Learned ignorance

“…YET POLITICS and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement…The cause of civil liberty and civil government gains as little as that of religion by this confusion of duties. Those who quit their proper character, to assume what does not belong to them, are, for the greater part, ignorant both of the character they leave, and of the character they assume. Wholly unacquainted with the world in which they are fond of meddling, and inexperienced in all its affairs, on which they pronounce with so much confidence, they have nothing of politics but the passions they excite.”
No, Bong Lacson, a sophister at best, can never come up with such brilliant gems of thought. He can only look them up in the works of the masters. That was Edmund Burke in his Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790).
Anyone who has had but a cursory look at the current of events at the capitol would have most surely found agreement with Burke’s thesis.
Ignorance of the character he left – okay, he was suspended from – showed in Eddie T. Panlilio’s very reason for running – “a higher duty to serve the people.”
No less than a number of priests, Canon lawyers included, reminded him then: “What duty can be higher than the priesthood?”
The first definition of a priest impacted upon me when I entered the seminary: “A priest is a gift of God to men. A priest is a gift of men to God.” Mediator between God and His people. An alter Christus. What calling, indeed, can be higher than that?
Ignorance of the character he assumed is most manifest in Panlilio’s abject misappreciation, if not total misunderstanding, of his being governor.
Roll the drums now:
Panlilio calling “caretaker administration” Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao’s taking over the helm after Gov. Mark Lapid retreated to America to lick his political wounds. Ignorance of the law of succession surfacing there.
Panlilio asking the sangguniang panlalawigan for “blanket authority” to enter into memoranda, contracts, donations, etcetera. Ignorance of the democratic principle of check and balance shown there.
Panlilio thrusting his two lady lawyers to the SP as already confirmed on the basis of a mere letter. Ignorance, if not disrespect, of inter-departmental courtesy displayed there.
Panlilio accepting the P500,000 saying that it was not bribe money and then asking where it came from. Ignorance of the law on bribery most blatantly displayed in the Senate yet, with the erudite Johnny Enrile and the snappy Chiz Escudero cutting Panlilio’s moral armor to pieces.
Panlilio claiming “executive privilege” in creating the Balas office, hiring personnel without going through the SP and then asking the SP to appropriate money for their salaries, differentials and overtime. A clear case of the cart-before-the-horse. Ignorance of basic governmental procedures there.
Panlilio telling the SP “I confirmed them” of his putative administrator and legal counsel. If not ignorance, this is usurpation of the functions of the SP. It is the SP – not the governor – that confirms provincial chiefs of offices.
Panlilio telling the SP “I did not receive it. I did not see it” on the invitation for him to attend the hearings on Ordinance 176, despite Guiao showing him the invitation letter duly stamped “Received” by the Office of the Governor. Sheer ignorance of the governor on what is going on in his very office.
Panlilio visiting Fr. Robert Reyes at Camp Bagong Diwa and then making him speaker at the capitol’s flag ceremony where he blasted at the Macapagal-Arroyo administration. No, there is no ignorance there. Only insensitivity to the sentiments of a still clear majority of Kapampangans in love, if not in awe, of their cabalen in Malacanang.
Panlilio though has still enough humility to accept his utter lack of knowledge in things political.
“You know naman that I came from a totally different background. This is all a learning process to me.” So he whispered over lunch after that mess of a dialog he had with the SP.
Then, at the multi-sectoral assembly in celebration of San Fernando’s cityhood, it was announced by Jess Estanislao that his Institute for Solidarity in Asia – the entity that helped the city achieved so much – would initiate Pampanga – the first province ever – into the ISA fold.
Now, there is much promise there. First things first though. To fast track his learning curve, Panlilio has to unlearn his Ateneo crash course on governance. To many observers here, it was that very course from the loftier-than-all academe that crashed him to gross ignorance of real governance.