LENTEN THOUGHTS

Lenten thoughts

By Teodoro Bacani Jr.

We have now entered the season of Lent. Last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Lenten season. All the Catholic churches overflowed with people who wanted to be signed with ash on their foreheads. One of the two formulas the ministers who imposed the ashes were supposed to say was, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” Lent is the penitential season of the Church. It is meant to be a time of repentance, a time of turning our hearts away from sin, resolving not to commit them again in order that we may live for God and for our fellow human beings.

God has given us very strong signals to urge us to repent. Two events have happened, outwardly very different, yet inwardly delivering the same message to our public officials and to all of us: Repent or you perish. As Moses told the Israelites before they crossed the Jordan: Choose! Life and prosperity, or death and doom.

The two events are the ouster of Speaker Jose de Venecia and the homecoming, abduction, and surfacing of Rodolfo Lozada Jr.

De Venecia, known to be capable of wiggling himself out of difficult situations, failed to avert disaster to his political career this time. He was dislodged from the post of speaker. He did not go silently, like a lamb silent before those who slaughter it. He went down whining, splattering dirt on the occupant of Malacañang as his dreaded hour approached. The nation witnessed his downfall, but there were few who lamented it. Many felt pity for the man, but thought that he deserved his downfall nevertheless.

Unless our politicians are so drunk with power or sedated by Malacañang largesse, the lesson cannot be lost to them. Those in power will use you. You can return the compliment and use those in power as well. But there is an end—there must be an end—to mutual support in evil. It is just a matter of who goes first. But whoever survives will survive only temporarily. The time of reckoning will come to the surviving partner also.

It is De Venecia today. It will be Gloria Macapagal Arroyo not long from now.

As if to signal the death knell of this administration, which the pambobola (deception) of Secretaries Ignacio Bunye and Ronaldo Puno cannot hide, there soon followed the homecoming, abduction and surfacing of Rodolfo Lozano Jr. It is now clear to the people that the National Police abducted Lozano, even though his sister Carmen was belatedly asked to sign a request to the National Police to secure him (kuno), and though Lozano himself admitted he was made to sign some documents which he apologized having signed, implying he was pressured to do so. It is also clear now that the administration is hiding something about the ZTE deal, and that the First Gentleman may likely have dipped his hand into the honey (though now he is nowhere to be found, it seems). The Empress is now exposed, and she does not know it yet. The people are starting to get angry again (thank God!), and she better know it now.

How pathetic! Her father was known as the poor boy from Lubao. The daughter is known now as the rich President in Malacañang. (At dinner, on Chinese New Year, I commented that she looked pitiful. One woman retorted: “But she has a lot of money!”). Her father enunciated the doctrine of command responsibility. But she has not admitted responsibility for the many evils happening under her administration. The only exception was her lame apology about the “Hello Garci” incident. How unlike the father the daughter is!

Both events—De Venecia’s downfall and Lozano’s return—are a call to the President and her people, as well as to all of us to recognize the futility of living according to the lie. You can only go so far with lying and pretenses. Sooner or later, the truth will out. And in her case, it seems it is sooner.

***

I was invited to celebrate mass at the Bureau of Customs on the celebration of its 106th anniversary. I was happy to have celebrated that mass and met Commissioner Napoleon Morales and some of his fellow officials and staff. The commissioner briefed me about the efforts, successes, and difficulties of the bureau. Commissioner Morales is a man who rose from the ranks, intends to improve the bureau, and has already gone a long way in doing so. He proudly says that they had a record collection of P210.5 billion in 2007, P12.3 billion higher than in 2006. He explained that for every P1 appreciation of our currency in relation to the US dollar, the bureau stands to lose P3 billion annually. So, he said, if the peso had not appreciated in value so much in 2007, they could have collected P27 billion more, and would have even surpassed the target set for the bureau. He was also very happy to report about the highly sophisticated detection system they have set in place which enables them to detect misdeclared or undervalued cargo.

Needless to say, Commissioner Morales has made many enemies. I would not be surprised either if many bad eggs still remain in Customs. But at least here is one commissioner who is trying to beat the odds and trying to lead his bureau to new heights. Good, too, that there are still many good Customs employees. I pray that you succeed, commissioner!

Source: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=teodoroBacani_feb9_2008