Those who exalt themselves shall be...!

Gov. Gwen Garcia apparently caused an uproar because of her answering a very controversial question during an interview on Boy Abunda’s Bottomline, which I saw last Sunday. Unfortunately, I missed that very controversial portion where she considered herself the “best Governor” Cebu ever had. In fairness to the Governor, I found out that it was a question that Boy Abunda asked, which he asked to be answered with a “Yes” or “No”. Naturally, those pundits who are against Gov. Gwen are having a grand time making fun of this obvious self-serving statement. So Gov. Gwen answered in the affirmative. Let’s call it a major-major faux pas that she answered this query with a yes, even if she already explained what she has done for Cebu.

During yesterday morning’s 888-Forum in Marco Polo Hotel, this issue was also discussed and the son of the late Cebu Governor Osmundo Rama came up to say,“There would have been no argument if Gov. Gwen said that she was the best Lady Governor of Cebu.” Indeed, no one would have argued on such a statement, after all, Gov. Gwen is still the only woman Governor we ever had in Cebu.

But rather than join the tirades against the Governor, allow me to interject a spiritual message for the Governor and to all our political leaders, especially in this season of Lent as coincidentally it was the gospel teaching yesterday from Matt.23:11-12 “The greatest among you must be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself (or herself for that matter) will be humbled; whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Yes, Governor Garcia should have refrained from answering that obviously loaded question or she should have answered with humility.

What Gov. Gwen needs is to pray the Prayer for Humility (which I might add should also be prayed by Rep. Tomas Osmeña). Allow me to give an excerpt of this prayer:“Deliver me Jesus that others may be esteemed more than I, Jesus grant me the grace to desire it. That others be chosen and I set aside; that others may be praised and I unnoticed… that others be holier than I provided that I become as holy as I should.” So let’s live this issue to the dustbin of history and we pray that our political leaders would never forget that first and foremost, they are considered public servants. As for who is the best Governor or Mayor of Cebu, that is not for them to say so but for us the taxpayers or their constituents or history to decide.

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I watched the Congressional debate on whether or not to impeach Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez but the debate went on and on that I fell asleep. I only learned early in the morning over the radio that a vote has been cast which resulted in a tie or a stalemate. But a quick check on the GMA-7 website showed that the votes cast in the House of Representatives was 212 votes for impeachment vs. 46 votes and four abstentions. Call it historic that Congress finally impeached an impeachable officer.

However, this battle will now be elevated in the Senate and chances are Merceditas Gutierrez may find a lot of allies there because of political pressure from the friends belonging to the Iglesia ni Kristo, more so that there’s a bevy of Senators who are up for reelection in the 2013 elections.

While the whole country is focused on this impeachment issue, little do our politicians realize that the bottomline on this case is our serious lack of speedy Justice. Congressmen who support Merci insist that if she is impeached, then we might as well impeach the whole Supreme Court for the very same reasons. There is no argument there. However, the difference in the case of the Ombudsman is that, she has become the microchasm of the centralized system of governance that we’ve long wanted to be changed, hopefully into a Federal form of government that gives more powers to the local government units (LGUs) including the power to tax.

I have always maintained that people like Ombudsman Virginia Palanca Santiago is a competent person who could file graft cases against erring public officials. But the centralized system adopted by the Ombudsman means that the authority to file cases rests solely on her. Hence, even that 2002 case of the so-called Girl Scout Scam hasn’t even gotten past the prosecutor level. This is why I fully support the idea of impeaching the Ombudsman, which is in my book the first step in our fight against corruption.

Again I’d like to emphasize that corruption would diminish or even be eradicated if and when we fix whatever is wrong in our justice system. The moment that government bureaucrats or election officials realize that if and when they are caught with their dirty hands in the cookie jar, they could be suspended in 3 months and convicted within the year or less, corruption would become history!