THE QUESTION ON TRISKELION PRESERVATION

“Our Road to Existence or Extinction” (Part I)

by

Bro. Chat Sallipudan

July 2005

INTRODUCTION

The Author wrote this article to awaken the members of the Triskelion Grand Fraternity and Sorority hoping to rally Triskelions all over the world in furtherance of our holistic interests. This work, a result of a major inner-Fraternal controversy on several questions arising and dwelling for several years among the Triskelions here and abroad, gives _expression to one line in fraternal affairs as against another. He wrote this work to explain the question of Triskelion Preservation in a systematic way. This article hopes to influence all Triskelions around the world to rally around the cause of our future existence in all forms.

This article is written for the consumption of the whole Triskelion world. It desires to open up the eyes of every member of the Triskelion Grand Fraternity and Sorority and see the impending threat beclouding over us. If upon our subjective minds we somehow disregard much more neglect this Damocles Sword hanging over us, the depletion or even annihilation of our ranks within the Philippine Islands is not a rare possibility.

The honor and prestige of being the first Filipino-founded Fraternity to establish its chapters outside the country, is ours forever. The pride of being an International Fraternity is beyond question. However, pride alone will not determine our continued existence. Nor pride alone will ensure our perpetual existence. 

Now we have reached another point of a Y-road: that one on the right is of our continued existence and that one on the left is of our annihilation and extinction. As to the question on what direction shall we take, the ANSWER now lies on our hearts and minds. 

FRATERNAL WARS AND OUR FRATERNITY

Fraternity war is a monster of mutual slaughter among men. Time and again we are facing this seemingly unending nightmare. While every Triskelion’s dream is to live a peaceful life challenges of this nature doesn’t seem to let go. Today we are again faced with this monstrous holocaust not of our own liking but by the aggression of HATE FRATERNITIES that aims to eradicate us from the surface of the Earth.

To gain an understanding on how we should deal with this problem objectively we must take this problem seriously with such perception that fraternity wars will be finally eliminated by the progress of human fraternal society, and in the not too distant future too. But there is only one way to eliminate it and that is to oppose war with war, to oppose local counter-Triskelion war with local preservation war, and, to oppose national counter-Triskelion war with national War of Triskelion Preservation.

History knows only two kinds of war, just and unjust. We support just wars and oppose unjust wars. All wars of unreasonable aggression wars are unjust, all wars for the preservation of our Fraternity are just. Fraternal era of wars will be brought to an end by our own efforts, and beyond doubt the war we wage is part of the final battle. But also beyond doubt the war we face will be part of the biggest and most ruthless of all wars. The biggest and most ruthless of unjust war is hanging over us, and the vast majority of Triskelions will be ravaged unless we raise the banner of a just war.

The banner of Triskelion's just war is the banner of the Fraternity’s salvation. The banner of Triskelion Grand Fraternity and Sorority's just war is the banner of our salvation. A war waged by the great majority of the Triskelions is beyond doubt a just war, a most lofty and glorious undertaking for the salvation of Triskelions and Tau Gamma Phi/Tau Gamma Sigma, and a bridge to a new era in fraternal history. When human society advances to the point where fraternities live in a peaceful co-existence base on the respect of human dignity and existence, there will be no more wars, unjust or just; that will be the era of perpetual peace for the fraternal world. Our study of the laws of preservation war springs from the desire to eliminate all wars; herein lies the distinction between us Triskelions and all the exploiting or hate fraternities.

We are now engaged in a war; our war is a JUST WAR; and our just war is being waged in this country to prolong our existence and protect our Fraternity from external threats. Therefore, we must study not only the laws of war in general, but the specific laws of a just war, and the even more specific laws of War of Triskelion Preservation. It is well known that when you do anything, unless you understand its actual circumstances, its nature and its relations to other things, you will not know the laws governing it, or know how to do it, or be able to do it well.

