Reason and Concern

BBL Deliberations Snagged

In what appears to be an expected mature and intelligent deliberations when the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) draft law was transmitted to Congress for deliberations now appears to be snagged by the Mamasapano Jan. 25 incident.

Already, several members of  the Philippine congress in both houses have either withdrawn support to the favorable passage of the BBL.

Members of Congress who were adamant in their desire to have the BBL bill passed in the interest of peace are now having a change of mind after the violence that claimed the lives of the Fallen 44.

Knowing the several decades of violence in Muslim Mindanao, our countrymen  have collectively hope for peace.

It may not be amiss to state here that several new investors in Mindanao have reconsidered their interest to invest. 

It is fundamental for investors to consider water and electricity, communications, and peace and order.

We can only wish and hope that the BBL shall pass for this country that we love and for our youth and children.

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The Purisima resignation should not be left without comments. Suspended by the Ombudsman for six months, here was General Purisima directing operations in the Mamasapano, Maguindanao Jan. 25 operations.

The Phiippine National Police is under the jurisdiction of  our civil service laws. But here is a suspended police general still performing functions and giving orders! Strange!

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53 years  ago, a friend who has already  gone to the  Great Beyond gave me  Rolando Carbonell’s collection of poems titled “Beyond Forgetting”.

Boys my age would oftentimes recite the poem Beyond Forgetting. Unfortunately, the book was  borrowed by a close friend who  lost it during a drinking spree. Nonetheless, I had the poem typed and kept after I borrowed a book of the same title from  a friend.

Here’s Beyond Forgetting:

For a moment I thought I could forget you.

For a moment I thought I could still the restlessness in my heart.

I thought the past could no longer haunt me- nor hurt me.

How wrong I was!

For the past, no matter how distant, is as much a part of me as life itself.

And you are part of that life. You are so much a part of me of my dreams, my early hopes, my youth and my ambitions- that in all tasks I can’t help remembering you.

Many little delights and things remind me of you. Yes. I came.  And would my pride mock my real feelings? Would the love song, the sweet and lovely smile on your face, be lost among the deepening shadows?

I have wanted to be alone. I thought I could make myself forget you in silence and in song...And yet I remembered.

For who could forget the memory of the once lovely, the once beautiful, the once happy world such as ours?

I came because that song I kept through the years is waiting to be sung. I cannot sing it without you. The song when sung alone will lose the essence of its tune, because you and I had been one.

I have wanted this misery to end, because it is part of my restlessness. Can’t you understand? Can’t you divine the depth and tenderness of my feelings towards you?

Yes, can’t you see how I suffer in this even darkness without you?

You went away because you mistook my silence for indifference. But, silence my dear is the language of my heart.

How could I essay the intensity of my love when silence speaks a more eloquent tone? But perhaps, you didn’t understand...

Remember, I came because the gnawing loneliness is there and will be lost until the music is sung, until the poem is heard, until the silence is understood... until you come to me again.

For you alone can blend music and memory into one consuming ecstasy. You alone.

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In our time and when Valentine’s Day comes, you can expect some young men writing love letters to their love ones. Or sending Valentine’s cards. 

I can fully remember them reciting Elizabeth Barret Browning’s immortal poem How Do I Love Thee?

Here’s the  poem:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of every  day’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;   

I love thee purely as they turn from Praise.

I love with a passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose  

With my lost saints,---I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life!---and if God choose, 

I shall  but love thee better after death. /MP