Christmas gifts

A few weeks ago, the Catholic bishops proposed to mediate between P-Noy and Renato Corona. P-Noy had just berated Corona in public then, and Juan Ponce Enrile had suggested to them that they attempt to reconcile the President and the Chief Justice. They were all for it. “I am OK with that,” said Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes, “especially this time of Christmas… a time for peace, reconciliation, understanding and respect.”

P-Noy of course ignored them and went on to call for Corona’s impeachment.

At around the same time, several political figures and columnists were also proposing that instead of causing friction between the three branches of government, or creating a rift between himself and past presidents, living or dead, P-Noy should strive to reconcile with them. Bongbong Marcos said P-Noy was missing a golden opportunity to unite the country by not burying his father in the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s supporters said P-Noy was missing a momentous chance to show he was a transcendental President by refusing to allow her to leave the country.

P-Noy of course ignored them and went on to arrest Arroyo.

Over the next few days, expect the usual suspects to harp on the theme of reconciliation and accuse P-Noy of betraying its spirit. Which is the spirit of Christmas. I don’t know though that it will have much traction. What will probably do so, aided in no small way by surveys that say the people overwhelmingly support what P-Noy has done, is the opposite view: Over the last couple of months, P-Noy has enlivened the spirit of Christmas. Over the last couple of months, P-Noy has given this country its best Christmas ever.

He has done so by being the Magus bearing gifts to the child Juan. Unlike the Three Kings, he is just one. But like the Three Kings he has brought three gifts. I don’t know what star he followed, probably the one that shines brightest in his conscience, guiding him through the cold and dark. It takes a leap of faith to see the star, and it takes a rush of courage to follow it. P-Noy has followed his star, and laid three gifts before us.

The first is the gift of memory. Over the last couple of months, he has helped push back the culture of forgetfulness, one of the greatest banes of this country. A bane we have seen in the congressmen almost managing to sneak Marcos into the Libingan. A bane we have seen in Erap, convicted by the people themselves for corruption, managing to sneak into second place in the last elections. A bane we might have seen in Arroyo going into exile and using her ill-gotten wealth to mount a comeback, or short of that, since she has always been short of public acceptance, make life more difficult for the government than it already is. Except that P-Noy did the right thing and cut off that possibility.

It’s a bane the bishops themselves brought to fullness during Arroyo’s time with their favorite mantra, “Let’s move on.” Which is really to say, let’s forget the injustice and oppression, we only oppress ourselves by dwelling on the injustice. What P-Noy has done by refusing to bury Marcos in the Libingan, by arresting Arroyo, by impeaching Corona is to affirm that no country can move when it is weighed down by iniquity—seen most of all in the guilty going free or being rewarded. First let us right wrongs. First let us punish wrongdoers. First let us remember. Then we can move on.

The second is the gift of justice. Joker Arroyo says P-Noy has fallen short of his mother. Not at all, he has exceeded her. Trapped in the Church’s framework of (false) reconciliation, Cory never sent to jail the Marcos torturers, the Marcos cronies, and the Marcoses themselves. The Americans of course had a hand in it, just as they had a hand in the pardoning of the collaborators after the Japanese Occupation. Fearing that the elite would be divided while the Reds rattled the gates, the Americans dissuaded the implacable hounding of the Marcos cabal.

The result was not just that the Marcoses managed to rehabilitate themselves, enough for Bongbong to contemplate running for president, it would open the door for Arroyo to do another Marcos. What P-Noy has done by refusing to bury Marcos in the Libingan, by arresting Arroyo, and by impeaching Corona is to affirm that where there is no punishment for crime, there will always be crime. You can shout “Never again!” again and again, but tyranny will rise again and again. What stops it is justice.

The third is the gift of unity. The Christmas blessing is “Peace to men of goodwill,” it is not “Peace to men (and women) of ill-will.” The point of unity is for government to unite with the people, not with their oppressors. The point of reconciliation is for government to reconcile with the people, not with their oppressors.

Why should anyone think that P-Noy forgiving and forgetting the Marcoses would be good for the country? Why should anyone think that P-Noy forgiving and forgetting Arroyo would be good for the country? Why should anyone think that P-Noy forgiving and forgetting Corona would be good for the country?

Uniting with oppressors is not uniting the country, it is dividing the county. Uniting with oppressors is alienating the people. Uniting with oppressors is screwing the nation. Which has always been the case with us, none of our governments really going out of its way to right the wrongs of the past, to punish the oppressors of the past, to correct the mistakes of the past. What P-Noy has done by refusing to bury Marcos in the Libingan, by arresting Arroyo, by impeaching Corona is to unite the country. There’s the 80-percent public approval rating to show for it.

Truly this is one time you can greet people fervently:

Merry Christmas everyone.