JB Baylon: It's still not better late than never

Here's his follow up article on the CBCP:

It’s still not better late than never

Two years after the "Hello Garci, Hello Ma’am" conspiracy became public, here comes the Catholic Bishops of the Philippines calling for the total revamp of the Commission on Elections, from top to bottom.

Their reason? The conduct of the May 2007 polls which apparently they feel makes the Comelec deserving of a failing grade.

The good bishops, I feel, are trying to make up for lost time, what with their wishy-washy positioning at the height of the "Hello Garci, Hello Ma’am" revelations that almost brought down a government. I think I could imagine the bishops then, caucusing, realizing that their words and deeds – remember how the whole of Philippine society was just waiting to see what they would say and do? – could unmake one government and cause the establishment of another, or, some believed, even lead to total chaos. Was it a responsibility they were willing to take?

Apparently not, because our bishops chose to look at all that had happened in shades of grey ("everybody cheats anyway", said one of them!) rather than standing firm (even extreme) for what was right and moral and ethical and forcing everyone else to confront their relativistic tendencies.

The bishops chose to be relativist when the people were hoping they would be firmer.

Now, two years later, our good bishops are confronted with a second fraudulent election, and appear to be moving heaven and earth to make up for lost time. And now they are getting bolder–they are even demanding the heads of Abalos and Company!

Maybe we should all be happy, but I am not. Because this is how I see it:

In 2005 the bishops were confronted with evidence that a rapist was at large, someone who wasn’t simply "irresponsible" but someone who appeared to really have a criminal mind. Yet for one reason or another – perhaps for reasons of "reasonable doubt" – our bishops chose to react less forcefully than they should have, in effect allowing the alleged rapist to get away scot-free.

Only to see him rape again, two years later.

Yes sir, that is what happened: a rapist was caught in the headlights in 2005, yet our bishops chose to do little. Now that he has raped again, our bishops are stumbling all over themselves trying to do the right thing this time. Can they blame us if our applause is muted?

The fact of the matter is, our unwillingness to pierce the boil of electoral fraud that was committed in 204 but only became public in 2005 has two years later given rise to a second fraudulent exercise. And the second fraudulent exercise was possible because the "fraud machine" – peopled by the same "irresponsible" elections officials – remains intact. Many of the individuals named in the "Hello Garci, Hello Ma’am" recordings not only remain in office, some of them even were promoted to higher levels of responsibility, just like moving a thief from the position of store cashier to the position where you give him the codes to the bank’s vault!

And why was this possible?

Because in 2005, at the height of the public’s outrage at all that was being revealed, the bishops chose to address the matter with kid gloves. At the brink, they chose to blink – helped not, I hope, by envelopes said to have been made available to them – thus depriving the movement for better government its best possible moral armor.

"Everyone cheats anyway", one of them said – to which the response should be "even a bishop has a price".

If you think about it, a friend of mine who expressed a truly extreme position may very well be right. Why are there thieves in government, he asked? Because, he reasons, our church leaders are not willing to deny them the sacraments. Imagine, this friend continued, if priests would deny communion or a proper burial to any and every government official and his wife who are known to be a crook?

On the contrary, we do the reverse: because many of the corrupt are also those who are generous to the Church, they get rewarded with special masses, special attention by the Church hierarchy, even special blessings and special (I almost wrote Papal!) awards!

When the President’s spokesman – who is supposed to verbalize what the President wishes to say – held up two discs and told us that one was fake and one was real, he was lying. And she in effect was lying too. And that was no ordinary or ‘white" lie; that was a lie that went to the heart of the issue: Did GMA conspire with Virgilio Garcillano to cheat Fernando Poe Jr. of electoral victory?

"But everyone cheats anyway" was the answer we got from the bishops, an answer that took the wind out from the sails of those who believed that electoral fraud is the republican equivalent of a cardinal sin.

Now, two years later, after the same cardinal sin has been committed, the bishops want a total revamp of Comelec because "irresponsible" elections officials make electoral fraud possible. Again they miss the mark, because committing fraud twice in three years isn’t a mark of irresponsibility. It is a mark of criminality.

And if the bishops still can’t see that, then we can’t say "better late than never."

There's nothing else to add to what he said. I agree completely.

For me, it's too little, too late. I'm not really that interested anymore in what they have to say about electoral reforms or corruption, or how evil the marcoses, sen. lacson, and erap are.

UPDATE: Basta tandaan nyo na lang yung mga pangalang ito: Orlando Quevedo, Fernando Capalla, Ramon Arguelles and Soc Villegas, the guy who backstabbed Vidal Doble.

Previous:

- Not "irresponsible" but CRIMINAL.