Malilong: Incorrect, unrealistic
More Sections
BETWEEN theoretical and realistic is a gap as wide as the Pacific Ocean.
For example, theoretically the perennial tailenders in the surveys on preferences for presidential candidates have a chance of winning on May 10. Realistically, they have none.
Click here for Election 2010 updates
Theoretically, Joshua Clottey had a shot at the world title of Manny Pacquiao when he stepped in the ring at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium last Sunday. Realistically, the way he planned to fight, his chances were nada, zilch, zero.
The regional director of the Commission on Elections said that Ricardo Cardinal Vidal may have violated the Election Code in accepting donations from candidates. The opinion falls within the realm of theory.
Listen: Candidate A sponsors a special mass for his personal intentions. During the offertory, he fishes out a huge bundle of paper bills from his pocket and, after making sure that everybody notices his act of generosity, drops the money into the collection basket. He wasn’t a regular churchgoer; he didn’t normally or customarily give to the Church.
Did he want to look good to the public? Yes. Did he intend to induce them to vote for him? No doubt. Is he guilty of violating the Election Code? Probably. Can he be jailed or disqualified? Let’s wait for crows to grow white feathers first.
So who do you punish? The collector? The parish priest? The priest officiating the mass?
As you can see, even assuming that the local Comelec’s interpretation of the law is correct, it is not realistic; applied against the Cardinal, it is both incorrect and unrealistic.
Sometime in the early seventies, Fr. Francisco Silva was asked in a forum of student activists what he would do if a known smuggler donated money to him. Another speaker, a politician, was asked the same question earlier and he replied that he will return the donation because it came from a tainted source.
Padre Paking answered: “I will take the money. I can imagine how many poor people can benefit from it. The money isn’t tainted and neither will my conscience be.”
He received a standing ovation from the activists. “There’s the man without hypocrisy,” said the Kabataang Makabayan (KM) radical beside me.
Cardinal Vidal volunteered the information that he accepted donations from the candidates who have visited him not for himself but for charity. Pardon the language your Eminence but I’ll be damned if you go to jail for it.
