Do We Have an Option? by Erick San Juan

  Do We Have an Option? by Erick San Juan

The recent presentation of some photos by strategic analyst Rommel Banlaoi during his television interview on the structures built by China in the contested areas in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea), only proved one thing, that there is no stopping the Chinese on their majority claim of the SCS. They had fortified it with permanent structures through reclamation of mostly submerged shoals.

It is quite obvious that the reclaimed area holds an airstrip (a.k.a. aircraft carrier) in the middle of the hottest contested area in the region which escalated even more the already hot tension among the claimants.

Like what Veeramalla Anjaiah cited in his article – ‘War clouds hanging over the South China Sea’ in The Jakarta Post, China’s rising assertiveness, the firmness of claimants like the Philippines and Vietnam and the big powers’ interest in the region, have led to fears that tensions might escalate into armed conflict between the contumacious China and one or two claimant countries in 2015, said a top US think-tank in a survey recently. The Washington-based Center for Preventive Action (CPA), a research wing of the Council on Foreign Relations, rated South China Sea as one of the top 10 potential conflicts in its Preventive Priorities Survey 2015.

According to the survey, the other nine potential conflicts are Iraq, a large-scale terrorist attack on the US or an ally, North Korea, Israel’s attacks on Iran, the Syrian civil war, Afghanistan, Ukraine, cyber-attacks and Israeli-Palestinian tensions. “One high-priority contingency — an armed confrontation in the South China Sea — was upgraded in likelihood from low to moderate this year,” the CPA said.

And here is another view from David Tweed (Bloomberg), “When it comes to territorial tensions in the South China Sea, it’s more about what goes through it than what lies beneath it.”

When China established its air defense identification zone (ADIZ) setting its airspace control, this time they secured the area where “almost a third of global crude passes through the South China Sea, or 14 million barrels of oil a day," according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

"The countries bordering the South China Sea produced about 1.26 million barrels of oil a day in 2011— just 1.4 percent of the 89 million barrels a day the International Energy Agency says is consumed globally.”

This is the reason why Uncle Sam kept saying that they are more concerned with the freedom of navigation in the SCS which also include freedom or free flow of communication and technology.

“The South China Sea dispute is not some struggle for energy,” said Shi Yinhong, director of the Center for American Studies at Renmin University in Beijing and an adviser to China’s State Council. “This is a dispute for maritime territory and there is no compromise over claims.”

China says it is entitled to about four-fifths of the South China Sea, based on a nine-dash line drawn on a 1940s map that loops down like a cow’s tongue to a point about 1,800 kilometers (1,119 miles) south from China’s Hainan island. The area overlaps claims from Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan.

The HS 981 oil rig episode last year illustrated the tensions. When it was first deployed for exploration work in 2012, CNOOC Ltd. (883) Chairman Wang Yilin described deep-water rigs as “our mobile national territory and strategic weapon for prompting the development of the country’s offshore oil industry.” (Ibid)

There is actually more than meets the eye in the unending tensions in the SCS between China and the other claimants especially the Philippines when we filed a case in February 2013 against China’s claims at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague.

But China, in a rare move on Dec. 7, 2014 released its position paper on the SCS dispute in which it claimed that the arbitration had no jurisdiction because the dispute was over territorial sovereignty.

Unfortunately, China stood firm on its position that the disputes should be resolve bilaterally among the claimants.

Last week, at the 5th Philippines-United States Bilateral Strategic Dialogue held at the Diamond Hotel in Manila, US Asst. Secretary of State Daniel Russel and Defense Asst. Secretary David Shear reiterated that the US government is supporting a peaceful resolution of disputes in SCS. But Asec Russel clarified that US does not support the content of the Philippine claim and they will not take a position on the merits of the case. He concluded that EDCA IS AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE US AND THE PHILIPPINES TO COOPERATE.

Then what? Do we have a choice? Poor Philippines. We are really cannon fodders due to our leaders wrong policies and weak negotiators. Let us wait and see until, maybe, just maybe something good will come up at The Hague?

