Oh Brothers!

At the rate political activities are taking place at the De La Salle University (DLSU) in Greenhills, San Juan as the venue for opposition and other anti-administration groups, I am beginning to have second thoughts about the plans of my twin sons to take college admission tests there.

Fortunately, one of them took last month the University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT) in Diliman, Quezon City.

He is now being ribbed by his twin brother that he has no choice but to go to DLSU or he punned, Di Lusot Sa UPCAT.

Getting back from the ribbing of his brother, he retorted that he, on the other hand, will enter the PMA.

Well, I said, that’s good if one of them goes to the PMA or Philippine Military Academy. But my son hastily added that the PMA he refers to is Pahinga Muna Anak.

The DLSU calls their basketball team as the "Green Archers", symbolized by their emblem showing a figure of a man with bow and arrow.

At the height of the May 1, 2001 assault of Malacañang Palace by rabid, loyal supporters of deposed President Joseph Estrada, police and soldiers defending President Arroyo from the siege dubbed as EDSA-3, jokingly described the attack was led by men from De La Salle.

I was naive to ask policemen what they meant by that before I got their joke that the assault were led by heavily tattoed men armed with bow and arrow.

Although these light banters of my sons and the police about DLSU were funny, I find no amusement, however, with the fact that De La Salle brothers led by Bro.Armin Luistro, garbed in their priest’s frocks, were marching the streets, with their arms locked with politicians and other anti-administration personalities last Tuesday at the last hours of the plenary voting at the House impeachment proceedings against President Arroyo.

This is not to say there was something wrong or immoral about it. But why do these activist priests have to wear their sotana just to show they are men of the cloth?

Does their wearing of the priest’s frock give them any license to join the political fray and get away with it unscathed?

Also among the rallyists were actress Susan Roces, widow of the late presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. and former President Corazon Aquino.

The presence of the two widows, with some of the members of the newly formed Black and White Movement, at the rally in the Commonwealth Avenue reportedly gave a sort of calming effect on what could otherwise have been an emotional and violent mass protest action by pro-impeachment groups demanding the ouster of President Arroyo.

The other marchers included the likes of opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson with his arms locked with Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) leader Crispin Beltran and with fellow defeated presidential candidate during the May 2004 elections, Bro.Eddie Villanueva of the Jesus is Lord Movement (JIL).

I asked our opinion editor, how come Villanueva got to be called "Brother?"

Ramon, who belongs to a Baptist evangelical group, explained to me Villanueva is actually a "Pastor" or a Bishop of his Jesus is Lord movement. As far as I know, Villanueva used to be a left-leaning student activist before he saw the light and calling of the Lord and became a lay preacher and a successful teleevangelist.

The thin line between the separation of Church and State has again surfaced because of political developments taking place in our country where Church leaders are in the middle of the political battlefield.

Despite the political activism by certain DLSU school administration officials such as Bro.Luistro, I would like to believe my twin sons can get good education from DLSU in their main campus on Taft Avenue. One of them wants to take up computer engineering while the other wants to pursue philosophy for his pre-law course.

I was told that DLSU is mostly composed of Filipino-Chinese students because the school offers the best training for business and entrepreneurship.

DLSU was founded in the country as De La Salle College in 1911 when the Brothers of the Christian Schools opened their first school at General Luna Street in the historic city of Manila.

Their patron saint is Jean Baptiste dela Salle (1671-1719), a French educator, founder of the Christian Brothers. He was canonized by Pope Leo XIII on May 24, 1900 and his feast is celebrated every May 15. He is the patron saint of Christian teachers.

About a month ago, long before the impeachment process against Mrs. Arroyo started, The Star got a faxed invitation to cover a supposed consultation dialogue at the DLSU in Greenhills with Presidential Management Staff (PMS) Secretary Rigoberto Tiglao as among those invited in the symposium.

So I sent our Malacañang reporter, Paolo Romero to cover this event.

But to the consternation of our reporter, he was told by the same person who sent out the faxed invitation to The Star that the symposium was not for media coverage when he got there, ready to cover it.

Well, I thought that was the end of the story. When I asked Tiglao about this incident, the PMS chief told me he walked out of that symposium when it turned out to be a forum for those advocating a caretaker government to replace the administration of President Arroyo.

The symposium was attended by the likes of party list representatives Satur Ocampo, Teddy Casino, and former priest Ed dela Torre.

I ribbed Tiglao that he was in the good company of his former comrades in the underground movement where he was active during his younger years as a left-leaning student activist .

Except for De La Torre, Ocampo and Casino were among the 51 House solons who voted "No" to the House committee report junking all three impeachment complaints against President Arroyo.

These political personalities are now consorting with the likes of Lacson, former Defense Secretary Renato de Villa, pro-Estrada leaders headed by San Juan Mayor Jayvee Ejercito, former Agrarian Reform Secretary Horacio "Boy" Morales, and also with the so-called "Yellow" group of Aquino like Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay.

It is now obvious why the ouster moves against President Arroyo have so far failed to take off the ground given the composition of anti-administration forces which supposedly have banded together for this common cause. But commonsense, however, indicates otherwise.

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