Wednesday, March 26, 2008 Carvajal: The more relevant truth By Orlando P. Carvajal Break Point
MS. Leah Navarro’s and Mr. Jun Lozada’s uncalled for digs at Ricardo Cardinal Vidal tells us they consider anybody who does not join them in seeking President Arroyo’s ouster via people power as boot-lickers of the administration. It is a sad commentary on their real motives, this blatant imposition of their truth on us who are also for her removal but through constitutional means.
The truth of the matter is that we do not need Lozada to search for truth about corruption in the PGMA administration. As far as perception goes, and that is really all that matters, people have found her wanting, extremely so in fact. To claim that the majority of Filipinos want her out is in fact to belabor the obvious. The real bone of contention is how she should be taken out of power, constitutionally or unconstitutionally.
If Lozada’s handlers want the truth they should charge her and her cohorts in court. But they won’t because they don’t want the kind of truth that would lead to constitutional succession. They just really need the unsubstantiated allegations that Lozada is dishing out so that people are agitated into joining them in seeking the ouster of PGMA unconstitutionally.
The incident in Cebu, therefore, exposed the real intentions of Lozada’s handlers. They criticized the Church for not seeking PGMA’s ouster by not categorically equating the “communal action” it encouraged in its pastoral letter with a people power revolt. They completely rejected the more relevant truth in a democracy, the answer to the question: “How do people want PGMA changed, constitutionally or unconstitutionally?
Lozada’s handlers badly need to bow to another truth in Philippine society. I refer to the truth of the people’s rejection of both the administration and the opposition as birds of the same feather that are both disinterested in the people’s welfare and bent only on grabbing power at the slightest hint of an opportunity.
Cebu’s cold shoulder for Lozada is not disdain for the search for truth. It simply shows the Cebuanos’ distrust of the motives of the opposition from imperial Manila. They do not want to listen to Manila’s truth but want Manila to listen to the truth of promdis like they always condescendingly call us.
The more relevant truth that we all need to search is how Filipinos want to use people’s power to bring about their deliverance from corruption. Lozada’s Cebu visit gave us one half of the answer. People do not want to be used, manipulated, so equally corrupt factions of the ruling elite can take over the reins of government. They want to be heard and not imposed upon. Check it out and ask any taxi or jeepney driver, any small farmer or daily wage earner. Theirs is really the more relevant truth.