The world is on the verge of global economic collapse. The rise of conflicts in so many parts of the globe are warning signs that more dangerous scenarios are approaching.

May God help us.

Sanctions to Self-Preservation: Prelude to War

Sanctions to Self-Preservation: Prelude to War
By Erick San Juan

Swiss National Bank (SNB) removed its exchange rate cap vs. euro. Swiss has been supporting the global exchange rate of EU (European Union) with its own money. Due to deflationary pressure, the Swiss economy is affected by the poor economy of the European Union despite the European Central Bank overprinting of money and quantitative easing policy through Outright Monetary Transactions allowing ECB to directly buy sovereign debt. Swiss National Bank feared that it may hold worthless euro paper money. This is the perceived reason by economic analysts and columnists  why SNB broke away from ECB, FED and IMF for self-interest. Like a coup, an element of surprise, it undermined the credibility of the global exchange rate stability or the Old Boys Club. (John Mangun, 1/17/2015)

This move by the Swiss National Bank is just the beginning.  Expect more desperate moves on the global economic chessboard in the days ahead.  But in the end, none of those moves is going to prevent what is coming.

And one of these days, another extremely important currency peg is going to end.  Right now, the Chinese have tied their currency very tightly to the U.S. dollar.  This has helped to artificially inflate the value of the dollar.  Unfortunately, as Robert Wenzel has noted, someday the Chinese could suddenly pull the rug out from under our currency, and that would be really bad news for us…

In other words, the SNB is no People’s Bank of China type patsy, where the PBOC (People's Bank of China) has taken on massive amounts of dollar reserves to prop up the dollar.

Will the PBOC learn anything from SNB? If so, this will not be good for the US dollar.

So keep a close eye on what happens in Europe next.

It is going to be a preview of what is eventually coming to America? (Michael Snyder, globalresearch.ca 1/18/2015)

While in India, Raghuram Rajan, the Central Bank head shocked India last January 15 by unexpectedly slashing the benchmark repurchase rate to 7.75 from 8%. He predicted the 2008 global financial crisis, he warned that world’s major economies were flirting with deflation. The threat of global secular stagnation and lower prices in India prompted him to act. (William Pesek, 1/17/2015)

The above-mentioned scenarios are descriptions how world wars predicated, that is, laying the predicate towards a global conflict just like during the Great Depression era. A déjà vu?

Nations’ banksters and big business are partly to be blamed why nations are pushed to the wall and in the process, engaged in war preparations.

While in Russia, credit rating agencies are doing the ‘dirty works’. In the article by Andrew Korybko he writes, “Credit rating agencies are predicting quite a storm for the Russian economy, and they are therefore threatening to lower the country’s status to ‘junk’ level. Just as a weatherman may be incorrect about their storm predictions, so too a ‘financial meteorologist’, except the latter has ulterior motives in doing so.

Standard and Poor has joined Moody’s in launching an attack on the Russian economy, hoping that the threat of lowering Moscow’s credit status will somehow translate into political changes in Eastern Europe. Although such an idea may seem plausible in theory, in practice it’s absolutely disjointed from reality and merely symbolizes the third wave of the economic war on Russia. This coming economic storm, cooked up in the West, is going to come up against the multipolar storm breaker of Russia and China’s own Universal Credit Rating Group (UCRG), expected to become active later this year. When the waves inevitably crash, the West may find that it has unwittingly and irreversibly damaged its own unipolar economic defenses and opened up a flood of multipolarity.

Russia and China, the two anchors of the multipolar world via the Russian-Chinese Strategic Partnership, are taking the initiative in creating an alternative institution to counter the West’s politically motivated economic ratings. This creates more openings for the actualization of full-spectrum multipolarity, whereby this concept makes the leap from the geopolitical to the institutional, with the long-term potential of rivaling (and perhaps unseating) the West’s ‘supremacy’ in the targeted fields. Importantly, however, this entire episode portends the division of the world into two camps, with the unipolar and multipolar worlds slated for their inevitable face-off sometime later this century.”

Such sanctions could only spell trouble for the world’s economy when sovereign nations like China and Russia are pushed to the wall, the only way out to self-preservation might lead to war.  

