Barangay Elections and Matters Spiritual

ON OCTOBER 25 we have our barangay elections. I want to encourage the readers of my column to prepare for this important event and to get involved. This is our chance to exercise people power on the barangay level. This is our chance to change the local leadership, to get rid of corrupt barangay officials and to bring in new politics in the barangay government.

To get involved in these elections is a challenge that the new society of President Aquino imposes on us. It is one way of supporting our new President in bringing about a new government system of service to the people, especially the poor and the needy in our society.

Timeline: First 100 days of the Aquino presidency

One way of getting involved is to run for an elective position in the barangay. Anybody in our community, who thinks he/she has leadership qualities and who is committed to stamp out corruption in our barangay and to serve the less privileged people in our community, should take up that challenge. All others should watch out that no trapo politician of the old government should meddle in the barangay elections. No vote buying anymore in our elections! No to partisan politics! Mayor Emano wants to bring in his party Padayon Filipino. That is against the law, as the Omnibus Election Code forbids this. So he better stay out of the local elections. The platform of our candidates is non-partisan: no to corruption, yes to new politics!

My wife is planning to run for kagawad in our barangay. I am supporting her because I know she has leadership qualities and she is committed to serve the community. She is actively involved in our BECs. Some rabbit Catholics in our parish believe she should resign as catechist if she runs for kagawad.

There is no need. Is there a conflict of interest here? May be there is.

This brings me to the second part of my topic: matters spiritual. I got a reaction on one of my previous columns, the Piso-Piso project of Mayor Emano. It is not so much on that project of Emano but on what I wrote in that column about the statue of the Divine Mercy and the Shrine in El Salvador. The reaction came from Ms. Lorna V. Llanos, Executive coordinator of the Divine Mercy Foundation, in the Sun Star issue of October 4. I would like to thank Ms. Llanos for her very elaborate and clear description of the Divine Mercy devotion and the Shrine in El Salvador which promotes this devotion. I agree with Ms. Llanos that my article was rather strongly worded and I apologize for that. My strong words had no reference to the Shrine but to Atty. Guerrero Adaza for his strong remarks to former Senator Pimentel, who “in his old age should focus on spiritual matters”, according to Adaza, instead of fighting Mayor Emano for his piso-piso project.

That was a silly remark of someone who has a queer idea about spiritual matters. I associated this remark with the story I heard about the Shrine in El Salvador. Now, I will give my reply to Ms. Llanos. I want to tell her that I still stand by my story. It was not just “hearsay”. Some of my friends told me this story. They are respected and mature people, connected with Xavier University, one of them a professor in religious studies. Indeed, they made fun of what they were told by that group who gave the orientation on the Shrine. I believe that it is true what they told me. But I should clarify that they used a figure of speech when they used the words “hidden camera” and that people were “registered” there for eternal salvation.

But definitely they said that the end of the world is expected to come in the year 2017. That, of course, is big nonsense and they should not mix up the devotion of the Divine Mercy, and not in the least the devotion to the Blessed Sacrament with these hallucinations. This is what the group who gave the orientation said on that day when my friends visited the Shrine.

But I have heard that there are other groups who don’t give that kind of orientation. This is a matter, I believe, that should be investigated and corrected. This is what drives right thinking Catholics away from the shrine and the devotion of the Divine Mercy. I hope that Mr. Adaza also agrees with me and will check my story on its veracity. (For your comments email: arnvv@yahoo.com or call: 851-9809)