What regime of truth?
Lucid Interval
First posted 04:39am (Mla time) Sept 13, 2005
By Rowena Guanzon
INQ7.net
ALL PRETENSE that we lived in a democratic state was thrown out of the window after Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s loyal henchmen and allies killed the impeachment before it could even start. In a true democratic state the representatives of the people represent the people’s will; hence, they are sensitive to public opinion. But not so in the Philippines, with Jose de Venecia and a House of Representatives that is dominated by politicians who represent only their own political and business interests. What we have are politicians who want to stay in power, fill their pockets, and live by the rule that patronage is power. As expected, the “honorable” congressmen saw the impeachment as an opportunity for horse trading with Gloria Arroyo, and traded they did.
Speaker De Venecia should review the Constitution (since the administration wants to amend it to its liking) and he might find, by some miraculous enlightenment, that he and his loyal henchmen have violated the Preamble which says that the sovereign Filipino people aspire to build a just and humane society and “establish a Government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace.” (Emphasis ours)
Just as we now know, thanks to Garcillano et al. Incorporated, that elections in this country are a billion-peso business for cheaters, there is no more doubt that if our electoral system is not changed and only those with money and who buy the votes can win, and the Commission on Elections is completely overhauled, then our country is surely going to the dogs (with apologies to the dogs). How can you conclude otherwise when a survey of the Social Weather Station poll group shows that 79 percent of the people want Arroyo impeached and yet the House of Representatives threw out the impeachment complaint?
It does not matter to Gloria Arroyo that the people believe that she cheated and they do not want her as their president. With all the flair of a “kabalan” (one with a rhinoceros’ hide), Jose de Venecia and Gloria Arroyo are telling us that all those surveys do not matter because your representatives have voted, and they say Gloria Arroyo should not be impeached. To add insult to the people’s injury, Gloria Arroyo’s allies are telling us that in a democracy it is all a numbers game and we lost, so better try our luck next time. Senator Pia Cayetano is right — what this impeachment disaster tells our children is that it is okay to lie and cheat, and we don’t have to know the truth. Take that, all of you who do not know what “dura lex, sed lex” means.
And as if the House of Representatives were the final arbiter of the people’s grievance, Gloria Arroyo tells the people that she should now get back to the business of governing, and we should all go back to our business of living (while more than 30 percent of Filipinos live below the poverty line). Contrary to Arroyo’s wish, the battle is not finished. Her victory in the House of Representatives does not absolve her and rid her of the people’s accusation that she cheated in the election and used government funds and resources to win. If the people cannot find redress of their grievance in Congress, they will find it elsewhere.
For a start we, the people, might as well abolish the House of Representatives. That Representative Marcelino Libanan of Eastern Samar province even had the temerity to say that the bishops should accept the outcome because the voice of the people is the voice of God! Excuse me, before I throw up, someone please that congressman that lightning might strike him soon. In Visayan we say, “Basi kilatan ka.” We can forgive you for your different pronunciations of “Mr. Speaker” depending on where you live, but we cannot forgive your shameless arrogance.
These politicians claim the principle of separation of the Church and State whenever it suits them. Libanan and his kind would want all our church leaders to speak only in their church buildings and confine themselves to preaching, as if the word of God had absolutely nothing to do with social justice and fighting evil and corruption in government. Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said the issue is morality. Morality is the field of church leaders, and this cuts across politics in this country, which is the dirtiest we have seen since Ferdinand Marcos was ousted.
The people do not believe that the Church must at all times be separated from the affairs of the State, and we saw this at the EDSA People Power I and II. In the province of Negros Occidental where the Arroyos have roots, militant groups, nongovernmental organizations, students, and women’s organizations are united for the single purpose of ousting Gloria Arroyo. They recently delivered to Bishop Vicente Navarra of the Diocese of Bacolod a written appeal for the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to demand that Gloria Arroyo resign.
By experience the people of Negros Occidental know the crucial role of the Catholic Church when the government is oppressive and corrupt. During Marcos’s rule by martial law and up to 1990, the Catholic Church and other churches threw themselves into the breach to protect the people from abuse by the military. The late Bishop Emeritus Antonio Y. Fortich has left a legacy that hopefully other Bishops will follow.
All eyes are on the CBCP’s permanent council meeting this Tuesday. The CBCP’s incoming president, Archbishop Angel Lagdameo of the Diocese of Jaro, does not believe that the role of priests and bishops are not limited to the sacristy. We can read this from his address in First National Congress of the Clergy on July 5-9, 2004, in which he said: “ Let us not limit the power of that anointing to the sacristy and the sacraments. In the context of Isaiah 61 and Luke 4, let us be the instruments of Christ’s Spirit also through genuine repentance, credible renewal and social reform. For repentance to be genuine, reparation or restitution may be necessary. Are we willing to do that? For renewal to be credible, we must practice what we preach. Are we doing it? And of course social reform includes the transformation of unjust social structures that involve the poor and the rich, the oppressed and oppressors to become collaborators mutually responsible in establishing change.”
While the people continue their protests, the Catholic Church faces the challenge of being accused that some of its Bishops accepted money from Pagcor, the gambling arm of the government. Perhaps this issue came at the right time, just when the bishops have to stand up for morality and decide once and for all that there can be no compromise.
