What follows is the reflection given by Fr. Jesus V. Dumaual, MSC, during the Ecumenical Prayer Service held at Bradford Church (UCCP) in Cebu City during the visit in Cebu last March 17 of Engr. Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, the star-witness in the Senate hearings on the anomalous NBN/ZTE broadband deal. Fr. Dumaual is a Missionary of the Sacred Heart (MSC) and currently serves as parochial vicar of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish in Marigondon, Lapu-Lapu City.
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For the first time there is a growing interest for Truth among our people. It has become the star of the show. But there are people who are undermining such a quest. We hear remarks like: “It is politically motivated (everything is, nowadays), we know already the truth (that there corruption in the government), it is impossible to know the truth (in the presence of conflicting testimonies).” And particularly, “we do not want the truth of Lozada because he is only being used by people with political agenda (politicians will always do that, at least they can try) and he has engaged in corrupt practices himself (but were there not sinners in the lineage of Jesus too, like King David who got his most loyal soldier killed so he could steal the latter’s wife?), etc.” Such are the words we hear. There may be many kinds of truth. But truth by any form is still truth. Who are we to judge what truth is important, or more important than the others? Whether it is mathematical, scientific, moral, political, literary, etc. provided it is the truth we can surely have some use for it. We know already the truth: that there is corruption in government. But don’t we want to know the details of it? Would it not be easier to combat it if we do? Or we would rather just give in to it? Call it by another name: sop, commission, success fee, “bukol”, “tongpatz”, “meron tayong kaunti dito”, it is still corruption. That is the truth and it is driving people to grinding poverty. We cannot afford to be indifferent and complacent to it.
How do we know who is speaking the truth? Do we need evidences, collaborative testimony, due process, legal luminaries’ opinion, judges to make a judgement? Don’t we have a sense of the Truth just as we have the sense of the Faith?
Let us admit it, most people believe Eng. Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada – that he is telling the truth. That’s according to the latest survey (unless again, we question the survey). How do they know he is telling the truth? People heard and saw him on TV and for them that is enough: he is believable. They just know and there is nothing his detractors can do to change that. And they want to hear more from him and they are moved when they listen to him, while even our own parishioners fall asleep when we give a 10-minute homily.
There are people who are believable but do not speak. E.g. the CBCP (at least not enough). There are people who are not believable though they keep on speaking. E.g. the Government propagandists (at least regarding the latest controversies it has gotten into). There are people who are believable and they speak. E.g. Star-witness Rodolfo Lozada (finally!). But the official Church in Cebu says we do not need him to know the truth. (But we needed Cerge Remonde so he was invited to speak “his truth” in the clergy recollection recently.)
People use the truth for whatever reason. But this should not determine or influence what we intend to do, what we think is right. E.g. There are people using the search for the truth to oust GMA. Well, that is their right and their ranks seem to be growing. But that should not prevent us in our own quest for truth. We are going to search for the truth in season or out of season. If it will result in ousting GMA so be it. If not, so be it. Even if and when she is gone, and even if she finishes her term till 2010, we will continue searching for the truth. We will do it peacefully but we will be steadfast.
Can we eat the truth? No. But without the truth then we may be alive, but no more than slaves. We become slaves to people who can manipulate the truth by making us believe that it is beyond our reach, that we are not good enough to know the truth, that it does not concern us. If we ask a question and we do not have a way of knowing whether the answer is true or a lie, then why bother ask? We are human beings because we can ask intelligent questions, and we have a way of finding out whether the answer given us is true or a lie. As the saying goes: “You can deceive someone sometimes, and everyone sometimes, and someone all the time, but never everyone all the time.” Truly, we must not underestimate the intelligence of people especially in determining what is the truth.
Jun Lozada once said: it is no longer me protecting the truth; it is the truth protecting me. Mr. Lozada is no longer just a star-witness, no longer just a human being whose life is in danger right now, who has become dependent on the good will of others like the Sisters for his and his family’s security, who has to depend on “Piso para sa katotohanan” to survive. He has become a household name. In him truth has assumed a face (a Filipino-Chinese face). He has become a symbol – of truth. He need not say anything. His presence alone is a living witness to the power of truth to unite people, to mobilized people, to inspire people to believe, to hope, to care and to act – at least to the young people (who are his greatest followers nowadays). He has given them hope that truth can be found out, and acquire the energy to seek it. Thanks to Mr. Lozada, they have started believing again. We cannot take that away from them. He has provided them something which the Bishops, those in government, NGO’s and PO’s, political groups of the left and the right, religious affiliations of all denominations, could not and cannot provide them. That he has become the symbol of truth and not us religious and political leaders is a big question mark not on him but on us. We have no right to use it against him.
