Christian Behavior During Election Season

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

This is an attempt to describe what proper Christian behavior should be during elections. However, this is not meant to articulate an exclusively Christian behavior, since there's no such thing, given our complex human condition.
I'm sure many of us will have our ideas and opinions on how this Christian behavior should be, all of them with their valid points. My hope, in fact, is that everyone starts to express his views in this matter in public.

The idea is to increase our level of literacy regarding how a Christian citizen should behave in our political exercises. We need to know what attitudes, dispositions and virtues are needed, since we have to liberate ourselves from the inhuman morass our political activities have sunk into.

So far, we have been exposed to the ridiculous ways the political campaigns have been done. There's so much mudslinging, negativism, hatred-peddling. Polluting noises emit unabatedly from self-righteous ideologues, poisoned partisans and screaming faggots.

Reason, sobriety, objective discussions of issues, not to mention the requirements of charity and understanding in tackling matters open to several valid and moral opinions, are thrown overboard.

Things are made worse when opinions are converted into dogmas, while articles of faith and matters of conscience are held simply as opinions.

Some people manipulate truths, facts, data to suit their purpose. Freedom is twisted.

The distinction between the person of the candidates and politicians in general, and the views they hold and the actions they do, is recklessly blurred, leading to serious offenses against charity and freedom. Rash judgments explode in profusion.

Many politicians seem to metamorphose into monsters during the election season, using sly tricks and games, following the unscrupulous logic of greed and disordered ambitions. Conceit spins its own deadly yarn of creativity.

And a big part of the electorate, due to poverty, ignorance, apathy, etc., practically invites political abuses. Often complacent and remiss, they fail to see through many of the hidden selfish agenda of politicians. What a nightmare!

I think it's really up to us, citizens, to tolerate this state of affairs or not. I think we have the power to set the proper tone of our politics. Yes, we are part of the problem, but we also hold the key to its solution.

But for this to happen, we have to take our social and political commitment more seriously. We have to get our act together. We need to understand that for our social and political commitment to prosper, we need to follow what the Church teaches.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we read this relevant point:

"It is necessary to appeal to the spiritual and moral capacities of the human person and to the permanent need for his inner conversion, so as to obtain social changes that will really serve him." (1888)

Then to reassure us that this teaching is not ineffective as many people feel religious doctrines to be, the same point continues:

"The acknowledged priority of the conversion of the heart in no way eliminates but on the contrary imposes the obligation of bringing the appropriate remedies to institutions and living conditions when they are an inducement to sin, so that they conform to the norms of justice and advance the good rather than hinder it."

We have to understand that only in God can we learn to be truly concerned about the common good. Apart from him we simply are at the mercy of our subjective, whimsical ideas.

Our social and political commitment necessarily calls us to action, first with our own selves, and then, among ourselves. Many initiatives can come to mind.

Like, having an independent body that systematically gives a thorough backgrounder of the candidates, providing personal, family and professional information, citing their pluses and minuses.

This is to help voters have an idea of the candidates' integrity and competence. Simply depending on the data given by partisans will take us nowhere.

And an ongoing formation for all citizens should be undertaken, especially explaining the finer points of prudence in politics, respect for freedom, and the like.

-------
Fr. Roy Cimagala is the Chaplain of Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE) in Talamban, Cebu City. You can email him at: roycimagala@hotmail.com

Former Comrades Slam NPAs During Rally

NewsPlus, Bohol Sunday Post

The New People's Army and its legal organizations get a dose of its own medicine when in its anniversary, a loose group of mainstreaming Kanhi Rebelde [Former Rebel] now calling themselves Kauban sa Reporma (KR) [Associate of Reform] denounced the rebels' terroristic acts in a rally held at th Plaza Rizal, March 29.

Toting placards revealing the NPA and its legal organization's propaganda tactics, former rebels took turns in lambasting the rebels armed wing and their legal fronts with a cacophony of accusations of extortion, threats, blackmail in recruitment that extended to getting minor supporters.

More than 200 farmers, former active guerilla warriors and supporters now openly admitting they have had enough came to the city to air out their exasperation over the communist's continued grasp of the civilians and insisting on a fear campaign.

The rally, which happened a day before the election campaign, is also time, organizers said so that the politicians thinking of giving in to demands for permits to campaign and access fees to rebel-claimed territories could start thinking their support could also mean more lives killed.

Bringing their issues in time with the talks of human rights violations and accusations of extra-judicial killings against the present administration, the KRs also demanded for the accounting of cases of victims of NPA liquidations.

