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Dear
fellow sheep,
A few
Sundays ago, our shepherd, Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal
Rosales, wrote an election-related pastoral letter
addressed to us, his flock in the archdiocese of Manila.
He told
us:
“In the
past, enormous sufferings resulted from political
ambitions, maneuvers and group adventurism resulting in
the country’s poor becoming even poorer.
“Pray
for guidance because God may softly suggest in prayer
that this time what the country needs are moral, humble
and repentant trustworthy leaders who can lead and move
the country closer to its vision.”
Our
shepherd used “repentant” so I did not look at Mrs.
Arroyo’s six-year record. I looked only at her record
from April 2007 because repentance, they say, comes at
the end.
This is
what I saw in the past 30 days:
1.
Gloria Arroyo left her husband’s bedside to go to China
to witness the signing of a shady multibillion-peso deal
between the Department of Transportation and
Communications and a Chinese company.
The
deal, exposed by Philippine Star columnist Jarius Bondoc,
is overpriced by over a hundred million dollars and
breaks the Omnibus Election Code, the e-Procurement Law,
the Build-Operate-and-Transfer Act and the Telecoms
Development Act.
2. Ricky
Carandang of ANC reported a multibillion-peso deal
involving Philippine National Construction Corp. (PNCC)
and Radstock, a company that bought, at about a penny
for every dollar, a debt previously repudiated by PNCC
and which PNCC, with a sudden change of heart fully
backed by Mrs. Arroyo, will now pay in full plus
interest accrued.
3.
Economic managers talked about raising taxes once again
because the vaunted “fiscal discipline” of Mrs. Arroyo
went out the window when she spent, in the three months
preceding this election, almost all the projected budget
deficit for the entire year.
By the
way, Mrs. Arroyo can easily bridge the deficit gap
without raising taxes if she reins in the smuggling
activities of some very well-known smugglers and their
padrinos.
4. Mike
Defensor and Miguel Zubiri campaigned illegally in Hong
Kong; de facto Justice Secretary Gonzalez promised
P10,000 and Gov. Chavit Singson 50,000 “amulets” to
barangays who are able to deliver a 12-0 TUTA vote; and
soldiers claimed they were instructed by their superiors
to campaign and vote for TUTA and administration
Party-list groups.
Mrs.
Arroyo’s handpicked Comelec chairman did not act on the
above cases of illegal campaigning, vote buying and
electioneering. Instead, he raged against illegal
campaign posters, disqualified but kept the name of Juju
Cayetano on the ballot, and tried his best to conceal
the identity of Party-list nominees from the public.
That’s
the political machinery and command votes Mrs. Arroyo
has been bragging about.
5.
Palace spokesman Ignacio Bunye told us Mrs. Arroyo had
nothing to do with the preventive suspension order on
Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay six days before an
election he is expected to win.
Bunye
also said Mrs. Arroyo had nothing to do with the freeze
on the bank accounts of Makati and the personal bank
accounts of Mayor Binay.
Over the
weekend, Mrs. Arroyo deferred the suspension and lifted
the freeze on the bank accounts.
We are
supposed to believe Mrs. Arroyo ordered the retreat but
not the attack.
6. Mike
Arroyo dropped his libel cases against more than 40
journalists after his near-death experience made him see
“the light.”
Actually, he saw the lights go out when the judge in his
libel case against former solicitor general Frank Chavez
threw out his contention that he was not a public
figure.
The
judge’s decision, to use another metaphor, cut the legs
from all of Arroyo’s lawsuits. He and his lawyers would
have had to go to court on those skateboards used by
crippled beggars.
7.
Speaking of libel and character defamation: Malacañang
tried to stop the airing of the Genuine Opposition’s (GO’s)
political ads on corruption by threatening libel suits.
Meanwhile, it said nothing against the airing of ads
shouting invectives and insults at GO by a TV station
owned by Ramon Jacinto, a former brother-in-law of Mike
Arroyo.
8.
Human-rights violations continued unabated; a
nine-year-old girl became collateral damage in an
encounter between the AFP and the NPA; the son of the
late journalist Joe Burgos was abducted; and the phone
of former President Corazon Aquino was bugged.
I don’t
know what God tells our shepherd but I will never
believe He softly suggested the following statements:
“What is
happening in the Arroyo regime today is so tiny it is a
mere speck of the human-rights abuses committed then
under Marcos.”
And,
“The truth is GMA is not the only president linked to
corruption. There are bigger, bigger fishes. That is why
I’m interested in the whole truth. This is only
piecemeal.”
That
voice came from somewhere else.
The sad
thing is our shepherd is not the only one who listens to
that other voice. Cerge Remonde, a member of Mrs.
Arroyo’s shepherds and Malacañang Dining Club said,
“Among the 200 bishops in the Philippines, only five are
critical of her.”
Maybe
most shepherds really believe what Gloria has never
tired of shouting into everyone’s ear, “I am here now
because that is the plan of God for me and for us.” This
lamb does not believe God is crazy.
I have
yet to see any signs of morality, humility, repentance,
trustworthiness and vision from Mrs. Arroyo and her
minions, so I will not heed our shepherd’s soft
suggestion to vote for Gloria’s candidates.
Besides,
I’m allergic to the smell of sulfur.
Your
unsilenced lamb,
MB
Buencamino writes political commentary for Action for
Economic Reforms (www.aer.ph). |