Of course there is a risk involve here. What if he turns out, in the end, as a fake, as a mere tool of the political game, that he abandons us when the going gets rough, betrays our faith and confidence in him? Will Lozada be a suicidal Judas bringing us to perdition in the end or is he like Peter who repented after having denied knowing Christ three times? He has said it himself: I have already lost self-respect: I do not want to lose my soul as well. But we never know. But when will we know, how will we know? Again, can’t we just trust our sense of the truth, our people’s sense of the truth?
We need Mr. Lozada and we need him more than he needs us. He needs us for his security, okey, even fame and glory, if that is how you want to put it. But we need him – at least the young people need him – to continue believing in the Light. Mr. Lozada has said he has seen the Light and they believe him and they want to see the Light too. Can we say that as well, with conviction and convincingly, that we have seen the Light.
We are not the Light: we are just the bearers of the Light. Mr. Lozada has lighted one little candle. If we will just light our own little candle and we put all of them together, there will be more Light and the more we will be able see. Mr. Lozada is not the Truth: he is only witnessing to the Truth. The Truth might reveal the dirt on our own faces and the evil in our hearts. So be it. Sometimes the truth hurts. But it will set us free.
Cardinal Vidal is right. We do not need to invite Mr. Lozada to know the truth. What we need is for more people to tell us what they know and do not hide behind any “executive privilege”. They have only one privilege: not to tell a lie. Just say your piece and leave it to us to tell you if we believe you. We do not even need the Bishops to tell us the truth (with small “t”). They just have to speak and we will know if they are just playing safe. Politicians can also be allowed to speak even if they have already spoken so much. Leave it to us to tell if they are really interested to know the truth or they are just grandstanding. Everybody can continue to speak and they should. We are not giving any gag order.
But in the end, we who have been silent all these years, we who have been the victims of “immoderate greed” for power and money, we who are thought to be indifferent to the truth, we who were thought to be already tired of too much politics (yes, we are tired of bad politics but not of good politics), we, yes we, will someday – and for all you know that day has come – will rise up, and it will be our turn to speak. And you, our dear religious and honorable political leaders better listen. It will be our turn to tell the truth that is in our hearts, the truth that we have experienced in our day to day lives, the truth which is the fruit of our faith reflections, the truth we are ready to stand and die for. You better listen because next time the wind blows it might knock you down and out and you never know what hit you.
Yes, we believe in good governance and we have continued praying for it even without the request of Cardinal Vidal. Yes, we believe in reform which has always been spoken of but never quite done (puro ningas cogon). Yes, government projects that will benefit the majority, especially the underprivileged should continue. They are long overdue. Yes, indeed, there is a need for accountability – not only when there are whistle-blowers but from the first day in office. But without the Truth we will be just like that stupid man our Lord Jesus Christ referred to in Mattew 7:26: who built his house on sand. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and struck that house, and it fell; and what a fall it had!”
Let me end this by thanking (you) Mr. Jun Lozada, in behalf of the young for giving them something to believe in, in behalf of the young once (like us) for showing us the way. Our own Cardinal Vidal said we do not need to make you a hero. Perhaps he is right because deep in our hearts you are already a saint. Once again thank you and may your tribe increase. More power to you.
Fr. Jesus V. Dumaual, MSC
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish
Marigondon, Lapu-Lapu City
We in Cebu are just different from those living in Manila. We just do things our own way without having to be dictated upon or to ape someone or the whole lot of them. We don’t join protests and rallies just to be heard. We have other people (like those in Manila) to do those things for us. We just tune in to radio or TV or read newspapers to learn more of the events. We know Mr. Lozada is telling the trutn and we empathize and sympathize with him and we know he has been making the rounds in almost all campuses in Manila and in places like Iloilo or Bacolod and we know that the things he has been saying in those sorties we heard so many times before and there’s nothing new to it, so when Mr. Lozada came to Cebu we just didn’t feel that its worth a second to go attend and hear him speak the same message. Our intelligence must have been too much for Mr. Lozada to bear that he and his handlers began to badmouth Ricardo Cardinal Vidal and the Archdiocese of Cebu as nothing but a “congressman in cassock” and the “Archdiocese of Malacanang”. Too bad Mr. Lozada finally found the end of his journey to his so-called search for truth with those insults which he unwittingly done against the Cebuanos. Too bad, Mr. Lozada just unmasked his real character when he and his handlers said those unsavory remarks that leave a bad impression of his journey for truth. Masuko diay siya ug isanban. Pilde ang maglagot.
hey jing,
to me i am glad he came becoz it is now clear to me that these people are too easy to judge and accuse without proof at all.. 
with that realization that st jun, st leah et al bad mouth the Cardinal without much evidence dont you qwestion what kind of truth he is peddling to us??
