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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Secret Dialogues
By Antonio C. Abaya Written Aug 09, 2006 For the Standard Today, August 10 issue Nothing fascinates and titillates more than a juicy secret. A secret suggests conspiracy, ulterior motives, hidden agendas, intent to manipulate or obfuscate or insinuate something or someone, especially when that secret is immersed in the alternately boiling and simmering political pot that is the Philippines. It also suggests a cabal of power brokers at the top scheming to take everyone for a ride as they consolidate their grip on power. A shroud of secrecy seems to surround a gathering of some 30 �influential� Filipinos last July 30 and 31 at the Magsaysay Center on Roxas Boulevard in Manila so much so that there are speculations about its immediate intent and strategic purpose. My esteemed colleague Amando Doronila wrote in the August 07 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer that �the press was barred and the participants were bound to a pledge of secrecy that approached that of papal conclaves, the proceedings of the Holy Inquisition, and the rites of the Ku Klux Klan, Masonic Lodges, the Rosicrucian Order of the 17th century, and the Mafia.� Doro could have added the Priory of Sion and the Knights Templar. And who made up this exclusive group of 30? Apparently the biggest bloc came from the Arroyo administration. Doronila also named Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines; Sen. Manuel Roxas; businessman Washington Sycip; two (unnamed) reps from Islamic groups; former Sen. Wigberto Tanada representing unnamed interests; Dr. Jose Abueva, former president of the University of the Philippines and chief advocate of Charter Change to a parliamentary and federal form of government; Christian Monsod, main convenor of the One Voice Movement, whose alleged P230-plus million anti-chacha media budget is being scrutinized by the Bureau of Internal Revenue for possible failure to pay a hefty donor�s tax; and two (unnamed) members of the Hyatt 10, who had bolted the Arroyo cabinet July last year. A curious aspect of this secret conclave was the enlistment of well-known group-dynamics guru, Adam Kahane, as main facilitator, who supposedly advised the participants to �listen, and not to argue.� Kahane, who is either Jewish-American or Israeli - Kahane is a Jewish name from which are derived Kahn, Kohn, Coen, Cohen � must have charged a hefty fee for his services. But the bull-necked AFP chief-of-staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon could have telegraphed the same message of �listen, do not argue,� at no cost to the workshop organizers, merely by conspicuously plunking down his .45 cal. service pistol on the lectern before delivering his spiel. Has Kahane had any success lately �facilitating� between the Hezbollah and the Israeli Defense Forces? And what were the topics discussed that they needed the intervention of a foreign facilitator? According to Doro, the key issues were narrowed down to a) education and moral values; b) peace and social justice; c) livelihood; d) resource generation for infrastructure and social projects; and e) legitimacy. Fair enough. But the workshop seems to have run aground on the shoals of �legitimacy.� Some of the participants have rightly insisted that �we can�t tackle the rest of the issues until we settled the legitimacy issue first.� Obviously, they were unmoved by Kahane�s admonition to �listen, and not to argue.� Archbishop Lagdameo is quoted by Doro as having refused to sign a draft statement, prepared by workshop organizers Howard Dee (former ambassador to the Vatican) and Ernesto Garilao (former agrarian reform secretary): �The position of representatives from government is that legitimacy is a non-issue, but a significant number of participants believed the reality that legitimacy is an issue that needs closure.� A workshop has been scheduled on August 17 to thresh out the legitimacy issue alone, but there is a strong possibility that Archbishop Lagdameo and other bishop-participants will not attend that workshop because of their perception that they were just being used for the political interests of the Arroyo administration. Archbishop Lagdameo and the other bishops are to be congratulated for taking this position. The issue of legitimacy has become not just a political issue, but a moral one as well and is therefore within the purview and competence of religious leaders. Man does not live by bread alone but by other non-material nourishment as well that cannot be measured by GDP and other economic indicators. These are the important intangibles like truth, self-respect and a sense of honor without which no idea of a common purpose and shared destiny can take root to hold a nation together in its evolution to a successful polity These moral issues should not and cannot be resolved in secret dialogues conducted in an intimidating atmosphere of �listen, and do not argue�, but should be discussed in the open with the premise that concerns about the cheating, the lying , the stealing and the scheming must be resolved first before anything else can be addressed. ***** Reactions to [email protected]. 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