For the sheer need to buttress his illogical position, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. recruited the Sanggunian of the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) to support his strange and politically unwise tack to kill any impeachment move against Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio for plunder, culpable violation of the Constitution, misuse of public funds, fraud and a host of other criminal acts, from fabricating names, signatures and acknowledgment receipts (ARs.)
By arguing he does not want his former Team Unity partner to face the music, he has been caught in a lie as he earlier bravely insisted he will face Sara’s threat’s head-on and his northern redoubt prepared to mobilize support for him. The tragedy here is that Marcos Jr. is openly against the people’s exercise of their sovereign right to kick out a corrupt, thieving elected official who exploited his staff to waste at least P612.5-million in purported confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs.) Now, the INC gladly joined the chorus in positing a strange argument that cannot kill factual findings, thousands of pages of testimony and a mountain of evidence that indubitably prove Sara’s criminal acts.
Marcos Jr. insisted that the impeach Sara move “would distract” both the House and the Senate from their more urgent work. He dismissed Duterte as “unimportant” and an impeachment would not help Filipinos. “So, why waste time on this?” Marcos Jr. said. “What will happen if somebody files an impeachment? It will tie down the House; it will tie down the Senate. It will just take up all our time, and for what? For nothing, for nothing. None of this will help improve a single Filipino life.” He has gotten it all wrong. Just as he got the question posed by Sarah Ferguson of Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) about the Marcos hidden wealth all wrong. There was nothing wrong about Ferguson’s plea for the restitution of the Filipino people just as there is nothing wrong about Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio reimbursing the national treasury of the billions of pesos she wasted in just two years.
Impeachment is not only about getting rid of Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio. It is about justice. It is about righting a continuing wrong. It is about respecting the rule of law, not the rule of loo and gardyloo. Marcos Jr. is clearly keen on giving a pass to his ex-partner, who has proven to be as incompetent as he is in managing the economy, preventing the peso from sinking and stopping the monthly billion-peso borrowings to pay off debts. Truly, Marcos Jr.’s raising Philippine debt to P2.423-trillion in two years is a record as bad as Duterte Sr.’s. Official figures have it that Philippine debt per capita rose from P45,652 to P138,764 in 20 years.
The impeachment move is a noble act that tests whether congressmen and senators have the spine, the backbone and even the neurons and glial cells that would compel them to ignore Marcos Jr.’s pathetic plea. It is about preventing further plunder of the people’s money by fumbling grafters. It is about mandatorily redressing the grievances of taxpayers. Marcos Jr. has no power to command complainants to stop just as King Canute had no power to command the waves not to touch his feet. Miffed by the flattery by courtiers, he blurted out: “Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but he whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws.”
The Filipino people have long been distracted by the bogus Marcos Jr. regime rhetoric about raising the country from the ashes. The country continues to burn and millions have been forced to work double-time, engage deeply in the gig economy and make the most out of a sinking economy. They are also asking why the purported landslide winners of 2022 did not lead to energizing the economy, with Marcos Jr. himself fumbling on the volumes of rice and sugar imports to the chagrin of domestic producers and the resignations of fall guys at the Department of Agriculture (DA.) Many poll reform advocates are also asking the very crucial question: From where did the 20-million or so votes that flooded the Comelec at 8:12 p.m. on May 9, 2022 come? These votes passed through a single IP address that the Comelec purportedly paid P1.2-billion for but it turned the use of the address for fraud was “pro bono.”
The INC said its members will rally across the country against the impeachment of Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio, who ironically earned the support of Marcos Jr. to end the ouster move. The last time the INC clashed with the Marcos dictatorship, tanks, armored personnel carriers (APCs) and infantry descended upon the INC Central Church and fired thousands of rounds to force its security personnel to yield. INC has always backed whoever controls political power and it has earned concessions from Malacanang, from getting INC cops to head the Quezon City police, to winning contracts for fabricating vehicle plate numbers and driver’s licenses, as well as supplying APCs. These are certainly not religious undertakings. Without its influence on the powers that be because of its bloc voting, the INC would be just another sect.
Yet, the INC has joined the political circus, with Gen Subardiaga, host of a program on the INC broadcast network, declaring “the members of the INC are preparing to hold a rally to express their support of the stance of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. against the impeachment being pushed by certain sectors because there are more pressing problems that the country is facing that should be prioritized by the government,” adding: “The INC is for peace. We oppose any form of disturbance coming from any side.” Since when has impeachment been a disturbance? Does INC also oppose the quest for justice, for the grafters to be imprisoned and pay back what they had stolen. Both Marcos Jr. and Duterte Jr. should start talking turkey and not exploit the INC and Apollo Quiboloy’s Kingdom of Jesus Christ in support of the duo’s mock wars.
