It looks like the seven bishops forgot Matthews’s admonition when they asked and accepted expensive Sports Utility Ve­hicles (SUV’s) form then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo through the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). The seven (see Editorial) were sum­moned to the Senate Blue Ribbon Com­mittee Hearing Room last Wednesday (July 13) to explain why. And unlike hardened criminals, the contrite bishops promptly vowed to return the vehicles to their rightful owners – ang Masa! It is beyond incredulity that some of the highest prelates of the Catholic Church of the Philippines could not see the immo­rality of accepting the vehicles even if is not illegal to do so, (a contention highly debated by critics who claim it is uncon­stitutional).

Even if it was supposed to ‘help’ them in their work or shall we say ministry, the loss of some P 8 –million or roughly $180,000 dollars ( total value of the seven SUVs) de­prived the poor in their parishes with much need ambulances and hospital equipment which is supposed to be the mandate of the PSCO.

It not only compromised the integrity of the particular bishops but the entire Cath­olic hierarchy who are supposed to be the country’s spiritual leaders. This came amidst the on-going battle by the church and the government on the controversial Reproductive Health Bill. Well, a few ‘mea culpas’ convinced the senators and the case is closed.
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The recent conviction of the four Filipi­nos who were caught trying to enter Can­ada through fraudulent means is another example of how people will risk anything out of desperation just to escape the mis­ery that they suffer in the Philippines.

But no one can imagine the misery that they will have in jail, although not for very long. My heart went out for them as they sat sobbing in the prisoner’s box and the question kept nagging me – “WHY”. Why do we have to suffer these indignities just to escape the other indignities in our homeland?
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That is why Jose Antonio Vargas, the award-winning Filipino journalist who re­cently came out in the U.S. and confessed that he had been a TNT since he was 12 had to do it otherwise he would not have survived in the land called America.

Predictably, the right-wing fanatics in the country including his former media employers who must have relished and savoured his Pulitzer prize when he was working for them lost no time in attacking him for ‘fooling’ or ‘lying’ to them.

What a crap!
For me, Vargas is a real hero for taking the courage to come out in the open and challenge the racist laws of the country, which marginalizes and relegates undocu­mented ( not illegal) people like him to go ‘underground’.

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