By Ellen Tordesillas
ZTE star witness Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. yesterday called on upright members of the Armed Forces and Philippine National Police to make a stand on the issue of corruption hounding the Arroyo administration.
In an interview at La Salle Greenhills, Lozada said the opposition should abandon its call for President Arroyo to resign. “She has to be ousted.”
Lozada said given the arrogance of Arroyo and her officials, “people must really be prepared to bring this political crisis to a boil.” He added that people should stop deluding themselves that she will resign.
“She will never resign because they have committed so many crimes that the only way to exit is when they are dead,” he said.
He said when public outrage over disclosures of huge kickbacks by First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and officials close to Malacañang in the NBN-ZTE deal were beginning to intensify, he overheard a Cabinet member saying, “Hindi natin ibibigay ito (the government) na walang patayan (we will not give this up without bloodshed).”
“That’s why we have to appeal to the military and the police,” he said.
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If the call for the AFP and the PNP to make a stand means that they support the move to oust the President by using their military strength beyond what the law provides, this of course is a very wrong thing to do. However, if it means expressing what is in their hearts openly while remaining loyal to their constitutional duty, that may not be a bad thing. But if anyone in uniform really wants to do something about his stand on the current national crisis, then the only appropriate thing for him to do is to resign from the military service and return his weapons to the government and let him be an ordinary civilian citizen and then let him take part in whatever action civilian organizations may wish to do that is within the bounds of the rule of law.
You see, a wrong thing can never be corrected using another wrong thing. Corruption in government can never be corrected by corrupting our AFP and PNP to violate their sworn constitutional duty and induce them to commit a felony. Our government may be full of corruption, but destroying the military's honesty and loyalty to the constitution by abusing them for our so-called moral cause, undermines their moral integrity.
How can we be victorious in our struggle against societal moral decay if we ourselves (who claim to be in high moral ground) are practicing what we are trying to eliminate? Doesn't it make us hypocrites? We are so good at demanding righteousness from others because we only see the mistakes they made but refuse to take a good look at our very own wrongdoings.
The Bible said that the heart of the king (or ruler) is in the hands of the Lord. In spite of so many prayers and pleas that we lifted up to heaven, have it crossed your minds that maybe the reason why the Lord is still hardening the hearts of those in power is because He wanted us to realize for ourselves that we too have a big part in the overall moral decay of our society? Are we really honest in our simple and everyday living? Are we willing to bend rules at any moral cost just in order to favor our cause? Oh people, aren't we all seem to be just one feather after all?
If we must change this nation, then let us first truly change our individual selves! Until we learn our lesson, the Lord will continue to send us tests in different ways. Let us all slap our faces so that we may all awake to reality.
In an interview at La Salle Greenhills, Lozada said the opposition should abandon its call for President Arroyo to resign. “She has to be ousted.”
Lozada said given the arrogance of Arroyo and her officials, “people must really be prepared to bring this political crisis to a boil.” He added that people should stop deluding themselves that she will resign.
“She will never resign because they have committed so many crimes that the only way to exit is when they are dead,” he said.
He said when public outrage over disclosures of huge kickbacks by First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and officials close to Malacañang in the NBN-ZTE deal were beginning to intensify, he overheard a Cabinet member saying, “Hindi natin ibibigay ito (the government) na walang patayan (we will not give this up without bloodshed).”
“That’s why we have to appeal to the military and the police,” he said.
Click here to read full text.
----------
If the call for the AFP and the PNP to make a stand means that they support the move to oust the President by using their military strength beyond what the law provides, this of course is a very wrong thing to do. However, if it means expressing what is in their hearts openly while remaining loyal to their constitutional duty, that may not be a bad thing. But if anyone in uniform really wants to do something about his stand on the current national crisis, then the only appropriate thing for him to do is to resign from the military service and return his weapons to the government and let him be an ordinary civilian citizen and then let him take part in whatever action civilian organizations may wish to do that is within the bounds of the rule of law.
You see, a wrong thing can never be corrected using another wrong thing. Corruption in government can never be corrected by corrupting our AFP and PNP to violate their sworn constitutional duty and induce them to commit a felony. Our government may be full of corruption, but destroying the military's honesty and loyalty to the constitution by abusing them for our so-called moral cause, undermines their moral integrity.
How can we be victorious in our struggle against societal moral decay if we ourselves (who claim to be in high moral ground) are practicing what we are trying to eliminate? Doesn't it make us hypocrites? We are so good at demanding righteousness from others because we only see the mistakes they made but refuse to take a good look at our very own wrongdoings.
The Bible said that the heart of the king (or ruler) is in the hands of the Lord. In spite of so many prayers and pleas that we lifted up to heaven, have it crossed your minds that maybe the reason why the Lord is still hardening the hearts of those in power is because He wanted us to realize for ourselves that we too have a big part in the overall moral decay of our society? Are we really honest in our simple and everyday living? Are we willing to bend rules at any moral cost just in order to favor our cause? Oh people, aren't we all seem to be just one feather after all?
If we must change this nation, then let us first truly change our individual selves! Until we learn our lesson, the Lord will continue to send us tests in different ways. Let us all slap our faces so that we may all awake to reality.
