Sin: Poor in 1986 are still poor today

EDSA may have brought back democracy but corruption in government remains, and, worse, the poor of 1986 are no better off today, Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin said yesterday.

In his homily during the people power anniversary Mass at the Mary Queen of Peace Shrine in Mandaluyong City, Sin lamented that the heroes of the uprising are partly to blame for the country's maladies.

"When we, the so-called heroes of EDSA, were already in power, we sort of enjoyed the power and played blind to the abuses of the post-EDSA years," Sin said. "We had become the beneficiaries of political favors."

He noted that when the Marcos rule ended, the attitude was that of "your time is up, it's now our turn."

"It makes me sad to say this, but humbly we accept that it is true," the archbishop said.

The poor, he noted, are the ones suffering the most.

Sin called on the government to redirect priorities in favor of the poor as part of the agenda drawn up by the Church for Jubilee Year 2000, and reminded the faithful to share the hope of a new beginning.

"During the Jubilee year, we must lift the burden we have placed on the backs of the poor, the oppressed, the excluded, the weakest and most powerless members of society," he said.

Sin said the preferential option for the poor must be the first imperatives for all in this Jubilee year so that it will truly be "the year of the Lord's favor."

"EDSA 1986 was in fact a Jubilee experience. It was a freeing of a nation long shackled by a ruinous dictatorship. It was setting the downtrodden free. It was giving broken ones new hope, the blinded new sight," he pointed out.

The Church leader said EDSA was a resurrection for a people who had been abused, and that the priority "above all else was to bring good news to the poor."

"This is our resolve as we gather here in EDSA 2000. This is our task as we go back to work, to bring the spirit of EDSA to life and deed once more. It is a task for everyone, and this is what the Jubilee year demands of us all," he said.

In a related development, President Estrada hit back yesterday at his critics who have accused him of being too soft in prosecuting erring officials and other individuals.

Sin had criticized the President the other day for doing nothing to stop the evils plaguing Philippine society, including graft and corruption, gambling and crime.

"Those who say my administration is full of cronyism and graft and corruption, I challenge them to name names," the President said.

Mr. Estrada reiterated that he will prosecute erring officials even if they are his relatives or close friends.

"All they (critics) do is make accusations without any evidence. That's why I need your help in media to combat graft and corruption," he told reporters.

He lamented that the local media has continued to highlight baseless accusations against him instead of the administration's accomplishments in the last 19 months. -- With Marichu Villanueva