The deadening silence of the church, the press and NGOs

A child allegedly died in the hands of the police. Everyone has said his piece. The Church is silent. In the face of so many burning issues in our society today, why is the Church mysteriously silent? Is it the new thrust of the Church leaders today to leave the government alone to resolve the many problems of the times? Given the many allegations of extra-judicial killings and summary executions, is the silence of the Church to be understood as a tacit approval of the government’s explicit and implicit policies. I recall with some nostalgia the bold and determined stand of the Church during the later years of martial rule. Under the leadership of the late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, the Catholic Church came up with apostolic letters read every Sunday during masses, stating very clearly that the Church denounced abuses by the military and the police. The EDSA revolution was in fact a Church-sponsored people power uprising that overthrow a dictator’s government.

We are not saying that the events today approximate the events under Martial Law. Far from it. We are only saying that there are very urgent and important issues which should lead the Church to stand up and let its voice be heard. If the Church believes that the government is right, then let the Church say its piece. Let the Church denounce the pernicious effects of drugs and let the Church leaders offer an alternative approach to the drug problem.

What is the stand of the Church on the scandals and alleged corruptions in the Bureau of Customs? What is the position of the Church concerning the many revelations against the COMELEC Chairman? How does the Church stand on the issue of illegal mining and the perennial denudation of our forests and the endless marginalization of the lumads who are deprived of their ancestral lands?

And how about the press and the mass media? Is there a conspiracy of silence? During the darkest days of martial rule, it was only one or two broadsheets and a few radio stations that stood courageously and exposed all the abuses and malpractices of the government against the people. In no time at all, the progressive sectors started to organize, including the students, the youth, the urban poor and the peasants, the landless tenants and the fisher folks. The only problem was that these groups that stood against the regime were all branded as communists. Many of them were arrested and tortured in detention centers. Others were raped and abused and still others had gone missing. Until now many of them have not been accounted for.

And so, today, the Church should wake up and define its own position on the burning issues. The Church need not fight the president much less take a belligerent position. The people are waiting for the Church leaders to seek an audience with the president and lay down their statement of concern, if any, as well as present their proposals to help the administration confront the drug menace.