SIGNS & PORTENTS

Teodoro C. Benigno's Opinion column Here's the Score seems to be predicting doom and gloom for the Philippines in stark contrast to the sunny outlook touted by current administration supporters.

Of course, everyone else seems to be in the "doom and gloom" mode given the increasing lack of faith in the current democratic institutions in this country. What's interesting is his attack on... the Catholic Church for coming out and essentially declaring the voting free of cheating even before the tallying of COCs have been completed.

In his own words,

This is a double rendering to Caesar what is due Caesar, (in this case Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo), and to God what is God’s, in this case the assembled bishops of the most numerous Church. I say the Church has ventured into slippery ground, which has to do with the constitutional separation of Church and State. I say the Church should have left FPJ alone. He should have been allowed to walk the constitutional trail without encumbrance, limp and stagger if need be in the canvassing, and collapse at the end. FPJ did not have to be told, however indirectly, he had already lost the presidential elections even before the Congressional canvassing started.

This is not fair. This is not just.

I have never been a fan or admirer of FPJ. In fact, I have often roasted him over the coals in this space as being unfit for the presidency. But as in the profession of prizefighting, he should never have been counted out while he was still standing, even if he was bloodied and broken all over. Since the Church believes in miracles, there was still the miracle Da King could recover and beat GMA by a whisker. But I suppose he was condemned to defeat from the very beginning by the Establishment. Even in cockfighting, the injured or fatally crippled cock is removed from the pit only when it is dead and cannot stir anymore.