Estrada: God is punishing the country

**Monseratto** · January 23rd, 2008 06:01 PM

TSk, tsk, tsk...May pagka baliw na ata si Erap, sobrang bilib sa sarili...

http://www.inquirer.net/specialfeatu...0080122-113928

MANILA, Philippines -- Claiming vindication, Joseph Estrada Monday said the country was now suffering because the late Jaime Cardinal Sin did not heed “God’s voice” but instead backed the EDSA II people power revolt, despite a Vatican order to stay away.

“God knows how to make punishments also,” the 70-year-old deposed President told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net). “So our country is what it is now because the head of the Church went against God’s will. Our country is not moving forward.”

Estrada was reacting to an Inquirer story quoting a highly placed source as saying that the Vatican had told Sin in 2001 that it did not want the Philippine Roman Catholic Church to get involved in the anti-Estrada uprising.

Faced with the “order” from the Vatican, Sin had threatened to resign as Manila archbishop if forced to withdraw Church support for the upheaval at EDSA (Epifanio delos Santos Avenue), the source said.

The stalemate was resolved after a meeting with Vatican representatives, according to the source.

A second Inquirer source had also confirmed there was a directive from the Vatican for Sin and the rest of the Philippine clergy “not to be partisan” during the 2001 uprising.

The second source said the order must have come from “higher” than the Philippine desk at the Vatican’s foreign affairs office “but I don’t think it was the Pope.”

Sin died in July 2005.

“Little by little I am vindicated and hopefully I will be really vindicated in the end,” Estrada said.

God’s will

Estrada, who was convicted of plunder last September but was later granted presidential pardon, maintained it was “God speaking” when he captured the presidency in 1998 after posting one of the biggest vote margins in the history of Philippine presidential elections.

“Vox populi, vox Dei (The voice of the people is the voice of God),” Estrada reiterated.

Estrada was ousted from power on Jan. 20, 2001, following accusations of corruption.

A chapter in his book

Estrada also said he was devoting a chapter about the Vatican order to Sin in the book he was writing, which was expected to be published by the end of the year.

“Inunahan ninyo ako sa istorya (You beat me to the story). I was to reveal that in my autobiography,” he said light-heartedly, adding he had known about the Vatican order even before the fateful week when he made his gloomy exit from Malacañang.

Citing the irony of fate in politics, Estrada said that the Church that wooed him six times to enter politics in 1967 was the same Church that caused his downfall.

He recalled that a parish priest in San Juan -- Msgr. Casimiro Alvarez -- had tried to convince him, when he was still a movie actor, to run for mayor.

“I finally heeded (him) on his sixth visit,” he said.

Cruz disputes report

“But I don’t mean that the whole Church is to be blamed for our country’s situation now. The fault of Cardinal Sin is not the fault of the entire Church,” Estrada said.

The Inquirer called the Embassy of the Holy See in Manila but an embassy staffer said that Papal Nuncio Edward Joseph Adams was not available for comment.

The staffer said the embassy would not comment on “something that happened in the past.”

For his part, a senior Filipino prelate, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz, Monday said he was sure the Vatican had not ordered Sin to back off from EDSA II.

“I am certain that there was no such order because the Holy Father did not need to order Cardinal Sin to do anything or not do anything. It would be enough for the Holy Father to say this and Cardinal Sin would obey. I know him (Sin) that well,” Cruz told reporters.

Unquestioned obedience

Cruz, who had worked closely with Sin as his auxiliary bishop in Manila, said Sin revered the Pope and his obedience to the Holy See was unquestioned.

“The cardinal was not a person who will negotiate with the Vatican if it says no to an issue,” he said.

Cruz also said the Vatican did not have any reason to order the Philippine Church to detach its support for EDSA II.

For one, he said, Sin’s focus was not on politics per se but on the moral issue concerning the Estrada administration.

Even Pope John Paul II, Cruz said, also intervened in his native country Poland to fight the spread of communism. Sin, comparatively, should also feel free to intervene in the moral dimension of the Philippine government because this was his country.

Papal Nuncio was there

A source at the Archdiocese of Manila, who asked not to be identified, not being privy to the issue, said it was unlikely the Vatican had frowned on Sin’s role in EDSA II.

The source said that if the Vatican had opposed Church participation, “how come Archbishop Antonio Franco, the Apostolic Nuncio then and therefore envoy of the Pope, was present at (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s) oath-taking at the EDSA Shrine, as pictures of the event show?”

The source added that what came from the Vatican at the time was an aide memoire to the Department of Foreign Affairs containing a comment or an opinion by a minor Vatican official about the participation of the clergy in political affairs. With a report from Cynthia D. Balana

**dbuzz** · January 23rd, 2008 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by Monseratto

TSk, tsk, tsk...May pagka baliw na ata si Erap, sobrang bilib sa sarili...

http://www.inquirer.net/specialfeatu...0080122-113928

dating di na normal ang pagiisip daw nyan.

nataking mong gawing madyongan ang malakanyang. matino na yun?

**suv** · January 23rd, 2008 08:05 PM

The voice of the people is the voice of God???? Puuhleaaseeeeeee

From that same voice, Christ was crucified.....

So hindi laging voice of the people is the voice of God... :D

**jeffrocks** · January 25th, 2008 05:15 AM

No offense meant to Erap's fans

...maybe he's right,because he knew it that he was the one sent by Almighty Father to punished the country [during his term] but now trying to change the pages of history...He promised to be at his mother's bedside and take care of her once he will be pardoned but lo and behold,he is busy campaigning and cleansing his name...what a smart but
incorrigible oldman...

don't get fooled again...no...no

**MXFX** · January 25th, 2008 05:34 AM

he might as well claim that god is punishing the u.s. too because of gays and lesbians

.

**safeorigin** · January 30th, 2008 09:12 PM

and God did punish him as well by not finishing anything at all

**tip_tipid** · January 30th, 2008 09:40 PM

wow, he was convicted, but got pardoned easily. that is what i call one of the big punishment the poor filipinos got out of this government. a big fish caught and later released.

**n2knee** · January 31st, 2008 02:59 AM

bakit ba kasi napakialamero ang simbahang katoliko sa problemang pampulitika ng bansa? lalong lalo na noong buhay pa si cardinal sin. ang laki ng presence ng simbahang katoliko sa mga political rallies gaya ng edsa trilogy (tatlong beses ba naganap ang edsa rally?).

**ARB** · February 7th, 2008 10:35 PM

yes we are being punished, the punishment is him as president!

**Devastator** · February 7th, 2008 11:27 PM

Originally Posted by n2knee

bakit ba kasi napakialamero ang simbahang katoliko sa problemang pampulitika ng bansa? lalong lalo na noong buhay pa si cardinal sin. ang laki ng presence ng simbahang katoliko sa mga political rallies gaya ng edsa trilogy (tatlong beses ba naganap ang edsa rally?).

Sa dalawang EDSA lang involved ang Church. Yung 3rd, which is EDSA Tres was the violent attempt by pro-erap supporters to kick GMA out of office, hindi naki-alam ang simbahan dito.