Ruffy Magbanua
THE sky view en route to my humble abode, most often than not, exudes an aura of richness and fertile landscape of clouds galore hanging over a bluish Cagayan de Oro mountain range.
It’s like a bit of everyday meditation. It legitimizes doing nothing but just lazily grazing up the wonder of nature.
For the lover of nature, sky watching is a lofty and healthy escape from the daily earthly life. Moreover, watching the sky offers an easy way to reconnect with Mother Nature.
Further, it stimulates creativity — something that is simply ineffable, similar to creating art, music or writing — as it freshen up tired senses and at the same time finding inner peace even just for a while.
Prior to the “war” in Marawi, watching the blue sky of Cagayan de Oro is a perfect past-time, an ideal antidote that offers a way to slow down a weary soul.
But not anymore today. The former Lumbia airport-turned-military airfield is now abuzz 24/7 with flybys of war machines — from Vietnam war-era OV-Bronco planes, MG-520 attack helicopters to the newly acquired Korean-made FA-50 jet fighters.
That bounty from nature is now shrouded — for over three months now — by the thunderous and deafening sounds of war planes never heard before.
From Lumbia, the Philippine Air Force stages daily bombing runs to support ground troops struggling to dislodge the Maute terror group from well-entrenched positions in Marawi.
As the aerial sorties unfold before our very eyes, this question keeps on coming with no definitive answer at hand: Is there a way out to end this protracted war?
This conflict did nothing but water the land with crimson blood that has already taken hundreds of precious human lives (and still counting) — that of soldiers, innocent civilians, and the people behind this war, the Mautes.
The horizon remains uncertain as it were, and the only choice for now is to go to war against the enemies of the state to achieve peace in the land.
Sadly, the island of Mindanao, since time immemorial, has been mired with so many socio-cultural and political conflicts that affected its economic way of life. With so much politics in Imperial Manila, peace in Mindanao remains like a castle in the air.
E-mail: ruffy44_ph2000@yahoo.com
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