Tuesday, July 12, 2005

SACRIFICE

Got this from my mailbox this afternoon and I am placing it here in its entirety:
One call we often hear today, when people ask President Arroyo to resign, is the call to make the ultimate sacrifice for the good of the country.

Now that is a call that we can endorse. No, not the call for the President to resign, but the call for everyone, not just her, to make sacrifices for the good of the nation.

Loren Legarda
You are challenging the legitimacy of Vice President de Castro. If and when the President does resign, de Castro will ascend to the Presidency. That is the constitutional process. Your continuing proclamation of his illegitimacy can become
destabilizing. Can you make the sacrifice of withdrawing your suit and just allowing him to sit as President?

The 10 Cabinet members who resigned
Many of you are known for integrity. Let your record speak for itself. Can you make the sacrifice of just shutting up now and not defending yourselves, for this contributes to further instability?

Frank Drilon
Your salivating for the Vice Presidency leaves a bad taste in the mouth. You manifested extreme hypocrisy and political opportunism in extolling GMA to high heavens and then stabbing her in the back, within the space of one week. Can you make the sacrifice of stopping all moves, including those of your Liberal Party cohorts, of political maneuvering?

All traditional politicians
Kayo ang tunay na salot ng bayan. Can you make the sacrifice of resigning your posts and fading into complete oblivion?

Activist bishops and clergy of the Catholic Church
We appreciate your concern for the good of our people, but we do not appreciate your being at the forefront of political activism. Can you make the sacrifice of sticking to your pastoral duties of ministering to the spiritual needs of the flock and leave the political posturing to the lay people?

Brother Eddie Villanueva
God has blessed you by giving you a big flock to take care of. That is your calling. While many disagree with your entry into politics, we leave that between you and God. But what is difficult to take is your insistence, and that of your apologists, that you won the Presidential elections. For goodness sake, you were number five! If you were cheated, it was not only GMA who did so but Fernando Poe and the others as well. Can you make the sacrifice of leaving partisan politics entirely and focusing on the Father's business?


Imee Marcos, Jinggoy Estrada, JV Ejercito
Is it not enough that your parents plundered the nation and you were part of that, and now you have not only kept all your loot but are also back in power? Can you make the sacrifice of removing yourselves from the limelight? In reality, you are a major reason why the middle forces are not responding positively to the call to a change in government.

Nene Pimentel
Make the ultimate sacrifice to SHUT UP! old man. You have ruined your integrity. You have shown the real you, a bitter old man of politics who never achieved what you have always dreamed of.

Activists
Isn't it enough that you are being tolerated despite the fact that you have never contributed any tax for this country? despite the fact that your existence is based on fault-finding? despite the fact thaat the "bourgoise" that you are so against of are the very people who support your existence?

Big business
Many of you really just care about having a positive environment where your businesses will thrive. Can you make the sacrifice of some of your profits to give more to the poor?

The poor
We understand that, sapagkat kayo ay kapit sa patalim, you allow yourselves to be exploited and brought to rallies of unscrupulous politicians. Can you make the sacrifice of a few pesos, of bearing with your hunger, and not allow yourselves to be exploited, so that you maintain your dignity and you help sow the seed for true liberation and well-being, in God's time?

Cory Aquino
Isn't it enough that you have become President of this country and you will go down in history as the one who gave the Filipinos hope after the Marcos dictatorship? Isn't Kris, your daughter, enough for you to handle? How can you have the heart to call for supreme sacrifice when you cannot even manage to call for the same sacrifice from your daughter who has never given this country something to be proud of? On the country, she is the epitome of bratness and low morals .

The call to sacrifice is a wonderful call. God himself showed us the way. Jesus sacrificed his life on the cross in order to win our salvation. Such a call is pure, noble, worthy of emulation. Let us not use it for selfish motives. Let us not prostitute its purity by polluting it with the filth in our hearts.

"For to me life is Christ, and death is gain." (Phil 1:21


Last Saturday's column of Solita Monsod (Mareng Winnie) is also worth reading. Read it here.

Monday, July 11, 2005

STATE OF THE NATION

Let me share my views on the State of the Nation.

First, I am disappointed with former President Aquino. Obviously, she never realized that by asking GMA to resign, we are actually putting more danger to this country. Why? I would explain later on. If Cory Aquino has nothing more to do, she should have concentrated on taking care of her Daughter Kris who needs more attention.

Second, as for Sen. Drilon, Gad! Have you seen his face when he announced allegedly the Liberal Party's call for GMA to resign (which is by the way rebutted by a number of LP members and of late by Sen. Mar Roxas)? Ambition was written all over his face! It is funny how one person could changes his stand in a day or two. A week before, he declared that GMA could find solace in Iloilo, his hometown. Last Friday, he called GMA to resign.

Third, I agree with the stand of the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). Let GMA go through the due process of law provided for in the Constitution. Let her be impeached so that she could present her defenses in the proper forum. The "Truth Commission" should be set up, this should be an independent body with no trace of any political color. This is the same stand that the Philippine Daily Inquirer took in today's editorial.

Making GMA resign will not solve this crisis. If GMA resigns, Noli de Castro as her constitutional successor would become President. Not only is Noli's capability of leading the country questionable, the people backing him are also unidentifiable. It is much better to fight an evil you know, from the one which you don't have any idea.

The proposal of the opposition to have Susan Roces as the head of a caretaker government (which would mean throwing out GMA and Noli in office) is totally unacceptable. Any means beyond the constitution would place grave consequence on the confidence of investors into this country and would even bring us to an economic collapse. Moreover, an act beyond the limits provided in the constitution is very attractive to would be dictators and would seriously impair our democratic systems. Any formation of a Junta, caretaker government, council or whatever name they will give is outside of the constitution and should never be give a chance to develop. And when it is outside of the constitution, you will never know what powers they would allocate for themselves. "Absolute power, corrupts absolutely."

If there is one thing that this Crisis brought for me, it only shows what kind of a thick-two-faced are the so called leftist activists. Imagine, just to advance their so called principles, they are now sharing the stage with the people of Estrada and Marcos! Bayan-Muna people holding hands with the Estradas and Imee Marcos! Just great really great! It would only come to show that these people would even kiss the devil just so they could advance their ideology that has long been rejected even by the people where such ideology came from.

Lastly, the leaders in Manila should go out of the Capital and look at the provinces before they could make any decision and see for themselves the chaos in Manila and the stability in the provinces. Their minds have probably been affected by the pollution in Manila that they need to have a breath of fresh air from the province. I totally agree with Mayor OsmeƱa of Cebu, If Manila wants a change in the government without consulting the people in the provinces, then Manila should separate from the Philippines. Manila isn't the Philippines, it is the Capital, but it is not the whole country.