Saint Rosario Arroyo and the saintly Cory Aquino

http://www.tribuneonline.org/index.php/commentary/item/5938-saint-rosario-arroyo-and-the-saintly-cory-aquino


Written by  Charlie V. Manalo
The Daily Tribune
Tuesday, 23 October 2012 00:00

Barring any hitches, another Filipina is bound for sainthood. According to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, the process for the cause of canonization of Mother Rosario Arroyo, founder of the Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary in Molo, Iloilo, has now reached Rome following the conclusion of a diocesan inquiry on the matter.

Born to a rich family, Mother Rosario could have lived the life of a princess but she abandoned all these and chose to live a simple life. When she became an heiress, she reportedly donated her inheritance to the congregation she founded.

Despite her wealthy upbringing, Mother Rosario devoted her life with her ministry to the poor. She became a nun in the Dominican Order. And with the help of two other Dominican nuns, she founded the Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary.

Anyway, when I say barring any hitches, I am referring to whatever efforts avid Noynoy followers may do just to block the canonization of Mother Rosario Arroyo. For born Maria Beatriz del Rosario Arroyo, the Filipina candidate for sainthood is the grand aunt of the most vilified man in Philippine history just next to the Marcoses, former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo.

Born to Don Ignacio Arroyo and Maria Pidal-Arroyo, Mother Rosario, had two brothers, Jose Pidal Arroyo, who would later became senator, and Mariano Pidal Arroyo.

The late senator was the paternal grandfather of Jose Miguel Arroyo, husband of former President, now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal -Arroyo.

While the former First Gentleman could not emulate the saintly deeds of his grand aunt, stories abound of his generosity especially for those who are in dire need. One of these involves my friend, also a former media practitioner, Carlo, whose daughter then was terminally ill. When Big Mike learned of his situation, even if did not even know Carlo personally, the former First Gentleman extended help for the cost of the hospitalization of Carlo’s daughter. Unfortunately, Carlo’s daughter did not survive. But even then, Big Mike extended help to cover the funeral expenses of his daughter.

Same goes with his wife, the former president. During her first state of the nation address, the former president presented three boys, who were dubbed as the bangkang papel boys, poor boys yet rich in dreams. That time, every one accused the former president of exploiting the poor boys just to earn pogi points. It was only later that we learned Mrs. Arroyo indeed helped those boys, seeing to it that they get their education all the way to their college degrees.

And those are just some of the stories of generosity linked to the former First Couple but have never been publicized. And would they be? If you are sincere in helping other people, you don’t need publicity.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence, a group identified with President Aquino are campaigning really hard to have the president’s mother, the late Cory Aquino, beatified.

Referring to Cory as “the housewife who led a revolution” and “the mother of Philippine democracy,” the claim the first Edsa uprising was a miracle attributed to the late former President.

But Cory never led a revolution. She simply benefitted from a failed coup launched by then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and then Army Col. Gringo Honasan. How could have she led a revolution when she was more than a thousand miles away from Edsa, hiding in a convent in Cebu?

People trooped to Edsa because they were fed up with the Marcos dictatorship. And it did not happen overnight. It was the culmination of decades of struggle of anti-Marcos activists.

Mother of democracy? Cory failed to dismantle the vestiges of the Marcos dictatorship. She did not only repeal the repressive Presidential Decree 1866, which is often used to charge activists for “illegal possession of firearms,” but she herself issued repressive measures including Executive Order 272 that extended the period required to bring arrested persons to court and EO 264 creating the Citizens Armed Force Geographical Units, which had been blamed for many of the atrocities during Cory’s time.

Barely a year in power, Cory’s military, on Jan. 22, 1987, opened fire on hundreds of farmers, many of them coming from the Cojuangco-Aquino family-owned Hacienda Luisita, who were protesting her failure to implement genuine land reform, right at the very gates of Malacañang.

The incident, infamously known as the “Mendiola Massacre,” resulted in the death of 13 farmers and injury to scores of other marchers.

A month later, on Feb. 10, 1987, another massacre took place. Seventeen civilians, including six children and two elderly were killed by government troops in Sitio Padlao, barangay Namulandayan, Lupao, in Nueva Ecija province.

Ironically, all those involved in the two massacres, were acquitted.

Declaring total war, against the people’s movement, Cory tolerated the abuses of her military and sponsored the formation para-military groups.

Patterned after the United States low intensity conflict, a major component of Cory’s total war is the formation of vigilante groups or anti-communist civilian militias in both urban and rural areas.
More vicious than the uniformed personnel in terms of interrogating suspected terrorists, these vigilante groups but also tortured, maimed, mutilated and killed suspected symphatizers of the New People’s Army (NPA). Before Cory ended her term ended in 1992, it was reported that some 50 right-wing vigilante groups backed by the military were formed all over the country.

According to Bulatlat.com, under Cory’s six-year term, there were 816 cases of enforced disappearances more than 1.2 million victims of dislocations due to military operations, 135 cases of massacres, 1,064 victims of summary executions, and 20,523 victims of illegal arrest and detention.
Cory also betrayed the Filipino people in a lot of ways. For one, she mothballed the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant without instituting alternative power program, resulting to daily 12-hour power outages.
But even before she assumed office, she was also set to betray the people when she signed in December of 1984, a covenant calling for the abrogation of the US Military Bases Agreement. But when she assumed office, she batted for its extension, even marching all the way to the Senate just to convince the senators to heed her demand. Fortunately, the Senators, including then Sen. Joseph “Erap” Estrada, chose to side with the people.

So, from a high net approval rating of plus 72 in October 1986, Cory’s net approval rating was down to just plus seven percent  by the end of her term.

And this is the Cory Aquino Noynoy’s men want beatified.

Her offspring? They could also be as generous as the Arroyos. Didn’t Noynoy shoulder the bail bond of an accused grafter? But more than that, Noynoy is now also playing god, deciding on who’s guilty and who’s not.

Cory up for sainthood? I hope not. For that to happen will signal the beginning of the fulfillment of prophecies of the Apocalypse