from PREDA Foundation
Is he a priest, prophet or president-to-be? These are the questions that are surrounding the public announcement by Pampanga governor, Father Eddie Panlilio that he will seek the Presidency of the Philippines, “if the support is there”, says this penniless priest-on-leave turned politician. He won an extremely popular mandate as governor of Pampanga in 2007 in a phenomenal election that narrowly dethroned the bid of the powerful Pineda family clan, a close ally of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is also from the province. The defeated clan leader Lillia Pineda deposited four million pesos to the election commission as fee for a recount to unseat Governor Panlilio despite the fact that he has only 11 months left in office.
The decision of the highly-respected priest, known affectionally as “Among Ed”, who was suspended from his priestly duties as social action director of the San Fernando Archdiocese when he ran for governor, is very courageous. He entered the political arena as a means to bring the Church’s moral and social teaching to bear on the corrupt-ridden province.
”It was not a failing of Among Ed’s priestly ministry or that of the Church that allowed evil and abominable practices to prevail but because of corrupt unscrupulous politicians”, said a close supporter of the governor who asked not to be named for this article. He was referring to the politically approved and spread of the sex industry and illegal gambling. The city of San Fernando and Angeles city and surrounding towns are flooded with trafficked and prostituted women and children, some as young as 11 years old.
The widespread availability of child pornography, cyber sex dens and foreign sex tourists that are embraced and feted as economic saviors has shocked the good people of Pampanga. “They have turned our beautiful province into a Sodom and Gomorra, money is their God and Among Ed was the only one leading us to stand against it”, he said. They took a stand and elected Father Ed Panlilio as governor whose prized worldly possession is a 1999 model motorbike and an old battered car.
They were not to be disappointed. In his quite unruffled manner he eliminated corruption in the provincial tax collection office and in construction projects and poured the money into education, health and social welfare for the poor. This infuriated the entrenched political lackeys that ruled every town and village and got a share of the largest of the provincial treasury. Abandoned by police protection, pipe welding goons broke into his office in the capitol building and threatened to beat him and his staff to death. Supporters rushed to his side to protect him.
Following his announcement to run for president last 18 July, Archbishop Paciano Aniceto spoke of his deep disappointment and objection at these plans that will require the governor to apply for a dispensation from the priesthood. The archbishop told the media “He is drifting from his original priestly mission. A priest is a servant of the City of God, not of the city of man”.
The church has maintained a strict line of separation between Church and State although progressive bishops have spoken out on politically-sensitive issues such as corruption and social evils, the environmental destruction and irresponsible mining.
The church leaders have been rightly urging the Catholic laity to “evangelize politics” and to make Christian values and social teaching a driving force in national policy. What no one could foresee was that the laity have been taught to trust and respect the clergy so much and they depend on church leadership for so long, they couldn’t but choose a priest to lead them in that evangelical quest.
Are they to be chided or admired for electing this penniless priest and pushing him towards the presidency? This rare uncorrupted man of God who is free of debts to family or party, tycoons and multinationals, church or clergy or any earthly power, is a powerful attraction for many Filipinos that hunger and thirst for social justice and honest government. They want such a candidate to be president. He is the one candidate that is the nightmare of all the rest. END
Visit www.preda.org for more related articles.
No comments:
Post a Comment