Another False Flag Op by Erick San Juan

Another False Flag Op by Erick San Juan

“Terrorism isn't a crime against people or property. It's a crime against our minds, using the death of innocents and destruction of property to make us fearful. Terrorists use the media to magnify their actions and further spread fear. And when we react out of fear, when we change our policy to make our country less open, the terrorists succeed -- even if their attacks fail. But when we refuse to be terrorized, when we're indomitable in the face of terror, the terrorists fail -- even if their attacks succeed.”  ― Bruce Schneier (an American cryptographer, computer security and privacy specialist, and writer. He is the author of several books on general security topics, computer security and cryptography)

The world is under the threat of terrorism (again) and since that tragic day in September 2001, the global war on terror (GWOT) has always been the valid excuse for staging war (and virtual occupation) of sovereign states in the guise of restoring democracy and persecuting the so-called terrorists. And now, in Paris – the heart of Europe, another terror attack against what they tagged as suppressing press freedom and/or freedom of speech and expression symbolized by Charlie Hebdo.

As in any other terror attack that happened in world’s history, one will ask – who benefits? In this case, who do we believe? Right after the Paris crisis, a lot of articles based on analysis of various writers and analysts emerged, trying to shed light on the mastermind or the intentions of such act of terrorism.

But because there were signs of a possible false flag operation by possible state-sponsored terrorists, we can never tell who is telling the truth, as in the case of 9/11. There was the ‘official report’ done by the US government but in the long run, witness after witness came out in the open and gradually the September 11, 2001 WTC attack is now openly branded as another false flag operation, and actually an inside job. Proofs are all over the internet, various groups of truth-seekers were formed in order to unearth the truth. And the rest is history still unfolding, just like the Paris attack, time will come (maybe sooner than we expect), that truth will prevail and the real perpetrators will be unmasked.

In the article “The Charlie Hebdo Rally: Media Distortions and Hypocrisy in Paris” by Stephen Lendman (1/12/15) he writes: French officials condemned Paris killings.

"Israel’s Netanyahu is a serial liar. US-led NATO leaders and Netanyahu are war criminals multiple times over.

Who mourns for millions US-dominated NATO victims? Murdered in cold blood? Noncombatant men, women and children.

Lost Palestinian lives and slaughtered. Others ruthlessly persecuted.

What about on average one defenseless Black youth per day killed by US cops?

Who holds solidarity marches for justice? Mourns victims. Supports surviving family members. Rallies for justice. Demands state-sponsored terrorism end. The madness of one imperial war after another. Senseless slaughter and destruction.

Trillions of dollars down a black hole of war profiteering, waste, fraud and abuse. Wars are dirty. Merciless. Unjust. Lawless."

Good ones don’t exist. Poet Robert Burns said “more inhumanity has been done by man himself than any other of nature’s causes.”

“Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.Out of sight and mind worldwide. Every day of the year."

Who notices their suffering? Who explains their grief? Who televises it?

What world leaders express solidarity? Which ones demand no more wars?

George Santanyana said “only the dead have seen the end of war.”

Howard Zinn denounced the myth of good wars. Preventing peace and perpetuating violence.

WW II was worst of all. WW III if waged will be the war to end all future ones. Today’s destructive WMD's  (weapon of mass destruction) can end life on earth.

Zinn said “we need to decide that we will not go to war, whatever reason is conjured up by the politicians or the media, because war in our time is always indiscriminate, a war against innocents, a war against children.”

"No flag (is) large enough to cover the shame of killing (millions) of innocent people.”

Over a century ago, Mark Twain expressed outrage about America slaughtering Filipinos. Things were like today on a smaller scale.

"Imperial conquest is vicious. Having nothing to do with liberating oppressed people.

Or championing democracy. Free expression. A free press. Freedom of assembly, association, and religion.

The right of people to hold ruling authorities accountable. Receive redress for grievances. Institute governance of, by and for everyone. Equitably and just. A new dawn."

Mark Twain said “I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines.”

“We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem.”

"And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land.”

