Of Means, Ends, and Divine Intervention

Issue 5 A.Y. 1112

"We assure you that the bishops concerned are ready to accept responsibility for their action and to face the consequences if it would be proven unlawful, anomalous, and unconstitutional. We assure you that their action was done without malice. Out of their sincere desire to help their people, they failed to consider the pitfalls to which these grants could possibly lead them. They have also expressed their readiness to do everything that is necessary to heal this wound so that we can all move forward in hope." - "A time of pain, a time of grace (A Pastoral Statement)" by NEREO P. ODCHIMAR, D.D., President, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, July 11, 2011

Most bibliophiles I know wouldn't admit to being a Dan Brown fan in public for fear of figurative flogging, but I am not ashamed to say that Angels and Demons is one of my favorite books. What Angels and Demons gives its audience is not just shock, but sacrilegious shock. A tale where the holiest of people do the unholiest of things to "urge their followers to turn back towards the light" is scandalous at best and deeply frightening at worst; imagine Saint Teresa possessed by Niccolò Machiavelli.

Stories like this play on the level of trust we ascribe to our religious leaders. This trust has been drilled into our brains by parents and grandparents, by years of socialization, by participation in our own religious communities, and for some of us, by Catholic Schools. Suggesting that they can be capable of something other than the true, the good, and the beautiful is not only difficult to accept, it goes against the very rules of the game we have grown up with. It is this complicated negotiation of meaning that the recent issue on the "Pajero Bishops" forced us to deal with.

Here are the seven names: Bontoc-Lagawe Bishop Rodolfo Beltran, Bangued-Abra Bishop Leopoldo Jaucian, Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, Basilan Bishop Martin Jumoad, Zamboanga Bishop Romulo Valles, Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos, and Ilocos Sur Bishop Ernesto Salgado. They were proven to have received seven million pesos from the PCSO during the Arroyo Administration. The money was used to buy “utility vehicles,” which were allegedly used to service the poor in their provinces. When the so-called PCSO Scandal broke out, they returned the vehicles. Last Thursday, the bishops were cleared of any and all responsibility, after which they asked current PCSO Chair Margarita Juico to resign for divulging the story to the media “without accuracy” and “inciting malice where there was none.” Article VI, Section 29, Paragraph 2 of the Philippine Constitution of 1987 will hold up, but against PCSO and not the bishops.

But then, as the Church has always reminded us, moral laws should always be in consideration. And in that context the true mistake of the seven bishops is much like Machiavelli's: they failed to see the real relationship between means and ends. Machiavelli believed that any and all means are acceptable as long as the desired end is realized. But reality is more complex than that, and we must not forget that ends are shaped by the means employed to achieve them. They claim that they used the funds to help the poor of their communities, but that is beside the point. The more important question is, at what cost? Did it buy their silence, their cooperation, their support? We can only speculate, but we have all lived long enough to know that money always comes with strings.

The senate has allowed this to pass, and pass quietly as so much has before it.  “Why concentrate on the P7 million given to the bishops when there are billions that were apparently abused or wasted? Why are we being led down this path? Who is manipulating the scenarios?” asks Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago. Let the men of God go with not even a slap on the wrist, there is no legal case, and there are more expensive fish to fry. What's seven million after all? Like Pajeros, Monteros, Stradas and Crosswinds, justice and time also have price tags.

Are the seven Bishops truly blameless? Can we take them at their word that the cars had nothing to do with exchanged favors? The affairs of these men of God are not divorced from politics, especially not here and not today. It would be more convenient to absolve them in all senses, and to humor them in their demands for Juico’s resignation. But we must continue to pursue this issue, debate upon it, understand its social implications, not because we want to "launch an anti-Catholic Church Campaign" but because we must learn to speak out against blatantly wrong methods. Ultimately, the means shape the quality of the end result, and unless we speak out, and do so soon, the only thing that will be able to lift our country out of its current predicament is divine intervention.

 - Mary Roseann Ramirez, 09A

* Notice to readers: The views expressed in the Weekly Perspective do not necessarily reflect those of the Academic Committee or UP POLITICA.