No more wars and crucifixions for suffering Filipinos
IT’S
a season for crucifixions. And they come in various forms. ***
Several penitents will have themselves crucified anew today primarily in its traditional site in Barangay San Pedro Cutud in San Fernando, Pampanga.
Reenactment of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion continue to move the nation and the world at large.
*** However, one of the men who for 36 years had been cast as Jesus in the annual re- enactment of the crucifixion has decided to move his “Calvary” from San Pedro Cutud to Itogon town in Benguet.
Change of venue for a cause, he says.
***
Bob Velez, now 76 years old, says he has decided to have his hands and feet nailed to the cross in a makeshift Calvary in Itogon, Benguet, to raise funds to build a new chapel there.
Crucifixion equals new chapel for believers.
*** Velez, who has been portraying Christ in the reenactment of the crucifixion for 36 years, will be crucified in Benguet, simultaneously with Ruben Enaje and Victor Caparas in San Fernando, Pampanga.
Traditional “Maleldo” and “pamamanata” reflecting Christ’s love for humanity and sufferings live on for Christian Filipinos.
***
Meanwhile, congressmen press for transcripts of President Aquino’s text exchanges with sacked PNP Chief Alan Purisima, before it resumes its investigation on the bloody Mamasapano raid that killed “international bomber” Marwan but cost the lives of 44 elite commandos.
Some solons want to “crucify” PNoy over Mamasapano?
*** Malacañang, which had earlier expressed President Aquino’s willingness to cooperate with the House investigation, has questioned the “repetitive” questioning by some congressmen over th Mamasapano incident.
Are they in for a ” kill” or what? Palace boys ask.
***
Speaker Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte Jr. says the House will wait for Malacañang’s submission of the transcript of text exchanges between the President and Purisima but will not compel PNoy to attend the House probe.
Let’s see how the modern Pontius Pilates behave and how PNoy handles his Calvary.
*** Noting the earlier completion and release of the Board of Inquiry ( BOI) report and the report of the Senate Committee on Public Order on the Mamasapano incident, the House leadership says the House minority bloc’s proposal to still invite PNoy appears as “mere politicking and grandstanding.”
Should we waste more time on the Mamasapano issue or move on? Papano na tayo?
***
On the Binay case, government lawyers, representing heads of agencies that defied the implementation of a Court of Appeals ( CA) temporary restraining order ( TRO) on the six- month preventive suspension of Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr., take a beating from three Court of Appeals ( CA) justices who took turns questioning them.
A legal tussle erupts and haunts us. Which is correct: TRO or temporary refusal order?
*** Mayor Binay petitions CA to cite in contempt Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, and several officers of the Philippine National Police (PNP) for defying the TRO.
Makati has two mayors and the Binays and other parties involved are having their Calvary.
***
Morales and De Lima had earlier asserted that the CA TRO had become moot and academic with the implementation of the suspension order and the takeover of Vice Mayor Romulo Peña as acting mayor of Makati City.
Political persecution and legal issue raised, money issue floated. A taste of Calvary for Pinoy. Tsktsk!
*** At the graduation rites of the Hadji Salik Kalaing National High School in Tukanalipao, Mamasapano, Maguindanao, class valedictorian NorombaiUtto, 17, cries, expressing the wish that the fighting stop and that the budget for bullets and armaments be used instead for education and development so that peace will rule in the country.
Time for our leaders from both sides to work harder. No more wars and crucifixions for Filipinos.