First, God. Now, the people. Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio seems to make the perfect synthesis of the vox Dei, vox populi dogma. So how can he lose?
“God is calling me to run for the presidency.” So he said just over a month or so ago. With just one call, Panlilio acceded. How can he otherwise, hearing the very voice of God Herself?
“Noong nagpasya po ako na i-offer ang aking sarili (When I decided to offer myself (for the presidency)), I felt at peace. I’m doing this not for me, not for myself. I felt God wanted me to go on a higher service.” Hence, Panlilio: “Accipio, fiat voluntas tua.” Thy will be done.
Ah, such total surrender to God’s will! Panlilio made me weep in religious ecstasy!
Now, now, pray tell, what about his disobedience to the call for him not to run for governor in 2007 – repeated five times at that?
Ah, that was not God’s voice. Only the archbishop’s, and no matter how saintly the Good Apu Ceto is, he can’t be God. At best, he can only be the channel of communication from the divine. And Panlilio only knows too well that statics do occur, some signals get tangled and garbled, in the transmission. Just like what regularly happens to your phone, land line or mobile.
So, suspended from his priestly functions, he went on to run and win the gubernatorial race, if only by a foot. Now that that sore foot of a difference is being questioned, it is time for Panlilio to invoke vox populi, no matter how circuitous, if not tangled, his (il)logic takes.
Panlilio reduces all arguments of truth, of the integrity of the results of the 2007 gubernatorial elections to venganza politica, citing as basis, neither hard facts nor documentary evidence, but the perception of “the people.”
“That is precisely the point of the people, to get me out of the presidential race and I think more importantly, which is the feeling of the people, if GMA would run as (sic) congresswoman and if Mikey is to run as (sic) governor, they would not want a governor that is not favor of (sic) them. They want to get this governor out of office.” So Panlilio told his supporters at a “No-to-Recount “rally in the City of San Fernando last Tuesday.
“But it is the belief of the people that Malacanang is behind this, if not at the level of the President but (sic) at the level of Congressman Mikey. That’s the belief of the people.” Panlilio stressed.
Malacanang’s wrath was brought upon him by his criticisms against the Arroyos, foremost of which were statements that Mikey Arroyo was the “easiest candidate to beat” and that the President was “not certain” of winning in the second district, should she make a run for the House. That, Panlilio said, “the people discerned”.
When Panlilio said that it was God that called him to run, questions were immediately raised as to what god he referred to.
Remarked Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz then: “Talking to God is prayer but claiming to hear God speak is dangerous. Let us use first what God Himself has given to us by using our rational faculty which has the competence to see reality or fantasy.”
Lamented San Fernando Auxiliary Bishop Pablo Virgilio David: “I can only pray for him. I think he’s in a state of delusion. I still hope he’ll see the light before it’s too late.”
Can’t Panlilio – and we – discern the voice of our God there?
Now that Panlilio is invoking “the people”, questions are being raised as to what people he is referring to.
Supporters at his Tuesday rally varied in numbers, depending on who’s talking: about 300 according to the city police chief, bloated to no less than 500 by the rally organizers, downsized to some 100 by the cameraman of a local television station, with “curious passers-by included in the estimates.”
Given that Pampanga has nearly a million voting population, what “people” indeed, is Panlilio talking about.
Jested Panlilio-advocate-turned-adversary Willy Villarama in a text message: “megrally la ri among gov panlilio napun sanfdo cathedral para kontra RECOUNT ! 30 katau la pati i gov panlilio. 31 la sana nung kayabe re i atty vivian dabu. (Panlilio rallied against the recount at the San Fernando cathedral yesterday. There were but 30 of them, 31 if only Atty. Vivian Dabu was with them.)
Beyond the joke, something not really that profound – the very pith of the issue we are discussing here – can well be discerned in that text message: Right there are god herself and the people Panlilio invokes!
Kyrie elesion. Lord have mercy.
“God is calling me to run for the presidency.” So he said just over a month or so ago. With just one call, Panlilio acceded. How can he otherwise, hearing the very voice of God Herself?
“Noong nagpasya po ako na i-offer ang aking sarili (When I decided to offer myself (for the presidency)), I felt at peace. I’m doing this not for me, not for myself. I felt God wanted me to go on a higher service.” Hence, Panlilio: “Accipio, fiat voluntas tua.” Thy will be done.
Ah, such total surrender to God’s will! Panlilio made me weep in religious ecstasy!
Now, now, pray tell, what about his disobedience to the call for him not to run for governor in 2007 – repeated five times at that?
Ah, that was not God’s voice. Only the archbishop’s, and no matter how saintly the Good Apu Ceto is, he can’t be God. At best, he can only be the channel of communication from the divine. And Panlilio only knows too well that statics do occur, some signals get tangled and garbled, in the transmission. Just like what regularly happens to your phone, land line or mobile.
So, suspended from his priestly functions, he went on to run and win the gubernatorial race, if only by a foot. Now that that sore foot of a difference is being questioned, it is time for Panlilio to invoke vox populi, no matter how circuitous, if not tangled, his (il)logic takes.
Panlilio reduces all arguments of truth, of the integrity of the results of the 2007 gubernatorial elections to venganza politica, citing as basis, neither hard facts nor documentary evidence, but the perception of “the people.”
“That is precisely the point of the people, to get me out of the presidential race and I think more importantly, which is the feeling of the people, if GMA would run as (sic) congresswoman and if Mikey is to run as (sic) governor, they would not want a governor that is not favor of (sic) them. They want to get this governor out of office.” So Panlilio told his supporters at a “No-to-Recount “rally in the City of San Fernando last Tuesday.
“But it is the belief of the people that Malacanang is behind this, if not at the level of the President but (sic) at the level of Congressman Mikey. That’s the belief of the people.” Panlilio stressed.
Malacanang’s wrath was brought upon him by his criticisms against the Arroyos, foremost of which were statements that Mikey Arroyo was the “easiest candidate to beat” and that the President was “not certain” of winning in the second district, should she make a run for the House. That, Panlilio said, “the people discerned”.
When Panlilio said that it was God that called him to run, questions were immediately raised as to what god he referred to.
Remarked Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz then: “Talking to God is prayer but claiming to hear God speak is dangerous. Let us use first what God Himself has given to us by using our rational faculty which has the competence to see reality or fantasy.”
Lamented San Fernando Auxiliary Bishop Pablo Virgilio David: “I can only pray for him. I think he’s in a state of delusion. I still hope he’ll see the light before it’s too late.”
Can’t Panlilio – and we – discern the voice of our God there?
Now that Panlilio is invoking “the people”, questions are being raised as to what people he is referring to.
Supporters at his Tuesday rally varied in numbers, depending on who’s talking: about 300 according to the city police chief, bloated to no less than 500 by the rally organizers, downsized to some 100 by the cameraman of a local television station, with “curious passers-by included in the estimates.”
Given that Pampanga has nearly a million voting population, what “people” indeed, is Panlilio talking about.
Jested Panlilio-advocate-turned-adversary Willy Villarama in a text message: “megrally la ri among gov panlilio napun sanfdo cathedral para kontra RECOUNT ! 30 katau la pati i gov panlilio. 31 la sana nung kayabe re i atty vivian dabu. (Panlilio rallied against the recount at the San Fernando cathedral yesterday. There were but 30 of them, 31 if only Atty. Vivian Dabu was with them.)
Beyond the joke, something not really that profound – the very pith of the issue we are discussing here – can well be discerned in that text message: Right there are god herself and the people Panlilio invokes!
Kyrie elesion. Lord have mercy.
