Image from the National Council of churches of the Philippines page
A RECURRENT evil. Aye, make that the eternal scourge of the Filipino nation.
Rushing to fill up this
issue’s Page 4, I rummaged through nearly forgotten stories that would still
find some relevance in these times of plunderous misgovernance. And voila, this
from Sept. 23, 2013 ringing timelessness in its truth. Especially viewed from
the INC spectacle just past.
PORK IS evil.
So spake retired Chief
Justice Reynato Puno at a gathering of Methodist churches at the Good Samaritan
Church in Quezon City last week.
“The pork barrel is an
evil practice and it is our duty to fight evil by engaging it and not running
away from it, not escaping from it,” he declared. “The fight against evil
requires that we not only start the fight but we finish the fight. The fight against
evil demands a period. The fight cannot be postponed by a comma, cannot be
suspended by a ceasefire. Evil deserves but one end—defeat.”
No war of attrition there
but the war to end all wars.
As well addressing all men
of faith, the esteemed magistrate said: “In sum, the Methodist position in
regard to abuse of governmental power is clear, unchanging and unchangeable.
Our North Star has always been and will always be the Word of God. We maintain
that government derives its power from God; that it is the sovereignty of God
that counts, it is the sovereignty of God that controls, it’s the sovereignty
of God that should dictate the direction of human destiny.”
So sadly, some divine
attribute arrogated unto themselves by those in government, thus: “However you
look at it, the pork barrel scandal is all about abuse in the exercise of the
powers of government, especially the legislative power over the money of the
people.”
Indeed, “the only
rationale of the government is to maintain order by promoting good and not
evil, and above all, the government must be an instrument of God, hence no
government can subvert the sovereignty of God.”
Indeed, government – at
least in the case of the pork barrel scam – did just that.
The evil of “mass theft”
of the people’s money compounded and complexed by how it was “misused against
the people’s interest.”
“It was misused for
political patronage; to buy the loyalty of people whose politics is for sale;
to corrupt our system of making laws; to corrupt our systems of enforcing our
laws; to corrupt our system of election; to perpetuate poverty; in other words,
to violate the dignity of our people, to demean our democracy, and worse of
all, to defy the sovereignty of God.”
Drawing the lines of
battle thus, “between God’s power and evil people in power.” Verily, the final
conflict, Armageddon itself, to be waged there.
Pork is an abomination.
Haram, as the Qur’an proscribes -- "Forbidden
to you (for food) are: dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine, and that on which
hath been invoked the name of other than Allah." [Al-Qur’an 5:3].
In the Old Testament too
-- "And the swine, though he divideth the hoof, and be cloven footed,
yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you. Of their flesh shall ye not
eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch, they are unclean to you."
[Leviticus 11:7-8]. The same phrase in Deuteronomy 14:8 reverberating.
As well as – and more
terrifying – in the New – “And there was a good way off from them a herd of
many swine feeding. So, the devils besought him, saying,
If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And
he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of
swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place
into the sea, and perished in the waters.” [Matthew 9:30-32, King James
Version].
And so, the devils went into the congressional pork, and, behold, the whole
House of Congress rocked violently and now lies precipitously on a steep cliff,
teetering to fall into the sea of rage of a people wronged, and to
perish…
Pork is damnation.
In both its scriptural and
political sense. Woe unto you, pork scammers. Hell has a special place for you.
Abolish pork. Be saved.
Duh?
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