JDV's revolution

“EVERYONE SEES the need for a moral revolution... This is a good cause. I believe the country needs this kind of revolution to effect changes.”
So said Senate President Manuel Villar at the launch of the Council for Moral Revolution on February 17 at the palatial home of ousted Speaker Jose de Venecia, its proponent.
On February 20, three short days after, Villar declined to be part of the Council thus: “While I support the moral revolution movement which is in line with the advocacy to weed out rampant corruption, I cannot take on an active role in the council in deference to the ongoing Senate investigations.” Good enough reason.
But is that all there is to it?
Villar could have had in his mind: “In deference to the still-standing Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration which I still need in aid of my presidential ambition in 2010.”
Next, the man elected in absentia by the Council as interim chair, Chief Justice Reynato Puno, -- unarguably the best, if not the only choice to lead any moral reformation hereabouts – also declined.
“While I agree with the need for moral transformation of all of us, I regret to decline the position in view of the inhibitions of my office as Chief Justice.” Puno wrote De Venecia.
Good enough reason. And that is all there is to it. Given the respect everyone has for the Chief Justice.
So what gives?
De Venecia’s reason for his moral revolution was what he called the inaction of the President on his three-month-old call for her to lead the movement for moral revolution.
“I am deeply disappointed.” So was De Venecia quoted as saying, and laid partial blame on his call as cause for the President to have “moved for my removal” as House Speaker.
From where we sit, De Venecia could not have been more wrong.
Yes, the President heeded De Venecia’s call for her to lead a moral revolution. GMA started that revolution with De Venecia’s very ouster from the speakership.
Revolution is change. The old order has to give way to the new. What better way to dramatize that than at the House where the trapo of all trapos is most ceremoniously deposed!
If at all, De Venecia’s moral revolution – coming as it is after his ouster – is no more than a counter-revolution. A grasp at straws to bring him back to power.
So who would join him? There are enough clowns and jokers, political has-beens and never-bes who, for want of something to do, will be there by De Venecia’s side.
As for the people? Well, there are enough that can be trucked to any cause so long as it pays. Sometimes even at just P200 and a free lunch.
In passing, I am reminded here of a passage in Will and Ariel Durant’s Caesar and Christ , Volume III of their monumental epic The Story of Civilization: “Moral reform is the most difficult and delicate branch of statesmanship; few rulers have dared to attempt it; most have left it to hypocrites and saints.”
As De Venecia is not a saint, so he is…Touchè!