MANILA (CNS): “The change of leadership in government [of new president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr.,] will set new directions for the country, and it’s too soon to judge the way it is behaving itself,” said Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
“These new leaders now in power know well that the Church was never comfortable with them. The president’s late father [Ferdinand Marcos Sr.,] knew very well that the Church, as an institution, took a stand against the dictatorship. We didn’t mince words about referring to his father’s government as dictatorial and illegitimate. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference made a very categorical stand against that dictatorship. And they never forgot that,” Bishop David noted.
Nonetheless, Bishop David said the son deserves to be judged for his own actions, not those of his father.
“This president won an election following the constitution that unseated his father. And he’s aware of that. We’re now a democratic country with democratic institutions in place. He has to respect that. He has to respect the law,” the bishop said.
Yet Bishop David worries about people forgetting the lessons of the past.
These new leaders now in power know well that the Church was never comfortable with them. The president’s late father [Ferdinand Marcos Sr.,] knew very well that the Church, as an institution, took a stand against the dictatorship
Bishop David
“We’ve witnessed a campaign of disinformation and historical revisionism. The new leadership won by suggesting that people had been unfair to his father and claiming that Marcos Sr. was one of the best presidents this country ever had. That worked because the younger generation has no memory of him, and Filipinos tend to be very shortsighted when it comes to historical remembering,” he said.
The president is under a lot of pressure to prove himself, Bishop David said.
“He has always pointed out that he shouldn’t be judged against the deeds of his father. Maybe this is his chance to prove himself, prove that he is a better public servant than his father. It’s too soon to judge. He’s just getting started. He’s still selecting his people,” the bishop said.
Bishop David suggested that of greater concern than similarities to his father’s dictatorship are the new administration’s ties to the previous administration of Rodrigo Duterte. Marcos’ vice president is Duterte’s daughter, Sara. The new administration has yet to take a stand against extrajudicial killings, which soared under Duterte’s so called “war on drugs.”
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Duterte also proved allergic to criticism, and when Church leaders spoke out against government-sanctioned killings, they paid the price.
Bishop David suggested that of greater concern than similarities to his father’s dictatorship are the new administration’s ties to the previous administration of Rodrigo Duterte. Marcos’ vice president is Duterte’s daughter, Sara.
Duterte called Bishop David a “son of a bitch,” and his government filed sedition charges against him and three other bishops. The charges were eventually dropped, and Duterte, facing stiff criticism both at home and abroad, appeared to back away from attacking the Church.
“Even before the election, the drug war had subsided a bit, and I was happy about that. They sort of blinked, reacting to our reactions. In a very strong way, we had communicated our disgust, our disappointment, our misgivings about the way they were fighting this war against illegal drugs. It wasn’t really a fight against illegal drugs but rather against drug users. It was inhuman, cruel, immoral, even illegal. We communicated that in the strongest terms possible, and we suffered the consequences. But even if they reacted vehemently against our reactions, they sort of toned it down,” Bishop David said.
What worries many Church leaders today are accusations against Church workers and activists for alleged ties to armed opposition groups, a practice known in the Philippines as “red-tagging.”
This often precedes assassination, as with the October 3 killing in Manila of Percival Mabasa, a popular radio journalist who had recently turned his sights on alleged corruption in the new government’s management of sugar imports.
We seem to have shifted from drug-tagging to red-tagging. It’s always about people in the government defining their perceived enemies
Bishop David
“We seem to have shifted from drug-tagging to red-tagging. It’s always about people in the government defining their perceived enemies,” the bishop said.
Benedictine Sister Mary John Mananzan has been red-tagged for so long her secretary keeps scrapbooks full of press clippings in which the 84-year old is labelled a communist by politicians and military officials.
“If I were not a sister, I would be assassinated. But because I’m a sister, with institutional support, and because I live in a religious institution with guards outside, they can’t get to me. But if you’re a layperson, they just go and kill you,” she said.
Sister Mananzan, who was one of several Catholic nuns who knelt in front of military tanks during the 1986 People Power Revolution that overthrew the Marcos Sr. regime, said, “Christ had an option for the poor. As a Catholic sister, I’m a follower of Christ. Therefore, I have an option for the poor. If they are exploited and repressed, I have to show my option for them by being in solidarity with them in rallies, protests, demonstrations.”
Sister Mananzan said, “If I look at all the people they’re red-tagging, they are the most authentic people, they really love their country, they have excellent, self-sacrificing lives. So, I’m not being insulted when I’m lined up with them. I’m being put on the honour roll.”