“We have pacified some thousands of the islanders and buried them; destroyed their fields, burned their villages, turned their widows and orphans out-of-doors, (and) subjugated the remaining ten million by Benevolent Assimilation, which is the pious new name of the musket…”

He proposed a new American flag. Envisioning one “with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and cross-bones.”

Appalled that General Jacob Smith ordered his troops to 'kill and burn.'

“This is no time to take prisoners,” he said. "The more you kill and burn, the better.”

“Kill all above the age of ten. Turn (the Philippines into) a howling wilderness.”

Wars are lunatic acts. Resolving nothing. Preventing any hope for peace. Begetting endless violence.

It is perceived that waging perpetual wars reflects official US policy. Crimes of war, against humanity and genocide follow. Millions of corpses attest to alleged America’s barbarity.

Paris mourns 17 lost lives. Avoidable tragedies, victims deserving to live,  get equitable and just treatment.

Who mourns for the daily victims of US-dominated NATO ruthlessness from ongoing imperial direct and proxy wars?

Endless ones. Countless millions affected worldwide. The dead, dying, mutilated, suffering, deprived and exploited.

Who rallies on their behalf? Who demands lawless imperial slaughter end? Who accepts nothing less than peace, equity and justice?

Who puts their bodies on the line for them? Who resists growing tyranny in Western societies?

Who fights for democratic freedoms fast slipping away? Who demands responsible governments replace ill-serving ones? Who goes all out for what matters most?

Public rallies achieve nothing nor high-minded rhetoric. Committed grassroots activism for change alone works.

Sustained for the long haul. No matter the cost. The alternative is continued subjugation. Ruler/serf societies, ones unfit to live in.

The kind by some evil genius in Washington intends instituting worldwide. Unless mass public outrage stops it once and for all.

Rally for right over wrong daily. Support what matters most. Forget about Je suis Charlie.

Propaganda rubbish shoved down our throats. By Western oppressors vital to oppose. The fundamental issue of our time!”

These are the questions and comments being asked by millions of people and netizens worldwide.

Yes, we have our own share of being the victim, time and again of liberators-turned-oppressors conniving with leaders-turned-collaborators and sadly it is still ongoing.

When are we going to learn?

Ebola: Depopulation Virus by Erick San Juan

Ebola: Depopulation Virus by Erick San Juan


“There is no natural disease called Ebola,” according to Dr. Abdul Alim Muhammad, minister of health and human services for the Nation of Islam. He called Ebola a “weaponized virus” rooted in chemical and biological weapons research by Germany in the 1930s and perfected in the United States. It is a weapon that can be used to depopulate, weaken and dominate nations, he said. (FinalCall.com News, 9/30/14)

This is not a far out statement because the Department of Defense and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) itself classify the Ebola virus as a biowarfare agent. Reports of up to 90% of humans infected die within a very short time. Therefore, it is a very real, extremely potent potential weapon of mass destruction.

They are creating new strain of a previous virus and making it deadlier than the original one, the goal – to infect more and in the process create a global pandemic killing millions around the world to a certain genotype which they tagged as ‘useless eaters’. The mere fact that certain viruses like Ebola is not ‘natural’, this is so because this was manufactured in biological weapons research laboratories and the worst part is when such virus escapes the laboratory when accident happens and thus will cause chaos.

From the article “EXCLUSIVE: Was Ebola Accidentally Released from a Bioweapons Lab In West Africa?” by WashingtonsBlog posted on October 23, 2014… And accidents at these research facilities have caused germs to escape, killing people and animals near the facilities.

For example, the Soviet research facility at Sverdlovsk conducted anthrax research during the Cold War. They isolated the most potent strain of anthrax culture and then dried it to produce a fine powder for use as an aerosol. In 1979, an accident at the facility released anthrax, killing 100. A Russian Ebola researcher also died when she cut her finger while in the lab.

The U.S. has had its share of accidents.  USA Today noted in August:

More than 1,100 laboratory incidents involving bacteria, viruses and toxins that pose significant or bioterror risks to people and agriculture were reported to federal regulators during 2008 through 2012, government reports obtained by USA TODAY show.

