Snarling prosecutors turn into purring kittens

“BEGONE! GET thee behind me, Satan!” Jesus angrily told the devil when the latter took him to the mountaintop and tempted him with all the kingdoms and riches of the world, according to the biblical narrative by St. Matthew (4:2-8).

Yet, Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos would accept “money or a vehicle” from the devil “If I can use the vehicle (for) the work I do for the people.” (“Pueblos would do a Sin but who’s the devil?” Inquirer, 7/14/11)

Bishop Pueblos made the admission in answer to a question during the Senate hearing last July 13 on the giving of vehicles to seven bishops, including Pueblos, by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, a government agency.

Asked by Pueblos to whom he was referring when he spoke of the devil, Estrada in turn replied with a rhetorical query, “Is it the PCSO?  Is it President Arroyo?” It was apparent that Estrada was trying to pinpoint GMA as the “devil” as it was she who allegedly ordered the PCSO to give an SUV to Pueblos.

Estrada also mentioned Cardinal Sin as having said that he would receive money from the devil if he could use it to help the poor.

The blue ribbon committee hearings usually turn into an inquisition with the senators behaving no different from snarling prosecutors when ordinary mortals are under questioning.  But it became a church meeting with the senators acting like parishioners seeking penance from the reverences. Tigers turned into purring kittens. They even expressed disappointment when the bishops insisted on returning the vehicles which were gifted to them by the PCSO in violation of the constitutional rule separating Church and State.

In the confrontation between the State and the Church, the State quavered.  As the affair showed, the Philippines is a weak state.  It is not separate from the Church, it is under it.  A weak state cannot progress and help the people.

As for the rule of law—the basis of which is that nobody is above the law—it has suffered a big blow.  Henceforth, those accused of plunder of state funds, such as those indicted in the P800-million fertilizer scam and the multi-million-peso military pabaons and pasalubongs (farewell and welcome gifts of public funds), should be acquitted by the Senate if they say that they gave to the poor the money they had undeservedly or illegally taken from public coffers.

As for the Church, it can only remain a strong moral guide if its hierarchs can truly follow the example of their Lord not to give in to the temptation of the devil.  After all Jesus could have accepted the bribe of kingdoms and riches by justifying that he was accepting them to help the poor.

—MANUEL F. ALMARIO

spokesman,

Movement for Truth In History,

[email protected]