Never no more

TWO WEEKS less than a year ago – October 25, 2011 to be exact – this paper bannered “Panlilio says: I’m done with politics.” The story, with my own byline, read:

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – “No more (electoral) politics for me.”
Thus, former Pampanga Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio debunked speculations that he was angling for an elective position in 2013.
“I am still waiting for the Church’s action on my request to return to the priesthood,” said Panlilio during a novena Mass at the St. Jude parish church in Barangay San Agustin here last Saturday.
Panlilio was the guest homilist in the Mass celebrated by Rev. Fr. Raul de los Santos, the parish priest.
In his introduction of the suspended priest-turned governor, De los Santos hailed Panlilio for “answering a higher call” in running for the governorship and winning in 2007, as well as in seeking, but losing, re-election in 2010.
The priesthood remained “manifest” in Panlilio, De los Santos said, even in the field of politics with his innate “sense of self-sacrifice and service to the people.”
Panlilio said that out of politics, he would continue in his various advocacies.
These included the environmental preservation with the Save the Trees Coalition that prevented the wholesale cutting of all trees along MacArthur Highway being pursued by the Department of Public Works and Highways and endorsed by the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the city government of San Fernando.
“Thanks to the STC, we can still enjoy the cool shade of the trees,” Panlilio said.
The campaign for good governance, he said, continues with nationwide talks being undertaken by the Kaya Natin group that included himself, former Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca and now Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo.
Jueteng politics
It was in the anti-jueteng advocacy that Panlilio was most emphatic in his homily.
“As long as jueteng politics exists, there will be no chance for good governance to take roots,” he said, lamenting that some priests and pastors regularly receive jueteng money.

Panlilio claimed that in the last elections, a Christian pastor intimated to him that a group of pastors were offered “as much as P100,000 individually” with a number of them accepting the bribe...   
From no mas to uno mas.

Last October 5, the last day for filing of certificates of candidacy, a smiling Panlilio was proclaimed by President Aquino as the official candidate of the Liberal Party for Pampanga governor.

My classmate, the Rev. Fr. Larry Sarmiento, head of the archdiocesan conciliation and arbitration committee (in matters concerning priests), was quoted as saying Panlilio “opted to leave the priesthood and apply for a dispensation from the priestly office.”

Last Tuesday, October 9, I found this posted in my Facebook account from some shares: Panlilio philosophizing his return to politics, thus:

Marami pong nagtatanong kung bakit gumitna na naman tayo sa pulitika.
Sa isang banda, nagulat at natakot po ako sa mga nangyayari sa ating probinsiya. Hayaan ninyong ilarawan ko ito sa pamamagitan ng isang kwento. May isang alagad ng simbahan na dating tumitindig laban sa jueteng. Ngunit nang magkasakit ang kanyang anak at wala siyang panggastos, lumapit siya sa asawa ng hinihinalang jueteng lord na nagtustos sa pagpapagamot sa kanyang anak. Mula noon ay isa na siya sa mga nagsasabi na wala naman palang masama sa jueteng.
Walang pinagkaiba ang naturang alagad ng simbahan sa mga pari, pulis, kapitan, mayor, gobernador, kongresista, senador, presidente, alagad ng media at maraming pang mamamayan na tumatanggap sa jueteng.

Wala silang nakikitang masama sa pagtanggap ng pera na kahit ito ay galing sa imoral at nakapipinsalang sugal.
Kapag taong simbahan na ang walang nakikitang masama sa jueteng politics na nagsasamantala at pinanatiling mahirap ang mga tao at nagdudulot pa ng iba't ibang kasamaan, totoong nakakatakot na ang ating kalagayan.
Kaya noong kinausap ako ng mga kababayan na nagmamalasakit sa Pampanga, pagkatapos akong hinikayat ng mga kasama sa Liberal Party sa pangunguna ni PNoy at dahil walang gustong tumayong alternatibo, nagpasya akong tumakbo.
Nagdesisyon akong pangunahan ang kahilingan ng mga Kapampangan sa kanilang pakikibakang wakasan ang jueteng politics, patronage politics, lumalaganap na magulang-anak, anak-magulang at mag-asawang politico dito sa Pampanga.
Muli kong iniaalay ang aking sarili upang mamuno sa ninanais ni PNoy na dalhin sa Pampanga ang matuwid na daan at ang pag-unlad na tinatamasa ng bansa.
Ating inaawit sa Imno Capampangan, "... gabun ding pantas at marangal, sibul ning lugud, carinan ning tepangan.... ".
Ayaw kong maisulat sa kasaysayan na minsan tumayo ang mga magigiting at may dangal na Kapampangan upang tuldukan ang jueteng at walang prinsipyong pamumuno, ako ay inalok na manguna at sila ay aking binigo sapagkat ang tugon ko sa kanila ay natatakot ako. Na sinabi ko sa kanila na ang kanilang pakiusap ay hindi kasama sa aking tinugunan bilang pari.
Ang Laban sa Pampanga ay laban nating lahat na mga Kapampangan, saan man po kayo ngayon na nagmamalasakit sa bayan nating tinubuan. Sa inyo rin po ito kayong may malasakit sa Pampanga. Hindi ko po sariling laban ito.
Napatunayan na po natin noong 2007 na kaya nating iluklok ang Effective, Ethical and Empowering leadership sa Pampanga kung tayo ay magkasama. Patunayan natin ito ay hindi tsamba. Patunayan natin na nanalo tayo noong 2007 dahil pinagkaisahan, pinagtulungan at isinakatuparan natin ang ninanais ng mga mamamayan. Kaya nating ulitin ito ngayon. Sa tulong ng Poong Maykapal.
Past, present and future in perfect fusion.

Thus, Panlilio in 2007: “I have heeded the clamor of the laity to serve God’s people by running for public office. An extraordinary situation like that in Pampanga requires a radical option.”

So I wrote then, as I write now, how it was the image of the Dominican reformer Fra Girolamo Savonarola that I saw in Panlilio, with full recall of his compelling mission in taking over the government of Florence in 1494: “O my people, you know that I have never wanted to intervene in matters of state: do you think I would do so now, if I did not see that it was necessary for the health of your souls?...Your reform must begin with the things of the spirit, which are above the material, of which they are the rule and the life; and your temporal good must serve your moral and religious welfare, on which it depends. And if you heard say that states are not ruled by paternosters, remember that this is the rule of tyrants, or the enemies of God and the commonweal, the rule for oppressing and not for raising and liberating the city. If you desire a good government you must restore it to God. Surely, I should not meddle in state matters, if this were not so.”
As it was in 2007, so it was not in 2010. And so it will be not in 2013.