BANANACUE
REPUBLIC
Vol I, No. 16
Dec 22, 2004
by Daphne Cardillo
Divided We Fall
In one of our regular club meetings at the Toastmasters Club several years
ago, I delivered my second basic speech that portrayed the threat within
the military, an establishment considered to be solid and intact but once
rocked with problems of disunity. I posed myself as a soldier and
made an appeal to the military rebels composing the members of the
Reformed Armed Forces Movement, Soldiers of the Filipino People, and the
Young Officers Union. That observation I would like to raise again
as the situation is reflective of the changing face of our organizations
today. To wit:
"For several years in the past, you have graced the papers with news of public outbursts--from mutinees, to coup d'etats, jailbreaks, and putsches. The boldness of your actions is alarming that I fear the military establishment is producing men too strong and free-willed to belong to the world of command. There must be some grave reasons for your disaffection and disillusionment with the system in our organization and the bigger affairs of the nation as to resort to indiscriminate acts of violence on your part.
How grave those reasons might be, we must always remember our basic aims in military service. As men in uniform, we are entrusted with the responsibility of defending our country from internal and external threats to national security. Not all men are given that privilege to do honorable service to their country and their countrymen. Not all men are called to a life of discipline and obedience. And not all men can be proud members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Indeed, these are difficult and trying times for many of us, and the very time when a stronghold is needed to be depended upon for your nation's survival. United, we pose as a stronghold in this time of crisis, and a structure that is most likely to survive when the worst of situations come. Divided, we only bring chaos and calamity to the nation we aim to preserve, and can become the very victims of our own ways of destruction.
Now, it is improbably that the mainstream of the military will move to your side. However, what shall be fitting and necessary is for you to go back to the fold and help strengthen the very institution we are in. What must always prevail is for us to remain solid and dependable; for it is better for us to move in one direction--in peace or in war--than for many of us to spread apart.
There has been a lot of wasted and diffused energy that caused a lot of destruction in the past events. Rather than solely fighting against the forces of the left, we engage in an unwanted battle with forces of fellow soldiers on the right. A divided military is a weak military, and our disunity is a costly even in the face of a common enemy. Let us therefore humble ourselves and erase all pride and hypocrisy. Together must we fight to defend justice, freedom, and democracy. For all."
Posted 12/22/04. Send
your comment to bananacue_republic@yahoo.com
"Not
all men are given that privilege to do honorable service to their country
and their countrymen. Not all men are called to a life of discipline
and obedience. And not all men can be proud members of the Armed
Forces of the Philippines."