War is the highest form of struggle for resolving contradictions, when they have developed to a certain stage, between classes, nations, states, or political groups, and it has existed ever since the emergence of private property, of groups, and of classes. Unless we understand the actual circumstances of war, its nature and its relations to other things, we will not know the laws of war, or know how to direct war, or be able to win victory. Unless we understand them, we will not be able to win in the war of preservation. Therefore, we must study the laws of war in general, and, finally, we must study the laws of War of Triskelion Preservation.

Some people and some Triskelions hold a wrong view, which we refuted long ago. Some say that it is enough for us to forge peace talks with our aggressors and no longer indulge ourselves on defending ourselves from the attrition caused by our adversaries, these Hate Fraternities. While our principle “Primum Nil Nocere” holds true universally, its interpretation shall be accordingly placed at a proper perspective relative to the actual circumstances. This principle connotes not only our focus on the promotion of peace but also of that “allowable violence” in the event of unreasonable aggression hounds us thus forcing us to execute measures “in defense of oneself”.

Others hold a second wrong view, which we also refuted long ago. They say that the most valuable experience is that of the 70’s or Dark Years and that we must copy it, or, to put it more concretely, that we must imitate the same in driving straight ahead to seize the enemy’s territory. They fail to see that while the experience of the 70’s and 80’s should be studied, it should not be copied and applied mechanically, because the circumstances of our present war are different and that if we copy and apply them exactly without the slightest change in form or content, we shall be "cutting the feet to fit the shoes" and be defeated. We should take our experience from the Dark Years only what still applies today, and work out something of our own in the light of present conditions.

They fail to see that while we should set special store by the war experience of our forefathers we should likewise cherish the experience of our brothers during the 70’s and 80’s, because there are many factors that are specific to the Triskelion conception and existence. Their argument is: why should knowledge which has been acquired at the cost of blood be of no use? They fail to see that although we must cherish the earlier experience thus acquired, we must also cherish experience acquired at the cost of our own blood.

In studying the laws for directing wars that occur at different historical stages, that differ in nature and that are waged in different places and by different islands, we must fix our attention on the characteristics and development of each, and must oppose a mechanical approach to the problem of war. All the laws for directing war develop as history develops and as war develops; nothing is changeless.

THE WAR OF TRISKELION PRESERVATION

The War of Triskelion Preservation, which began in 1968, has passed through two stages, the first from 1968 to early 80’s, and, the second from 1978 to mid 80’s; the stage of national preservation war against a HATE FRATERNITY will and must now commence. In all three of its stages this preservation war has been, is and will be fought under the leadership of the Tau Gamma Phi Fraternity and Tau Gamma Sigma Sorority and its Military Commission. The chief enemies in the Triskelion preservation war are anti-Triskelion and hate fraternities. The great masses of Triskelion Grand Fraternity and Sorority wish to take an active part in the preservation war and to carry it to complete victory. They are the main forces in the preservation war, but, being not well-organized and lack the necessary Triskelion Education, they are limited in their political outlook (and some of the Triskelions in the communities have anarchist views), so that they are unable to give correct leadership in the war. Therefore, in an era when the well-organized chapters and councils have already appeared on the political stage, the responsibility for leading the War of Triskelion Preservation inevitably falls on the shoulders of the Triskelion Military Commission.

In this era, any preservation war will definitely end in defeat if it lacks, or runs counter to, the leadership of the TGP / TGS and the Military Commission. Of all the Triskelion strata and groupings within the Fraternity, the Triskelion Military Commission are among the ones most free from narrow-mindedness and selfishness, are politically the most far-sighted, the best organized and the readiest to learn with an open mind from the experience of the Fraternity, and its political party throughout the Triskelion world and to make use of this experience in their own cause. Hence only the Triskelion Military Commission can lead the great masses of Triskelions. The alumni and collegiate Triskelions can overcome their own narrow-mindedness relative to the preservation war and the community Triskelions can overcome their own anarchist views (provided the Triskelion Military Commission does not err in its policy) and the vacillation and lack of thoroughness of the some elite factions within us can lead the preservation and the war on to the road of victory.

