Wagging the dog

Wagging the dog is an idiomatic expression that best describes recent events of the national debate on church vs. state. It is about how “to purposely divert attention from what would otherwise be of greater importance to something else of lesser significance.” It is a

tactic that is used so it is the lesser-significant event that occupies center stage and relegates the more important one in the back burner.

I am writing about the Church’s Pastoral Statement as the issue of greater importance and Carlos Celdran’s conviction as the issue of lesser importance.

Although the wagging dog did not quite succeed, the effort to maneuver public opinion was there.

The strength of the Church’s pastoral statement was the graver issue. It was a brave foray by the bishops into politics. President Aquino himself provoked them into action when he pushed Congress to approve the RH bill, by hook or by crook.

Rather than be intimidated by threats the CBCP would be accused of politicking, thereby violating the principle of the separation of Church and State, the bishops turned the issue around.

As the pastoral statement made clear the way the Aquino administration went hammer and tongs to get the bill approved in record time is the issue. The government secured votes by dangling money from pork barrel. It was graft and corruption at its worst. In taking on

the RH bill debate, the Church effectively moved the battlefield from reproductive health to corrupt government. This administration likes to believe it stands for the matuwid na daan. This is the reason why as this column said, the pro RH bill may have won the battle but

the antis won the war. (Poverty in this country is less the number of people than it is of graft and wealth of the few and that includes the legislators who passed the RH bill.)

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The Church took up the political shortcomings of the Aquino administration head-on.

Because there is a vacuum of leadership to oppose bad governance, the Church’s move was justified because the stakes were too high to let it go unopposed.

I am of course referring to the Smartmatic-PCOS issue that would, if allowed, be used again in 2013 despite findings that the 2010 elections were marred by fraud. If Comelec were allowed go ahead with Smartmatic-PCOS it would devastate the body politic. This was

the issue on which the entire country, whether Catholic or non-Catholic, could rally behind the bishops. It is a god-send.

Since May 2010, Comelec has simply stonewalled all questions on just how the first automatic elections were conducted. It leads to a suspicion that the electoral body will ram down any objection (and there were many) and go ahead.

Without the clout of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Comelec’s unholy alliance with Smartmatic-PCOS would have gone scot-free. Only a pastoral letter from the CBCP would be weighty enough to challenge Comelec’s indifference to citizens

questioning Smartmatic PCOS.

The pastoral statement calls on Comelec “to adequately address the issues and respond... to the studies of technical experts on the alleged deficiencies of the present system and technology of automated elections.”

Almost a hundred bishops from various dioceses across the country attended the plenary session debates that were the basis of the pastoral letter signed by Archbishop Jose Palma, the President of the conference.

The bishops lamented “the continuing corruption and abuse of power by public officials due to lack of information, or still worse, the possible hiding of information from the public. It is ironic that the government that prides itself of treading the daang matuwid fears the

Right of Information (FOI) bill.

It reminded the Comelec that “election is not a matter of speed but of trustworthiness and honesty. If not properly addressed the present automated election system can lead to wholesale cheating. The integrity of a pillar of our democracy — the election — is at stake.”

The statement urged the “Comelec to adequately address the issues and respond, place corrective measures if necessary, to the studies of technical experts to the alleged deficiencies of the present system and technology of automated elections. There can be no

transparency in elections if the Comelec itself is not transparent.”

It also cited “the deepening of the culture of impunity.” Extrajudicial killings, unsolved crimes and kidnappings continue and the government is not able or lacks the political will to prosecute the perpetrators and touch powerful people.

It took on the much praised growth figures. ”Growth itself, that is, more products and more money, should not be the sole aim of development but also equity. The huge gap between the rich and the poor remains. There is little inclusive growth!”

Finally it did not skirt the issue of the passage of the Reproductive Health Law. It denounced the political and financial pressures imposed on lawmakers, and the imperialism exercised by secularistic international organizations in the legislative process.

“Election is not a matter of speed but of trustworthiness and honesty. If not properly addressed the present automated election system can lead to wholesale cheating. The integrity of a pillar of our democracy — the election — is at stake.” (Full version can be found in

www.cbcpnews)

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In the face of the gravity of the pastoral letter comes the conviction of Carlos Celdran for Damaso attack. Just in time to wag the dog. No less than the President calls on the bishops to forgive Celdran as if the bishops and not the court had meted out the punishment for

the Damaso caper. Celdran walked around the church with the placard marked Damaso likening the bishops to the hated Spanish friar. Happily there are many well-informed and educated Filipinos who do know their history.

They know that for every Damaso, there is a Gomburza. Damaso may have been an abusive friar but Fathers Gomez, Burgos and Zamora were Filipino priests who became the archetype of the Philippine revolution and honored by no less than Jose Rizal in El

Filibusterismo.

They were executed on 17 February 1872 at Bagumbayan in Manila, Philippines by Spanish colonial authorities on charges of subversion arising from the 1872 Cavite mutiny.

“The uprising by workers in the Cavite Naval Yard was the pretext needed by the authorities to redress a perceived humiliation from the principal objective, José Burgos, who threatened the established order.” From Wikipedia.