It's Gibo for the task force for family!

This just got in! The Task Force for Family & Life Visayas finally declared its election lineup asking people to vote for the candidates who are defenders for Family & Life and publicly rejected the RH Bill. For President, it’s Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro; for Senators – Tatad, Imbong, Drilon, Enrile, Sotto, Pimentel, Lacson and Sison. I’ll have you know that this organization is endorsed by our beloved eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal. With the endorsement of Pastor Apollo Quiboloy for Gibo, you can say that this declaration is a call for Catholics to vote for Gibo. This is the Catholic vote!

It’s five days more before the Filipino people will troop to the polling centers to cast their lot with the person whom they believe can run this country in the next six years. So their vote is extremely crucial, as choosing the right man for the job would mean that the Philippines could map out programs for this nation to get rid of that old tag that we’ve been getting for decades, as the “Sick Man of Asia!”

While we are trying to choose the right presidentiable for our nation, the Catholic Church has turned to God to heal our land, which has become so divided because of this election. Last Saturday evening we joined the Joshua Walk and Prayer Rally at the Archbishop’s Palace grounds to pray for clean and honest elections and to heal our gravely wounded nation. His eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal led the prayer rally, which was attended by many charismatic communities, including non-Catholic groups.

Talking about healing our land, last Sunday night I saw a video documentary by June Keithley of “Emma”, a lowly domestic helper who has been getting visions of our Blessed Virgin Mary in the Mountain of Salvation in Lipa, Batangas. These visions started when she was still in Kingston, Canada and now she has a worldwide following from all walks of life forming prayer groups, including here in the Philippines!

I have heard a lot about Emma, but it was the first time I saw her documentary. What struck me was the message that our Mama Mary gave to her about the Philippines that we are her special people and that peace, love and joy would reign in our land if only we surrendered to the will of God. Years ago, my mother gave me a book about the apparitions of Mama Mary written by Fr. Stephan Gobbi and there was a similar message for the Filipino people coming from Mama Mary and my faith tells me that this was true!

I take this message on a positive note . . . that amongst the countries of the world, only the Philippines has remained true to the doctrine of the Catholic Church. Yes, we still have no laws on divorce, same sex marriage and abortion. Yet, foreign nations, especially the United States have linked its aid for our country via the American way of culling our population growth through artificial means of contraception. To many of us practicing Catholics, this means going against God’s will as written in Genesis for the human race to subdue the earth.

Too many western economic experts (who failed to predict the 2009 financial debacle of the US and most of Europe) insist on that old stereotype that a country with a large population cannot be rich. This is why the Philippines has always been poor and considered a third world country . . . according to United Nations (UN) standards. Like it or not, Filipinos live by the standard of God. We are a God fearing nation where we have that so-called “Bahala na” attitude, which was taken from the phrase “Bathala na” or let God decide for us. This is the Filipino people’s way of surrendering his fate to the hands of God; hence we have become the Anawim or poor in Spirit.

Anawim is the Hebrew word from the Old Testament to describe “poor ones” who remain humbly faithful to God in times of difficulty. This is why foreign journalists cannot describe or understand the faces of the poor Filipino especially in times of crisis or calamities where the distraught still manages to give a photojournalist a smile amidst disaster surrounding them. But Pope Benedict XVI can explain this very clearly when he said,

“The spirituality of the Biblical ‘Anawim” that is, of those faithful who not only recognize themselves as ‘poor’ in the detachment from all idolatry of riches and power, but also in the profound humility of a heart emptied of the temptation to pride and open to the bursting in of the divine saving grace.” Indeed, Filipinos are God’s special people and as what Emma says about Filipinos from our Blessed Virgin Mary, “My special little people.”

But while our faith tells us that God will take care of us, we have to do our part in going out and voting for the right candidates. God gifted the Filipino people with the EDSA People’s Power Revolt way back in 1986. Unfortunately, while God gave us that one-of-a-kind blessing, we did not do our part to change our sinful ways and remove all the vestiges of corruption of the previous administration, hence this cancer in our society never left us.

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