I dare speculate that the Catholic Church used the Hello Garci scandal to wangle concessions from the embattled president, such as the commutation of all death sentences. Because had the Church, as an institution, spoke out against her and called on the public to topple her, Arroyo wouldnt have lasted in Malacanang this long.
DAVAO CITY To say that the decision by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to commute all death sentences to life imprisonment is a result of some divine illumination on her part is to say that she won the 2004 elections fair and square. As the Inquirer pointed out in its editorial today, if Arroyo really wanted to eliminate the death penalty, she should have worked for the repeal of the death-penalty law.
I am convinced that this was part of a deal she had with the Catholic church, which she has been rewarding for not going all out against her at the height of the Hello Garci scandal.
I dare speculate that the Catholic Church used the scandal to wangle concessions from the embattled president. Because had the Church, as an institution, spoke out against her and called on the public to topple her, Arroyo wouldnt have lasted in Malacanang this long.
The signs that the Church had, in a sense, taken Arroyo hostage were there from the start. When the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines assailed the Mining Act of 1995, the administration quickly assuaged the bishops that it would promote responsible mining and that, according to the president herself, mining companies would henceforth comply with more stringent standards.
Moreover, some sensed that the bishops also toned down their criticism of the president, apparently hoping that Arroyo and her allies in Congress would junk the population-management bill that is still languishing there. The Church opposes the bill, calling it anti-family and that it promotes abortion.
Bukidnon congressman Nereus Acosta, a proponent of the bill, decried in October last year what he called as the bishops mellowing criticism of the president at the height of the Hello Garci scandal.
“It is saddening that (the bill has) become hostage to very clear interests who had opposed (reproductive health) advocacies,” Acosta said, as reported by the Inquirer. “You can call it a collateral damage in some sense.
Of course, cunning was not a monopoly of the president. The bishops knew that because Arroyo is a traditional politician, they would be hard put to convince her to do politically untenable things, such as abolishing the death penalty. The Hello Garci scandal, therefore, was manna from heaven for the Church, which used it as leverage to force Arroyo to toe their line. They figured perhaps that since anybody who replaces Arroyo wont be any better anyway, might as well use this leverage to achieve small victories.
It is tragic that it would seem this was the only way the Church could get what it wants. Fear of God apparently does not work anymore.
In any case, the anti-Arroyo forces should now abandon all hope of getting the Catholic Church to join their cause.
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In todays issue of the Mindanao Daily Mirror, Tagum bishop Wilfredo Manlapaz expressed alarm over the summary killings in his city 27 executions so far since January.
Of course, Tagum is a copycat of Davao City, where these extrajudicial killings were first reported, endorsed by local executives, and tolerated by the public, particularly the middle class and the elite. After Davao, other cities followed: Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Tagum, Valencia, Digos, among others. Most of the victims in these killings are suspected criminals, several of them children.
Then theres the continuing systematic murders of activists, human rights advocates and peasants, not to mention the assassination of journalists.
With all these killings that are practically state-sanctioned, who needs the death penalty? (Carlos H. Conde/davaotoday.com)
Religion