The preservation war of 1968 to the early 80’s was waged, basically speaking, in conditions in which fraternities of various origins sprouted like mushrooms all over the country which in some terms threatened the existence of established fraternities. The phenomena led these established fraternities to wage a destructive war against the young ones to gain dominance and monopoly of membership. This preservation war succeeded at the critical juncture, first of all because of the strong leadership and determined members, and at the same time because the some pacifists, opportunists and elitists within the Fraternity voluntarily surrendered the leadership of the preservation to the most capable Triskelions.

The war lasting from 1978 to the mid 80’s has been waged in the Martial Law period and under certain conditions where elitism by those closely linked to the Marcos Administration arose in significant elevation. Government intrusion into fraternities hoping to suppress subversion among the youth, also was a factor that added the intensity of the war. Again with the appropriate and capable leadership and the emergence of community chapters in Gold areas, the war was led to a victory. The downfall of the Marcos dictatorship added the condition of the eventual fading of the enemy.

Today the stage of skirmishes with a HATE FRATERNITY reached at an alarming level and rests on another condition. This has reached to the point that no political solutions or whatsoever will tend to end the war peacefully. The enemy in this war is not clinging to the basis of pure elitism or adventure alone but also the based on a hate-filled principle of the annihilating our Fraternity (Principle 17 – Dignity of a Skeptron, “Kill Tau Gamma Phi and Kill All Triskelions).

Our enemy of today is now big and powerful.

 How do matters stand with this Hate Fraternity, the enemy of the Triskelion Grand Fraternity and Sorority? It is a fraternity that dwells on hate against the Tau Gamma Phi and has more or less stabilized its power. It has gained the support by mass recruitment in the communities without prejudice to the easiest membership method. It has remodeled and organized its army from the out-of-school youth and gangsters which has thus become different from any other army in fraternal history and on the whole similar to the armies of penitentiary gangs; this army is much better hardened in heart in fields of senseless killings than the Triskelions, and is growing larger than any army in the fraternal history, or for that matter than the standing army of any other penitentiary gangs. There is a world of difference between this Hate Fraternity and the Tau Gamma Phi. They control the key positions or lifelines in the communities and schools; its political power is nation-wide; it is well-funded by coffers of their chapter in the United States . We are thus confronted with a big and powerful enemy.

Our Cebu Chapters have suffered the most both in human casualties and territory depletion. Peace talks after peace talks have been forged but our sincerity to implement the same betrayed us such that Cebu Triskelions fell one after another. Such is the case of the Bro. Allan N. “Cal” Ortiz (Grand Triskelion of Cebu Institute of Technology), Bro. Lyndell Mendoza (Vice-Chairman of the Mandaue City Council ), Sis Julivie “Bing” Selim Benlot (an alumni of University of Cebu who was four months pregnant when murdered) and many others. These brothers and sister, faithful and loyal to our fraternity, fell dead on our enemy’s assault in the midst of peace pacts signed between us and our adversary.

How much more neglect shall we exercise against an organized Hate Fraternity whose funding comes from their United States Chapters? How much time shall we spend for subjective debates on whether we shall act or not; on whether to still keep the peace pact or not; on whether our brothers and sisters here and abroad shall support us or not; on whether we continue to look or not at our chapters wiped out one after another?

How many more brothers and sisters shall we sacrifice for our false hope of attaining peaceful co-existence with our adversary? How many fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers shall we leave bereaved and bereft by our simple neglect to look into the matter, diagnose and implement lasting solutions? Shall we wait for this tragedy to happen to our own families?

What more shall we do?

Whilst we do not close our eyes to that dream of PEACE, we must also open our eyes towards the harsh reality that beclouds our beloved Triskelion Grand Fraternity and Sorority today. A famous Chinese adage that comprehends with biblical passages tells us that, “In times of Peace we prepare for War; in times of War we prepare for Peace”.

(End of Part I)