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December 6, 2000, The Philippine Star, God gave Estrada to Filipinos, by Jess Diaz,
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December 6, 2000, The Philippine Star, God gave Estrada to Filipinos, by Jess Diaz,
Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin should hear what a pro-administration congressman said yesterday: It was God who gave us President Estrada.
In a privilege speech entitled "A Discernment into the Crisis," Deputy Speaker Agapito Aquino (LAMP, Makati City) said every Filipino should see in the President his own weaknesses. Aquino stressed that "Erap is only a mirror of the Filipino people."
"God has given us in this man a sign that we may recognize ourselves. We react in anger when this sign is placed before us and we would smash it as an abomination. But the anger is only at ourselves," Aquino said.
He said in the entire history of the Republic, there has never been as "public a sinner" as Mr. Estrada who at the same time is the nation's leader. "His sinfulness, his weaknesses, are for a purpose. And God will use the very sin to save his people," he added.
If the President is removed from office, that would not amount to anything unless the people exorcise themselves of the "evil, the injustices, the perversions, and weaknesses" in themselves, he said.
"A move for his ouster should be aimed not merely at the physical man, but should be directed beyond him or his office into the rejection of all that is evil in all of us that is so exemplified in him and in his actuations; to ask for his resignation is to declare war against all that he represents in us," he said. However, Aquino said Mr. Estrada could use his own example to turn around the nation from its sinfulness and weaknesses. "If Erap fails to heed the call of the spirit, he will be anathema in history... he could lead this country into untold heights of greatness and dignity. The nation's coming to its own must start with Erap. And the time is now," he said.
Reacting to Aquino's privilege speech, a Tarlac congressman said: "He should speak for himself and his Ateneo classmate." Aquino was thrust to the deputy speakership post when the political party he belongs to, the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), decided to stick it out with the Estrada in the wake of the jueteng scandal.
LDP is headed by Agriculture Secretary Edgardo Angara, Mr. Estrada's running mate in the 1998 elections who lost to Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. A group within Angara's party calling itself the "conscience bloc" has supported the impeachment complaint against the President.
Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin should hear what a pro-administration congressman said yesterday: It was God who gave us President Estrada.
In a privilege speech entitled "A Discernment into the Crisis," Deputy Speaker Agapito Aquino (LAMP, Makati City) said every Filipino should see in the President his own weaknesses. Aquino stressed that "Erap is only a mirror of the Filipino people."
"God has given us in this man a sign that we may recognize ourselves. We react in anger when this sign is placed before us and we would smash it as an abomination. But the anger is only at ourselves," Aquino said.
He said in the entire history of the Republic, there has never been as "public a sinner" as Mr. Estrada who at the same time is the nation's leader. "His sinfulness, his weaknesses, are for a purpose. And God will use the very sin to save his people," he added.
If the President is removed from office, that would not amount to anything unless the people exorcise themselves of the "evil, the injustices, the perversions, and weaknesses" in themselves, he said.
"A move for his ouster should be aimed not merely at the physical man, but should be directed beyond him or his office into the rejection of all that is evil in all of us that is so exemplified in him and in his actuations; to ask for his resignation is to declare war against all that he represents in us," he said. However, Aquino said Mr. Estrada could use his own example to turn around the nation from its sinfulness and weaknesses. "If Erap fails to heed the call of the spirit, he will be anathema in history... he could lead this country into untold heights of greatness and dignity. The nation's coming to its own must start with Erap. And the time is now," he said.
Reacting to Aquino's privilege speech, a Tarlac congressman said: "He should speak for himself and his Ateneo classmate." Aquino was thrust to the deputy speakership post when the political party he belongs to, the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), decided to stick it out with the Estrada in the wake of the jueteng scandal.
LDP is headed by Agriculture Secretary Edgardo Angara, Mr. Estrada's running mate in the 1998 elections who lost to Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. A group within Angara's party calling itself the "conscience bloc" has supported the impeachment complaint against the President.
The bloc includes Representatives Carlos Padilla of Nueva Vizcaya, Roan Libarios of Agusan del Norte and Oscar Rodriguez of Pampanga. Libarios and Rodriguez are among the 11 members of the House panel prosecuting the impeachment charges against the President. - Jess Diaz
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