Quest for Truth

PASTORAL LETTER 2005-03
A CALL FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE, TRUTH AND JUSTICE

The present dispensation ever since it was installed in power is beset by waves of crises after crises.In the face of ever worsening economic crisis and hardships, the people are overburdened by and suffer from;· endless price hikes, low wages, unjust working conditions, · additional taxes, demolition of slum dwellings, land grabbing, ·and eviction from ancestral lands, as a result of anti-people policies, which are being sugar-coated as necessary measures to prop up our economy.

From January to May 2005, the waves of killings, abduction, harassment and incarceration of those who belong to progressive organizations bring to mind the horrors of Martial Law. The people are crying out for justice and life with dignity, while the President maintains her silence.

As Ezekiel 34 puts it, you government people, with the leadership of the President, have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them.

In the wake of the exposé of Atty Samuel Ong regarding Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s fraudulent victory in the May 2004 elections, the “juetengate 2” scandal involving the Arroyo family, and other acts of corruption and betrayal of the Filipino people’s interests, her moral ascendancy is highly questionable.

As Ezekiel 34 says, As I live, says the Lord God, because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild animals, since there was no shepherd; and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep. But the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep; therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God, I am against the shepherds; and I will demand my sheep at their hand, and put a stop to their feeding the sheep; no longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, so that they may not be food for them.

We join the Filipino people in calling for the revelation of the truth. The President owes it to the people to reveal what lies behind the allegations of her taped conversation with Commissioner Garcillano. We call for a fair investigation of the jueteng scandals, which involve members of the First Family, and demand for strong political will as the President calls for the elimination of jueteng and all forms of corruptions in government. We further call on President Arroyo to stop the harassment, killings, and human rights violations of activists, media people, progressive church and peasant leaders, human rights lawyers and partylist leaders. As Christ has come for the fullness of people’s lives, we call on government to provide the poor of the land with food security, health and education for all, decent housing, land for the tillers and the indigenous people, decent wage for workers, and basic services that are commensurate to the taxes we are paying. Our faith and conscience can no longer bear the corruption and ineptitude in government. Our people deserve peace and better life. We want to experience the promise of Jesus “to have life to the fullest” as we seek justice and righteousness for all our people.