Even among our bishops ‘politics’, not Jesus, seems the obsession during this Holy Week

I don’t understand it. On the very eve of Holy Week, last Friday, why did our Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) insist on shoehorning their objections to the GMA government-sponsored "people’s initiative" into what was supposed to be a Pastoral Letter addressed to their flock?

As everybody who reads this column knows, I’ve been foursquare against the expensively-funded so-called "people’s initiative" being pushed so stubbornly through the Barangays but, sanamagan, what’s it to the Bishops and, inevitably, our priests?

They can warn against sin, and exhort our people to be prayerful and virtuous during this Lenten season, but why on earth choose this time to plunge once more into politics? Didn’t Our Lord say: Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s? Didn’t He remark, often enough, that "My Kingdom is not of this world?"

Yet, our Bishops seem to be obsessed, as always, with temporal matters – even when we ought to be contemplating the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ. It’s disgusting. All year round, in this benighted country, we’re constantly engrossed not only in politics, but in petty politics. Once a year, Semana Santa comes around, and what do we encounter? Not thoughts of the suffering Christ and the agony He endured in order to accomplish our redemption, but salamabit, more of the same politics of hatred which condemned Jesus in the eyes of the Roman Governor of Palestine, Pontius Pilate.

Remember how the High Priests of the Jewish Sanhedrin literally blackmailed a reluctant Pilate into giving them Jesus to be crucified on the Cross? Pilate had not been convinced of Jesus’ guilt, and wanted to free Him. He had called for a bowl of water so he could wash his hands of the blood of this innocent man.

"How can this pretender be innocent," the High Priests led by Caiphas and the Pharisees whispered into Pilate’s ear, "when he claims to be King of the Jews?" They told Pilate that as the representative of Caesar in Rome, he could be accused of recognizing a "king" who claimed to be mightier than Caesar.

Pilate caved in – and Jesus, scourged, spat on, and crowned with thorns to mock his "kingship", was sent to bear His cross to Calvary. Pilate even had it stamped on a plaque over Christ’s head on the Cross: "INRI" – Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum (Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews). Gutter politics has not changed in more than 2000 years.

Neither, if our Bishops and clergy don’t mend their ways, have High Priests and pharisees.

Let me say what I think: our Churchmen should leave politics to sinners like you and me – and, okay, GMA and Drilon – and direct the thoughts of our Faithful to Heaven and the saving of their immortal souls.

"Thou art a priest forever in the Order of Melchisidek," were the words uttered at their ordination – thus they are priests, dedicated to God’s service, not cheap politicians.

No wonder there are no more vocations to the priesthood, either here or in most other countries. The Church, which once was poor and had the simple, unselfish fervor of the early Church of the Catacombs, or the Coptic Church of Egypt (the first Christian congregations), has become embroiled in material things.

The first Cross was rudely hewn out of wood. Bishops’ crucifixes are of ruby and gold. Our priests have abandoned the cassock and the sotana, the priestly habits which once set them apart – and dress in polo barong, or even T-shirts and jeans. True, Jesus chose His apostles from among fishermen, workmen, and even one tax collector, but they were attired as befit their trade. So many of our clergy today look like guitar-playing cowboys rather than men of the cloth – or men of God.

I wish our priests would return to the Altar, to lead us in the worship of the Lord, not spend their time politicking in the marketplace.

I’ve spoken out against expecting miracles from Cha-cha and opposed the useless and "dangerous" people’s initiative myself. But I wish our Bishops and churchmen would use their pulpits to uplift our hearts, and call us back from the worship of the Golden Calf and the pursuit of material gain, to what Jesus really preached.

India’s Mahatma Gandhi once asserted: "I love Christ, but I despise Christians because they do not live as Christ lived."

I’m not altogether sure Gandhi, who was later murdered by a Hindu fanatic, used the word "despise" (it’s not his gentle style), but he didn’t respect Christians because of their hypocrisy. I got the above quotation from a biography of Gandhi.

Was he wrong?