In two other incidents, animals were inadvertently infected with contagious diseases that would have posed significant threats to livestock industries if they had spread. One case involved the infection of two animals with hog cholera, a dangerous virus eradicated from the USA in 1978. In another incident, a cow in a disease-free herd next to a research facility studying the bacteria that cause brucellosis, became infected ….

The issue of lab safety and security has come under increased scrutiny by Congress in recent weeks after a series of high-profile lab blunders at prestigious government labs involving anthrax, bird flu and smallpox virus.

The new lab incident data indicate mishaps occur regularly at the more than 1,000 labs operated by 324 government, university and private organizations across the country ….

“More than 200 incidents of loss or release of bioweapons agents from U.S. laboratories are reported each year. This works out to more than four per week,” said Richard Ebright, a biosafety expert at Rutgers university in New Jersey, who testified before Congress last month at a hearing about CDC’s lab mistakes.

The only thing unusual about the CDC’s recent anthrax and bird flu lab incidents, Ebright said, is that the public found out about them. “The 2014 CDC anthrax event became known to the public only because the number of persons requiring medical evaluation was too high to conceal,” he said.

CDC officials were unavailable for interviews and officials with the select agent program declined to provide additional information. The USDA said in a statement Friday that “all of the information is protected under the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002.”

Such secrecy is a barrier to improving lab safety ….

Gronvall notes that even with redundant systems in high-security labs, there have been lab incidents resulting in the spread of disease to people and animals outside the labs.

She said a lab accident is considered by many scientists to be the most likely source of the re-emergence in 1977 of an H1N1 flu strain that had disappeared in 1957 because the genetic makeup of the strain hadn’t changed as it should have over those decades. A 2009 article in the New England Journal of Medicine noted the 1977 strain was so similar to the one that disappeared that it suggests it had been “preserved” and that the re-emergence was “probably an accidental release from a laboratory source.”

A credible explanation how the bat was infected by the Ebola virus that was transmitted to a human in Africa because there are bio-warfare research laboratories in these places.

It is for this reason that Indonesia suspended the US laboratory (NAMRU-2) on its territory and has refused to prolong bilateral agreement on cooperation in the area of epidemiological diseases, which as it was estimated in Jakarta, threatened national interests.

We have to remember the NSSM 200.

In a national security memo dated December 10, 1974 titled, “Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for the United States Security and Overseas Interest,” Henry Kissinger, then the secretary of state, wrote: “The United States economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad, especially from less developed countries.”

And in the policy paper “Rebuilding America’s Defenses” by the Project for a New American Century,” noted: “The art of warfare will be vastly different than it is today. Combat likely will take place in new dimensions. Advanced forms of biological warfare that can target specific genotypes, may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool.”

An unseen war now waging worldwide, killing millions. Scary indeed how a few powerful men using the combined science and technology can create a deadly virus that can kill millions of people in just a very short period of time.

This is crisis by design indeed.

SPIRITUALITY AND DIVERSITY by Erick San Juan

SPIRITUALITY AND DIVERSITY by Erick San Juan

Dean Louie,Dr. Villegas, Beloved Faculty, Students, friends, ladies and gentlemen:

The topic I was tasked to talk about is something I would admit is threatening if not scary – in the sense that I hardly delved on this topic in my day to day programs nor in my columns.  Nonetheless, I would venture to do so in the hope that I would be able to share my little knowledge about the subject.  

Methinks, that the students of Letran have high intellect that can cope up with this kind of subject that even masters degree students are sometimes finding it hard to comprehend.

First, let me begin my premise by stating that: Man is both matter and spirit. And second:  The primary or basic law of the universe is HARMONY, BALANCE and UNITY.

