Aged bishops weren’t ‘cannonized’ after all

Only after a week of fuddled reporting are the true events surfacing about the water-cannoning of "political has-beens" at Mendiola. For one, that the three protesting bishops – Antonio Tobias, Deogracias Iñiguez and Julio Labayen – were not among those hosed down after all. They already had finished leading prayers at nearby San Sebastian church. It was a much smaller group of retired pols Tito Guingona, Bobby Tañada and Oca Orbos, with sitting Sen. Jamby Madrigal, that tried to march to Malacañang to defy the no-rally zone. Too, that one of the marchers was armed, as police video footages later showed, in violation of rules prohibiting firearms in religious or public gatherings. Only after an unfounded claim that she was seriously hurt in the melee did Madrigal admit that the gunslinger is her bodyguard-cop Ray, who nonetheless must answer for the breach. Why have not the bishops come forth to straighten out false accounts that they were among the injured, and thus dispel fears of looming confrontation between church and government? Why did Madrigal not say at once that it was her aide who was caught on tape picking up his gun, and thus avoid nasty talk of being above the law? Why does the truth have to be extracted from them like a rotten tooth?

The answer is obvious. A propaganda war is raging between the Administration and its detractors. And in war, truth is the first casualty.

Newspapers didn’t help any by misreporting that the bishops got all wet from the "cannonizing" after walking long blocks under hot sun from Plaza Miranda where they had a permit to rally. Police officials too were utterly useless in explaining what happened. Only Manila Mayor Lito Atienza was available the next day to recount that the bishops had broken the permit by leading a contrived religious procession to San Sebastian, but were allowed just the same. Just that, the politicians in the crowd had made other plans when the bishops called it a day.

Gen. Vidal Querol, Metro Manila police chief, dished his share of lies. He claimed that firemen flushed their hoses when they saw an armed man – Madrigal’s Ray – in the mob. Phooey! The thing to do was for the cops to accost Ray, not to attack the entire lot. What happened was a mindless interpretation of Malacañang’s policy of calibrated preemptive response to mean using brute force instead of gentle persuasion.

By the way, where’s the platoon of policewomen who were deployed to gently but effectively stop similar protesters only two days earlier? Why weren’t they present there when the old pols came a-marching? Were they already off duty that fateful dusk of Friday, just like traffic cops invariably disappear at sundown? Querol has a lot of explaining to do. His is the type of actions that fan rumors of martial law.

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Readers congratulate me for tracking down fugitive police ex-general Cesar Mancao in Coral Springs, Florida. But credit should go to the dutiful Filipino who e-mailed me Mancao’s business cards, and to the many other overseas kabayans who keep tabs of events back in their beloved homeland.

There’s a lesson here for other evaders of law, like Virgilio Garcillano: you can run, but you can’t hide. Justice will soon catch up with you; Pinoys all over the world will make sure of it.

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As follow-up to the 13th Senate passing only four laws by far (Gotcha, 12 Oct. 2005), it must be stressed that its budget allocation for 2005 is P1.336 billion. Meaning, taxpayers spent P334 million for each law. Fourteen major House bills sit in the Senate for consideration, ranging from housing to agricultural productivity to investment incentives. Will it cost taxpayers the same rate to get these off the ground?

And why is Congress in recess from Oct. 15 to Nov. 7, instead of starting Oct. 25 as originally scheduled? That’s because Senate President Franklin Drilon, after lecturing Speaker Joe de Venecia about "quality over quantity" in passing laws, then pestered him to go along with a break ten days early. Many senators needed to fly to Europe for the International Parliamentarians Union annual junket. Guess who’s footing the bill for first-class travel and accommodations.

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Political partisanship is sinking the nation into intolerance and unreason. No one can express a view on anything nowadays without being accused of siding with the Administration or the Opposition. If you’re tired of it all, take heart in "A Poem by an African Man":

Dear White fella,

Coupla things you should know:

When I born, I Black,

When I grow up, I Black,

When I go in sun, I Black,

When I scared, I Black,

When I sick, I Black,

And when I die, I still Black...

And you, White fella,

When you born, you Pink,

When you grow up, you White,

When you go in sun, you Red,

When you cold, you Blue,

When you scared, you Yellaw,

When you sick, you Green,

And when you die, you Grey...

And you be calling me Coloured!?!

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