Greetings to Cebu City on our 72nd Charter Day!

Today is another holiday for Cebu City residents as it is the 72th Charter Day of Cebu City. We honor Don Vicente Rama, the Father of Cebu City Charter who made Cebu officially a city. Last Friday, Practicing Mayor or Acting Mayor Michael Rama also honored his grandfather with the unveiling of the Portrait of Don Vicente Rama at the Legislative Building at the Cebu City Hall where we saw three generations of the Rama family represented by Mike Rama and his son Mikel and Councilor Eduardo Rama Jr. whose record for public service has been impeccable.

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This week would have been a week of celebrations to mark 23rd anniversary of the EDSA Revolt. But yesterday Malacañang turned the EDSA Anniversary into a school holiday and rightly so; only a handful of people celebrate the EDSA Anniversary simply because many of us feel betrayed that the EDSA Revolt merely changed the political leadership of this country, but nothing much else have changed. Injustice was a major issue that we raised against the Conjugal Marcos dictatorship and 23 years later injustice is still a nagging issue.

For whatever its worth, the Supreme Court (SC) is forming an advisory council that will push for a movement towards a moral renewal in the government. This was announced by SC spokesman Jose Midas. This planned advisory council will be composed of credible leaders from the business sector, the church groups, the youth and the media and is expected to be completed by next week. SC Chief Justice Reynato Puno wants this advisory council to set up parameters for the moral force movement with the purpose of making the people aware of what’s happening in the Judiciary.

That politicians are not included in this advisory council shows that the SC is serious in pushing for this moral recovery program. I fully concur with this move because putting politicians in that advisory council would make it appear that this council might be pro or anti administration. But since its members are apolitical, I believe that this movement has a good chance of success. Any movement for moral recovery cannot move forward unless they have some kind of spiritual guidance because we accept that doctrine that without God, we are nothing!

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Talking about spiritual guidance, I just couldn’t help but be dismayed at the turn of events. A couple of weeks ago, the Judith Jastiva, wife of Seventh Day Adventist Pastor Leonardo Jastiva Sr. was supposedly kidnapped. But the Cebu City Police Office Homicide Chief Mario Monilar suspected that something was amiss, that this wasn’t really a full-blown kidnapping because there was no ransom note. A week later, they found the remains of Judith which bore signs that she was raped then murdered and left to rot on the roadside.

With the Cebu City Police solving a couple of celebrated crimes all within two weeks when the crimes were committed, we had good reason to believe that Homicide Chief Monilar was really on to something when he suspected that the Pastor was responsible for his wife’s murder. Alas, that’s where the good news ended. When charges of parricide were filed against the Pastor, Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Gabriel Ingles released the suspected murderer on the grounds of “warrantless arrest”.

Call it a legal faux pas, but that’s exactly what it is; that if the arresting officers failed to show a warrant of arrest. I’m not even sure whether his rights from the Miranda Doctrine were read before him. Maybe in their haste, they failed to issue a warrant; hence Pastor Leonardo Jastiva was freed by Judge Ingles.

While justice may have triumphed in the Sala of Judge Ingles which should serve as a very important lesson for our police officers, justice still needs to be resolved in the case of Judith Jastiva as to who really kidnapped, raped and killed her? Her suspect husband merely got out on a mere technicality, but there is no doubt that her killers are still on the loose.

I’m not saying that we have concluded that Pastor Jastiva was the one who killed his own wife. But his moves and actions were the ones that made the police suspect that this was not really a full-blown kidnapping. Pastor Jastiva has a lot of explaining to do, especially before the flock in his church. We speak of moral decay happening within the government; this decay is also happening to many of our church leaders, who are accountable, not only to their flock but to God. If we are demanding for a moral recovery program for our government leaders, we too must ask this from our church elders.