Today marks the date that martial law was declared in the Philippines in 1972.
It was a dark period in our history.
It was a time of fear, repression and oppression.
In its later years, it was a reign of contemptible greed, shameless abue of power, conspicuous consumption and in-your-face corruption.
It buried the country into a deep pit of depression
from which the country would take decades to recover from.
Martial law destroyed a whole generation of leaders
that could have made the country the prosperous nation we all dream of.
Today, storm clouds are again foreboding for the country.
The same disregard for human life and human rights.
The same repression of dissent and decent discussions.
The same cabal of irresponsible and unresponsive leaders.
In fact, many of our leaders are re-cycled and re-packaged remnants
of the dark days of the martial law regime.
I am sad that we had to go grow twenty years Marcos rule.
I am angry that we might have to go through the same nightmare again.
And the tragic thing is that today there are those who would think
another martial law regime is the best thing for the country today.
Today is the International Day of Peace.
And yet, there are wars raging all over the world.
Some declared and hot. Others are undeclared and low-conflict.
Both are bringing death, hunger and destruction to millions of lives.
It is very deplorable that of all the species on earth,
man is the only one that would kill for sport or pleasure.
We, as human beings, are the only rational species on earth.
We are supposed to know and do better.
Yet, we are the main cause of death and destruction on this planet.
No man was ever born with hatred in his heart.
We learned hatred later in life.
Our default emotion has always been to love, to care, to share.
What happened to us?
Peace will happen only when we go back to our default:
Love. Caring. Sharing.