An open letter to Joc-Joc Bolante
October 24, 2008
Dear Joc-Joc,
Allow me to call you Joc-Joc as you have been known in the media and by many Filipinos too. As of this morning of the 24th of October, 2008, news about your lawyer petitioning the Supreme Court to issue a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the implementation of the arrest warrant issued by the Senate upon your arrival, hugs the headline of the major dailies together with the radio and TV news broadcast. The whole country seems to be anxiously awaiting your return, I am sure your family is also eager to see you back as well.
It is about your family that I am writing you about, because of what my own family went through when I was in a similar situation that you are in now. Being a father myself, I know that the welfare and safety of your family is your foremost concern in the middle of all the controversy and the uncertainty that you are facing.
There is so much fear right now that pervades your life along with your loved ones. Questions such as: how safe are you in Manila? Is there a possibility that someone may attempt to harm you or your family? How are the people that you are covering for, going to help you? How are you going to answer questions from media? How can the people you are covering be trusted with their dilatory tactics to get you off the hook, away from the prying questions of the opposition senators?
We get caught up in all of these questions of “us versus them” way of thinking, that we almost forget to ask the right questions anymore–
right questions such as: how are my children hurt with the truth that I am generally perceived as a corrupt criminal by the Filipino nation? How are my children going to explain my involvement in this fertilizer scam to their friends? How is my wife going to face our friends and still be seen as a person with integrity? What legacy am I leaving my children? Is leaving them with millions of money and big houses in Ayala Alabang better than leaving them with a good name?
I am sharing these with you, because if there is one thing that I did regret in telling the truth about how this Arroyo administration has been stealing from the very people it is supposed to serve, it is that I was not able to prepare my wife and my children well enough against the backlash of this government’s wrath against me for telling the people about their crimes. You still have time to discern your next move, whether or not you are going to tell the people the truth about the fertilizer scam or bring the secret to your grave, just like Romy Neri. As a father, I am asking you to please think about your children, please consider the legacy you are going to leave to them. Are you going to forever leave them as pariahs branded as children of a thief–or as children of someone who did wrong and yet chose to serve his country at the end, rather than to be a captive forever of the dark forces he used to serve? And please prepare your family whatever way you may wish to choose. Discuss this together with them because at the end of it all, they will suffer or be affected more as a consequence of your decision.
Secondly as a fellow Rotarian, how about asking the Four Way test as part of your discernment process? Is it the Truth? Is it fair to everyone concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendship? Will it be beneficial to everyone concerned? You have been a good Rotarian for many good years of your life. Will you now turn your back on these ideals in the biggest test of your Rotarian values?
Lastly, let me share with you one of the most profound lessons I have learned in my own journey towards the truth, a truth not as a goal to be reached but rather as a way of life to be lived. I have found that the opposite of all the fears I am confronted with is not courage but faith. It is faith in a God who said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”, a just God who will judge us not in terms of the wealth we have on earth but in terms of what we did to our fellow human beings. It is my faith in this God that allowed me to face all the fears that I am confronted with when I decided to tell the truth that I know about the NBN-ZTE scam. May you find the faith to lead you to the Light of God’s love that no darkness can ever defeat, not even a President of the Republic of the Philippines.
May God bless you with the wisdom to choose your path.
Jun Lozada
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In-house corruption and apathy; mortal cure
Archbishop Oscar Cruz said, “When a government is corrupt from top to bottom; when an administration is deceitful left and right; and when a national leadership is questionable in legitimacy, integrity and competency, there would be nothing more desirable and agreeable to these mighty and influential ones than to have a constituency basically composed of blind, deaf and dumb citizens with the added social liability of apathy and indifference, fear and fright.” We agree with this statement, but he might just as well be describing CBCP as typical of the kind of constituency he describes. The lack of support from the main body itself spells certain death for the drastic moves he, along with a handful of fellow-mavericks, espouses. If they can convince the majority of their kind they might succeed with their followers.
Paradoxically enough, the Church has always acted as the most powerful vanguard of the evil regime, wittingly or unwittingly. When the Hello Garci tapes issue was hottest CBCP called for communal action, instead of joining the ranks. Widely viewed as a timid and dubious stand, it served to muffle burning passions by absorbing some of the heat, until the furor died a natural death. Again, when the ZTE-NBN controversy elicited an obvious rage for action, the bishops created a diversion: an endless search for the truth that is already obvious to everybody, except those who chose to be blind, deaf and dumb. Now the renegade handful joins other groups to create a repeat of Jun Lozada out of Joc-joc Bolante. Perhaps they enjoy an endless drama or misery. Fr. Robert Reyes himself suggested that corruption is not the sole prerogative of Gloria and the laity. Include masochism.
Instead of galvanizing them towards another EDSA, failed expectations on Church-led EDSA 1 and 2 kept people glued to their seats. Since only the faces of the oppressors changed, not the plight of the poor who made up the bulwark of the movement, a hurting question prevailed, “For whom shall we fill up the streets this time?” Indeed, with what do the leaders propose to change this evil government? Chaos, confusion, or bloodshed is suggested. Besides, what can we expect of a people who had been reduced to the ignominy of stray dogs that are concerned only with finding relief from a gnawing hunger? Hordes of human scavengers has spilled out into towns and cities, a phenomenon that passed unnoticed by a Church that is exceedingly obsessed with a fight against the RH bill as though it is the greatest enemy of all.
Belive it or not, we see the call of CBCP for communal action as God-inspired. Faced with so much divisiveness, it seemed to us as the best course of action as opposed to rages that die down as soon as the immediate goal is attained as in the case of EDSA 1 & 2. Indeed, if we must make a change, it’s only logical and sensible to first agree on what we want. We therefore, somehow, expected to see CBCP lead the search. We expected teach-ins, workshops, debates, etc. under the guidance of Church leaders until some kind of consensus is reached.
Alas, we never saw even a serious head start. Apparently the bishops chose to put asunder something which God has inspired. We did not. Most writers focused on the ills of the country: Gloria, corruption and hunger. Only federalists found the real culprit: a set-up that allowed a handful of men and women to rule our lives as it tie down the hands of officials throughout the country who wanted to contribute to the task of improving our lives. They correctly pointed out that unless this flaw is corrected, no change in leadership in any form shall bring any relief. Unfortunately, they prescribed a pseudo medicine that is more destructive than cyclone Gloria herself: federalism. At the helm of a deadly communal action is the author of the flawed set-up. Absence of good is evil.
…hay naku nnakakatawa si j.j.bolate!este,bolante pala.halatang may itinatago!parng joke-joke lang po ung mga sinsabi nya.nakita ko po kayo sa tv.parang nakapanuod ng crazy na comedy.ano kaya ang susanod na kalokahan ng bidan si joc-joc bolante?ABANGAN!@…hahaha!