Beating the Sadducees

In today’s gospel reading, the Sadducees, who did not believe in the afterlife, try to refute Jesus’ teaching on the resurrection by showing the absurd consequence that follows from upholding this belief.

Raising a hypothetical case of a woman who became the serial wife of seven brothers, they pose this dilemma to Jesus: If there is a resurrection, either God will allow the woman to have seven husbands in heaven, or make her choose one husband at the expense of the other six. In either case, God will be violating the Jewish law on marriage.

By putting Jesus in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” position, the Sadducees expect Him to say something that will discredit His teachings. But Jesus wisely avoids falling into their trap. He neatly dismantles their logic by dismissing the serial wife dilemma as nothing more than a “bogey case” — something that does not and would never exist. So, there is no need to rebut it.

The picture of Jesus being pushed in a corner reminds me of Vice President Leni Robredo’s situation when she was offered the position of co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD).

I might be wrong, but I feel that those who masterminded the presidential offer, just like the Sadducees,cunningly maneuvered Robredo into a dilemma: if she accepts, she is doomed to fail, considering her lack of thorough familiarity with the strategies involved in stopping the drug trade; but if she refuses, public derision awaits her, for it means that she does not walk her talk, and her criticisms of the current drug war are but malicious attempts to destroy the President’s credibility.

In the same way that Jesus sidestepped the Sadducees’ serial wife hypothesis, Robredo dismissed those worst-case scenarios as a bogey case that need not and will not happen. Then she presented this best-case scenario: With her at the helm of the drug war, the measure of success will no longer be the body count, but the number of lives improved. Also, with her appointment, she ceases to be a glitch in the drug war’s radar, but a looming presence offering a way of doing things that is “evidence-based, and always within the bounds of law.”

A little reality check, though. As she rolls up her sleeve to start cleaning the mess, those she will work with are not like the Sadducees who retreated from the fight when their arguments had been refuted. She has to contend with a close-knit clique composed of like-minded people who, when their private interests are challenged or criticized, often resort to something worse than threats, intimidation, and legitimation — not to mention the army of boisterous online trolls who are set to pounce on every pronouncements and decisions that she will make.

Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya gives Robredo a glimmer of hope when he said that the DILG will not allow her to fail as it is a “mutual, beneficial campaign” against illegal drugs.He further declared: “If the vice president fails, the entire campaign fails. So the government will not allow her to fail.”

But the proof of good intention is the willingness to put oneself out for it. Do government agencies involved in the ICAD think like Malaya? In Mexico, despite massive US financial aid to defeat the powerful cartels, the country remains a haven for illegal drugs. One government insider explains why: “The government can’t win the drug war because it doesn’t want to. It has become simply too lucrative for government personnel who are complicit with drug traffickers.”

Let us sincerely pray for the safety and success of Robredo. God forbid that she end up as another casualty in the drug war.