THE Provincial Board of Pampanga has officially declared running priest Robert Reyes persona non grata through a resolution filed by one of its members.
The resolution was an offshoot of the activist priest's strongly worded comments on the ongoing moves to oust Governor Eddie Panlilio during his surprise visit to the provincial Capitol last week.
The outspoken priest described the recall move as "dirty political patronage" and criticized Vice Governor Joseller "Yeng" Guiao for allegedly spending more time in the PBA (Philippine Basketball Association). Fr. Reyes also confessed to having stopped eating Pampanga-made tocino, among other things.
How many mistakes can a priest make in one sentence? Probably, enough to provoke the board to condemn his statements as malicious, irresponsible, and biased.
Basically, Reyes is now "an unwelcome person" in Pampanga, as far as the Provincial Board is concerned.
How will that affect Reyes's next possible visit to the province, is not yet clear. It is foreseeable that the priest might even want to challenge the effect of such a declaration by taking that anytime soon.
He might even try a derring-do right in the board members' turf. But that may be courting more trouble than necessary. Reyes' would-be unwilling hosts might just oblige him the opportunity of a lifetime that he might just regret.
If Reyes thought he did himself and Panlilio a favor by making those bold and injurious statements, he either overestimated his perceived holiness or underestimated the Kapampangans' tolerance for insult.
For a priest, Reyes's liberal and insensitive issuance of unkind comments was, indeed, irresponsible, if not malicious, and deserved to be censured. Forget about his being biased; he is a priest, after all, coming to the aid of another.
Unfortunately, like the priest he wanted to rescue and defend, Reyes displayed more arrogance and humility, more narrow-mindedness than openness, and more contempt than respect to others who did not share their priestly views on political matters.
The Provincial Board can hardly be blamed for their revanchist stance.
