Miracles can come true - WHY AND WHY NOT by Nelson A. Navarro

Just when you thought Malacañang had run out of tricks, dirty or otherwise, comes this jaw-dropping declaration straight out of left field: President Estrada will soon be joining the Couples for Christ.

My first reaction, like that of many people I know, was to laugh off this announcement on the evening news the other day. Perhaps Estrada just got carried away in trying to prevent or at least postpone the resignation of Science and Technology Secretary Filemon Uriarte from the Cabinet.

But surely, he was aware that the DOST isn’t a high-visibility post like Finance, Trade or Tourism. Until last Wednesday, I’m sure only the DOST bureaucrats and some science junkies have ever heard of Uriarte.

Furthermore, you have to be living in Timbuktu not to have heard, rightly or wrongly, what Couples for Christ is all about. That’s where couples trapped in bad marriages rush in desperation in hopes of getting a second, third or whatever wind, says one admittedly uncharitable friend.

Others say it’s a most exemplary organization that’s serious about refusing marriages towards Christian love and devotion and for the greater glory of God. What everybody agrees upon, though, is that it’s no joke to join the group. You’ve got to be really serious or you’re in for a lot of misery.

Couples for Christ, I am told, is much akin to joining the old Cursillo or some religious cult group. You spend lots of time in prayer and discussion with the group. You bare everything about your life – the innermost secrets of your marriage, for one thing. There’s much crying and recrimination as people bare their deepest hurts and most traumatic experiences. Still more crying, this time laced with joy and ecstasy, accompanies reconciliations and conversions of once-embittered or even parricidal spouses.

Indeed, there’s something masochistic, pitiless and redeeming about the process. No wonder thousands, even millions, have joined the group, which has chapters practically in every community across the land.

"Given his profligate lifestyle and awful state of his marriage," said one prominent Catholic lay leader, "Estrada has always been one of the biggest but most elusive targets of Couples of Christ."

No wonder Uriarte, one of the group’s "elders" who had at one time or another shyly offered to sponsor his boss, couldn’t believe his ears when he received that fateful call over the cell phone. If Uriarte would stay one more month in office, Estrada flatly promised he would join the group.

And which wife, the skeptical Uriarte demanded to know, would Estrada be bringing to the group’s sessions. "The First Lady, of course," Estrada said. And so the strange and unlikely deal was struck.

Exactly how the arrangements will be worked out, given the impeachment trial in progress, the continuing economic crisis, and the advent of the busy Christmas season, remains to be seen.

What’s certain is that this Couples for Christ initiative is no fluke. It’s part of a presidential charm offensive that has been erratically building up for many moths since Finance Secretary Titoy Pardo started peddling around the story that "The President is a changed man."

Pardo’s ringing testimonials, often hooted down by his friends and foes alike, began at the height of the BW scandal. Along with the so-called Ateneo "classmates" factions and some Makati big business allies, Pardo began badgering Estrada about dropping his "Midnight Cabinet" and all those cronies with monosyllabic names. The subtext was that he would also have to do something about his mistresses – put them deeper into the freezers of private life if they cannot be discarded altogether.

Although resentful, Estrada reportedly took these suggestions as bitter pills he would have to swallow sooner or later. The October falling-out with Luis "Chavit" Singson and resulting Juetengate scandal, however, aborted the cosmetic surgery that was already being put in place. The publicity nightmare Pardo and others had been darkly warning about quickly threatened to overwhelm and even overthrow the regime itself.

The other day, Press Secretary Dong Puno said the President was serious about meeting former President Fidel Ramos’s demand for substantial changes in governance and lifestyle before Ramos’ December 15th deadline. "Only carabaos don’t change," Puno quoted Estrada as saying.

Expect, therefore, the President to be in perpetual motion in the coming days and weeks – visiting slums and barrios, giving away land titles and appearing to work himself to the bone. He may just go cold turkey and plunge into the Couples for Christ renewal program. It’s a big question, of course, if all these valiant efforts will be enough to save him from the living hell of impeachment or resignation.

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Nelson A. Navarro's e-mail address: <[email protected]>