Since man is matter and spirit, he endeavors to satisfy his material needs, yet, and unfortunately, less effort is invested in the spiritual dimension except through religiosity.  But spirituality and religiosity are not the same; although, religion is a vehicle by which man can evolve spiritually.  Before I proceed any further, allow me to trace the etymology of the word “religion”. The word religion comes from the two Latin words “rele” and “garre”. Rele means back, and garre means combine, therefore, religion is a PROCESS of combining back, of joining back or uniting back.  The question is: With what, or with whom?  In our Christian Faith, we are taught that our ultimate goal in life is to return to God, to re-unite with our creator.  But that can only be possible if one can follow and live the tenets given to us by the Messiah, the Teacher, our Lord Jesus Christ. But how many of us can follow him or even imitate the virtuous and teachings of the Messiah, of the Great Teacher.

This is not only true among Christians, men of other religions also fall short of the teachings of their religion for the simple reason that we build walls around us, we encircled our religion and those outside of the circle are not part of us; not realizing that all men are brothers irrespective of faith or religion they profess. This non-acceptance of the universal brotherhood of men led to the disintegration of humanity, to chaos, to strife and even wars.  It has been said that when man organized religion, sooner or later, they will fight and defend not the teachings of their religion but the organization.  Suffice it to say that the essence of all religion is the same.  They may differ in ways and practices in manifesting their devotion, but essentially, they invoke the same God in whatever name they may call Thee.

In the Philippines which was tagged as the only Christian country in the Far East, there are more than 2,000 religious organizations registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  Yet, despite the number, many Filipinos live a wayward life.   Many are thieves, murderers, infidels, adulterers, racketeers, estafadores, drug addicts, etc.  These ignominies cannot otherwise be characterized as religious.  The only conclusion could be that the Church, the School, or even the family is a failure in instilling morality among our people.  This becomes so because we do not practice our religion properly, because we remain ignorant of our religion, because we interpret religious teachings literally instead of symbolically or mystically. Religion cannot be understood through literal interpretation not even through intellectualization.  If the search of truth is the goal of a religious man, he cannot find it by intellection; for truth is beyond the faculties of man.  The Bible, no less, mentioned that “Be still and know that I am God”; further, he said: “Know ye not that you are the temple of God and the Holy Spirit dwells in you”, or “The Kingdom of God is within you, seek it and all these things shall be added unto you”.

I hate to say this, but it is a reality that religious leaders and not religion are the greatest divisive factor amongst men.  And that divisiveness is brought about by diversity of belief—and belief is of the mind.  I remember the statement of one holy man, he said: The mind is the great slayer of the real, let the disciple slay the slayer; if I may add:  It takes a mind to know, but it takes a heart to understand.

Another factor that contributes to diversification of religion and parochialism is the lack of knowledge of history. To know the nature of a tree, we have to study not only the branch or the twigs; we must study the entire tree, to examine the entire structure from the leaves to the roots. To limit our sight to just one or some parts of the tree is tantamount to seeing the trees but not the forest.  As Christians, Roman Catholic or whatever, we have to study the historicity of religions of the World, from the Ancient times to the present, because then and only then that we could grasp the meaning and content of all religions. Through this effort, you would realize the relevance of language development as an indispensable tool in any field of study—including religion.  This variety of languages and interpretations gave rise to understanding as well as misunderstanding. Language and symbols more often than not resulted to division/separation or integration.

In the case of the Philippines, contemporary Filipinos continue to believe what a well known author would say:  “The hand of God upon this nation was such, and the spiritual hunger of the Filipinos so great, that Catholicism, the first sect of Christianity brought to these islands in the 16th century, triumphed easily.  It is one of history’s incredible facts that the overall conquest of the Philippines was achieved more by the Cross than by the Sword, and the conversion of the Filipinos to Catholicism proceeded at a quicker pace than in the other European colonies”  Such statement arise from missing and essential piece in the puzzle.  The Christianization of the Filipinos by the colonizing Spaniards was not at all that “incredible” if we take into account that the Ancient Filipinos (Maharlikans as they were called during the Srivijaya and Majaphahit Empires) were already Christianized before 1521.

It should be no wonder then that when the Spanish conquistadors arrived and immediately evangelized the islands, the Filipinos readily “embraced” Christianity.  When they saw the Cross carried by the Spaniards, they warmly welcomed them and the Christianity they brought along.  The natives must have thought that this was the very same Christianity brought to them EARLIER  by the Catholic merchants and missionaries from Mesopotamia.

