Days after news of Leni Robredo’s statement encouraging her kasambahay audience in a household servants’ forum to take bribe money from politicians exploded in her face, Opposition partisans continue to defend their “leader”. James Jimenez, spokesperson of the Philippines’ Commission on Elections (COMELEC) had already issued a statement on the matter confirming that vote buying is an election offense and that voters should not be offered a suggestion otherwise. Nonetheless, the desperation of the situation surrounding Robredo’s bid for the presidency is such that her supporters will go to great lengths to bend, stretch, and twist logic and reason in order to make their preferred candidate come out on the right side of their perverted sense of “morality”.
The most high-profile defense of Robredo came from Roman Catholic Archbishop Socrates Villegas who, in a video posted on Facebook, assured the Filipino faithful that they should accept bribe money from politicians “if they are hungry or in need” so long as they do not fulfil the condition of the bribe. In short, Villegas is telling Filipinos that poverty is an excuse to commit crime. As an archbishop, Villegas essentially gives the Church’s blessings to Filipinos to accept bribe money from politicians on one hand and then, on the other, states that “you are not obliged to fulfil an immoral [and/or] illegal contract”. This is in direct contradiction with a basic tenet of just about every modern liberal society on the planet; that the law applies to all — not only the rich, not only the poor but to all.
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Villegas caps his video with this astoundingly crazy bit of logic:
Choose God, not the candidate who wants to insult you by buying your vote and saying to you, “may presyo ka, alam ko kung magkano ka” (“you have a price and I know what your price is”). Isagot mo sa kanya, ang presyo ko ay ang katawan at dugo ni Kristo (“Answer that person, my price is the body and blood of Christ”). I am priceless.
It is evident that the only people really insulting Filipinos here are Leni Robredo’s supporters and none other than the country’s top Roman Catholic official. They would rather believe their own lies and the perverse logic they invoke to prop up those lies than respect their own country’s election laws. Worst of all, they are dragging into their crooked politics no less than the mighty Roman Catholic Church which, to be fair, has long been complicit in keeping Filipino minds so addled by nonsensical dogma as to be completely susceptible to their politicians’ toxic influence. Communist senatorial candidate Neri Colmenares sums up the so-called “pro-poor” philosophy that is at the core of this bizarre culture saying in a tweet (translated by this writer), “let us not pass the burden [of accountability] to the voters because, to begin with, they should not be offered money during elections.”
This habitual absolving of people of any personal accountability just because they are poor is at the root of why the Philippines remains an impoverished country today. To people like Villegas, Colmenares, and Robredo, there is always a higher power to blame for the poor fortunes of ordinary Filipinos — essentially assuring members of their flock that they are under no obligation to uphold what is right and own up to what is wrong because they are powerless in the grand scheme of things either way. This is absolute loser mentality that Filipino Opposition “thought leaders” are propagating — far worse than the “fake news” they keep screeching about (perhaps to distract us from their own idiocy).
One can only imagine the sort of messed up society the Yellowtards, the communists, and their henchmen in the Roman Catholic Church would oversee if given the reins of power. Oh wait, we’ve already seen their handiwork. It’s been on exhibit in all its prayerful glory over the three decades post-2016!
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
I’m waiting for the next speech of Leni the Pink… It is so entertaining to see their supporters including the Church scampering in trying to justify the wrong to be right. I simply can’t hold laughing at their defense. Lies is what they all are.
Just a normal day for a wacked Christian priests like Villegas. Vote buying is a religion doctrine to them.
Funny. It seems this priest has never read…
Leviticus 19:11
לא תגנבו ולא תכחשו ולא תשקרו איש בעמיתו׃
“Do not steal, do not disappoint/deceive/withhold, do not lie to each other.”
https://biblehub.com/text/leviticus/19-11.htm
Proverbs 13:5
דבר שקר ישנא צדיק ורשע יבאיש ויחפיר׃
“A righteous man hates deceit/fraud/falsehood/deception, but a wicked/guilty reeks and comes to shame.”
https://biblehub.com/text/proverbs/13-5.htm
Proverbs 20:17
ערב לאיש לחם שקר ואחר ימלא פיהו חצץ׃
“Sweet to a man is the bread of deceit/fraud/falsehood/deception, but afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.”
https://biblehub.com/text/proverbs/20-17.htm
Colossians 3:9
μὴ ψεύδεσθε εἰς ἀλλήλους, ἀπεκδυσάμενοι τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον σὺν ταῖς πράξεσιν αὐτοῦ
“Do not lie/wilfully-misrepresent to each other, having stripped-off/renounced the old man with his practices.”
https://biblehub.com/text/colossians/3-9.htm
Even commenters in the PH Daily Inquirer & PH Star have denounced it.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1508397/bishop-tells-faithful-you-can-accept-money-from-bets-but-not-bound-to-vote-for-them
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/10/30/2137747/archbishop-soc-selling-your-vote-not-sin-if
With such hypocrisy on display, it seems that the erosion of the Roman Catholic Church’s grip on the masses is even likely to worsen.
And on a(n unrelated?) note it seems that foreign competition (the Russian Orthodox Church) has smelled blood, arrived, and founded in Mindanao its 1st R.O.C. church in the PH (in nearly a century)…
https://mospat.ru/en/news/45663/
… after converting an “Aglipayan” breakaway-Catholic village,
http://phvieparchy.org/en/na-filippinah-velikim-chinom-osvyashhen-p/
and with plans on reviving a church lost to World War Ⅱ in Manila.
https://mospat.ru/en/news/46185/
And apparently, this is done by direct invitation by Pres. Duterte himself.
https://globalnation.inquirer.net/180771/duterte-to-invite-russian-orthodox-missionaries-to-ph
With planning from 2016…
https://mospat.ru/en/news/49765/
… and Russian businessmen’s funding,
https://ixtheo.de/Record/1751678407
… things could start getting interesting in the next few years, if their reportedly-significant growth continues and things go according to the R.O.C.’s plans. Who knows what this will bring?
Note: I just discovered this (and so MANY articles on the matter from Orthodox sources) just yesterday, so I guess I still have to process all this, cross-reference them with our sources, research the specifics of their teachings, and think through the potential implications of this in PH society. If anything significant comes from this, only time will tell. Hopefully (if anything), it’s for the greater good.
That idiot Villegas, should know , that religion is for the salvation of the soul; and not for politics…
It is unfortunate that this Villegas, should mind his own religion, and should not take any political side..
A, d’yan ka mali. Villegas is still in the religion business. He is not running for office, so he’s still good in so far as saving souls is concerned. : )
Villegas sure is doing a bad job at saving souls by teaching them to damn themselves by accepting bribes.
In fairness, you are right about that. However, the Bible usually serves or utilize by man as guide and not necessarily the rule to be strictly followed.
Is Villegas doing a bad job? Well, if he thinks he’s helping the poor in advising them how not to die of hunger, it’s in him. He’s responsible for his soul come judgment time. : )
He should also not give comment to something related to politics.
If the criticism and judgment comes from a society that can tolerate seeing people begging and living on the streets, then what’s the value in signaling the virtue?