Helping Muslims fulfill their religious duty - FROM A DISTANCE by Carmen N. Pedrosa

Today is launch day of Hajj International, a joint Christian-Muslim effort to help more Muslims fulfill their religious obligation to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. The Hajj or the pilgrimage to Mecca is the fifth pillar of Islam. "While the performance of this religious duty is mandatory within a Muslim’s lifetime, financial constraints make its compliance difficult," writes Perfecto M. Pascua of Export and Industry Bank. Pascua together with Wawell Osorio and others have organized Hajj International which will help Muslims to fulfill the pilgrimage to Mecca through a PHILAM savings plan. Now this is something new and exciting. Instead of concentrating on the Abu Sayyaf and their ilk, Pascua and Co. have reached out to other Muslims instead, those who are peacefully struggling with their lives like the rest of us. Pascua, whose name means Christmas, is a Muslim convert and married to a grandaughter of the late Sulu Governor Arolas Tulawie.

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For a long time now, both Christians and Muslims in the Philippines have continued to organize such joint activities as Hajj International to give flesh to efforts to achieve national solidarity. Oftentimes it had seemed hopeless. Many times I knew some who were on the brink of giving up. But then something like Hajj International happens and we are encouraged Out there, there must be many more stories of how Christians and Muslims are helping each other without letting religion interfere with fraternal peace. When I look back at all the efforts to find pathways of cooperation, if true solidarity is not yet with us, it cannot be said that we were unwilling. It was just the time had not yet come. Is it not ironic that with the second Abu Sayyaf kidnapping driving us to the wall, Hajj International opens and tells us not to despair. It is an affirmation. Christians and Muslims can live together. I do not have any doubt that the seeds of Christian -Muslim friendships planted by thousands of Filipinos will bear fruit one day. Hajj International is one such event

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The speakership contest. By the time you read this column, former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. and Rep. Florencio Abad of Batanes will have met to work out a compromise on the speakership contest. They will do so in the spirit of democratic negotiation or what misguided elements have chosen to mislabel as trapo politics. The two are the leading contenders. De Venecia is a seasoned legislator with a formidable record of accomplishment as speaker for two terms. He brings with him his skills and talents for the job he seeks. Rep. Abad, good as he is and with his own acceptable qualities, on the other hand is the less able candidate, with a thin basis for seeking the post. What he has is the support of of Peping Cojuangco’s COPA. The latter claims to be a group dedicated to reform politics in the Philippines. But their position on the speakership contest has put their alleged reforming aim under a cloud.

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With the country reeling under a serious economic crisis, why does COPA insist on foisting an ineffectual candidate as Speaker of the House? To my mind, the issue here – as it is in every choice of public official – pertains to the qualifications and the track records of the candidates. Let us not fudge the issue. Who can deliver the legislation necessary for the success of the Arroyo administration as quickly as possible? Obviously it is Joe de V. So why is a group like COPA using its muscle to frustrate Joe de V’s victory? Do they want the President to succeed or not? COPA may be playing kingmaker but it must not do so at the expense of the country with millions of poor knocking at the doors, waiting to be saved by an invigoration of the economy. COPA must desist from whipping up public opinion against de Venecia with the same unproven insults and labels that misled the electorate astray in 1998 and saw the election of the completely inept and corrupt Erap. It is getting too late.

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The answer to such politicking is to put our foot down. No, no, no. We will not be led astray again this time. If the country is to survive the present economic crisis, the next Congress must hit the ground running. The Arroyo administration must be helped, not hindered from stopping the country’s dizzying decline after Erap’s ineptitude and corruption. But to hit the ground running can only happen under astute and experienced leadership in Congress and I am afraid that the choice should be Jose de Venecia, not Florencio Abad. . We must appeal to COPA to eat their humble pie and allow Congress to proceed with the democratic vote to elect its speaker. We can have differences of opinion but in the end we must submit leave to the counting of votes. It will be very soon now. We do not need to exacerbate the already dangerous situation n the country. After the vote from their peers, both Mr. de Venecia and Mr. Abad must shake hands and sign on the dotted line for a pact on the common platform of the coalition – economic salvation for the country. That is democracy. That is true patriotism.

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Jovito Salonga’s accusations against Joma in his book. It is good that former Senator Jovito Salonga has included the Plaza Miranda bombing in his book A Journey of Struggle and Hope. Back in 1986 or was it in 1987 that Mr. Salonga, accompanied by former Congressman Raul Daza, visited us in London. They came to make contact with their Liberal counterparts. In a dinner conversation, Mr. Salonga told us the results of his investigation of the Plaza Miranda bombing. When I asked him pointblank on who he thought was the culprit, he said it loud and clear. Jose Maria Sison. Although I still have to read his book, I understand it is this version of the story that is told in his memoirs. At the time I was not optimistic that more people would ever know the truth about Plaza Miranda. The story would die a natural death. Why wake sleeping dogs?

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Well, Senator Salonga has just roused sleeping dogs. They will be growling and gnashing with memories that we would rather not deal with, especially these days when there seems to be a rush to leftism. It would a sad end for the CPP-NDF-NPA (as they were then called) if after heroic political battle they end up as a bunch of adventurists led by the supreme adventurer, Jose Maria Sison, who would not flinch from allegedly setting a bomb that killed and wounded so many innocent bystanders. Joma can say what he wants but Salonga, being the victim, maimed for life because of the bombing is the more credible. But Salonga’s revelations notwithstanding, I hope Filipinos will not go to the other side of pendulum and think that this exonerates Marcos. He may not have sent the bomb that exploded in Plaza Miranda but it was his kind of governance that prepared the ground for Jose Maria Sison to throw the bomb.

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My e-mail is [email protected]