PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte’s “God is stupid” rant has brought into focus the shallow understanding by some of the faithful of the Catholic Church’s doctrine. The Philippines is predominantly Catholic but Catholics could not assert its dominance because theirs is a divided church. Many Catholics, for example, were not scandalized by the president’s rant and instead rationalized his actions.
When prompted to choose between standing up for their God and shielding the president from criticisms, they readily opted for the latter, which means that between God and the president, their sympathy goes for the latter. That shows how weak their faith in God is. Which is sad.
Most of the fanatical supporters of the president are Catholics and they follow his lead even if it means acting like they belong to another religion. The worst thing that happened to us on this issue is that many of us became self-flagellants. We clapped after every tirade the president spewed against Catholics and our belief. It’s as if we are not Catholics ourselves.
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The shooting incident in the United States that involved a media outlet in Maryland had me recalling the situation under the dictatorship of former president Ferdinand Marcos. Assaults on media people did happen during that time. Those were also the years of living dangerously for media practitioners.
I could not forget, for example, the shooting to death of a commentator of a Mindanao radio station because that happened while the victim was broadcasting on air. One could hear the gunshots and the moan of the wounded commentator that was caught on air. The moaning was initially loud then was reduced into a whimper. It was eerie. The attack got recorded for posterity.
Killings during that time were not referred to as extra-judicial killings or EJKs. Rather these were called “salvaging,” from the word “salvage,” whose original meaning is to rescue, to recover, to save or to retrieve. Thus when somebody died under dubious circumstances, we Cebuanos would say, “gi-salvate to siya.”
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The doves in the government are trying to reassert themselves after the hawks threatened to prevail with the statement by Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison that it would be easier to oust the president than to continue the stalled peace talks. Now the doves are issuing statements that the talks have not been fully scuttled—yet.
This is a good development because it would be a waste of time and effort if the peace process is abandoned. The on again and off again talks are already a few decades in the making and, under the Duterte administration are starting to inch forward. It’s just that there are many forces out to scuttle these.
I still have hopes that the negotiations would resume. The Duterte government knows that an all-out war with the communist rebels is bad especially because of the growing discontent among the people and the country’s floundering economy. The situation has made the Duterte administration vulnerable, and the ones that could best exploit that are the communist rebels.