A nephew wrote me, "I am sad, but I am hopeful."

How succinct. He plucked the words out of my mouth, and I know many others feel the same way. While the tip of the iceberg is naturally more passionate and eager to engage in the most active way, the body politik is more cautious despite the intensity of its frustration. A great battle is now being staged by the status quo in all of its forms and the change makers who simply cannot take it anymore.

What is "it"? The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, or CBCP, says "it" is the pervasive cancer of corruption and "it" needs a relentless pursuit of the truth that government should lead. That is a powerful statement from a group that has not found its way to being the undisputed and deeply regarded as the moral guardian of its Catholic flock. Even the CBCP has been the victim of the momentum of change, its divided composition a reflection that moral behavior is what the Pope fears it to be—a manifestation of relativism.

The cancer of corruption is not an overnight sensation. It has been growing with great visibility under the clear view of the bishops and the Church, of businessmen, of academicians, of Juan de la Cruz. Of course, I did not say government, because corruption by definition is necessarily of the government, by the government, for the government. What is amusing is that the bishops ended up saying that government take the lead against its own wrongdoing. In the context of a legal system, it is asking government to convict itself, to send many of its representatives to prison.

To those who understand the nature of cancer, and to those who now certify, as the CBCP does, that there is a pervading cancer of corruption, the destructive cancer cells have grown from non-entities to being life-threatening. Yet, the therapy being proposed is for the cancer cells to take the lead in their own self-destruction. From a profoundly honest description of what is obtaining in our society, the proposed intervention sets the stage for sure death.

Where is Jaime Cardinal Sin? The late archbishop of Manila never said he was right, he just said he was clear. He said: This is wrong and that is right, break the wrong and start the right. He said: This is evil and that is good, demolish evil and do good.

Black and white is the only correct stance when a crisis of faith and morals threaten basic human decency, when the cancer of corruption eats away at the divinity of the human soul.

Where is Fidel V. Ramos? He is here still, but he is not here, too. That is how confused he is, or how confused he will make Filipinos if they listen to him. He says Filipinos should "recapture the spirit" of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution but not through People Power. Well, in case he has forgotten, the 1986 EDSA revolution was People Power—the passion of People Power in the context of a cancer of corruption.

After such a deeply profound exhortation to recapture the spirit of what can be the greatest revolution of modern times, Ramos crumbles to mediocrity by asking for communal reforms. Why does he not simply say that he wants to retain the status quo, to feed the aggression of the cancer of corruption? Cancer does not reverse itself by reform; it is attacked as relentlessly as its deadly mission to kill what is good and just and honest in society. Cancer is not reformed; it is removed or treated radically.

If there is no cancer of corruption, then let this be the diagnosis of our societal leaders. Is there not a cancer of corruption that pervades in our country? Those who say there is none must stand up and so proclaim. They must be proud of their views because the absence of that cancer of corruption is a point of honor. If Gloria and Mike Arroyo and all those who have been accused of corruption that blows away the legal parameters of plunder, then their defenders and promoters must openly, unequivocally, and elatedly declare the sterling honesty and integrity of their governance.

If to others there is indeed the existing and threatening cancer of corruption, then they are obligated by the laws of God and man to declare a crusade against it—not pamper it with neither-here-nor-there action or non-action plans. Because they have chosen to accept there is cancer, then they cannot be lukewarm, or cowardly, in their exhortation to fight for what cancer seeks powerfully to destroy. Do not call evil a mortal sin if we cannot deal it a mortal blow.

What is most ridiculous is the call for a change from each one of us before we try to change the evil around us. It is an insidious attempt to buy unlimited time for evil to prosper, for the corrupt to continue their plunder and satiate their greed, as individuals like you and me struggle for personal transformation in the midst of a moral crisis choking the ideal. When Filipinos do not know how to handle corruption of the powerful, it is because they themselves are greatly weakened and desperately cry for succor to their shepherds. How sad, indeed, to have wolves in sheep's clothing in the leadership of our society.

Though I am not a very religious m person, I try to be very clear about what I am and what I wish to be. When sometimes I doubt, when sometimes I am sure about how to move forward, when sometimes I seek the light from those better than me, I recall the famous words that a great man said, I pray that I will be blessed with the wisdom of others.

I also pray that I will not fall victim to deception, especially from those who are sworn to servants of the law or of God, that I will be able to discern and say bravely to each of them, "Get thee behind me, Satan."

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Responses may be sent to jlmglimpses@gmail.com.