Tessie’s Easter

A few days before Holy Week, we wrote a piece about what is perceived by many as the deep Christian spirituality manifested by former Senator Tessie Aquino-Oreta who is running under the Team Unity to regain her senate seat.

Many readers reacted to earlier columns we wrote about her, pointing to the need to explain her Senate track record in addition to obvious growth in personal character that her conversion experience and the current political campaign may have brought about.

So we did. Our colleagues who covered the Senate said Tessie authored the last piece of significant legislation on education which empowered principals as virtual CEOs of their respective schools and improved teachers’ plight. We also noted the exceptional passion with which then Senator Tessie Oreta dealt with women issues – she was the author of the solo parent act which not only removed the stigma of being a single mother but also provided for equal rights and protection for her.

Tessie was equally passionate about violence against women, especially those committed within the confines of her home. She authored the law on violence against women which made it more difficult for anyone to lift a hand against them, or batter them psychologically and emotionally. Feisty Tessie Oreta would have none of it.

But we pointed out that Tessie’s legislative track record and her platform of free pre-school education would not stand unless an issue is resolved with finality. This is the "Dancing Queen" issue, a product of those troubled times when former President Estrada faced massive public ire. We opined that this could be a persistent thorn in an otherwise excellent Tessie Oreta campaign. And we expressed the hope that she would confront it once and for all not for her own sake but for the sake of the teachers, women and children who stand to benefit some more from her work in the Senate.

To our surprise, she did.

Coffee shop habitués sipping their afternoon caffeine dose were roused by the news that "Tessie Oreta is apologizing on television" minutes after her latest commercial was aired in the country’s highest-ever rating noontime show "Eat Bulaga". That news spread like wildfire and held public attention for days.

Many of our colleagues in media have paid tribute to the sincerity of the Tessie Oreta apology. And while some had criticized her for the belated apology, it was clear that the Filipinos’ forgiving nature prevailed. Tessie Oreta is forgiven. The air has been cleared. She can now buckle down to work.

Tessie’s apology could have been dismissed as simply a politician’s clever stunt. But the necessary predicate has been laid out for that public apology: Tessie Oreta had a conversion experience, a change of heart, a "turning to the Lord" as Christian groups would call it.

The public acceptance of the mistake and the subsequent asking for forgiveness flowed naturally from that predicate.

Some quarters were perplexed by her move, noting that one does not win elections by apologizing. Point well taken. But other observers say Tessie Oreta did not apologize in order to win the election; she was clearing the air, setting herself free from the burden of that much-televised lapse in judgment. And if by clearing the air she finally makes her point to voters and wins, that is another story altogether.

Tessie’s apology should not be dismissed as another lapse in judgment. On the contrary, it could be a major turning point in this campaign. We heard youth groups of various Christian churches have mobilized on her behalf. And the Internet and cell sites are exploding with message exchanges asking for prayers for God-fearing candidates, including her.

Our coffee shop colleagues also informed us that there is now a website for a group called Christians for Tessie (www.christians4tessie.net), ostensibly another church-based youth group whose interest she caught when she spoke at a Church service.

The support of these groups are valuable because they campaign with the so-called "evangelical fervor". And they may have found a worthy focus for such a campaign in Tessie Oreta.

This should be a wonderful Easter for Tessie Oreta.

And, this column hopes, for the entire nation as well.

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