‘Philippines to rise from past anomalies’

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino yesterday likened the resurrection of Jesus Christ to the Philippines’ rising from anomalies of the past administrations.

The President made the comparison as he greeted the public on the Easter celebration today.

Aquino said it was only when he took over in 2010 that the economy got a much needed turnaround because all credit ratings agencies gave the country investment upgrade status and Philippine Stock Exchange indexes reached record highs.

He attributed this to the trust given by the people to his policy of good governance, which he said started the healing of the wounds of various institutions.

Aquino said Easter Sunday reminds the people about second chances.

Whatever sacrifices and sufferings that people go through, if they keep their faith and adhere to what is right, they will live a good life, he added.

Pray for convicted OFWs

Meanwhile, Vice President Jejomar Binay called on the public to pray this Easter for Filipinos in prison abroad, especially the convicted Filipina who is currently on death row in Indonesia.

“As we honor the supreme sacrifice our Lord and Savior made to fulfill His promise of eternal salvation for mankind, and celebrate His resurrection and His triumph over death, let us also pray for Mary Jane Veloso and all our kababayanslanguishing in prisons abroad, that they overcome the challenges they are facing,” Binay said in his Easter message.

“Let us pray that they may be given the chance to start anew, just as we were forgiven when our sins were washed away by Christ’s dying on the cross,” he said.

Binay, presidential adviser for OFW concerns, earlier met with Veloso’s parents and assured them that the government is doing its best to save their daughter.

Veloso, 30, was sentenced to die by firing squad after she was apprehended at Yogyakarta Airport in April 2010 for carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroin in her luggage.

But her mother Celia denied that the heroin seized from her daughter’s luggage was hers. She said the illegal drugs were secretly put there by a certain Christine, whom she said was the wife of her daughter’s god-brother.

Binay also called on the public to help those who continue to face hunger.

“May Easter serve as a new beginning for us to recommit ourselves and offer hope of a better, rewarding life for our people,” he said.

Call for unity

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. called yesterday for unity and hard work among Filipinos, saying these were needed for the country’s continued progress.

Belmonte led the House of Representatives in wishing Filipinos a blessed Easter Sunday, saying this was a good time “to meditate on our personal path as well as that which we seek for our families and for this nation.”

“I wish for us to achieve genuine peace and growth that stems from shared efforts and hard work coming from each of us. I wish for an end to unproductive criticism and faultfinding that will only result in a pained and divided nation,” Belmonte said.

Former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, on the other hand, called for hope and humility among the country’s leaders as well as ordinary Filipinos even as she prayed for more blessings for the nation.

In her Easter message from the Veterans’ Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City where she is detained, Arroyo said today’s Gospel reading from Apostle Paul, writing from prison, reminded the Christian community of Colossae to fix their gaze always on those things that are of heaven.

“Of all the things that are of this earth, what indeed could be more earthly than death itself? By popular reckoning, it is even more certain than taxes. It is the fate that awaits all of us, without exception,” Arroyo said.

“It is from Christ alone whence come the gifts of new life: the humility to reform ourselves; the strength to endure offenses and the patience to forgive offenders; the bold faith to love Christ and to love the rest of His children as He loves them too. It is He who holds open for us the doors beyond death,” she said.

She said since it is so certain and universal, the defeat of death by “Christ’s resurrection is all the more glorious.”

“By freely accepting death for the forgiveness of our sins, and then by rising to eternal life on the third day, Christ has claimed the authority to call us to be His followers,” Arroyo said.

Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada also wished that the Easter joy would unite Filipinos as a people under one God, one nation and one flag.
Estrada said Easter Sunday allows Christendom to “cross racial boarders and boundaries to delight in the risen Lord, whose resurrection continues to bind the Christian spirit as one.”

Estrada said that Jesus Christ’s supreme sacrifice at the hands of those who betrayed him will forever remind people that “trials, betrayals and hardships in our day-to-day life bring us closer to God.”

For his part, Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle yesterday asked the faithful to see the savior in every needy person and extend assistance to them.

Tagle said that while Christ’s resurrection brings hope and a pledge of future glory, it does not serve as an escape from earthly life and concerns. – With Janvic Mateo, Paolo Romero, Jose Rodel Clapano, Eva Visperas, Evelyn Macairan