* * *

It’s good, as we’ve read in yesterday’s newspapers, that airport security is being tightened during the holiday rush. Security at the NAIA is under the responsibility of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), while land transportation’s security falls under the purview of the PNP’s Traffic Management Group (TMG).

However, the most dangerous airport, as we’ve underscored earlier, is the still-unopened NAIA-3, i.e. Terminal 3 built by PIATCO, Fraport and Takenaka. The collapse of a portion of its roof a few weeks ago should be warning enough that the terminal is sub-standard, and any portion of it could also collapse. In short, the government must think twice about using that poorly-constructed terminal complex and its infrastructure.

The tragedy is that nobody checked up on its safety when the terminal was being constructed – now it’s too late. I stick by my suggestion that a reputable international firm be contracted to strictly inspect that building and its facilities. But I already suspect what the verdict will be.

Better safe than sorry.

Being "sorry" might cost ten times what was squandered by the crooks involved in the airport project.

* * *

Chairperson Maria Elena H. Bautista of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board wrote a 3-page rejoinder to my column entitled, "The Secret Plan to Dump More Buses into EDSA" (30 March 2006).

I instructed our Opinion Page editors to publish the rejoinder, but let me comment on LTFRB Chairman Bautista’s explanation and that of DOTC Undersecretary for Land Transportation Ricardo Alfonso’s reply jointly.

In their elaborate replies designed to refute my views on the traffic gridlock and the scheme to dump more buses on EDSA, LTFRB Chairman Bautista and DOTC Usec. Alfonso detailed programs, plans, measures and foreign-funded studies purportedly aimed at rationalizing public transportation, traffic and curbing operators’ malpractises.

Since the DOTC was established 27 years ago, there have been 12 full-time secretaries. During their incumbencies, volumes of studies, plans, projects and remedial measures for the transport sector have been funded and prepared to rationalize our transport systems, with transport officials even going on trips abroad to "study" these programs.

Instead of an improvement in our transport systems and the traffic in Metro Manila, especially on EDSA, what we instead see is a mess because these reams of studies have merely gathered dust at the DOTC.

The fact is that both letters raised more issues than were explained.

In his letter to this writer which was published last Sunday in the opinion page of this paper, Alfonso revealed that special permits were issued to 160 jeepneys on the Monumento-Balintawak-Muñoz Market Route. MMDA sources say that EDSA from Monumento in Caloocan to Baclaran is and has always been an exclusive bus route. How come 160 jeepneys were allowed to run along EDSA in 2004 by Bautista?

A glaring revelation in the elaborate rejoinders of Bautista and Alfonso which confirms the lament of Metro Manila Development Authority officials that both the LTFRB and the DOTC appear to have been ignoring the MMDA in their programs. MMDA sources say that no one in the MMDA was consulted when the 160 jeepneys were allowed to ply routes on EDSA and neither was the agency informed that local buses would be allowed to extend their operations to Metro Manila.

The best transport secretary we ever had, the late Jose P. Dans Jr., an engineer himself, maintained that traffic engineering is a vital component of franchising and regulation. MMDA is the agency mandated to manage traffic in Metro Manila and yet it appears it has not been involved by the LTFRB and the DOTC in their programs and measures to rationalize transportation. There is a clear dysfunctional relationship between all the government agencies involved in transport management.

Finally, Bautista let the cat out of the bag when she said in her letter that it is DOTC Sec. Leandro Mendoza who acceded to the bus operators’ "request to suspend" the implementation of the policy set several years ago by the late DOTC Sec. Arturo "Boy" Enrile to phase out those polluting 15-year old junk buses which are a major cause of traffic gridlock on EDSA. So, after all, it is Mendoza who is responsible for the continued presence of these 15-year old public hazards on EDSA.

Why did Mendoza capitulate to the operators’ request to continue running those "Japayuki" buses?

By the way, when this writer said Bautista has been defying Mendoza he was just echoing what DOTC officials have been saying. Was Bautista not told in a DOTC meeting by Mendoza: "Len, the country has many problems already, so do not add any more problems. For as long as I am the Secretary, you must obey my orders." Mendoza uttered these remarks in a meeting in his office attended by, among others, Usec. Alfonso.