LINGAYEN-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas highlighted Catholic teachings in a Pastoral Letter on December 16 in view of numerous political controversies hounding the country amid the Christmas celebration.

“It is almost Christmas and we start our Simbang Gabi with mixed feelings of expectant joy and hope but with trouble and distress,” he said, citing the Congressional probes on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) and related criminal activities, narcotics and the drug war, and public funds, among others.

He called on the legislators who conducted these investigations and are now finalizing their reports and recommendations “to make their activities and initiatives an act of worship of the One, True God”.

“This way, they may guard against pursuing personal and parochial interests.  They may decide, free of the influence and importuning of the powerful.  They may courageously convince that God is on their side, speak the truth, and do the truth,” he said.

He noted that it is particularly distressing how government agencies such as the National Statistics Authority, the civil registrars, and the Bureau of Immigration “have lent their offices to fraudulent schemes that involve deliberately falsified entries about parentage, origin and nationality.”

He also emphasized the commandment against murder in the context of torture and killings in POGO sites as well as how people were reportedly rewarded to kill in the war against drugs.

Without naming names, the church leader underscored accountability in handling public funds, saying: “When one is entrusted with public funds, we must render an accounting to the people who were taxed in order to provide the funds.  Intelligence funds are public funds – and the claim that they were used for confidential purposes does not justify wanton expenditure that does not benefit the people.”

He also warned against “bearing false witness against your neighbor,” noting how former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima was incarcerated for seven years because of lying witnesses and the many others who have suffered or been killed after being placed in unverified drug-related hit lists.

Concluding with a positive and hopeful tone, Villegas reaffirmed the Catholic faith that “It will not be evil, and sin and crime that will prevail, but the Kingdom inaugurated by Jesus, the Lord whose return we all await.” (Leonardo Micua)

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