The 377 years of colonial rule of Spain in the Philippines produced in us a cultural mentality that gives credit to Spain for our advancement and devotion to Rome for the upliftment of the spirit.  At that time, to be a Filipino was to be a subject of Spain as well as subject of Rome.  A good Filipino meant a devout Roman Catholic loyal to the pope and the king of Spain.

Books in history and literature covering the Hispanic period taught that Christianity and literacy were brought to us by the Spanish Roman Catholic Friars.  Those books claimed that the religion the Spaniards brought to the Philippines was the same one Christ founded in Jerusalem and spread to Greece and finally to Rome. From Rome, the Church spread to the whole of Europe and, during the time of the conquistadors, to the Americas and the Far East.  This conjecture perpetuated to this day that it was the Spaniards who introduced the Catholic Church to the Philippines in 1521.

Many of you will be amazed to know that prior to colonization, our forefathers had already heard and lived the gospel of Christ brought to our shores by the missionaries of the “lost sheep of the house of Israel”, the Christians of Mesopotamia.  Had not the colonizers destroyed and decimated whatever proof of civilization they come across, it would have been easy for us to accept this fact.  What they did ushered us to darkness and obscured our ancient and pre-Hispanic history and the true heritage of the Filipino people.Because our ancient language were neither Latin nor Spanish and our alphabets were not Roman, we were perceived to be uncivilized and animistic pagans – a grave error proven by Anthropology. Our pre-Hispanic culture passed the 11 basic criteria of civilization.At the time of the conquest in 1569, the natives can read and write than among the common people of Europe.  The native e language was TAGAL, one of the most highly developed Malayo-Polynesian forms of speech and alphabetic writing system. During the early part of colonization, the people of Luzon made translations of every kind of literature from the Spanish to TAGAL.   This ability can be attributed to the Missionary Teachers of the Church of the East.  This Church of the East is the Catholic Church in Mesopotamia (Persia and Parthia) founded by the Five (5) Apostles.  This is the Church of the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel.  During a Babylonian festivities in Iraq, I was amazed to know that there were a lot of Catholic churches in Iraq. I was told by an old Catholic priest that Filipinos came from the roots of Benjamin and Manila was formerly Marinullah, the center of commerce during that time.

The set of ancient letters that originated from Mesopotamia is called ALEBATA.  The first two letters of the Aramaic language(the language of Lord Jesus) used by Mesopotamians and surrounding countries are ALAP (ALEPH in Hebrew) and BETH from which the Filipinos name their letters ALEBATA.   The first Greek letter is ALPHA and the second letter is BETA.  Hence, the word ALPHA-BET.  Like the Aramaic letters, the Filipinos’ ALEBATA has no letters C, F, J, and X.

So, the Philippines was already Christianized long before it was discovered by Magellan and consequently colonized by Spain in 1569.  However, it was not easy to establish how extensive the evangelization of the natives by the Catholic Church of the East due to scant remains of what were destroyed by the over-zealous and rampaging colonizers.

According to Pigafetta’s record, the first Filipino kingdom they encountered in Butuan, Norther Mindanao, wore ornaments gilded with gold and able to entertain with Chinese porcelains.  The Filipino king worshiped spiritually and raised their clasped hands and their faces to the sky; and . . .  called their god “Abba”.

In St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians (4:6-7) says:  “As proof that you are children, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’  So you are no longer a slave but a child . . .”.  Today, in the Philippines, the Catholic Church of the East celebrates the ancient Mass and uses the prayers composed by the Apostle, St. Jude Thaddeus, in which we address God the Father; “ABBA, YAOHU”

ABBA is an Aramaic word that means ‘father or daddy’ as used by children at home.  The common word for God in Aramaic is Alaha.  The ancient Tagalog word for God is Bathala.  The different Visayan dialects have the same word for heaven: HIMAYA and kahimayaan (heavenly).  In the Aramaic language, heaven is SHMAYA.

