Bacolod diocese did not fail

Fr. Eddie Panlilio's election as Pampanga governor was called an indication of the Church's failure to empower the Kapangpangan laity.

That was said by Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez of Marbel, Cotabato, who also expressed his admiration of Panlilio's spirit of sacrifice.

The Marbel bishop cited Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Due Caritas Est (God is Love) which noted that a "just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the Church."

While the Marbel bishop paid tribute to his flock who are ready to die for their faith, he may have overlooked what is happening in many parts of the country today where the "empowered laity" have become the scandal of Philippine politics.

Not so in the case of Negros Occidental and the Bacolod Diocese. Here, despite the mudslinging and the muckracking that marred the electoral campaign, at least there was no major bloodshed.

In many other areas, though, the politicians themselves became the sacrificial victims of assassins.

Aside from that, in Bacolod, at least, there was Andy Hagad, who ran as independent and an alternative candidate for congressman. So with Lyndon Caña, who proved a credible independent candidate for the vice mayorship.

Two other independent candidates for the city council - Jocelle Batapa-Sigue and Celia Flor - managed to join the winners for the Sangguniang Panglungsod.

And the fact that Negrenses freely voted for their senatorial candidates shows that Negrenses voters had grown into mature persons. Not, of course, all of them.

There were still too many talks about vote-buying and reports of leaders who sold their following and their followers who also allowed the conversion of their votes for some of the candidates into cash under the pretext of 'kinawala'.

Still, by and large, the balloting here was conducted without violence. There were some pressures, but these proved futile in forcing people to toe the line of the leaders.

Now that we are celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of the Bacolod Diocese, this should provide us - both the clergy and the laity - to reinforce our effort to educate our voters on how to exercise their right to vote and to assess carefully their future candidates.

Church officials should provide moral guidance to the laity. And those who are matured in the faith among us, should help lead the people by example.

The process will be long and hard. Maturity is not magic. People undergo lengthy exposure and education on how they should exercise their discernment and judgment.

Correspondingly, we must be able to stress upon everyone that "being poor does not mean that one can overcome poverty by selling one's votes."

While we have joined the chorus about the relatively peaceful and orderly election, it seems that the outcome indicate that we are in for examination of conscience over what has happened all over.

Right now, we have many scandalous and doubtful results, especially that one of Maguindanao. And Lanao del Sur. And in many other areas where the lust for power had resulted in bloodshed.

Sometimes, one finds it more fruitful that the hired guns had gone for the officials or candidates themselves instead of just leaders and followers. Still, that does not solve the problem. It only exacerbates that violence could lead to clan wars.

But a reading of what happened is that this was an election that projected to the fore that the patience of the Filipino electorate can not be controlled or capped. The fact of the GO smashing win (long predicted but denied by the administration) and the victory of 1st Lt. Trillanes prove beyond reasonable doubt that the people have become skeptical about the human rights stance of the administration.

It is best that our political leaders take a long and serious look at the election results and find out how they have fared and try to mend the mistakes that led to the present situation. Denial can prove fatal. And it can explode into something more dramatic in 2010.*

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