I
notice many Facebook friends changing their profile picture. Actually, there is no picture or image at
all, just black or total darkness. What does it express? For some it could just
be an expression of protest. It could be an expression of grief, a sense of
hopelessness and despair. It does symbolize our present situation -- the
darkness that we once again find ourselves in. Indeed, we are living in another
dark period of our country when evil appears to reign.
Every
day as we watch TV and read the newspapers we are confronted with gruesome news
and images of those killed – mostly poor -- by the death squads and police. Almost
6,000 killed in six months. The president is promising more deaths while
absolving the police of murder. He
threatened to kill human rights advocates and lawyers. And there’s congress trying
to railroad a bill that will restore the death penalty. The senate has come up with a report denying the
reality of extrajudicial killings and the existence of death squads. With a judiciary and legislative branches that
seems to be controlled and bullied by the executive branch, the system of check
and balance is disappearing. So if the trend continues, we can expect the
casualties in the so-called war on drugs to exceed 70,000 by the end of six
years when Duterte’s term ends. He said he would be happy to kill 3 million
addicts following the example of his idol – Adolf Hitler. We see a deeply
divided society – with many who have dulled conscience or no conscience at all -
approving and applauding what’s going on. On the other hand, there is a growing
number who are speaking out and protesting against the hero’s burial of a corrupt
dictator and the killings. Meanwhile, the bigger problems such as poverty and
corruption continue and are not being seriously addressed. An economic crisis
is not farfetched. We are indeed amidst
darkness. Is there hope?
I
know how it feels to celebrate a bleak Christmas in the midst of a seemingly
hopeless situation. During the early years of martial law, I spent Christmas in
prison -- on hunger strike with other political detainees to protest the
maltreatment that we received from the minions of the dictator. In December
1985, two months before EDSA, our family was in grief after my mother was
killed by a gang composed of PC (Philippine Constabulary) soldiers. A few months earlier, my Redemptorist confrere
--Fr. Rudy Romano -- was abducted by military intelligence agents and made to
disappear. Around the same time, a pastoral worker that we have trained was
killed by a paramilitary unit - the CHDF.
During that dark period there seemed no end in sight for the reign of
evil.
Looking
back and remembering the subsequent events, I can say that in the darkest
moment there is always light. After two EDSA people power events I no longer
doubt. In a seemingly hopeless
situation, there is always hope. This is what the light of Christ symbolizes. The
God who never abandoned His people in the past will not abandon us now. Evil
will not reign forever and ever. This too will pass. As Mary’s song – the Magnificat – assures us: The proud and
the mighty will be deposed from their thrones. I firmly believe that a time will
come when decent Filipinos with awakened conscience will overcome their fear
and rise to the occasion. I have witnessed miraculous events in the
past, I expect another one soon. It may not
be the same as the previous ones but it will once again the demonstrate
the triumph of light over darkness. I
hope my FB friends will change their profile picture with a lighted candle –
the Christmas candle. This is the Good News of Christmas – the triumph of light
over darkness, of good over evil.