i agree with you that we like to listen, read and decide for ourselves but we dont leave it the ppl in MM to do the action .. if you recall in the last two edsas we were very active .in fact in the first edsa we sheltered cory aquino .. and in elections we always vote for the candidates who are most qualified -that is why unqualified artistas dont win here!– we do act base on what we hear but we dont act mindlessly ..we think clearly and are more able in weighing things becoz we dont act like fans or mobs
From Cebu Freeman
God works in mysterious ways
Monday, March 24, 2008
There has been a lot of hemming and hawing about whether or not there really was an order by Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal prohibiting priests under his jurisdiction from celebrating Mass in connection with the visit to Cebu last Monday of Jun Lozada.
We do not think Vidal would go to the extent of giving such an order. But so what if he did? In the final analysis, the good cardinal should be praised for giving such an order, instead of being condemned by those who have been blinded by self-righteous politics.
If Vidal did give such an order, then Cebuanos now owe their archbishop a deep sense of gratitude for saving them from the fate that has befallen some parts of the country who, in their blindness, have confused Jun Lozada as Jesus Christ.
It is the great misfortune of this country of ours, once known proudly as the Cradle of Christianity in Asia, that some of its bishops, priests and nuns are in the forefront of dismantling what has been built over the centuries for just one brief fling with a jerk called Jun Lozada.
Why should a Mass be held for Jun Lozada? Isn’t he the same sinner just like the rest of us? But why is he so easily forgiven? Is that all it takes to forgive, just a public acknowledgement? Or is it being on the same side of the political fence?
If all it takes to forgive sin is a public acknowledgement, then let us all make public acknowledgements of our own sins and scrap the holy sacrament of confession because that is the signal the bishops, priests and nuns who are behind the beatification of Jun Lozada are giving.
And since these same bishops, priests and nuns are trying to raise funds for Jun Lozada, then maybe all of us who think otherwise and do not believe in being led anywhere by this person and this group should stop giving anything to the church lest what we give end up in the wrong hands.
We have always believed that God works in mysterious ways and maybe Jun Lozada has been sent here on earth with a purpose, to shake a faith in such a way that the hypocrites in cassocks and habits, the wolves in sheep’s clothing, so to speak, would finally be exposed.
Thank you Fr. Jess for your reflections and for suggesting that Jun Lozada is merely an instrument for our personal quests for truth. I only believe those who seek the truth and doubt those who find it. I may have been talked to by a wise man, enticed by an ancient wisdom, induced by a generally-held belief, convinced by someone else, or venerated by divine means but I’ll only believe what I personally test and judge as true.
Jun Lozada is not a hero for pete’s sake!!! He’s a crazy, good-for-nothing blabber mouth who fits better in a barangayan theater!!! ggggrrrrrr!!! If WE WANT CHANGE IN OUR COUNTRY, IT SHOULD BEGIN WITH OURSELVES, NOT WITH JUN LOZADA!
Sean, that was so “charitable” of you to characterize Jun Lozada.I agree – change begins with ourselves and Jun started it with his own way.Is that how you begin to change this country – by character assasination?
Zed eye, it doesn’t take a critical eye to know that you too are on the side of self-righteous politics with the way you assassinate Jun as “jerk” or categorize the good intentions of others to your derogatory idea of a sacred practice known as beatification. It’s good to be reminded that divided might be the positions of individual bishops, and we see this forthcoming in this postmodern era,still the CBCP reached a consensus on the gravity of corruption in this country. Don’t you think we owe the Lozada-trigger a hint of acknowledgment for CBCP’s “emergency stance”? And what makes you think the cancellation of the mass was not against the very politico-theological nature of the celebration that Christ instituted?The Eucharist has always an element of PROTEST against the powers that be. Watch the ROMERO biopic, the part where Bishop Romero celebrated mass on the street half-naked after being dragged and harassed by the military.If the prelates of Cebu do not understand the prophetic nature of the Eucharist, now, who hides in the comfort of those profitable big parishes and white cassocks?
yes tonio, he’s indeed a character and worthy of assassination! You self-righteous hypocrite!
Hi Karen, regarding your world war 3 issue, i also received a forwarded email and the original article was by a certain nono torribio. there are 2 things you have to bear in mind. first, that your faith should not be grounded on “end times prophecies”. Second, and on the other hand, as Catholics we are told not to disregard prophecies as it is written in the Holy Gospel. Anyway, I understand your concern and I myself am worried as to the current worldwide trend. Personally, I expect World War 3 anytime now but my faith is not and never dependent on it. Admittedly, it may be wise for us now to be conscious about such a prophecy if only to encourage spiritual awakening. Pray always and more power to Father Stephen.