Prayerful Easter wishes

Easter time is a time for all of us to revive the fast fading hope caused by our divisiveness in the quest for truth on some shocking revelations of corruption and greed rocking this administration. This is the never-ending hope springing from the timeless Easter message that by His passion, death, and resurrection, our Lord Jesus Christ has saved us from eternal damnation and regained for us eternal life of happiness with God at the end of our earthly existence.

This message is simply and clearly telling us that the power, glory and wealth of this world passes; that our worldly existence, brief as it is, should be spent more to please and glorify God rather than men and that redemption calls for humility in accepting our own sinfulness, repenting and atoning for it.

Absorbing this Easter Message and humbly acknowledging that we are all sinners is definitely a good starting point in our current search for truth about the accusations and denials flying thick and fast around certain admittedly shady government deals. Neither the pros nor the cons should say that one or the other is completely and absolutely right — or wrong. With this kind of attitude, both sides could become allies in seeking the truth behind the katiwalian committed more specifically in that cancelled ZTE-NBN project.

Right now the biggest single, divisive factor in our present crisis is the move to oust the President by forcing her to resign through mass demonstrations. This move should be set aside in the meantime.

In the first place, the resignation of the President must be done freely and voluntarily to be valid and legal. Her decision to quit must be dictated by her own conscience telling her that under the circumstances, it is for the country’s best interest and for the common good that she should resign.

Secondly, this move to oust the President smacks of too much partisan politics. We will never be able to find the truth when politics creep in. The on-going Senate inquiry is the best argument supporting this view. The investigation has only resulted in more confusion as Senators from both sides betray their biases, inanities and hidden political agenda in the questions they propound.

Thirdly, asking the President to resign at this stage undoubtedly gives a harmful and more divisive impression that our society is quick to condemn and rash in their judgment. It runs counter to the basic tenet that ours is a government of laws, not of men and that everyone is entitled to due process. To be sure this move even has a reverse effect as the President all the more decided to dig in and fortify her hold on the Presidency believing (rightfully I would say) that quitting now is an outright admission of guilt.

Fourthly, it is utterly wrong and fallacious to assume that ousting the President and the people around her will cure the cancer of widespread graft and corruption plaguing our land today. We had the same idea when we successfully launched EDSA I and EDSA II and ousted Marcos and Estrada, yet we are apparently still in the same mess now, trying to oust another leader for exactly similar causes. The best reminders of the EDSA I and II mistakes are Estrada himself and the Marcos family still very much around being lionized by media and in social and political circles as if they have done nothing wrong against the Filipino people.

So shall we just abandon the search for truth and “move on” as repeatedly suggested by the administration?

The answer maybe found in the Pastoral Letter of the bishops of the Metropolitan Ecclesiastical Province of Manila “Towards a Morally Rebuilt Nation”. In looking back at EDSA I, our bishops aptly observed that “the event became the Filipinos’ day of crossing to freedom; but that was only the first step that hardly anyone knew. The ‘desert’ awaited the people who would be purified and converted before they become fully liberated. But the people preferred the convenient streets as the easier route to an imagined freedom, and feared the ‘desert experience’ that awaited conversion and new beginnings”.

During these Lenten holidays, I dreamt that our Senators and the President as well as her Officials had undergone the “desert experience” and had their conversions as they unite in search for the truth regarding the ZTE-NBN mess.

I dreamt that our Senators had shunned their biases, inanities and selfish political agenda; that to avoid surprises and witch-hunts, they have decided to send letters of invitation to resource persons specifying the proposed legislation/s they intend to pass, the nature and purpose of the testimony of the person summoned, the gist of the questions they intend to ask, listing them down already as much as possible. In fairness not only to the witnesses but to the persons or officials who may be implicated, I likewise dreamt that the Senate adopted the Rules of Court as guidelines in determining relevant,  competent, admissible evidence with ample weight and probative value.

On the other hand, I also dreamt that the Palace had become more transparent and cooperative by allowing Officials who may have first hand knowledge on the deal to testify; that it had authorized the release of relevant documents baring enough details needed for the drawing up of the proposed legislation/s; that it had abandoned policies and stopped moves perceived as if it has something to hide. I also had the vision that since the President already said that she came to know of some complaints of katiwalian even before the signing of the contract and in fact subsequently cancelled it she had decided to lay bare everything no matter who gets hurt. Most pleasantly surprising in my dream was that she even asked her allies in the Lower House to allow an impeachment trial in the Senate so she can prove her innocence once and for all in accordance with due process of law.

Going back to reality, I see my dreams once more as mere wistful thoughts; that they are proposals previously made that had fallen deaf ears. But since this is Easter time we can still dare to dream because it is a time some dreams may come true if accompanied by our humble and confident prayers. After all, more things are wrought by prayers than these world dreams of.

HAPPY EASTER!