REPLY TO THE CBCP STATEMENT:WE HAVE LONG KNOWN THE TRUTH:

By:
Atty. Luke Espiritu
Philippine Union for Nationalist Liberation (PUNYAL)

First of all we commend the gallant stance you took despite the understandable constraints of having to decide unanimously as a body whose members come from different views and persuasions. We agree with your February 26, 2008 Pastoral Statement that the search for truth must be free and untrammeled. We are likewise one with your call for communal action beginning at the grassroots level in order for us to live and experience the real meaning of People Power.

However, is the truth that elusive at this point that "communal action" simply means discovering it under the intricate lies and deceit woven by the monstrous evil in Malacañang? Or, is the truth already evident that it should lead to no other conclusion than to remove and cut off completely that which destroys our moral fiber as a nation?

Our beloved bishops, we your people are not ignorant. Nay, we your people are not as stupid as the sycophants of Ms. Gloria Arroyo treat us through Malacañang's outrageous and absurd falsehoods. The search for truth is not only about to begin. The truth has long been found.

It has been there since Ms. Arroyo's distinctive voice was heard calling "Hello Garci" and when she made a vague apology afterwards that fooled nobody. The truth stared at our faces when our protests were muffled through the Calibrated Pre-Emptive Response, when whistle-blowers were harassed and threatened with harm while criminals in public office were protected through E.O. 464 and when farmers' funds disappeared into thin air. The truth is heard from the grieving mothers of Sherlyn Cadapan, Karen Empeño and Jonas Burgos. Truth is not some distant hope but is as real and tangible as the warm blood shed by the victims of extra-judicial killings. No, the search for truth did not begin when Jun Lozada re-surfaced from an apparent captivity.

WE HAVE LONG KNOWN THE TRUTH that straining to "search" for it even when truth is already in our hands is like goading ourselves to first pretend that we are blind. This is, therefore, the time to ACT on the basis of what we already know rather than to backtrack and delude ourselves that we know nothing yet.

Hence, contrary to your February 26, 2008 Pastoral Statement, we cannot simply beseech Malacañang to aid in investigating itself through the abolition of E.O. 464 or to take the lead in combating corruption. We can neither entrust the search for truth upon those who stifle it nor place the burden of change upon those who resist it. In other words, our freedom cannot come from the very hands of our oppressors. We have to win it for ourselves.

Finally, the beholders of truth cannot take a neutral position for they must side against the forces of deceit, nay, of evil. Hence, we cannot understand how anyone can take the middle course or how it must be perceived that your role during these troubled times is to desist from taking sides.

During World War II, the Vatican under Pope Pius XII remained neutral in the face of mounting evidence of the Holocaust. The apology came more than fifty (50) years later when the Vatican became contrite for its less than active role in preventing the slaughter of the Jews. By then, 6 million Jews had already lost their lives inside the Nazi concentration camps.

Our dear bishops, should we suffer the same fate? Should more of our youth disappear? Should more of our journalists and activists be killed? Should more of our poor die slowly of hunger as rapacious officials suck dry the nation's resources? Then, we may no longer be there to accept an apology.

The People Will Decide

More than two years ago, I came across this letter which may still be relevant today considering the perceived neutrality of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) amidst the brewing political storm fanned by the NBN-ZTE scandal. The letter was written during the height of the Hello Garci controversy after the CBCP, under the leadership of Archbishop Fernando Capalla, discouraged efforts at the House of Representatives to impeach Ms. Gloria Arroyo and instead advised the Catholic faithful to simply “move on”.

The CBCP has made a significant transformation since Capalla was replaced by Archbishop Angel Lagdameo. With the call for “communal action” and to seek the truth and restore integrity in governance, the CBCP has at least acknowledged the need for change in the status quo. However, it stopped short of calling for the resignation of Ms. Arroyo and disappointed many who are hoping for the CBCP to come up with a stronger statement.

