Pray for 'wounded country'

Filipinos must unite to prod national leadership to address longstanding poverty and inspire hope and optimism.

By Ernesto M. Hilario
Manila:  Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo delivered a timely message to the thousands of people who gathered inside Manila Cathedral to look upon and touch the glass-encased preserved heart of Padre Pio, one of Catholicism's most popular saints.

In his homily, Bishop Pabillo urged worshipers to pray not just to ask for personal favors — good health for them and their loved ones, for instance, or help in surmounting life's difficulties — but also to seek divine intervention to heal a "wounded country."

He pointed out that if they see themselves as battered and wounded, this is precisely the same situation now faced by the Philippines.

"There are so many problems," according to the bishop. "Let us also pray for our nation. That we be helped by Padre Pio's intercession and make us live a life of holiness, especially our leaders," he added.

The prelate asked people to reach out to St. Padre Pio not just as individuals, but as "Filipinos who are truly compassionate for the nation."

"Let us ask for the renewal for our nation — that the Philippines become a light in this part of Asia," he concluded.

The bishop is on the right track in calling on Catholics to storm the heavens with prayer so that the Philippines can find deliverance from the darkness it is now in from a deadly combination of misdirected political moves and economic missteps.

The rising death toll in the government's war on illegal drugs has raised questions about its commitment to due process and the rule of law.

While the Philippine National Police puts the number of suspected drug dealers killed in legitimate operations at less than 5,000 since July 2016, human rights groups insist that as many as 20,000 have been slain in extra-judicial killings or summary executions by suspected vigilantes.

The deadly war on drugs has taken place amid a brazen attempt by the government to put in jail or to oust from office those it deems critical of its policies.

Senator Leila de Lima has been held in jail for more than a year now on charges of conspiracy to traffic in illegal drugs on the basis of testimonies by convicted criminals.

Another sitting senator, Antonio Trillanes IV, now faces the unwelcome prospect of returning to jail because his amnesty papers for rebellion and coup d'etat are nowhere to be found in the Department of National Defense.

Trillanes insists that he filed an amnesty application in 2011, which was granted by then president, Benigno Aquino.

The Duterte administration has already passed a new law that would give genuine autonomy to Muslim Mindanao, thus ending a separatist war that has claimed thousands of lives since the 1970s. But the threat of terrorism remains, with at least three Islamic State-linked groups possibly capable of launching another conflict similar to what happened in the city of Marawi from May to November 2017.

Then there's the longstanding problem of corruption that has bedeviled every administration up to now. While pervasive corruption has prompted Duterte to sack a number of his appointees, the World Bank estimates that no less than a fourth of the annual national budget goes into private pockets instead of to vital infrastructure and social development programs.

The economic situation leaves much to be desired. Filipinos were reeling from a ten-year inflation high of 6.7 percent in September that one lawmaker feared could send more than two million Filipinos to the brink of poverty.

The Duterte administration targets a significant reduction in poverty levels by the end of its term in 2022. This presupposes continuing annual gross domestic product (GDP) of between 7-8 percent per year. But with the high inflation rate today, this appears to be an unattainable target.

What a "wounded country" torn apart by divisive politics and economic uncertainty perhaps needs at this point, apart from prayers, is to forge a strong unity among the basic sectors to prod the national leadership to address longstanding poverty and thus inspire hope and optimism for the future among Filipinos.

Ernesto M. Hilario writes on political and social justice issues for various publications in the Philippines.

Source: UCAN