Whether our bets
won or lost, we will all continue losing if we dismiss these irregularities as “normal”,
especially since the deals with Smartmatic have long been under question. These are worse than mere “technical
glitches”, because it’s human beings, not machines that close deals leading to
such unfortunate developments. And like
it or not, they sow doubt and suspicion in the mind of voters.
Would you not
smell something fishy that the malfunctions and the delays in the transmission
of results, et al, would be explained away by a simple “Java error”, or “walang
signal” in the area? Or by the claim
that the SD cards were “defective” because they were “not bundled with the Smartmatic
package?” Maybe we can shrug off a dozen
or so malfunctioning VCM as lemons, but not 600! A monumental amount of 10.18 billion pesos of
taxpayers’ money was allotted to COMELEC for this year—voters deserve explanations,
not excuses that insult their intelligence. Those involved should be transparent and open
their documents for public scrutiny—or risk repeating the same rotten mistakes.
On the upside? Political dynasties have reportedly been
toppled, with former Goliaths downed by emerging Davids. Really?
Look again—four members of the Marcos clan won in Ilocos Norte; and the
Cayetanos are lording it over in Taguig.
And aren’t the newly elected leaders mostly descendants of TRAPOS,
too? Wait a few years—
dynasties die
hard.
Lest we forget
that life goes on outside of our puny political concerns, we turn our attention
to “the world outside”, recall the news and read the message behind events.
At the beginning
of this year, on January 27, the Our Lady of Mount Carmel cathedral in Jolo was
bombed, killing 22 worshippers, as Mass was being celebrated. Last Easter Sunday, three churches in Sri
Lanka were attacked, again killing worshippers that numbered to hundreds. Last May 12, during Mass, an attack on a
Catholic church in central Burkina Faso left six persons dead, including the
priest; it was the third attack on a church in five weeks in that country.
In Germany, at
least eight churches have been vandalized and damaged since early April. Apparently random attacks have also been
noted in Scotland, England, Poland,
Spain, Italy and Austria, and continued attacks on churches in France have been
reported despite the national outpouring
of grief that followed the fire that devastated Notre Dame Cathedral April 15.
The sacrilegious
acts include the decapitation of a statue of the Virgin Mary; bashing a statue
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; stealing crucifixes, candlesticks, and
consecrated hosts; overturning and smashing statues of Saints; defacing church
doors with anti-Catholic slogans; and setting sacristies on fire.
A desecration of a different kind took place during
last Easter Mass in the church of San Giovanni in Trieste, Italy, when a man
who was receiving communion responded to the traditional formula “the Body of
Christ” by saying “Thanks” and then asking “What part of the body is this?” Before the shocked congregation he walked
away, carrying the consecrated host and denouncing the Catholic religion.
For the longest time the Church has been rocked
by sex scandals—all over the world priests have had to face charges and
allegations of pedophilia and sexual abuse.
The Church has had to defrock high-profile Cardinals for the same
offenses, and during the summit on clerical sex abuse held in Rome last
February, Pope Francis promised an end to cover ups.
So what’s new?
Such scandals as recorded in history books have been there since time
immemorial, but now with the internet and social media, news of one offense is
magnified millions of times over, and it hurts the soul in ways that may scar
it for life. What is the Church to do?
“At that time news reached me of the harm being
done in France and of the havoc the heretics had caused and how much this
miserable sect was growing. The news
distressed me greatly, and as though I could do something or were something, I
cried to the Lord and begged Him to remedy this great evil… The world is on fire. Men try to condemn Christ once again, as it
were, for they bring a thousand false witnesses against Him. They would raze His church to the ground. Are we to waste our time asking for things
that if God were to give them we’d have one soul less in Heaven? No…this is no time to treat with God for
things of little importance.”
These are the words of the great saint from
Avila, Teresa of Jesus. Today, after
almost 500 years, they ring relevant, timely, and true. Face to face with the attacks on the Body of
Christ, do we have more time to waste on our mundane businesses? Are we to continue trusting in partisan
politics and things that lure us away from Christ? Divorced from the cross of Christ even the
most brilliant political platforms on earth cannot save us. And that’s the truth.
