Monday, March 17, 2008 Cardinal explains 'secret meeting'
TO answer speculations of a secret meeting in Wack-Wack, Mandaluyong, Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal confirmed yesterday that he did meet with the First Couple early this month.
Only that it wasn’t a secret meeting at all. Rather, the prelate described it as a “friendly visit.”
In his column, Manuel L. Quezon III wrote last Thursday in the Philippine Daily Inquirer that President Arroyo and her husband Mike met “secretly” with the cardinal in Wack-Wack.
But in an interview with reporters yesterday, Cardinal Vidal narrated that he went to Tagaytay from a meeting in Rome. He then came home to Cebu but had to go again to Manila the following day to officiate at the marriage of “a big benefactor” of the Alliance of Two Hearts Parish.
“It just so happened that I was there. The house (I stayed in) is overlooking Wack-Wack. There’s a balcony there. While waiting for a (fellow archbishop) to join me for a mass, I was there (on the balcony). From afar, I could be seen easily but I did not notice them (the First Couple). Beyond the fence, there is a road and it seems that she (Arroyo) saw me but I didn’t see her,” said Vidal.
He added that President Arroyo, who was golfing with her husband, called the house and told him that she would be passing by to say hello.
Visit
“Imagine, the President of the Philippines visiting me. But I didn’t give her any spiritual advice. It was not the proper time to do so. She (President Arroyo) did not stay long. It was not a business meeting. Otherwise, I would not say anything about it,” the archbishop explained.
However, he did manage to grab the opportunity to tell the President about the plight of public school teachers, for fear that he might forget to do so in the future.
“I told her that I remembered she once asked me for some programs for the poor. (I told her) to please help our teachers and their transactions with the Government Service Insurance System. Do something about it so that our teachers will not be forced to moonlight. She promised she will check on it. According to her, there are half a million teachers from all over the country. Help them because they are among the poor employees of the government,” Cardinal Vidal said.
He added that cardinals also passed by Malacańang and when asked what they talked about, “We just said hi, hello and goodbye.”
Cardinal Vidal celebrated the 23rd local World Youth Day yesterday in Lapu-Lapu City, attended by hundreds of youths.
Today, another group of youths, members of civil society and the religious will welcome Senate witness Rodolfo Lozada Jr., who will arrive in Cebu in time for a unity walk and forum at the University of San Carlos (USC) main campus before 10 a.m.
Security
Organizers hope to fill the university gym, which has a seating capacity of 3,000 to 4,000.
While the public is invited to attend the forum, they can only pass through the gate along Sanciangko St. for crowd control.
The main organizers of the event are the Youth Serving Organization United for Truth, Association of Law Students of the Philippines, USC political science department and USC sociology-anthropology department, with the support of the interfaith group, Cebuanos for Truth (C4T).
According to the organizers, the university’s security guards, nuns led by Sister Estrella Castalone and several marshals from the different local organizing groups will compose the security team.
A source, who refused to be identified, said that the city police offered to provide additional security but Lozada’s staff decided to have less involvement with the police.
Part of Lozada’s schedule in the afternoon is a forum with the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas Cebu chapter and another one at the University of the Philippines.
The same source said that Lozada’s program showed no scheduled time for masses, although Fr. Max Abalos, SVD, of C4T is expected to attend the forum.
No ban
Fr. Abalos, who is among those who led hundreds of Cebuanos in an interfaith rally last month, earlier stressed that he is only acting within his own capacity and not representing the local church.
According to an online ABS-CBN news report, Castalone said that priests from Cebu failed to attend last month’s mass for Lozada after an order reportedly came out prohibiting them from officiating the mass.
Though disheartened, she said that organizers will still push through with Lozada’s visit in Cebu today.
However, Archdiocese of Cebu media liaison officer Msgr. Achilles Dakay denied the issuance of such order. He said he has not received any instructions prohibiting him to celebrate any masses where Lozada is scheduled to attend.
Cardinal Vidal also did not require priests to join the signature campaign in search for truth organized by church-based movement Dilaab, out of respect for the individual clergyman’s views.
Dilaab’s overall coordinating steward Fr. Carmelo Diola earlier said he will be busy doing other things during Lozada’s visit.
The same online news report said that Castalone revealed the information on the order after Cardinal Vidal said that Lozada should not be given a hero’s welcome in Cebu.
“Why do we have to make him a hero?” the prelate told reporters after he celebrated a mass at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral last week.
Cebuanos, he added, are intelligent enough to understand Lozada’s side of the story and the archdiocese does not need to invite Lozada and listen to his testimonies again. (NRC)
