More than two years now, the people of this country have been misled by persons on the highest positions of the land. One is the president, the other is a senator and the other is an assistant secretary but the victims are the people of God. These government officials are leading the people to the path of confusion and darkness. They are happy about this matter because they are winning the hearts and minds of the people and directing them towards passivity, despair, and hopelessness.
When President Duterte ascended to power, he had the intention of wielding iron hands against the criminals. His mouth is full of words of condemnation of the criminals and the threat to kill them all. Definitely, his words inspire the military, police, paramilitary, and private army to engage in extra-judicial killings and violate the basic human and democratic rights of the people.
General Jovito Palparan, the mad dog of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, had claimed before that those extra-judicial killings that happened during the Arroyo regime had been inspired by his style of pronouncements against the revolutionaries and even againt people who are active in the open mass movement.
Now, Senator Manny Pacquiao, in his campaign to pass his death penalty bill, is also interpreting the Bible for his interest and want. He even rejects the legitimacy of the stand of the Roman Catholic Church against death penalty. He does not even care if he is misleading the people as a Roman Catholic official had criticized him. As long as he has the audience and he can gather support and admiration from his blind followers, he is happy about it. After all, his intention to bungle the people’s minds is going well.
Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Assistant Secretary Mucha Uson is also doing her job of fooling the people through her recent ‘Pepedederalismo’ video. Instead of presenting to her viewers an easy to digest but substantial discussion on federalism, she and her co-host Drew Olivar trivialized the matter. Government officials and netizens have expressed disgust over the video.
The people must not be swayed by these tricks and cheap gimmicks and become victims and losers of the divide and rule tactics of the Duterte regime. The issues of God and immorality in the government must not cover up the problems of rising prices of basic commodities. Issues like human rights violations, political repression, church persecution, undeclared martial law and the likes, should be addressed squarely and seriously. Tyranny and fascism must be opposed. The TRAIN law must be stopped. Regularization of workers and demolition of urban poor communities are legitimate concerns of the people that need attention. The remaining Martial Law victims during the Marcos dictatorship must be compensated. All of these are issues of the people and they must not led to quandary, haplessness and helplessness.
The madness of Duterte-Arroyo-Marcos alliance will continue as long as the people will not be led to the right direction. Church leaders and Christians in general must strive to foster unity and cooperation. They can start in opposing charter change. Charter change now cannot solve the fundamental problems of landlessness, job security and poverty. Charter change is not the answer to this decadent society. The answer is the tireless and determined people’s struggle for justice and lasting peace.
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