your Peace" is clearly a call to renewal and transformation. This prayer is a confession of what we are not yet at the same time it is a call for a critical examination, in the light of the demands of God's peace, of what we are and what we have been. Of what have we been instruments in the past, and what does it mean for our life and mission, our structures and organizations? This involves, too, our perceptions, reflections, our programs and activities – all to become instruments, in our time, of God's peace.

As St. Francis has so aptly put it, for us to be instrument of God's peace is to "sow". To sow is to plant, to nurture, to build. To sow the seeds of peace is to remove the roots of war and to put in their place, to nurture and to plant, the seeds of justice. The vision of God's peace, therefore, demands of us to draw up an agenda of justice upon which we will act and to which we commit ourselves. Here we are called to look into the areas in which we can make commitments and act together as part of our faithful obedience to the demands of God's peace.

We have been waging a fratricidal war between and among ourselves for years and some say for centuries. For although the war has been with us since early '70s, some claim that that the war has, in fact, been going on in this country since 1896 or perhaps even much earlier. The armed conflict that is raging throughout the land has exacted precious irreplaceable lives of combatants and non combatants, of young and old, of women and children. It has caused the burning and bombing of villages, the evacuation of thousands and the massacres of many others. It has depleted our natural resources and lessened our people's creativity and our land's productivity.

The roots of the present armed conflict: massive poverty, social inequality and injustice, the violation of basic human and political rights and the loss or diminution of national sovereignty, can be traced back to the politics of exclusion and economic exploitation from the colonial period to the present.

Yes, we live in a reality of unpeace and more than ever we need to beg God to make us his “instruments of peace”.