“Become a stakeholder!”

(A stakeholder is a person, group or organization, who affects or can be affected by the functioning of another organization, which in this case, is the Philippines. Our stake is the same as our continuing interest in the well-being, or the lack/absence of the same, in our country.)

            This sums up what Fr. Jojo Magadia, S.J., discoursed on as he enjoined all attendees of the First Friday Community celebration last March 2^nd at the San Carlos Layforce, to become actively involved in promoting a corruption-intolerant Philippine society and ensuring that the forthcoming national elections will turn out to be peaceful and truly produce the people’s desired results.

According to Fr. Magadia, for the Church, it is a question not only of preaching the Gospel in ever wider geographic areas or to ever greater numbers of people, but also of affecting, and as it were, upsetting, through the power of the Gospel, mankind's current criteria of judgment, determining values, points of interest, lines of thought, sources of inspiration and models of life, which are in contrast with the Word of God and the plan of salvation. 

            He added that in the social sphere, the Church has always wished to assume a double function, namely:

(1)   to enlighten minds in order to assist them to discover the truth and to find the right path to follow amid the different teachings that call for their attention; and,

(2)   to take part in action, and to spread, with a real care for service and effectiveness, the energies of the Gospel.

In more concrete terms, Fr. Magadia  is exhorting the community members to participate in discussions and look into how to help in the parish, barangay, community, and awaken the consciousness of those we can reach: at home, in the neighborhood, at work, in church groups.

Among the specific action steps he advocated include: not asking for dole-outs from the candidates; being a critical reader of news; not to participate in acts of corruption like asking for special treatment.

Instead, people should join nonpartisan citizens’ groups that intend to do poll watching and citizens’ parallel counting like the National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), Lingkod ng Bayan, or, do monitoring of election-related activities such as campaign financing, use of public funds for partisan campaigns, media exposure.

And why should all these be resorted to now by us? Fr. Magadia first cited the passage culled from Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) January 2007 letter: …“We can’t afford yet another controversial electoral exercise that will further aggravate social distrust and hopelessness”….and second, he echoed the oft-repeated saying of Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”.

Unfortunately, Fr. Magadia has observed the so-called good alternatives from among the electorate as well as candidates are very few indeed. What we have more of are strong individuals with ambitions, he pointed out, and as far as his query on “Will the political alignments really translate to party-based votes on critical policy and political issues (e.g. impeachment, cha-cha, budget allocation, human rights, graft cases)? Fr. Magadia thinks, it is not likely to happen, as he feels the divisions are temporary and tactical, bound to break up again, and regroup again along power groups determined by the interests of its central players.

There are various problems that beset us relative to this major event in Philippine history. Among the more known ones are those perennially hounding the GMA administration (e.g. legitimacy issue, scams and scandals, extra-judicial killings), the continuing Estrada presence, the rising activities of the Left, and our citizens’ growing loss of confidence in the government and cynicism about politics.

Apart from these, however, are the following equally grave causes for concern: proliferation of “gold” as money talks; the disturbing presence again of guns and goons; the non-credibility of at least half of the current members of the seven-man COMELEC; the failed non-depolitization of the Military; and, the non-full reliability of the Media.

          But perhaps even worse, Fr. Magadia implies is that we citizens in general, are not even stakeholders in our own future. The poor themselves are effectively “alipin” in their given socio-economic structure. In fact, according to Fr. John Carroll, SJ, of the Institute on Church and Social Issues, he asks this poser borne from his observations of the poor folks’ behavior: Why should the poor defend a democracy which has not done much for them? Interests among them have remained narrow and parochial; and there appears a weak sense of the public good, even lack of social consciousness.

And as for the well-to-do or better off, many did not have to work hard for their wealth and has even espoused and manifested the mentality of “grab whatever we can”, if not, sticking to the usual and seemingly practical mindset of just taking these governance-related problems in stride and “just move on” with their lives.

                Meantime, prior to the teach-in, Fr. Magadia blessed the newly-commissioned sectoral heads: Tony and Bambi Narciso (Central), and Monchet and MaryLou Albert (North). Also commissioned by Pastoral Council vice chaircouple Ed and Claire Palma were the new post-LSS graduates now integrated with the Mustard Seed BCGG currently shepherded by Pastoral Council chaircouple Philip and Malu Panlilio.

Arajr / march 16 ‘07