They cited the murder cases of Nueva Montaña barangay captain Baldomero, his brother and chief Tanod Virgilio Betanganso and Rodrigo Jandayran as among the many unnamed victims of NPA purging and unjust kangaroo courts that did not even have the chance of getting into the government list of rights abuses.

Amplifying their concerns over the hostaged economy in Bohol owing to their continued reign of terror, the former active warriors and mass-base supporters aired their invitation for the still active comrades to go find the way of peace, not by armed struggle, but by peaceful means.

Calling the rebel NPAs as demons, alias Ka Joy exposed the faulty propaganda tools used by the rebels to gain sympathy, the lies they weave and the terror they sow to base their firm grip on their claimed barangays.

Alias Ka Ome, a resident of Upper Cabacnitan in Bilar also narrated how the rebel movement turned their once peaceful village and its residents into one wracked in fear and stirred by turmoil.

Another former member and organizer of the Hugpong sa mga Mag-uumang Bol-anon (HUMABOL) [Group of Boholano Farmers] accused the NPA of the biggest corruption syndicate adding that the rebel organizations' lifeblood is the support they get from threatened civilians. At this, he echoed the call to stop giving support, especially with unprincipled politicians now wanting access into rebel-claimed territories.

Enough of the sham, down with the NPAs and let us stop and bleed them of support so they will know we have had enough of them, was the shout that reverberated across the heart of Tagbilaran City.

-------
When some elements of the leftist communists are killed by "renegade" elements of the state, the left cry "human rights". But when some elements of the military, police, and civilians are killed by elements of the leftist communists, the left say "all right." And vice versa.

Perhaps the international court based in Netherland (and other similar organizations) who judged the Philippine government guilty of extra-judicial killings, should not be one-sided with their judgment -- if they wish to maintain credibility internationally. If they really want to shed the full light of justice on this issue, let them plunge into the cold water and let themselves get wet. These killings are just the tip of the iceberg. They only see half of the truth.

Plug the gaps in our education

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Schools and universities will once again open for another school year in just a few months, and the cities will be swarmed with students, the question about what authentic education is should be asked.

It would be a pity if after all the precious effort and money expended for the pursuit of education, something else is achieved. And this, sad to say, is not improbable.

We have met many people, otherwise quite educated in a certain way, but who display precisely the absence, or at least a serious deficiency in education. They do not know how to reason out, how to express themselves, how to relate parts with the whole.

They may be good, even experts, in some specialized field, but gravely wanting in basic virtues, like order, prudence, justice, or ignorant of what full human development is.

They may be giants in the things of the world, but pygmies in the things of the spirit. They may be quite adept with the computers and the other modern gadgets, but awkward with prayer and the practice of the teachings of the word of God.

Extrapolate this phenomenon to the whole of society or a good part of the world, then you will have a tremendous crisis at hand. This is no exaggeration. A good part of the big troubles we have at present can be traced to the kind of education we are having.

There are those who think that education is simply sending children to school, or simply a matter of learning some useful skill, getting a degree and some title, and being able to get a job.

Education is much more than these. It's not simply a commodity to have or to show off. It essentially starts with something intangible or spiritual, for it involves a quality, a habit, an orderly universe of virtues and values that should characterize the whole person, and not just some aspects of him.

Education is the transformation of the whole person. It involves the complete, not partial nor fragmented and broken, integration of all his aspects in accordance to the objective nature of man.

Unfortunately, even many of our higher institutions of learning fail to see this. Many of them just get contented with teaching some specialized knowledge and skill.

There is nothing wrong with that, as long as these specializations are done in the context of the over-all development of man. And as long as these specializations foster, not hinder, the appreciation of the complete and ultimate good of man.

The problem becomes a genuine crisis when these schools and universities do not have a clear vision of what man ought to be. Their anthropology is faulty, in that they focus only on some aspects of man, without a good grasp of what would comprise man's full development.

In other words, there are serious gaps in their vision of human development. This can happen in many ways.

When schools only give technical instruction or mere techniques and know-how, education can be considered incomplete. It's like saying that man is being developed with respect to his hands, but not so much with respect to his head.

When schools only involve themselves in secular sciences or social sciences, ignoring religion and the so-called sacred sciences, education is not served.

Such training makes man knowledgeable only about the things of this world, but quite deaf and blind with respect to spiritual and supernatural realities. Such training ill equips man to face the complete reality that concerns him.

One can become experts in biology and the other sciences, but quite deficient in the moral sense. This explains why there are now serious problems related to bio-ethics, for example.

