When religion and politics mix

By Herbert Vego

IF Christianity were an effective catalyst for change, the Philippines would be full of Christ-like individuals. Government officials would be walking their “pro-people” talk. Church leaders and followers would ostracize oppressive politicians. Graft and corruption would vanish.  With few criminals, we would take pride in being the only Christian nation in Asia.

But we know that Christianity itself suffers from disunity among thousands of sects and subsects claiming to the true messenger of God. Religious leaders preach conflicting beliefs in the hope of winning adherents. In the final analysis, they only agree on one thing – receiving tithes and donations from organizations and individuals.

“Purihin ang Diyos,” I used to hear this line from a preacher who would ask his flock to open their umbrella during his prayer rallies to catch a windfall of fortune.

It was the preacher who caught it from their “love offerings”.

Sad to say, he is already old and disabled, leaving his flock in limbo.

The Jesus is Lord Church (JIL) is disintegrating because its founder-preacher, Eddie Villanueva, is now better known as a congressman representing the party-list Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC).

I find that ironic, since his son, Senator Joel Villanueva, who is also a preacher, is accused of corruption.  He stands accused of receiving kickbacks from flood control projects in Bulacan.

Today, we have the likes of Senators Joel Villanueva and Alan Peter Cayetano who often embellish their speeches with quotes from the Bible. But why do they remain loyal followers of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who stands accused of “crimes against humanity” at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague?

No wonder they were among the 15 senators who signed a Senate resolution asking the ICC for interim release or house arrest of Duterte on the ground that he is not in good physical condition and is suffering from cognitive decline.

The senators were lying.  No less than Duterte’s estranged wife Elizabeth Zimmerman and his granddaughter Isabelle Duterte had paid him a jail visit and found him “very well.”

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MOBILE SUBSTATION FOR NEGROS POWER

THE increasing demand for power has convinced the management of Negros Electric and Power Corp. to invest ₱192 million for the procurement of a 37.5 megavolt amperes (MVA) mobile substation as part of the first three years of its five-year development plan.

Since taking over Central Negros Electric Cooperative, Negros Power has grown by leaps and bound, starting from 177,737 customers in August 2024 to 242,000-plus today on a land area of 1,455 square kilometers.

According to Negros Power president and chief executive officer Roel Castro, target month for the acquisition of the mobile substation is May 2026.

It will temporarily serve customers whenever permanent substations undergo maintenance.

Negros Power has just upgraded its Mountain View Substation on a budget of ₱25 million.

The company has already spent more than ₱1.2 billion out of its ₱2.1 billion budget for its five-year modernization plan.

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WE ARE AUSTRONESIANS

Austronesia refers to a group of diverse peoples, cultures, and languages that share the Austronesian language family, which originated in Taiwan and spread across the Indo-Pacific. The Filipinos are therefore among the Austronesians.

This is what I learned from Victor Martin J. Soriano.  Remember him? He is the Ilonggo who gained national fame by swimming the Iloilo-Guimaras Strait continuously (a distance of 4.2 nautical miles or 7.7 kilometers) on August 7, 1994.

Based on his research, most of us Filipinos today descended from the working inhabitants of Formosa (Taiwan) in the 17^th Century during the occupation of the island by Holland through the Dutch East India Company to serve as a strategic trade center for sugar, rice, and other commodities, and to facilitate trade with China and Japan from 1624 to 1662.

That is why our language and dialects have influenced those of Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Hawaii ang Malagasy. In Indonesia, for example, the numbers one to ten are “satu, dua, tiga, empat, lima, enam, tuhu, delapan, sembilan, sepulu.”