Love thy neighbor? Engage in politics. Love Piattos? Save it ‘cuz no impeachment court yet

“Obedience to the golden rule includes seeking laws that protect unborn children, strengthen marriages and families, advocate for the vulnerable, and provide flourishing opportunities. Politics is a means of effecting great change and must be engaged by Christians who love their neighbor.”

That commentary about biblical passages available on the web for decades will most likely hurt the feelings of the religious. They may say, “How can we take good care of our ministry and family if we also engage in politics?” They and more and more citizens are missing the point.

In the Philippines, for example, their inhabitants and leaders’ approach toward the state has to be constructive (“to build a just and humane society”) and down to business (“free the people from poverty”). Elementary is the rule that for a state to exist, it must have four elements: people, government, sovereignty, and territory. The peoples of states are so valuable that they may have a change of heart and overthrow their governments or, worse, hold other territories, dominions, and powers. If the Filipino people are not a thinking people, they will lose their nation’s soul, apart from losing—with or without waging war for they can self-destruct—their territory and sovereignty because the three elements of state have no capacity to think while the ever surviving, enduring, and most of the time suffering, element of people has.

That warrants repetition: To claim a state, the element of the Filipino people must be a thinking people.

No one in their right mind would expect the territory, sovereignty, and government to think for themselves nor would they think what is best for the people. Only the people would.

That is the reason most overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) concede that “wala rin namang mangyayari sa Pilipinas” and “parang walang gobyerno sa atin.”

We produce less but spend more. We conduct polls and choose to be uncaring. We find ourselves in love with double trouble in double E (economy and elections).

Bahala na ang mga binoto natin. Making matters worse is they fight tooth and nail—maybe to win 2025 and definitely to win 2028—neglecting the platform of “unity” among themselves. This does not mean Leader No. 1 must bow down to, and make unifying compromises with, Leader No. 2, or vice-versa, in cases of rift.

The point is simple: Why, in the first place, do people allow the country to be run by them in tandem with each other despite the deeply conflicting leadership personalities and an obvious power imbalance of the two? Prior to all the pretenses of the best political partnership in 2022, what was palpably lacking was the best interest towards achieving partnership objectives other than winning people’s votes, not exactly people’s trust. Gamitan sa una. Banatan sa gitna. Sa dulo? Poor people are no longer innocent, certainly aware that they are not being sidestepped by the two warring political giants; instead, they are tinatapak-tapakan, dinadaan-daanan ng mga higante.

These people can hardly be equated to ants who will cheer them up, saying: “Sige lang, tapak-tapakan ninyo lang kami. Nakakakiliti.”

They are in dire need of fellow people in government and society who will once and for all free them from poverty, which is what the Philippine State says as part of its Declaration of Principles and State Policies laid down in the Constitution (Sec. 9, Art. II). Thinking people are caring people. Their government has to be run in that course.

That said, engagement with politics is everybody’s concern as politics is always integrated in most prayer items of any congregation, not solely praying for the peace of Israel. By doing so, we are not treating ourselves as political supporters of leaders and would-be leaders. We engage in politics out of our love with our neighbors.

Viewed as impeachable – at last

Napagkaisahan si Sara Duterte. Bago matapos ang sesyon ng Mababang Kapulungan, minarapat nilang iakyat sa Mataas na Kapulungan ang articles of impeachment laban kay VP Sara. Unang pumirma rito si Sandro Marcos, anak ni BBM. Pinangunahan naman ang proceeding na iyon ni House Speaker Martin Romualdez, pinsan ng pangulo.

Mas maraming congressmen ang nagpa-impeach kay Duterte. At kahit taga Mindanao siya, mas marami rin sa mga kongresista mula roon ang kasamang lumagda sa impeachment niya. Kauna-unahang siyang pangalawang pangulong na-impeach.

Handa namang harapin nila Duterte at kampo niya ang pinakabago’t malalang pagsubok sa babaeng pulitiko. Hindi na ba matatapos ang lahat ng ito nang makapagpokus na siya sa 2028?

Ang dating nito, sinisiraan siya para mabigo sa pagkandidato sa pagkapangulo. Pero paano naman ang parte niyang siya mismo ang sumira sa sarili?

The hardworking men and women of the Department of Education (DepEd), the schoolchildren, and the academe wanted to see this coming. What is confidential will teach us which is educational. We are not to live and die with confidential funds she needed, but we rather eat snacks like Piattos or what Mary Grace can offer as we hear a special audit and/or an impeachment court that may possibly deal with her culpability, among others. Remember the then-woman DepEd chief openly saying she had “no respect” for a congresswoman and a woman senator, to which she was directed to just explain to Congress and people how she spent the highly questionable Education confidential funds.

The VP would later turn over the education portfolio to Angara, an action considered by many to be her best there.