I was in Manila for the weekend and last Sunday I went to the Greenbelt Chapel to hear Mass offered by Fr. Joel O. Jason and I must say that I was touched by his homily because he spoke about the truth and honesty using that 1979 hit song entitled “Honesty” sung by his namesake Billy Joel. Indeed, a lot of us have heard this song, but perhaps we merely sing-a-long with the words without really or serious finding the meaning of lyrics.
Though I’m sure Fr. Jason was tempted to sing a few lines, but he didn’t, he merely pointed out the important lines like… “But if you look for truthfulness, you might just as well be blind. It always seems to be so hard to give. Honesty is such a lonely word, everyone is so untrue… Honesty is hardly ever heard and mostly what I need from you.” Then Fr. Jason went to talk about how this song relates to most of us, with each other, our families and the people in government. Indeed, truth and honesty is no longer in vogue.
Fr. Jason also mentioned about that TV game show where the celebrity quests are strapped in a lie detector and whenever they are caught lying, the audience comes into a thunderous applause. But when the guests tell the truth, it gets no reaction. Thus he told his parishioners that this is a very dangerous show as it praises the liars and no one gives a damn about the truth. No doubt this priest was talking about our lives in these trying times.
After the mass, I introduced myself to Fr. Jason to praise him for a great homily… and as he suggested, I also bought his book on the Theology of the Body entitled, “Free Love, True Love” in PowerBooks. How I wish we had more Fr. Jasons who would tell the truth and urge his parishioners to preach that our Lord Jesus Christ is the truth, the way and the life.
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Thinking about Fr. Jason’s homily, I couldn’t help but connect it to what happened in Wall Street when just a year ago, US President George W. Bush and his team of financial experts were all praises that the US was strong and robust. Today, the US economy is in the doldrums even after the US Congress finally gave its nod to the $700 billion bailout package plan, which has not perked up the stock markets. That’s because the American people are sick and tired of the lies that their leaders have told them about the crisis.
Lying in public has also become an art perfected by our politicians. A couple of weeks ago, when Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson accused Senate President Manuel “Manny” Villar of that P200 million C-5 “insertion,” Sen. Villar and his allies in the Senate took turns in lambasting Sen. Lacson for he could not prove his allegations. Yet, a few weeks later, no less than Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile chair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee admitted that Sen. Villar had asked him to “insert” the P200-million for the C-5 road extension project. But JPE added that Sen. Villar have not done anything wrong by asking for this insertion.
If what Sen. Enrile said is true, then for heaven’s sake, why did Sen. Villar and his cohorts insist that it wasn’t an insertion in the first place? This only shows that Sen. Villar and his allies were hiding something from the public and in my book, all this is a big lie and now the cat is out of the bag! Sure, Sen. Enrile maybe right that Sen. Villar may not have committed any crimes, but it was morally and totally wrong to insert something as big as P200 million for a project that his critics say benefited his private company.
Yet, political leaders like Sen. Manny Villar is seeking the presidency of this very troubled nation. We ought to ask… what should we expect from the next president of this country? At the very least, we don’t want the next president to be caught lying off his teeth! Surely by now this nation must have learned their lessons from the “Hello Garci” fiasco. But while we’re still some 20 months away from the 2010 presidential elections, it seems that we still cannot find a suitable President from the present crop of presidentiables.
A week ago, I was in a dinner table with a close aide of one presidentiable (whom I will not name) who asked me a serious question what they are doing wrong that they are not ahead in the surveys? My reply to my friend was; it’s because your candidate is merely running for president, which almost all ambitious senators want also to do. If Sen. Barrack Obama is leading in the US presidential race, it is because he is not only running for president, but he promises a change that people can believe.
So let’s ask ourselves, who among the so-called presidentiables are offering a change not only in the way they rule this government, but a change that you and I can pin our hopes upon? Federalism is one such change, but not a single presidentiable wants to back it. How about a return to the tried and tested two-party system? Again none of the presidentiables want to touch that issue lest they lost potential votes. Are we so scared of change?
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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mozcom.com. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.philstar.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow entitled, “Straight from the Sky” shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 on SkyCable at 8 in the evening.