Hence, even with a relatively more progressive stance by the CBCP, the letter still rings true in the sense that the people must rely on their on judgment rather than look towards the CBCP for guidance. “But it is still the people who will decide,” the letter states.

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January 24, 2006

CATHOLIC BISHOPS CONFERENCE OF THE PHILIPPINES (CBCP)
Pope Pius Center, City of Manila

TAKE YOUR GUIDANCE FROM THE PEOPLE NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND

Dear Bishops:

Perhaps, unlike any other letter that you may have received, this one is not a plea. We shall not beseech you to issue a statement affirming the deep conviction of majority of the Filipino people that the fake President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo should stop the charade and give up power that is not hers. If you, our bishops, should prefer to sign your own death sentence towards irrelevance by taking vague positions in the face of evident fraud, corruption, and wanton acts of repression by Ms. Arroyo, we shall not force you to do otherwise. Indeed, why should we eagerly await your so-called “guidance” as if it were manna from heaven?

No, to beg for your “guidance” is to concede to you an authority that is clearly not yours, for the nation’s destiny is not a slave of your prejudices, narrow-mindedness, and unreasonable conservatism.

You may go on with your statements asking people to simply “pray away” the madness and insanity of the political system where not the rule of law reigns, but the rule of criminal syndicates, thieves and charlatans; where to be virtuous and heroic like Gudani and Balutan is a crime and to be a cover-up artist for cheats is a virtue. You may insist on having timid, indolent “God-fearing” children of the Church who must leave the burden of national transformation to impersonal “constitutional processes” than taste the blood, sweat and tears of active struggle.

But it is still the people who will decide. It is the people, NOT YOU, who have the right to effect their sovereign will. It is the people, NOT YOU, who will say whether it is time for revolution. Take your guidance from the people, if only you care to listen, and not the other way around.

It is you who taught us to read the signs of the times. We have done so and have concluded that this is not a time to overlook Ms. Arroyo’s crimes and simply “move on” --- an ignominious piece of advice from you that WE REJECT. We are but participants in the inexorable laws of history. Everywhere you look, you will see that no nation was ever born without the blood of its martyrs and without a decisive outcome forced by a clash of contending ideas.

You, on the other hand, in your sequel to the pastoral statement of July 10, 2005, tell us to shun conflict, and instead focus our attention to the problem of poverty. It is as if not to submit, in silent acceptance, to the exploitation and abuses of the present administration under the prevailing socio-political and economic system does not ultimately address poverty.

No, we cannot pretend that there is no simmering conflict and division in our country today and suffer the symptoms of national neurosis. We cannot simply forget the divide, reconcile, and move on. We shall participate in that conflict, recognize the values that separate us from the people’s enemies, and fight with all our passion and strength against the forces unleashed by the evil administration of Ms. Arroyo. The only way to build a nation is to build it on a strong foundation of values forged by the burning crucible of struggle. Only a weak and confused nation arises from unity based on peaceful accommodation of all parties.

Make your statements, they do not matter; we shall have justice, and we shall take it, or we shall be martyrs!

Yours,
MANDALUYONG GROUP

An Open Letter to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines

Where is the “Church of the Poor?”

Fr. Roberto P. Reyes

January 25, 2008

Hong Kong

It is now forty years since the winds of change and new life swept through the Church. 1965 was the year of the conclusion of the great ecumenical council called Vatican II. Today, we look back and wonder. Where is the new life? Where are the winds of change?

Seventeen years ago, something similar although of smaller magnitude took place in the Philippines. Bishops, priests, religious and lay leaders gathered at San Carlos Seminary in Makati to collectively study, pray, discern the “signs of the times”. Together they declared to strive to become a “Church of the Poor.” That was the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines of PCP II.

Seven years ago, the Filipino people moved by a deep sense of right and wrong, peacefully gathered into a peaceful moral force that led to the resignation of a corrupt and inept president. That was EDSA DOS or People Power II which deposed President Joseph Estrada and installed his Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to replace him.

Seven years later, we are appalled by a situation worse than that which led to EDSA DOS.

