US-North Korean Summit: Giving peace a chance

I submit that I consider myself as a Korean baby, having been born in 1951, a year of the Korean Peninsula conflict. For many times in my life, I always said that I missed what life was during World War II, after all I was born six years after the end of that war. But as I was getting older, it was only then did I realize that the Korean conflict was something that the world should have prevented, but unfortunately, it did not. It is for this very reason why I felt and still believe that the United Nations have not really helped the world free itself from war or conflict.

Go anywhere in the world where the UN tried to mediate an armed conflict, a good example is Cyprus where the fight was between Greece and Turkey, the still unsettled Palestinian issue, and lastly the Korean conflict, which was a war under the UN leadership, but ended in an armistice. Hence, what happened yesterday between the United States and North Korea in Singapore looked surreal, as we never expected to see it in our lifetime. But we did!

The world changed so suddenly when US President Donald Trump met for the very first time with North Korean President Kim Jong Un. We prayed hard that something like this would happen and it has finally happened! We saw this on CNN and BBC with history happening right before our eyes. Just a few months ago, we even thought that we were on the brink of nuclear war when North Korea showed off its nuclear capability by sending missiles over Japanese islands.

In a very unexpected move a month ago, South Korean leader Moon Jae In met with Kim in the Demilitarized Zone and suddenly the world became a safer place to live in. That too was history being made when the two Korean leaders met in the Demilitarized Zone and stepped on each other's soil. We cannot forget that the Korean Peninsula conflict was the first war between a communist nation against its democratic counterpart and it was a bloody war just a few years after World War II. It was also the first war under the UN leadership.

I'm sure that all the people want to find out what Trump will get from this summit. But right now, it is enough for us to see the two world leaders meeting in Singapore and talking rather than putting their hands on their nuclear buttons. That's enough for us, that's enough for peace to happen. The result of this summit will come very soon and we will seize the moment for peace in this world.

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It was truly a shock for me to learn that former National Security adviser and Parañaque Representative Roilo Golez, succumbed to a heart attack. Golez was just questioning the presence of a Chinese military aircraft, an Ilyushin IL-76 strategic airlifter of the People's Liberation Army Air Force that landed in Davao City a few days ago to refuel when suddenly he had this heart attack and died.

Golez's last statement read: "This isn't usual. It's a very large airplane of the PLA Air Force so many people speculated about it. This isn't an ordinary landing by a small airplane so it's important for the government to be transparent," Golez told dzRH in Tagalog that morning before he suffered a heart attack. His passing was confirmed by his sons, Paranaque City Vice Mayor Jose Enrico Golez and his brother Ferdinand.

From what I learned about Golez, he was a graduate of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, which is why I respect him so much. Golez would go out of his way to check what journalists would write. He emailed me a few times to clarify issues that I wrote about. He never wrote to correct my point of view, but wrote to tell me of his opinion on some of the issues that I wrote about.

With the sudden passing of Golez, the nation has lost a true patriot and a man I greatly admire. We shall no longer see a man of his caliber in Philippine politics. He will surely be missed!

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