No, I am not running for any public office in 2010. Been there, done that. Being in public service since 1967, I would fall under the category of some as a traditional politician, although I will insist that not all traditional politicians are bad, in the same way that not everything traditional, conventional or customary is evil.

But let this column not be about me, or, God forbid, an apologist write-up for “trapos”, to which I was not long ago unfairly accused of. Let this column be about all of us, citizens of this poor but a country and people that deserves the best, and our role, paano tayong lahat makikialam, in the 2010 elections onwards.

Last week’s pastoral exhortation of CBCP President Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, D.D which he called Year of the Two Hearts for Peace-Building and Lay participation in Social Change reminded us of our Christian obligations in politics, to get organized, leading to positive and lasting changes for our people and country.

He said, “We challenge our Catholic laity, in particular, to take the lead in the task of moral renewal towards a deeper and more lasting change in the Philippine society. We challenge all lay people involved in politics to renounce corruption and bond together in the task of evangelizing politics for effective governance and the pursuit of the common good…We urge every Catholic lay person to give a concrete expression to Christian discipleship through responsible citizenship.”

I have always believed that WE ALL have a distinct and special role in the politics of nation building, one that must never start and end with the ballot during elections. This is how, together with a group of lay Catholics, we conceptualized Groups United to Serve God or GUTS in 1992. Bishop Teodoro C. Bacani, Jr mentioned GUTS in his book, Church in Politics, as a group with the “avowed purpose of asking Catholics in different parishes to make a united choice for the particular candidates the parishioners find deserving of election.”

GUTS is perhaps one “radical” approach in which without tinkering around or crossing the boundaries of the separation of church and state e.g. having the priest themselves run for public office, the Catholic Church and all other Christian faiths, for that matter, may exert their moral and spiritual role in building a nation led not of corrupt and incompetent government officials but by honest, God-fearing, competent and genuine public servants that are collectively and carefully chosen through an ala - US primary system by informed, enlightened and organized citizens. (Yes, we thought of adopting the “primaries” long before others did).  

As much as the CBCP is encouraged by the rise in the call of the people for “moral regeneration” for our country, I am also personally excited by the fact that there are so many concerned groups and individuals who are formulating and working on ways towards finding just and lasting solution to the crisis of politics and governance in our country, some of them ‘hard-liners’ as my activist friend would say, but some are more realistic and open-minded. Now, if we could all work together and realize that real change can only happen when the do-gooders accept that the even traditional politicians can also contribute to nation building, mindful that there are good and bad politicians (traditional or pseudo-alternative) just as there are corrupt civil society members (like those who do not pay the correct taxes) and there are the real good ones.

Change can only happen when we all accept each other - take the bad with the good - believe in Redemption - give everybody a chance to reform like St Paul who was a murderer and formulate procedures where the fakes can be detected as soon as possible.

Yes, I am a pakialamero, even an idealist pakialamero, but I would rather be a pakialamero than a sleepless fence-sitter who knows that s/he can do something and contribute in improving the lives of many but dare not to.