What more can we say? After series of attempts to whack the whip against top government officials who merely ignore the people’s call for moral revolution and probably a change in government leadership, the people appeared to be back to square one.
And there is no assurance yet as to whether any future attempt to pressure President Arroyo from stepping down from her post would prosper in the long run. This is the only way wherein the new set of government officials, not exactly a military junta, can muster enough courage to introduce new political and economic strategies, if not continue those already started by the present administration.
Even the mass protests initiated by university students in selected Catholic schools have not done so much influence on the masses. That’s probably because the Catholic Church did not lift a collective finger to lead the rallies that could have eventually forced the leader to quit her throne. Does this mean that the principles of bishops and other catholic priests have been bought by hefty donations from the Palace?
That’s the beauty when you are a member of the Catholic Church hierarchy because whatever donations you get from external sources are not subject to outright audit. And I strongly doubt if ever these donations had benefitted the parishes where they are supposed to be spent for. In the case of a Filipino priest in Virginia, USA, where he misappropriated some US$600,000 to finance his philandering activities. Now he was convicted by a US court and facing stiff prison sentence and returning the funds he had misused for his personal interests.
In the history of the Philippines, I never heard that such a kind of punishment has been meted out to any bishop or priest who had misappropriated donations from the public. Of course, we heard a lot about cases of immoral acts committed by some bishops and priests, but not much on money matters. Has this type of corruption been sealed from the public scrutiny such that no one was convicted as what had taken place in Virginia?
I think, the fervent call by running priest Father Robert Reyes and Bishop Yniguez of Caloocan will just be another useless attempt to convince the people to unite. As it turns out, however, their continuous activism in the church could be used against them. It won’t take long when the CBCP will exert its influence to throw left-leaning priests into the lion’s den. If that happens, we can say that even the Catholic Church is no longer united when it comes to influencing corrupt government from reforming.