|
Monday, June 24, 2002
EDITORIAL: Monster
EVIL begat evil. Among the singsingan (those who wear the cult ring), this was the warp to the woof of Ruben Ecleo Sr.’s legendary “spiritual healing.”
The charismatic “Divine Master” was successful in convincing his followers in the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA) that, while he was a reincarnation of Jesus Christ and could perform miracles, the sick determined in the end their own healing.
A special report of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) reveals that the PBMA believed “physical sickness is the result of sinfulness.” A sick person had to renounce sin, have more faith in the Divine Master, and be a more loyal member of the PBMA.
If misfortune befell on the member and his family, it was entirely their fault for being spiritually feeble. The Divine Master was after all mythically All Knowing: he rained suffering and punishment on those who betrayed him.
Perhaps this may explain why the PBMA singsingan, from Dinagat Island to Manila to Cebu, remain unshaken in their loyalty to the present Supreme Master, Ruben Ecleo Jr., despite the recent horrific turn of events.
After months of standoff, Ecleo Jr. finally surrendered, but not without sacrificing 16 cult members and a policeman who died in the gunfight between the PBMA and lawmen in Dinagat Island.
But the more grievous blow was struck hours before Ecleo Jr. held aloft his white flag. In the dead treachery of night, a PBMA follower gunned down in Mandaue City one bystander and four members of the Bacolod family, the estranged in-laws of Ecleo Jr., who bolted from PBMA and have since actively cooperated with authorities in his manhunt.
There lies the dichotomy of worlds. While the spilling of innocent blood (including that of Alona, Ecleo Jr.’s murdered wife) drives cult outsiders, especially Cebuanos, to bare their teeth and hiss at the PBMA Supremo’s mere image, cult followers seem to be hypnotized by their own visions of Ecleo Jr.’s innocence, persecution and eventual acquittal.
Is there not a clear and present danger to society when sects or cults like PBMA follow beliefs and carry out practices that conflict with the rights and welfare of all?
Public policy-makers advocate that the state steps in when a group turns out to be potentially unsafe and destructive. Although the Constitution guarantees the freedoms of worship and assembly, these rights are automatically overridden when a group establishes “its own brand of morality, outside normal society bounds.”
Noted clinical psychologist Margaret Singer describes an unsafe cult as one exploiting its members. The abuse may be in the areas of “finances, physical labor, child abuse and neglect, medical neglect, sexual exploitation, and psychological or emotional abuse.”
But actual implementation of the law is beset by two major impediments. One is that destructive cults have honed their skills in deception, not just with members and possible recruits, but even with an unsuspecting public and authorities wary of intervening lest they be charged of religious persecution and bigotry.
In most cases, the discovery of a crime always triggers public intervention in cults. This is true for the Waco Davidians, Heaven’s Gate and Aum, as well as the PBMA whose unraveling began with the discovery of Alona’s battered corpse. Quick decisive action from authorities may prevent even more deaths or further exploitation.
What makes PBMA unique, though, from other notorious cults is the eminence of its leadership. Ecleo Sr. converted his charisma into material wealth and political power, a lethal combination later passed on to his wife and children.
Those who have closely observed how Congresswoman Glenda Ecleo has been obstructing or bending the law just to shield her son may have realized that it is not just the PBMA members or Surigao del Norte that are endangered by the Ecleos.
The biggest threat of all does not come from cults but from traditional patronage politicians whose tentacles up to now spare nothing, not even religion, in maintaining their viselike grip on our collective necks. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
