THE naughty press, and of course the ever-vigilant and feisty opposition, is having a fiesta over a controversial prayer of Press Secretary Jesus Dureza. I am sure that the good Lord is smiling at Jess and a bit amused that the secretary does not want to retire his boss as yet... "Who knows, even beyond"... There is really nothing wrong with that.

Presidents in this country serve beyond their terms. The most active among them is former Pres. Fidel Ramos who became the most active Pinoy merchant selling Philippines to investors abroad regardless of who was sitting as president after him. US Jimmy Carter build houses for the poor while others, among them Bill Clinton render lectures to as many assemblies who want to listen to them.

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But that is as far as the friends of GMA are concerned and make about the prayer of Jess. The anti-administration of course will beat that phrase to a pulp and make a lasting propaganda mileage out of a prayer. ABS-CBN has made mince meat out of the issue and, well, poor Jess who has to now issue a public apology hoping the brouhaha will die down.

The penchant of Filipinos to delve and trivialize insignificant issues makes us pitiable in the eyes of the world. At a time when we worry about how to tackle the onslaught of economic meltdown in America and Europe here we are bedeviling a prayer. We saw how the president reacted with a squirm over Jess' entreaty. The body language should have told a message that that is not what the president expects. That the secretary, having bravely taken up the whole cudgels and apologized, should put an end to this childish irrelevance.

Expect the "black and white movement" to continue to feast on the issue. You always get the negative vibes from this cabal, which have very little knowledge to contribute on how to address the impending problems of economy. Their concerns are of no great shakes. They hear about a dozen OFWs losing their jobs but are not concerned about hundreds landing new jobs. They sneer at the strong dollar remittance last month, which was contrary to what they saw in their crystal balls. Instead of encouraging people they dwell on defeatism.

If they were to govern you can be certain of a situation where we all freeze to stagnation and fear. While they purport to be crusaders who spouse transparency, reforms and integrity their outlook is nothing but black and grim.

-ooo-

I am happy to hear a rare message of motivation from the Redemptorist priest Sunday before last. He spoke about the Lord's intriguing way of testing his three servants to whom he gave five, two, and one talents respectively. The first two came back to their master and returned twice of what he has given them. They were amply rewarded by the lord.

The last did nothing but hid the only talent given him and appeared before the lord with the same number of talent. The lord rebuked him and took away his talent which he then turned over to the first.

"Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

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(November 24, 2008 issue)
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