Desperation over illegal gambling and corruption drove Betis priest Eddie Panlilio to run for governor of Pampanga.
By a razor-thin margin, the people of Pampanga who were tired of their province’s tag as the jueteng capital of Central Luzon picked him over Lilia Pineda and Mark Lapid.
The bickering among administration supporters proved fortuitous for Panlilio. In the home province of President Arroyo, administration forces were split by the rivalry between Lakas and Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino. Lakas fielded Lapid, son of Sen. Lito Lapid who has also lost his bid for mayor of Makati. The President’s party, Kampi, fielded Pineda, wife of Bong Pineda, long suspected to be the jueteng kingpin of Central Luzon. The Pinedas hail from the President’s hometown of Lubao and are seen as her staunch supporters. Pineda’s defeat is therefore seen as a major rebuff of the President in her own bailiwick.
That perception adds to the intensity of the applause for Panlilio’s victory.
His win was a vote of those desperate for change in Pampanga. Some of his supporters didn’t think he stood a chance against money politics where the Pinedas had the edge. Credit should be given to those who made sure Panlilio would not be cheated of his mandate.
But Panlilio’s win is an aberration in a country that projects itself as a secular democracy, a country that even has the principle of separation of church and state enshrined in its Constitution.
We all have specific roles to play in building a strong secular democracy.
Unless we want to turn our country into a theocracy, the direct participation of the clergy in politics cannot be encouraged.
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The country has enough problems with public officials allowing the Catholic Church to influence public policy, not out of genuine religious devotion but purely for political considerations.
This is glaring in matters regarding marriage and the family, contraception and women’s reproductive rights. For a while the bishops even poked their noses into fiscal matters, blocking bitter economic pills.
We also have religious groups that have turned into major power players, promising – and delivering, unfortunately for the country – the bloc votes of their members to candidates who do the groups’ bidding.
The support of the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) and El Shaddai are actively sought by both the administration and opposition and by individual candidates long before the start of an election campaign.
That support does not come free. When the INC cashes in its chips, it’s hard for the administration to say no. Aware of this, the INC’s endorsement is sought not only by politicians but also by military and police officers seeking promotions or desired assignments, members of the judiciary, and individuals seeking Cabinet posts or other appointive government positions.
Meanwhile, while we allow the political clout of religious groups to grow and they become more aggressive in influencing public policy, Filipinos can use more spiritual guidance.
Our predominantly Catholic country is one of the most corrupt in the world. It is a country where political rivals are eliminated through murder, where poll watchers are killed as ballot boxes are destroyed, where journalists are shot dead for reporting bad news, and where people are killed over parking space and even for singing out of tune.
We have no divorce, but men – prominent public officials included – keep several wives or strut around with nubile trophy mistresses.
This is a country where Church teachings against illegal gambling are generally ignored, partly because Church charities are among the biggest beneficiaries of state-run gambling.
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Panlilio will need all the help he can get so that by the end of his three-year term, he would have achieved his campaign promise.
The last time authorities shut down jueteng operations for several weeks in Pampanga, those who benefited from the popular numbers game staged rallies protesting the loss of their livelihood. The protesters were from low-income families.
Though popular among the masses, jueteng remains illegal. It survives through corruption, with jueteng lords paying monthly protection money to law enforcement authorities and local government officials.
The jueteng barons are large donors to campaign war chests. In recent years, realizing the public goodwill bought by gambling money, several jueteng lords entered politics, with a number of them succeeding.
This is the culture that Ed Panlilio is up against.
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Pampanga’s gain is the loss of the Catholic Church, which is already suffering from an acute shortage of priests.
That shortage has to be the reason the Church did not accept the resignations of two other priests who ran for public office elsewhere in the country. Now that the priests have lost, they can return to their parishes.
Panlilio is officially on leave from his priestly duties. The understanding is that he can resume his religious mission after three years, if he’s done with politics. He has left his fate in the Church to the bishops. One of them – outspoken anti-jueteng crusader Archbishop Oscar Cruz – has long been vocal in his opposition to the entry of the clergy into politics. Like the other bishops, Cruz has congratulated Panlilio for his victory but has made it clear that the new Pampanga governor has to leave the priesthood.
Malacañang won’t touch this hot potato, with Palace officials saying it was Church business. Other bishops are acting as if they hope the problem will disappear by itself, like a boil.
Some princes of the Church have openly lamented that it had to take a priest to end the stranglehold of the Pinedas in Pampanga politics. After all, there are hundreds of thousands of Pampanga residents out there who could have challenged the Pinedas, but there are only a few thousand priests to minister to a flock of about 80 million.
If Church teachings were reaching the flock, there wouldn’t even be a need for a priest to become provincial governor to stamp out jueteng and corruption.