Ex-Priests to Politics and the Catholic Vote

As far as my consciousness is concern, only the time of GMA’s regime that some of the men in cloth are courageous enough to disobey the age-old centuries Church’s law and get involved in politics. They are suspended from their ministerial service because of such act. But they are ready to give their selves in civic service for the great number of people, regardless of their beliefs.

And for the past three consecutive elections, only Among Ed won and got into the arena of politics in the first election, but later on was unseated by his opponent after election count was done and proclaimed the latter as the real winner. For the second and third elections, he never did it even running under the ticket of the present administration which represents good governance.

There are three priests, as far as I know, aspire to become public servant, i.e. Fr. Ed Panlilio on Pampanga’s gubernatorial race, Fr. Leo Casas on Masbate’s gubernatorial race, and Msgr. Cris dela Cruz on Zamboanga’s congressional race, and all of them did not make it. This is a very sad experience for the Catholic people as a whole. Where are they? I am thinking about the support of the Catholics to these fellow Catholics.

A tiny part of the congregation has grouped themselves for a cause after the devastating defeat of being passed the reproductive health bill into law by the current administration. That cause is to try to prove that there is such a thing as Catholic Vote. This is to counter the survey conducted that most of the Catholics are supporting the RH Law. Sad to say that the stalwarts of this Catholic vote did not include these ex-priests in their list of support for good governance.

In the first place, these ex-priests did not abandon their service to the people. Their service even expands from serving the Catholics to non-Catholics as well. These men of the cloth are also citizens of this country. But why this movement did not give their support? Is it because out of obedience to their teachers and their teachings of the Church? Where is the sense of common good? Even the Ang Kapatiran Party, as supported by the teachers of the Church, promotes that idea as part of their social justice ideology.

These Catholics did not live up to their identity as ‘Catholics.’ If the word catholic means universal, then they should not only deal the issue on pro-life alone. I am sure that these ex-priests also embrace the idea of pro-life and live the ministerial service for greater service such as for the common good. It is with deep regret that within the catholic congregation, they do not support each other for the common cause to fight the evils in the society.

What do we have here is a picture of division and discrimination within the catholic fold. The men in authority are throwing their all-out support to this catholic vote movement for the purpose of getting the number of lawmakers who are pro-life in the congress. And still these same people did not encourage their flock to throw their support for these ex-priests in the name of disobedience to the Church law.

Traditional People or “Tra-Ple”

Election 2013 is over for senatorial and local contests. People have spoken their will through voting, and the winners have already been proclaimed. What is the next step after the national and local events? It is time for the winners to prove their worth and to put their agenda into practice. This is the usual scenario we witness ever since we become citizens of this country.

We have a democratic and republican system of government in the Philippines. Yes, any one is entitled not only to vote but also to participate in the election by being a candidate, provided he is qualified to be one. And this is the democratic spirit where all citizens are given and treated with equal standing with the rest. But not everyone’s wish is granted.

Only few of the citizens are blest with power and authority as vested by the people according to the Constitution of 1987. One political analyst has said that there are only 14 families who rule the country. And these ‘14 families’ are being called ‘political dynasties’ where family members and relatives are holders of such positions in the government.

The rise of these families is caused by two-fold causes. The first one is their good performances. The eldest Binay in the government has vindicated that their victory in the election is based on their performances. He has two daughters in the Congress and a son as mayor of Makati. I would like to agree with him that performance is one of the indicators of peoples’ choices, just like the Dutertes of Davao City. The other cause is not stemming from the politicians’ performances. And what is this?

If there is such thing as traditional politicians, also known as ‘trapos,’ I believe that there is also other phenomenon to explain the rise of these families into power. This is now on the part of the people, who, at the same time, the source of politicians’ power. They elect their candidates not according to their performance, but according to their traditional names. In short people choose them because they are carrying and inheriting influential names. And sad to say, the winners they have chosen are poor in their performances.

Why do I say this? It is because the electors do not mind about their performances. What is important to them is to place people in positions because they feel comfortable with them for the reason that their parents or grandparents have done something great for their constituents. Through this Filipino trait called debt of gratitude, citizens perpetuate them in power despite of their poor performances.

From this perspective, I could say that the kind of leaders in power reflects the kind of the majority of the electorate. There are the traditional people or “tra-ple.” Sometimes it is only ourselves to blame when the political affairs fails. We fail to play the game fairly. If we think we are contented and satisfied with the way we think, I guess we are wrong. We are always the losers in this scenario.