Almost three years ago, on July 10, 2005, the people waited in earnest for a statement from the Catholic Bishop’s Conference. We waited for guidance and strength to believe that change and new life were possible in the Philippines. Then the statement was read and its core message came across, “We are not asking you (President Arroyo) to resign!”

Extrajudicial killings, corruption at all levels from Malcanang down to the smallest baranggay; scams galore from ZTE-NBN to the distribution of P 500,000 in brown envelopes; repression and creeping martial law in the form of arbitrary arrests and detention and many more tell us in no uncertain terms that things are not well in our country.

Lately, there are rumors that Ambassador to the Vatican, Leonida Vera will be replaced. The name most often mentioned is Cristina Ponce Enrile. According to one writer, “the moves to replace Vera stem from Malacanang’s displeasure over her failure to convince the Vatican to come down hard on bishops critical of government.” (cf. Rina Jimenez-David, At Large: A Pattern of Intimidation in Philippine Daily Inquirer, January 22, 2008)

If this writer’s information is true, what does this make of the Church and her leaders? While Government has often accused us of breaking the provision of the separation between church and state for reasons that do not violate the essence of the law (which is to protect churches, religious groups against the States ‘encroachment on religious freedom and expression), what now is the Government doing?

Does the present Government wish to control not only the Philippine Catholic Bishops but also the Vatican?

What is disturbing is for the state of affairs to reach the current level where compromise and pressure are used to neutralize, manipulate, appropriate and undermine the Church’s moral role. Who is Cristina Ponce Enrile? Who is her husband? Who is her son? Who is behind and with them?

Those with wealth and power use these to get what they want. It has been the sad fate of the church to be overcome by the lure of wealth and power in the past. But is the church that free of the lure of wealth and power today?

When the Philippine Church declared its vision to become “Church of the Poor” how willing were her leaders not only to work with and for the poor but to become poor themselves? The present Government seems to know all too well our weakness and vulnerability to wealth and power. How often have we received donations from Malacanang, from PAGCOR and PCSO?

The poor do donate money but not in the shocking millions that come from the big sources. Sadly the poor have become the very excuse for our mendicancy. We gladly accept donations for the projects declared as beneficial to the poor.

In the last two years I have journeyed with our OFWs. Many of them are the poor who have chosen to survive outside our country. They have only one dream. One day they wish to return to a country that is peaceful, progressive and governed by honest, not corrupt and competent leaders. Many have paid the costly price of broken homes and problematic children. They want to be with their husbands, wives and children but they know that their meager remittances would mean either survival or starvation for their loved ones.

Compromise with those who hold wealth and power lead to the death of morality. The death of morality leads to blindness and indifference especially to the suffering of others, most of all, the poor.

Dear Bishops do you still honestly believe in PCP II? Is there still hope for the vision you declared in 1991, of becoming a “Church of the Poor?” Or should we just forget declarations and principles and just similarly resign ourselves to creeping martial law and to the Church’s creeping degradation into the “Church of the Rich?”

I was recently arrested for my alleged involvement in the Manila Pen caper. While I deny having anything to do with any group that planned the incident, I do not apologize for what I held then and even earlier. In July 10, 2005, I was convinced that for the good of our people, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo should resign. I continue to uphold this conviction.

Is this rebellion? Is this a crime against the state and the people? So many OFWs think and feel the same way. The only difference is that they are unable to express this freely without fear of reprisal.

When you draft your statement this coming Sunday, please do listen to the Spirit and in doing so, listen to the cries of the poor and not to the lucrative, tempting offers of the rich and powerful who wish to use and manipulate you.

When you read your statement this Sunday, please be the prophets that God has ordained you to be and not mere mouthpieces of human institutions whether church or state which expect you to protect interests that pass, fade and die.

When you read your statement this Sunday, listen to your consciences that hear the muffled cries of the hungry, jobless, homeless, exiled, imprisoned, sick and increasingly hopeless poor. Listen honestly and speak courageously and uncompromisingly.