Panlilio = Lugo? IF ONLY

It is not surprising why some would want to compare Pampanga Governor Ed Panlilio with Paraguay President Fernando Lugo.

For starters, they are both men of cloth, who more or less reneged against the Canon Law provision against priests holding public office and to be blunt, have traded the pulpit for politics.

Governor Ed was a parish priest while President Lugo was a bishop who was Paraguay’s Provincial Superior of the Divine Word community – basically the top gun of all SVD priests in his country.

While President Lugo realized his priestly vocation at age 19 after his touching experience as a training teacher in a religious rural community who longed for but did not have a priest, Among Ed at an early age wanted to become a priest because of, according to him, “mundane and capricious” reasons: “the priest always have delicious food.” “We always wanted to accompany the priest because his food was delicious, and he was rich. Kasi ang pari, misa lang ng konti, ang dami ng pera, at saka respetado  [When a priest hears even only a handful of mass, he receives money. A priest is respected]. Everywhere he goes, he gets the best place, he’s being listened to. Ganyan ang pari e [That’s how priests are].”* He must have been kidding, a joker that he can be at times.

While Bishop Lugo stayed with just one seminary for his spiritual formation, Among Ed moved from one seminary to another admittedly because he was an “idealist” and went through a “long discernment process” where he said, “’pag di ako nakuntento sa isa, lilipat ako”. So from Don Bosco Juniorate in Bacolor where he stayed for two years, he moved to Don Bosco Seminary in Canlubang, Laguna for a year, and then a year each for San Carlos Seminary and Immaculate Conception Seminary in Vigan. His longest stay was at St. Augustine Seminary where he stayed for 5 years, including pastoral work. He also studied at the Divine Word Theology in Tagaytay for his academic formation.

Soon after Lugo was ordained, he was sent to Ecuador for a 5-year mission work where he was exposed to Liberation Theology, a revolutionary Christian model of “church for the poor” and that it was every Christian’s mission to bring justice to the poor and oppressed through political activism. He brought back this teaching with him and practiced it in Paraguay which was then under the dictatorship of Gen. Stroessner. It did not take long before the local police persecuted Lugo as it took only 1 year before he was expelled from his country. He returned 5 years later where he continued his work for the poor. In 1994, he was ordained Bishop and was assigned at the poverty-stricken San Pedro Department where he used his position to help campesinos battle for agrarian reform, foreign control of their natural resources, state repression and brutality. He organized Civilian Resistance, a broad alliance of political parties and mass organizations against the abuses and corruption of the ruling Colorado regime. He was a well-loved leader and organizer at the grassroots level where he played an integral role in the Paraguayans' fight for a just and fair society, making him known and worthy of the title as the “Bishop of the Poor”.

Meanwhile, Among Ed’s record as a priest was somewhat different. He was a SACOP executive director for 15 years. While being so, he was involved in the social action programs of the institution, including but not limited to micro-lending, low-cost housing project and relief and rehabilitation operations for the victims of Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991. Among Ed also established the TPKI, a Grameen-bank style of micro-lending and financing, in which mission is to “help low-income Filipinos, particularly the people of Pampanga break out of poverty by providing them with financial and complementary services.” They have some nice programs and I particularly liked the concept of small group loans and the Boundary Hulog Program which is not unlike how any enterprising kabalen could get from any “daily hulog for a motorcycle” like Transcycle, only with TPKI there is less loan interest. No wisecrack, I liked the project so when I was a Congressman I was able to direct P5 million to this group and it's how I first met Among Ed. Second was when he said his last mass in Betis before filing his Certificate of Candidacy.

Another point of comparison is perhaps the dramatic campaign and heroic victory of Among Ed in the 2007 gubernatorial elections when he ran on the platform of good governance, moral leadership and transparency against the well-oiled economic and political machinery of the Lapids and Pinedas. As it was with Among Ed, it was the people of Paraguay, through their 100,000 signatures who finally convinced THE GOOD BISHOP to run and catapulted him to the presidency last April 2008 against the 62-year old ruling Colorado Party. It was a similar attempt of the people to take the first great leap to affect much-needed changes in the socio-political system in their country.

Similarly, there were strong reactions and apprehensions, even chastisement from various fronts especially the Church when these Catholic men of cloth – Among Ed and Fernando Lugo – chose politics over their priesthood. There were / are raging arguments coming from Canon Law experts that prompted the Catholic hierarchy to suspend Among Ed from his priestly duties as soon as he announced his intention to run for Governor and filed his candidacy.

But unlike Among Ed who deems himself a priest-on-leave which makes him a priest-politician (which to Archbishop Cruz is “an anomaly to the hierarcy”), the good ex-bishop Lugo was determined and decisive. As early as January 2005, he resigned as head of the diocese and asked for his laicization as he was getting more involved with his political and social activities outside of the church. His request for dispensation was denied because as per the Church laws, bishops could not be laicized. When he ran for President in 2008, he was “suspended from the discharge of the ordained ministry” but was not dismissed of his “clerical state” – once a priest always a priest. However, when he won the election, Pope Benedict XVI reversed the earlier decision and finally accepted the bishop’s request for laicization.

Another admirable fact about ex-bishop now President Lugo is this: he admitted that he had fathered a child with Viviana Carillo while he was still a bishop and assumed responsibility over his two-year old son. He necessarily nipped the scandal in the bud to protect his child from further pain. Well, priest or otherwise, isn’t that something any mature father should do, to not deny his child and to take responsibility for his deeds or misdeeds?

Ah, if only Among Ed was Fernando Lugo!

* from A shepherd inside the wolves’ den Conversations with “Among Ed” Panlilio by Levie Cequeña and Jayson Edward B. San Juan, The Lobbyist.biz, an online magazine.