A call for transparency
This administration is already known by our people and will be known by future historians as the administration of the big lie and the grand concealment. Having had to labor under a heavy cloud of doubtful legitimacy, it has spent a great part of its energy trying to hide the cheating that has brought it to power and the scams that have fed its insatiable greed. It has used armed force to silence its critics, and legal arguments to keep its own people silent. It has confused the people with its "explanations" and used propaganda to bolster its image. In the end, it has succeeded in numbing the people's sensitivity to truth and continues to survive at the expense of the people it has vowed to serve. One teacher came to me in one meeting I attended and told me that she called a parent to tell her about her child cheating. The parent answered (according to the teacher), "Why, what is wrong with that?" That teacher interpreted that attitude as a bitter fruit of today's environment of cheating and lies.
The Lord gave President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo a father whose honesty she could be proud of. He was an honorable man. God gave her a Catholic education not many are privileged to have. She was given by our people the highest offices in our land. But what has she given the country in gratitude for all these? What has been her legacy so far? A legacy of mistrust, of indifference, of continuing divisiveness and poverty. So much promise! Such a terrible disappointment. Now she will be remembered for "Hello Garci," two words that will forever be coupled with her name. She will be known for gagging the truth with her EO 464. She will be known for the fertilizer scam and Jocjoc Bolante (the one who flew away), for the ZTE deal and Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos, the overpriced Macapagal Highway (how terrible that it should have been named after her father), for her jueteng lord friends, for the many desaparecidos under her regime, for her seeming impotence before some elements of the armed forces, and for her mastery of transactional politics. The bells even now toll for her, but unfortunately for us, they toll for us as well.
Already people are brandishing posters threatening her that she is next. Already many are crying for her head the moment she steps down. Already people, while they respect her office find it difficult to respect her person despite her plastered girlish smile and gestures of bravado.
In moments of crisis and difficulty, a country needs a leader it can look up to. England had such a leader in Winston Churchill during World War II. France had a Charles de Gaulle in one of its critical moments. They lifted up their countrymen. Arroyo has weighed us down. We cannot look up to her, not because of her lack of physical height, but because of her lack of moral stature.
All is not lost for her, though. She can redeem herself, or cooperate in her redemption by a change of ways. This would call from her transparency in dealing with us, her people. She will have to ask her subordinates to also be forthright and transparent to those they serve. The lack of transparency of the President and her subordinates makes them look like thieves who have something to hide. Those who have nothing to hide will not conceal their deeds by confusing the people or by recourse to executive orders that nullify the intent of the Constitution which gives the people the right to information regarding government transactions.
At every Sunday Mass we pray for the leaders of our nation. This is according to the biblical suggestion of St. Paul, who wrote to Timothy: "My advice is that, first of all, there should be prayers offered for everyone—petitions, intercessions and thanksgiving—and especially for kings and others in authority, so that we may be able to live religious and reverent lives in peace and quiet. To do this is right and will please God our Savior: He wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth."—(1Tim. 2: 1-3).
I am sure God is not deaf to our prayers. I hope and pray that the President and her men/women will not be deaf to God. Manila Standard Today.