By Ronron
March 2, 2008
The Rector of the oldest university in the Philippines, the University of Sto. Tomas (UST), did not call for the resignation of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in a mass he officiated Sunday at the school’s parish in Manila City attended by no less than former President Corazon Aquino and self-proclaimed corruption whistleblower Rodolfo Lozada, Jr., an alumnus of said school.
Instead, Fr. Rolando de la Rosa urged the people to start building up the fight against irregularities within themselves, and then exercise their democratic right to choose a good and able leader in 2010.
This was different from the stand taken by the UST Central Student Council, which joined Aquino and Lozada’s calls for Arroyo’s resignation after her family and administration were linked to the alleged anomalies behind the $329 national broadband network project.
Lozada, a former consultant of the NBN project, and former National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary and now Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Romulo Neri had implied that former Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos was soliciting commission from ZTE Corporation for making sure that it gets the NBN contract.
Lozada revealed further that First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo knew about and tolerated the actions of Abalos.
Just last Friday, Lozada and Aquino led thousands of people at Ayala Avenue corner Paseo de Roxas in Makati City in urging Arroyo to step down.
Arroyo, who has cancelled the project last year after learning about the alleged anomaly, denied the allegations of Lozada and insisted she will finish her term in 2010.
Because of this, Aquino organized a series of “Mass for Truth,” the first of which was at La Salle Greenhills on February 17, and then followed at the Adamson University. Yesterday’s mass was the third in a series of nine.
In his homily, de la Rosa said: “It would be simplistic and hypocritical to say the problem of our country is the President and the men and women who are behind her. This is a dangerous misunderstanding of the crisis we are facing today.”
“The integrity crisis involves not just the President and the men and women behind her. The integrity crisis involves us all,” he said.
De la Rosa, who was delivering his homily just about three meters in front of Aquino and Lozada, said, “if we want to restore truth and integrity in society, government and the churches, we must stop looking for scapegoats to ease our burden of guilt and failure.”
“If we want to restore integrity and honesty in government, the best way is not through a rigodon of leaders who are forcibly removed through People Power, but through an enlightened, educated and conscientious electoral process,” he said.
“We have 26 months before the next election. We have enough time to prepare ourselves so we can vote wisely. Let us use People Power during election time, not only before or after,” the priest continued.
To prove his point that this happens in reality, de la Rosa cited the election of Pampanga Governor Fr. Ed Panlilio and Isabela Governor Grace Padaca in the last elections.
“We can make it happen again,” he assured the mass-goers, which was estimated to be about 2,000 in strength, occupying both the seats inside and outside the Santisimo Rosario Parish.
Anticipating the objection of others that such suggestion takes time and those in power may not even allow it, de la Rosa said: “Don’t you notice? We are always in a hurry, but always late. Life is not a matter of speed but depth. The faster we go through life, the shallower our understanding of it becomes. Quick successes usually are a fluke. Real and lasting victories take time.”
He said the two previous People Power events did not really produce the desired result of restoring integrity and honesty.
“We delude ourselves if we think that by driving Gloria Arroyo away from Malacanang, as we did with Marcos and Erap, integrity and honestly will be restored,” de la Rosa said.
If any, he said it was democracy that was restored by the two People Power events. And this should be the one used to rid the country of “many present-day elected officials” who “are mere surrogates of hidden power-brokers, who, after election, take back what they had invested in.”
The priest said the people should now “discard that model of democracy, which portrays government leaders as the active molders, and we, their constituents as the passive clay.”
“Our task as voters is not only to elect our officials but to keep them in their proper place, which is to be our servants, not our lords and masters. We have to make them aware that they are accountable to us,” he said.
UST Central Student Council Reyner Villaseñor said he respects the decision of the University Rector, saying the latter in fact offered a wholistic approach in addressing the crisis.
“Actually, we agree on a common ground that this is beyond Lozada. The Rector tackled corruption, our election, and others… So, while we, the students of UST, call for the resignation of Arroyo, we were not surprised with the Rector’s homily,” Villaseñor told Manila Shimbun in a phone interview after the mass.
The same opinion was given by former Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman, who attended the mass along with former Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Delez, former Education Secretary Florencio Abad, former Trade Secretary Cesar Purisima, former Congresswoman Rosetta Rosales, Mrs. Gina de Venecia, Senator Benigno Aquino III, and Manila City Mayor Alfredo Lim, among others.
“That, I think, is okay because the people now are already thinking on their own,” Soliman said in a separate interview.
In a speech after the mass, Aquino said that “whatever difference we have now with each other,” what is important is these differences can be set aside “for a common, greater mission of searching for the truth.”
Dressed in her signature yellow color, Aquino appealed to the public, especially the youth, to be more patient on their advocacy for Arroyo’s resignation, citing the lack of enlightenment of other Filipinos.
“I am not losing hope. We have removed a dictator before, how much more now when we are not under Martial Law,” she said in Filipino.
As she thanked the people, especially the youth, for joining her in her “difficult but meaningful search for truth,” Aquino assured Lozada of her continuous support.
“Do not lose hope, many believe in you,” Aquino told Lozada, who was wearing a black shirt, marked with “WE ARE UST,” which stands for “We are United in the Search for Truth.”
The 1984 engineering graduate of UST, for his part, sought for the public’s continuing support as he carries what he calls his heavy cross, a decision, he said, he made in spite of being scrutinized in public and placing his life and that of his family at risk.
Lozada denied that he came out in the open upon the prodding of opposition Senator Panfilo Lacson, with whom he met first in December last year about the NBN controversy.
“This was a decision between me and my God… Many are insisting their speculations that Lacson came between me and God, or JDV did. Maybe, these people do not believe that there is a God,” Lozada said.
Lozada did not react directly to the homily of de la Rosa. But at one point, as a premise to his revelation about a priest’s piece of advice to him on what he should do in the situation he is situation in, Lozada disclosed that the UST Rector was once a part of the CHED leadership.
“He came from CHED. He was once part of the government. Like me, he also came home here (in UST). I know he also knows some truth in government. All of us in government knows some element of truth in government,” Lozada said in Filipino, drawing applause from the mass-goers.
The entire mass, which began shortly past 10 am and ended before 11:30 am, stuck to its sacred mood all through out its duration, until it ended with a political mood as the recessional hymn sang by the choir was “Bayan Ko.”
The same song was sung after Lozada’s speech.
Joining de la Rosa in administering the mass are at least 15 other priests./DMS
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