Priests, nuns told: Be prudent in choosing advocacy
By Bernadette Parco
Cebu Daily News
First Posted 09:47:00 03/23/2008
Prayers, discernment and prudence are what priests and nuns need before choosing the advocacy they plan to pursue, said the head of a Church-based anti-corruption group.
“Good intentions are not enough. We have to be judicious, we have to be prudent, sober, balanced, we have to check our sources,” said Fr. Carmelo Diola, Dilaab Foundation's overall coordinating steward.
He issued the statement when asked for a reaction on the controversy surrounding the allegations that Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal had banned priests from saying Mass for Senate star witness Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. last week.
Lozada was accompanied by religious nuns with one of whom alleged that the Archbishop had directed priests not to say Mass for them.
“We have to be careful about our own ego, because they can get the better of us. So, it can blind us to the truth,” Diola told Cebu Daily News on Friday after celebrating the commemoration of the Lord's Passion with Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal and eight other priests at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral.
“We need more prayer, we need to get our best selves here,” he added.
Fr. Diola remained optimistic that despite the controversy, the advocacy against graft and corruption remains intact.
“We made it very clear, it's the principle that we are supporting. The issue really is creating a graft and corruption resistant and intolerant society,” he said.
He also assured that Dilaab, which is composed of three groups that pursue different advocacies, namely: Friends of Pedro, an advocacy outreach group that caters to OFWs and their families, Kamatuoran, which campaigns against “narcopolitics” and Barug Pilipino, which works against graft and corruption.
“Regardless whether there is Jun Lozada or not, we will continue anti-graft and corruption advocacy. I believe something good will come out of this because this is some wave of purification for those involved,” he said.
Diola was referring to the whistle-blowers and those who work to support them.
“Purification has to do with purifying one's motivation. What are they really about? Validation is of course, is there a pattern that is emerging, are they consistent? Those are the things that we look at,” he said.
ACTIVITIES
Dilaab would also focus its sights on monitoring the progress of graft cases that are filed at the Office of the Ombudsman than just watching Senate hearings that are conducted to aid legislators in formulating or amending laws.
“More importantly, (we will be monitoring) what the ombudsman is doing about it rather than the Senate,” said Diola who lamented the slow progress of the cases in the Visayas particularly in Cebu.
“(The Office of the Ombudsman is) over-centralized and as far as I’m concerned, the Ombudsman in Manila, she will have to prove that she is worthy of our trust,” he said, referring to Merceditas Gutierrez.
Gutierrez, according to Diola, will be judged by how fast she works on the cases and how she handles them.
“The Girl Scout scam has been there (for some time),” he said.
Diola is referring to the case wherein funds for the Girl Scout of the Philippines were deposited in the account of former Congresswoman Clavel Martinez which is pending in the Ombudsman’s office in Manila.
“Right now she (Gutierrez) is on probation, as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
In the meantime, Dilaab is pursuing its present activities.
“We need to wake up people. We need to get the silent majority to be awakened. And so our Heroic leadership and citizenship is in full blast. We went to Mindanao, we are being invited to La Union,” Diola said.
The group is encouraging people to recite the “Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus” daily at 9 a.m. The prayer has been adopted as the Oratio Imperata by Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal and is being recited after every Mass.
The group also launched its signature campaign drive last month, demanding from the government “the whole truth about the ZTE case based on the testimony of Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. and other whistle-blowers and those found guilty be prosecuted.”
The campaign also sought for the “timely, clear and just resolution of high profile case,” including the North Rail project, extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances, the overpriced ASEAN lampposts, the Girl Scout scam, pseudoephedrine and shabu laboratories, vigilante killings, overpriced computers and rampant car smuggling.
Copies of the signatures were sent to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Senate President Manuel Villar, Speaker of the House Prospero Nograles, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez and the Presidential Anti-Graft and Corruption
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