Gift of freedom

FREEDOM is what it’s about – Easter Sunday and Araw ng Kagitingan, which we celebrate and commemorate this year on consecutive days.

Our soldiers who suffered in the Bataan Death March during World War II, just like Jesus Christ, endured mental agony and physical torment. Their spirit and bodies were broken, but their hope remained, displaying fortitude and holding on to the conviction that their sacrifice would have meaning.

And what it meant was freedom. That is a gift we enjoy now.

The best way of honouring our war veterans is to emulate their courage and dedication to country, which today, more than half a century later, means standing up for good governance, resisting corruption, and fighting those who are corrupt.

For the Catholic faithful, being free also means turning away from evil. Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates B. Villegas, in his Holy Week message, said, “The real meaning of Easter is our passing over from darkness into light, from sin into grace, from despair into hope, from death into new life, from suffering into glory, from the old self to new self… Freedom is His promise to those who are willing to pass over to His side.”

With freedom, we can not merely hope for things to get better, we can act to make things better.

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Still good but…

PNoy’s grade dropped from “Very Good” to only “Good” in governance.

The drop in people’s satisfaction of the PNoy Administration was mainly blamed on the sharp increases in fuel prices as this could inevitably trigger the cost of living of the common tao to shoot up.

While the Oil Deregulation Law could be the culprit for the spiraling fuel prices, the government cannot deny that as the oil companies seek to protect their profits, it is raking in unprecedented high levels of revenues as well because of the VAT. The higher the price, the more taxes government collects. Unfortunately for Juan Pinoy, the government appears powerless to marshal the oil companies’ profits and yet, it refuses to compromise its revenues from the prices of fuel.  With nothing in sight to mitigate the impact of rising fuel prices, Pnoy’s grade will inevitably skid further to “Passing” only because of his perceived continued “Noynoying” on gut issues.

PNoy must act fast. Heeding the voice of the people is heeding God’s word.

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