Spain was under the Moors (Moslems) for eight centuries and Pigaffeta, a Spaniard who was familiar with the way the Moslems pray-- has this to say:  “The manner of worship of the Butuan king was definitely not Mohammedan”.  What he observed was the manner of prayer that was taught to them by the missionaries of the Catholic Church of the East.

Pigaffeta wrote that the Filipinos “worshiped spiritually”.  In the sense that they raise their clasped hands and their faces to the sky, could possibly a conclusion that they did not use idols and statues which was, and still is, a characteristic of pagan worship.

The Catholic Church of the East never uses statues because it worships God “in spirit and truth”.  A fourth century priest of the Catholic Church of the East wrote:  “The foundation of our faith is YAOHUSHA, the rock upon which the whole is built.  A man first believes, then loves, then hopes, then is justified and perfected and becomes a TEMPLE for the MESSIAH TO DWELL IN.   The man who has faith will study to make himself worthy of being a DWELLING  PLACE for the SPIRIT OF THE MESSIAH . . .   Christianity is the revelation of a DIVINE SPIRIT DWELLING IN MAN and fighting against moral evil. . . “

The Jesuits of 1640  and the Augustinians of 1702 described the religious beliefs of the native Filipinos.  They said that the Filipinos believed in a creator God who lived in the Sky. He created the first man.  When man multiplied, along with his sins, God punished them with flood.  They offered sacrifices to this one God, and recognized no other.  They believed in the immortality of the soul.  After death, the good are rewarded in paradise and the bad punished.  In marriage, they are monogamous and they don’t practice concubinage.

I may sound deviating from my topic but I opted to give you a glimpse of the past that we may understand the present, having been aware that most of us have been exposed to history books that were written from the vantage point of those who colonized us.  Besides, many of you are only familiar to a history that started in 1521.           

It may therefore be inferred that the spiritual consciousness of our forebears, the preceding generations before us was molded by the teachings and gospel of the Catholic Church of the East that was buried deep by the onslaught of history of persecution and inquisition during the pre-colonial time; and was resurrected by a similar, though I hope some of you will not be offended, an adulterated western Catholicism introduced to us in the 16th century.       

Based on the foregoing, we cannot deny the connection of religious teachings to spirituality as I mentioned earlier. Nonetheless, I would repeat that religiosity does not connote spirituality. Religiosity is an outward manifestation of beliefs, rituals and practices which are dogmas of the Church; while spirituality is a manifestation of inner qualities and behavior towards the outside world. Spirituality recognizes the wholeness and unity of all creation. Spirituality does not trample on the beliefs, rituals, doctrine and practices of others, instead, they are accepted and respected as another path of enlightenment for others. Tolerance of othet belief, faith or religion is an act of spirituality. Our Creator did not make us uniform in size, color, beauty, form, gender and even habitat. Our Lord God deemed it good to have an array of genre, species and all other things we perceive. While these creations are varied and numberless, they all exist in harmony, in oneness and equality. It is man's ignorance and greediness that create disharmony, disunity and inequality.

We have to be wary of the so called globalists paradigm shift using religious to handle the sensitivity of others especially now that 'workforce' is changing. According to Angelo John Lewis and Dr. Zachary Green of Diversity and Spirituality Network, Population demographics dictate that everyone should learn to work together in-spite of their differences and degree of tolerance. Through this principle, the people of the world can be united despite their differences in religious practice, a source of centuries of conflict. There's a need for common ground to beliefs. The new shared reality through spirituality and diversity.                 

This is the reason why I always adhere to the principle of-"Just do good, be good and feel good." Let's co-exist. Love your God. Forget about those sweet talking religious leaders/ dealers who create animosity among other churches. It divide all of us.           

Love God, but which God? We Catholics learned that God said that, "If you're not with Me, you're against Me."- Translation- If you don't believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is God, who are you with? This is the divide between our Christ and the Anti-Christ.                   

May the Lord God through the Holy Spirit give us the strength and intelligence to know what is the difference between good or bad, right or wrong and fight truth decay!

Dr. Erick San Juan, DLitt.lectured at the college week of the Colegio de San Juan de Letran College of Liberal Arts and Sciences recently.