These gaps and deficiencies should be plugged and attended to. This, to me, is a serious challenge we all have to tackle. It's a long way, there are a million steps to be taken, before we can declare some progress in this direction.

Who's going to take the lead in this endeavor? I would say, both the State and Church, in a manner of speaking, can sit down to thresh out concrete plans to solve this problem.

Education is a mixed matter involving both Church and State, because education is for man, and man is both body and soul, individual and social, citizen and faithful, temporal and eternal, of this world and beyond.

-------
There are right ways and wrong ways of doing things. What is important is what others learned from what we did -- especially to the young and fragile minds.

There was a popular tagalog advertisement which says, "Sa mata ng isang bata, ang mali ay nagiging tama kapag ito ay ginagawa ng mga matatanda."

The Way Out of the Morass

Excerpts from "Whereto, Philippines?"
By H L Neri

Although it was generally believed that the ouster of Mr. Marcos and ascension of Mrs. Aquino to the presidency constituted a severe setback to the communist insurgency in our country, the increasing frequency and boldness of NPA attacks and assassinations has made it quite apparent that the movement has actually gained a lot of ground since then. This would seem to lend more credibility to the extrapolations of experts that - unless checked - such a rate of growth will enable the communists to achieve a strategic stalemate in a matter of years.

Nevertheless, insofar as the generality of our people are concerned, alarm about the escalating problem still has to take on a sense of immediacy or of clear imminent danger. Nor indeed is there enough realization on the part of the beneficiaries of the status quo that they must now move towards letting go of their unjust privileges, in order to eradicate or alleviate the general poverty injustice has spawned and the insurgency is thriving in.

It would seem that some people never learn from history and are therefore "doomed to repeat it." It was this same lack of social awareness that enabled the communist in other countries to bring down the edifice of the existing order while the privileged classes slumbered. One thinks of how termites do it undetected until it is too late; or of how complacent and derisive the doomed remained until right before the great flood which Noah and his family were so sedulously preparing for.

The simple-minded are convinced that all that is needed to crush the insurgency is stronger, more single-minded and solidly cohesive military action. For is not the military still many times superior in numbers and weaponry to the NPA?

Fortunately, neither our political nor our military leadership appears to be so naïve. Time and again they have expostulated that the insurgency cannot be eliminated by military action alone. This must go hand in hand with social and economic approaches.

The problem is that there seems to be no clear or correct consensus on what such approaches should specifically be.

The general view is that what is needed is a more vigorous prosecution of the government's existing socio-economic program, incorporating conventional economic approaches, a much watered-down land reform, and some alleviant welfare measures. But, in general, the structures of privilege are to remain.

The communists, on the other hand, are demanding a radical restructuring of the social order in accordance with their own conception of what a just and democratic social order should be.

Would the communists be willing to put their proposal to a free democratic vote if the Communist Party were to be truly legalized and allowed to freely argue and propagate their proposals in unrestricted public fora? Would they be willing to put down their arms, on this condition firmly guaranteed, plus amnesty> and would they be willing to live with whatever system gets the popular nod, whatever its perceived defects and infirmities, until - if ever - they succeed in swaying the mind and will of the democratic sovereignty in favor of their ideas?

Equally important: Would the Establishment be willing to open up its mass media to all contrary views, and forswear harassment and underhanded persecutions against those whose views might shake the foundations of the existing order?

It would seem unrealistic to expect affirmative answers to these questions. It seems more realistic to expect that neither the communists nor the guardians of the status quo would want to transfer the venue of their conflict from the military battlefield to the battlefield of ideas, where neither can withstand the searchlight of unobstructed public scrutiny or the unimpeded winds of free public debate.

The initiative for such transfer of venue should come from those who believe that the only way - indeed the only right way - to achieve real and enduring national peace and progress is to bring about a restructuring of our national society on the firm and solid foundations of justice and solidarity, in accordance with a national consensus freely and democratically arrived at.

Along Destiny's Road
By H L Neri

Do not cry, my darling,
That we suffer in the night;
The sun will soon be here,
And its light shall dispel our gloom.

The first rays of the dawn
To break into the clouds
Shall kiss our tears away
And set our hearts aglow.

Our pains shall be but memories,
No tear shall leave a trace -
Our hardships shall have steeled our hearts
For the challenges of day.

The fruits that we shall reap
Will not spring from Mammon's fount;
They will be that cheerful feeling
That shall well up from our souls -

The feeling of being alive,
With all our powers tickling;
The sense that we are equal
To any task ahead -

The knowledge that we are marching,
Along Destiny's road,
To the heights of light and glory
Where alone our hearts can rest.