The Call for Moral Renewal

I would like to begin the year for this blog by talking about the call for moral renewal issued by the esteemed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Reynato Puno. Specifically, this was my reaction to an earlier post in my alma mater's yahoogroup (former students of Divine Word college of San Jose) on the same topic.

This is what the original post written by besprenjames said:

From: besprenjames
Subject: DWCsjom Morality Issue
To: dwcsjom@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, January 17, 2009, 9:50 AM

Chief Justice Reynato Puno is talking now moral regeneration,
after someone leaked a document about an electoral issue,
stirring for his ouster through impeachment.

The problem with morality is that it is subjective. What is
moral to a group could be immoral to another sector. What
an impressionist classic painting for Jawo could be porno to
the eyes of Jowa. It is immoral by larger segment to drink
wine, but for the Germans and look-at-me, drinking wine
relaxes reflexes and can induce literati juice. Iglesia ni
Cristo, vampires, and the aswangs hate the cross, but the
Catholics use it, sign themselves with it, at every moment
of low-bat.

What is actually Filipino brand of morality ? Well,
morality changes color at the knock of compromise. Let me
tell a parable:

There is an earthworm looking to the sky where a bird is
gliding gracefully. The earthworm wished: "If I have that
wings, I can be happy and free up to high heavens."

Up in the sky, the bird saw the earthworm, and decided to
approach the latter.

The bird said: "I am hungry and hunting for lunch."

The earthworm answered: "I wish to have wings like you."

Being with different intention, the two decided to compromise,
find the acceptable half way.

In the end, the bird has its lunch and the earthworm is
inside a body with wings.

And this was my reply:

This post by Mr. James or besprenjames---who has a predilection for starting several threads of discussion in this group at a single time that I am tempted to appeal for some moderation---deserves more than a passing thought. He attempted to use the current issue on the call for "moral regeneration" by the current Chief Justice as a springboard of discussion, flippantly dismisses the same by saying morality is subjective, and goes on to relate a "parable" that made me wonder whether it is still related to his main topic of morality or he has wandered off to another topic (for instance, the Filipino's apparent knack for compromise.)

As an aside: I have to say that drinking wine was never considered an immoral issue unless you were in the US during the time of the Prohibition; in which case the morality issue stems more from flouting the law, not on the mere act itself (unless the moralists could overturn the events of the Miracle at the wedding in Cana first). And although I can't speak in behalf of aswangs and vampires, I wouldn't be so quick to conclude that our Iglesia ni Cristo brethrens actually "hate the cross". It's just that they regard the holy Cross not in the same manner we Catholics do. Also, I have to point out that when you say Catholics "sign themselves with a cross" it comes across(no pun intended) as Catholics signing their names with a mark of the cross---in which case that only happens in two instances:when one is a prelate or a priest or when one is dead(in which case, somebody has to sign for you, of course). A better turn of the phrase to avoid confusion therefore is "making the Sign of the Cross". But I quibble.

Now the main issue is the call for Moral regeneration by the Chief Justice. I am no particular fan of Chief Justice Puno but he has earned my utmost respect for leading an independent Supreme Court under his stewardship. Aside from the Church, he is in the best position to call for such a campaign, having an untarnished reputation. Here is a decent man, having no ulterior motives sounding the alarm for the rest of us. Joe de Venecia may have called for the same a few months back but the people naturally did not listen. They know he's as rotten as the rest of them. Also, it is quite unfair to say that CJ Puno only gave this call after he was besieged by the electoral issue since he was essentially saying the same in many of his previous speeches(for instance when he called for a human rights convention that eventually led to the decision for the issuance of the Writ of Amparo).

Impeachment is an extraordinary means to remove a constitutionally-protected public officer. It is the people's last resort against flagrant abuse of public office. What's particularly galling about this rumored impeachment call by former Congressman Paras, a stooge and the usual attack dogs of GMA in Congress is that Puno's supposedly heinous "crime" is just sitting on an unpromulgated Supreme Court decision on the citizenship of Paras' erstwhile political nemesis. It's a flimsy excuse for such an extraordinary constitutional measure as impeachment. More likely it is designed to ensure a favorable decision from a Puno-less Supreme Court on the the proposed cha-cha to extend the terms of the sitting officials as some pundits contend.

And to think that just months before, these same benighted Congressmen junked another impeachment complaint aganst GMA whose supposed crimes against public office run the gamut from the Hello, Garci scandal, to the ZTE scam, the Fertilizer fund scam, the forced disappearances and summary executions of journalists and dissidents, etc. It certainly helped that GMA has the power of the purse to entice Congressmen to look the other way.

But what are we teaching the next generation of children here? That a man who pilfers telephone cables can rot in jail but those who are convicted plunderers like Erap get pardoned; or in the case of Imelda, gets a government contract to have sharing of the loot? PDEA's Marcelino sounds the alarm that bribery maybe afoot in the DOJ, and our DOJ Secretary gets to question the constitutionality of Marcelino assuming his position as PDEA chief, thus jeopardizing all other drug cases filed by PDEA? How did we, as a nation, come to this pass?

I think Chief Justice Puno is challenging us to be ever more vigilant. We must guard against abuses of power by public officials. We need to maintain the integrity of our Courts. We need to re-assert our age-old values...well, despite having to live under the increasing amoral administration of the current illegitimate president.

Yes, what is 'art' to Jawo may be 'porno' to Jowa, but we are not talking about art or aesthetics here. The concept of morality may be culturally and temporally-bound but change does not happen overnight or as the writer puts it "changes color at the knock of compromise". You see, the "morality" CJ Puno was talking about is entirely different from the nebulous morality of what self-appointed moralist of art and literature the writer may be talking about. To refer to such "morality" after using the call of Puno as springboard is intellectually misleading and dishonest. And to dismiss the talk of morality on the account that it is subjective is missing the point entirely.

As far as I know: I was taught by my parents (not to mention my teachers at DWC) that CHEATING IS WRONG, so when I hear that the sitting president may have influenced an election commisioner to make her win by a margin of 1 million votes, I am certain that that is morally wrong. I can't compromise on that. I was taught that LYING IS WRONG so when the sitting president tries to deny knowledge of the ZTE scam and later admits flying in the middle of the night to sign the ZTE agreement, then I know she was dishonest. I was taught that KILLING YOUR NEIGHBOR IS WRONG so when I hear about journalists being killed I know that is wrong and that any government that ostensibly permits the same is wrong. No compromises. When somebody like Chief Justice Puno calls for the moral renewal: he was certainly not talking about our taste in art. He was talking about our values as a society living in this day and age.

And come to think of it, those were the same values Moses advocated when he came down from the mountain.


To know more about the facts of the Puno impeachment issue I suggest you follow this link:

http://newsbreak.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5764&Itemid=88889051