Punchline
The bishops and the 10 Commandments
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
LAST week, Olp Parish Binmaley posted a meme on Facebook that showed Archbishop Soc Villegas’ responses to the various criticisms hurled against the outspoken members of the clergy critical of the Duterte administration.
Below are the phrases in that meme.
“You complain of priest in homily violating the separation of Church and State…
*because he condemns Fake news? He is talking of the Eight commandment.
*because he talks of corruption in the government? He is talking of the Seventh commandment.
*because he condemns the legalization of divorce? He is talking of the Sixth Commandment
*because he condemns Extra Judicial Killing (EJK)? He is talking of the Fifth Commandment.
*because he condemns a top civil leader uttering blasphemies? He is talking of the Second Commandment.
So, what law of the land has he violated?
Or, is the law of man greater than the law of God? “
- End of meme –
There you have it – the justification for the clergymen’s incessant denunciation of everything about the Duterte administration and the man himself. Nobody can argue with Mr. Archbishop’s responses invoking the commandments.
However, I note that he was also being selective and is blind to their own violations of the 10 Commandments.
The clergymen were constantly violating Eighth Commandment:
1) for spreading fake news about the alleged EJKs committed in the war on drugs. Like their peers in the opposition, the church bishops accuse the government of killing 20,000 – 30,000 drug personalities without proofs.
2) for wishing the President to become ill.
3) for rallying Catholics to seek PRRD’s ouster.
Then there is the Third Commandment: “Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.”
The bishops keep writing and reading pastoral letters condemning the government for Sunday masses.
Then the Second Commandment: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”
Why do the outspoken priests invoke God’s name in political affairs? Matthew 22-21:”Jesus said “Render to Caesar that are Casesar’s, and to God that are God’s.
But of course, who am I to say that Mr. Archbishop and his ilk are violating the commandments? If I insist on it, they could very well say I am violating the Second Commandment as well. Tsk-tsk.
* * * * *
HELP FOR COMELEC. The official campaign period for local posts starts this week, March 29.
If the campaign period had started last month, a big number of the local candidates would have been served notices of disqualifications for blatant violations of the election law on campaign materials. But obviously, they are all exploiting the loophole in the law because they are not covered by the law on posters and campaign materials. Not yet, anyway!
So let’s see how Comelec in Pangasinan will respond to all the violations. Frankly, I don’t see how the local Comelec officials can strictly enforce the law on postering, legal sizes for posters and streamers. They never did in the past. Can they do it this year?
But it’d be interesting to see who among the would be mayors, councilors and congressmen would lead the dismantling of their own illegal-sized posters and tarps installed outside of common poster areas before March 29.
If anyone can take a picture of any candidate pulling down his illegal tarp before March 29, we’d be happy to post that picture in The PUNCH (print and online).
On the other hand, to help Comelec, The PUNCH will welcome pictures of illegally installed tarps and posters from readers for the advice of Comelec. We will only require that the pictures sent are date-and-time stamped. (Showing a dated newspaper on the picture frame will also suffice.)
* * * * *
VINDICATION FOR AWAI DEAL REPORTS. It is reassuring to learn from Mayor Belen Fernandez that the city government will not rest until the full P16 million paid to Jose Mariano Cuña is returned to the city.
The PUNCH broke the story in 2000 and followed up on the transactions every week until Mayor Benjie Lim directed the payment to Jose Mariano Cuna, his known business partner. We sourced documents to show who owned what, who bought what, how much was paid, who got what, who railroaded the ordinance and the resolution to pay the P16 million.
The PUNCH reported the transaction was tainted with corruption but this was naturally pooh-poohed by Mayor BSL. What we didn’t realize at the time was the land in question was in fact already covered by land reform. There was no mention of that issue by Cuña or the original owners.
What became obvious that something was wrong with the land title was when Mayor Lim was ignoring all notices for dialogue and confrontation at the DAR office while he didn’t seem perturbed that Mr. Cuña had not delivered the title.
The city auditor at the time, Ofelia Celi, never reported the transaction as anomalous. That should tell you the extent of manipulation the Lim administration did to cover-up the anomaly. For years I questioned the failure of the city auditor to report the irregularity but that was ignored. The COA finally redeemed itself in my eyes after the recent state audit led by Mr. Robert Ocampo Sr. discovered the anomaly and charged the city government to recover the P16-M plus interests.
Now that the heirs of ex-Mayor Lim have been ordered to substitute for him as respondent, I’m hopeful that the Awai land deal will finally come to it’s logical end – the Lims and Cuña must return the money they attempted to defraud the city with!
So legally and effectively, Vice Mayor Brian Lim (and his family) now stands charged for defrauding the city. Tsk-tsk.
* * * * *
MAKE KAP ACCOUNTABLE. The report that all Pangasinan barangays have organized their respected Barangay Anti-Drug Advisory Council would appear to be reassuring to our communities that the frontline in the war on drugs is in place.
But this may not be true. We have reports that illegal drug trading in many barangays are being tolerated and still leave the war on drugs to the police.
The only way the DILG can be assured of proactive support from barangay kapitans is to make them fully accountable if a drug buy-bust operation was done in the barangay without help from the kap.
Recent reports that drug lords are now operating inside gated villages should alert barangays to begin closely monitoring village associations and probe leasing arrangements by strangers.
* * * * *
TALLEST STATUE. You have to give it to Bayambang Mayor Cezar T. Quiambao and his wife for the town to land in the Guinness World Record with the tallest statue, taller than the Statue of Liberty in New York… made of engineered bamboo!
The statue of St. Vincent Ferrer will undoubtedly be a tourist attraction for Catholics around the world, particularly visitors from Spain. Selfies and groupfies around the statue will surely arouse curiosity about Bayambang and the statue.
Between him and his wife, the town can look forward to bigger things to happen.
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