Papal Blessing and God’s Will

Ms. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her spokespersons in Malacañang were happy to report that she was given a pat in the back by Pope Benedict XVI during her recent visit to the Vatican because of her role in repealing the death penalty.

Malacañang apparently made sure the death penalty was repealed before the scheduled presidential visit to the Vatican and other European countries, which have long been lobbying the Philippine government to abolish the death penalty.

A presidential spokesperson also reported that the Pope has given a “vote of confidence” for Ms Arroyo’s government, including the Malacañang-led drive to change the Constitution.

Still discredited as a result of the “Hello Garci” scandal, Ms. Arroyo needs all the vote of approval or diplomatic pat in the back she gets during her European state visits. These are also the breaks that Malacañang’s spin doctors can put to good use. For a presidency that suffers from a credibility crisis, all the right spin fed to media helps Ms Arroyo to stay in power. Her government standing on quicksand and not on solid rock, Ms Arroyo needs all the right spin to help her survive.

We must appreciate Ms Arroyo for helping abolish the death penalty. Every human being who values and reveres life would also pat Ms Arroyo’s back for her role in repealing the death penalty. But we must be scared by a government that cannot stop the killings of activists and journalists in the same way that we dread the killings of people by any other group, vigilante or rebel.

On Charter Change, we can cha-cha with Malacañang if we can see that we are not being taken for a ride. Those in the know have warned us that changing the constitution before the 2007 elections will create a powerful Interim Parliament composed of incumbent politicians who will decide whether the 2007 elections will be held or not. Changing the constitution according to Malacanang’s framework, we are also warned, will create a super-power President with additional Prime Minister powers, open the door for those in power to stay on indefinitely, and will weaken the Supreme Court as a check against martial law, abuse of power and violation of human rights.

If anything, Ms Arroyo and her spin doctors were able to divert public attention from the “Hello Garci” fiasco to the cha-cha debate. Their line: this country cannot move forward because of a defective constitution. Ergo, change the Constitution and lo and behold a paradise.

So it is important for Malacanang’s spokespersons to tell us that the Pope has given a vote of confidence for Ms Arroyo’s political reforms via Charter-change. Ms Arroyo needs all the papal blessing to help her push what’s on her agenda. She needs the Pope’s pat in the back to also bolster her claim that it was God’s will for her to be the country’s president. She had said that it was God’s will for her to rule the country, remember?

The problem was that earlier in December 2002, she swore before the statue of Rizal below the Baguio City Hall that it was God’s will for her not to run for president for the sake of the country’s unity. That earlier decision should have been the more correct move and the real will of God. But like an unpredictable twist in a story of fiction or an unpredictable weather as a result of global warming, God’s will also changes, at least according to Ms Arroyo.