Support gov’t for progress – DU30; care, truth, salvation – Church

MALACAÑANG has appealed to its critics and the citizenry to help the Duterte administration deliver its promises to the people. Support, not hate, government for national progress, the Palace urges.

“Rather than continue with their hate campaign against the President they should join the majority supporting administration’s programs designed to serve and protect the nation and its citizenry,” presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said.

“Start contributing for the country’s progress,” he pleaded.

“President Duterte is racing against time to fulfill his campaign promise of slaying the dragon of illegal drugs, criminality, corruption, and rebellion, as well as providing the people with a comfortable life under a reign of peace during his term,” Panelo said.

“No negative force will detract him from his goal of liberating the people from the causes that enslave them and stunt the growth of the country,” he added..

Panelo said the latest SWS survey only shows that the Filipino people do not believe the allegations of critics against Duterte.

“The message of the survey is crystal clear. The more the critics and detractors malign PRRD, the higher the rating he gets,” he said.

“These political adversaries are being swallowed by their own hubris. Survey after survey they are being repudiated. They appear to be ensconced if not entangled in their own web of lies that they cannot unshackle themselves from it,” Panelohe added.

Treat survey as a wake-up call that besmirching the President is not working, he said.

“The critics, detractors, and the political opposition have been deaf to the voice of a great majority of our people and blind to the sweeping changes in the political and social landscape effected by this unorthodox, maverick, and daredevil leader who is fiercely devoted to – and protective of – the interest of the greater masses of our people,” Panelo said.

“Destiny has placed this President at the helm of this troubled land, so it is his destiny to remove it from its distress and lead it to a state of peace and progress,” he added.

Panelo pointed out that the 2019 first quarter Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed that 79 percent of adult Filipinos are satisfied with the performance of the President.

The survey gave a six-point increase in Duterte’s net satisfaction rating from +60 in December, 2018, to +66 in March, 2019, he added.

Meanwhile, in time for the Holy Week , Catholic Church leaders called on the faithful to be “truly holy and to share this holiness with others.”

“Let us not observe it as just an ordinary week but as a rare chance for us to be holy and to share this holiness to others,” said Balanga Bishop Ruperto C. Santos

“Holiness pertains to God. Holiness is to be with God, to belong to God. To begin, let us always think of God. All our thoughts, our words, our deeds should be pleasing to God. What we think, we plan, or say must be godly,” Santos said.

Holiness in words translates to compassion and care, the prelate added.

“Speak always of God. All our words must be words of God, that is, words spoken with care and compassion; with truth and honesty,” Bishop Santos appealed.

“Let us also strive to do to others what God does to us, that is, to help and heal; renew and give hope. With these we make our week holy and we live a holy life,” the head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People said.

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle asked the faithful not to treat the Holy Week observance as a mere time for vacation but also as a time to get to know Jesus.

“While we also get to rest during Holy Week, I hope it will not remain merely as a break or vacation, rather a time to deeply know Jesus,” he said in his Palm Sunday homily.

“Listen to Him, allow His words, His suffering, love transform our whole being,” Tagle said.

“Let us get to know Him so we can follow Him. It won’t be easy but with God’s grace, hopefully, we will love and follow Him,” Tagle added.

Caceres Archbishop Rolando Tirona also said that when Filipinos go back to their families and friends for reunions, they should “remember in prayer and in conversion, the loving and total sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for our salvation.”

Time for spiritual renewal and national salvation.