LET US VANQUISH THE DARKNESS WITH OUR LIGHT
‘The
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1.5)
The people of this beleaguered
nation now find themselves in a nightmarish situation as calm and civility have
been sold in exchange for brute power and barbarity. This comes about as
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has unjustly placed the country under a state
of national emergency, a euphemism for martial law, through Proclamation 1017
over a presumed military mutiny aimed against her government. President
Arroyo’s proclamation has plunged the country into dictatorial rule and has
instantaneously malformed the military and police organizations into
instruments of state repression. Grave infringements on civil liberties and the
people’s democratic rights were committed against the unsuspecting populace
through a vicious string of warrantless arrests and manhunt of the president’s
critics.
Certainly, a
dark night of terror has befallen the country. President Arroyo has turned her
back from her constitutional oath and moral duty to protect the citizenry and
discriminatorily put the Filipino people under siege. What we see is the
aggressive emergence of a military state in response to the people’s growing
dissent over
President Arroyo’s unrealized promises to institute good governance and
meaningful socio-economic and socio-political reforms and to the mounting call for her to
step down from the presidency.
The present
circumstances cannot but deserve the indignation of the Filipino people. What our nation needs today is a way out of
the ever-worsening economic and political maladies, and not another
authoritarian rule. A people engulfed by the blinding darkness of the night can
only but rightly light their torches and lift them high up to vanquish the
frightening onslaught of a dead darkness. In the same spirit, the Filipino
people have all the right to fight back to defend themselves and the freedom
that they have victoriously regained and earned for themselves when threatened
by the violence of tyranny. Martial rule cannot quash the courageous spirit and
strength of a heroic people to bring about a Philippine nation that is truly sovereign and a government for the Filipinos that is truly
democratic.
The Iglesia
Filipina Independiente denounces in the strongest possible terms President
Arroyo’s act of placing the country under a state of national emergency. It
lacks constitutional and moral grounds for it gravely contradicts the people’s
aspiration for the building of a peaceful, just and humane Philippine society.
The most that it can provide is a false sense of security and stability to her
government as much as it only leads to state fascism and graver violations of
human, civil and democratic rights of the Filipino people. We therefore
strongly call on President Arroyo to withdraw Proclamation 1017 in the soonest
possible time and respect the inherent right of our people to live in freedom.
We also reiterate our appeal for her to take the patriotic duty to step down
from the presidency to spare our country from the agony of further dissent and
division and to give way for the establishment of a democratic government that can
truly unite and represent our people. The Filipino people deserve a president
and a government that will truly uphold their aspiration, promote and protect
their wellbeing, and bring about a country that is genuinely independent and
democratic.
We also urge
the faithful and the rest of the Filipino people to stand firmly and
courageously resist martial rule. Enshrined in our very soul as a nation is our
inherent right to freedom, and it is our solemn duty as a people to protect and
preserve this legacy. Let us persevere in our journey towards just peace,
democracy and sovereignty as a people and a nation. The Spirit is bidding us;
‘Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made (you) free, and
be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.’ (Galatians 5.1)
Pro Deo et Patria.
† RT REVD EPHRAIM S. FAJUTAGANA
General Secretary
26th
February 2006
Obispado Maximo, City of Manila