LIFE’S INSPIRATIONS: “… Jesus said, `If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’…” (Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, in John 8:31-32, the Holy Bible).
-ooo-
WHY DID INC PUBLICLY PROTEST AGAINST DE LIMA? Politicians who have expressed sympathy with the peaceful assemblies that the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) staged from Thursday to Monday are now being bashed by people who are clear sympathizers of the Aquino government and who, therefore, cannot be expected to be fair in their assessment of what the INC had done.
I am not a member of the INC. I am a member of a religious group that espouses a belief directly contrary to the doctrines of the INC insofar as the divinity of Jesus is concerned. But, I am a broadcaster in an INC radio station who, occasionally, picks up bits and pieces of information about what is happening.
The information I got at the height of the assemblies compelled me to ask, in my mind: why did the INC dare to publicly go against a top official of government, the very justice secretary at that, who had the power to make life very hard for anyone with criminal cases that can send people to jail while undergoing trial?
-ooo-
101 YEAR-OLD INC DID NOT PROTEST BEFORE: I was made to understand that the peaceful assemblies of the INC from Thursday (August 27, 2015) to Monday (August 31, 2015), protesting against Justice Secretary Leila De Lima, was the very first public protest that the religious organization held in its 101 years of existence.
Never in its 101-year history did the INC hold any other assemblies—nationwide in scope at that—similar to what it did in 2015. In fact, the organization is known all throughout for being ultra-conservative in expressing views about what the government is doing, shunning any public disclosure about what it thinks about goings-on in the country.
Consequently, it behooves everyone to ask: why then did the normally-placid INC suddenly find the courage and, more importantly, the necessity, of publicly contesting De Lima’s official actions involving a case for serious illegal detention which an expelled INC member filed against INC leaders?
-ooo-
WHAT INC REALLY WANTED: The undeniable fact is that the INC threw its support behind the candidacy of President Aquino in 2010, and therefore helped him to clinch the presidency. Surely, it would have been very easy for the INC to have simply worked behind the scenes, as it were, and in utmost secrecy, away from the prying eyes of anyone, to have, at the very least, asked Aquino to ensure a fair treatment by De Lima of the illegal detention case.
But the INC chose to be publicly combative about this matter, involving millions of its members, in various key cities yet of the country. The message one gets from this is that, the INC evidently felt thoroughly grieved by De Lima, and it is not really difficult to discern that this grief must have been caused by a clear perception that De Lima was not simply doing her job in the case against the INC leaders, but was doing them in, as it were, in maneuvering against them.
People can say the INC was unlawfully trying to exert pressure to compel De Lima to back down in the serious illegal detention case against its leaders. I guess they are entitled to say so, but, a more prudent appreciation of things will show that what the INC really wanted was that, the illicit maneuvers against its leaders be stopped right away.
-ooo-
PLEASE LISTEN: “Ang Tanging Daan” (The Sole Way), a Bible study and prayer session on radio, airs Mondays to Fridays, 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., at DWAD 1098 kHz on the AM band. For replays, go to www.facebook.com/angtangingdaan or www.facebook.com/ANDKNK and scroll for “Ang Tanging Daan” broadcasts. Phone: 0922 833 43 96, 0918 574 0193, 0917 984 24 68. Email: batasmauricio@yahoo.com.
