Let us pray.

Let us pray that the Philippines does not succumb to the hare-brained idea that a Catholic priest would make a great next president of the Republic of the Philippines.

Although, come to think of it, the professional politicians seem to have done a pretty good job screwing up “democracy” as it is known in the Philippines, at least since the 1960s. What more damage could a popular Pampanga governor like Fr. Ed Panlilio do?  Plenty. And it goes right to the core of what makes a democratic nation great.

As an American Filipino, there is much in the great history of this country to suggest that, generally speaking, mixing religion and politics is just plain wrong. America’s very inception was based on the splitting off from England for, among other things, the sanctity of religious freedom.  The separation of church and state is fundamental to our sense of a thriving democracy.

Mind you, I don’t mean that one cannot be religious. I have invoked God many a time in my columns. And I have prayed to make deadlines. Sadly, George Bush invoked both God and prayer and looked what happened. Post-Bush America is so bankrupt, there is no amount of absolution or penance that will forgive him his trespasses. But a man who is a Catholic priest who becomes president is in a totally different league altogether.

Where is the line and who establishes it? Is it God? Or the people?

If it’s God, then we no longer have a democracy we’re talking about, but a theocratic hybrid. Hybrids are all the rage these days. Capitalist America is leaning socialist. Communist China is leaning capitalist. And the

poor Philippines is leaning religious. Is the country really ready to go in that direction?

If it’s the people who decide where the line is drawn, then what of the new minority of non-believers?

If the Philippines is interested in taking the Jihad of its southern minorities to new heights, then it will put a priest as its head and hasten the start of an official holy war. Talk about going backward in time. Are you

ready for the New Pinoy Crusades?
At a time when the country should be talking about unity, progress and developing in the 21st Century, this is a major step toward the devolution of democracy.
But maybe the Philippines needs that.

That the Arroyo government and cronies cannot come up with some real names to be a standard bearer for the future is troubling. It indicates a lack of leadership and a lack of ideas. Or that all the truly talented or capable folk are just too busy, sinful or selfish to care. It suggests a weaker democracy than we can imagine. What’s next, a return to Datu  feudalism with the rich in their manors and private armies fighting each other off?

Oh, we have that already?

So maybe instead repeating the past, the turn to Fr. Ed Panlilio is like a football team’s desperate Hail Mary pass into the end zone as time runs out.

It’s a hope and a prayer. Father, could be that man. It still would be wrong for the country as a whole, sending the wrong message to its people and the world. Besides, it would be a sin on the part of Fr. Ed.

Look at Rev. Bob Drinan who served in the U.S. Congress for nearly 30 years. He was always one of my favorites because he did not play politics like a priest. He was pro-choice and advocated for human rights. He was a good liberal who wore his collar in the house of the people-- Congress.
But even Fr. Bob knew where the line was. In 1980, Pope John Paul II made it absolutely clear that priests could not hold political office.
Since one cannot serve two masters, Drinan obediently left Capitol Hill.  He had a calling and it wasn’t politics. I often missed the moral leadership he displayed when he was in office. But in the end, he did what was right. He died in 2007.

Panlilio should end all this talk now. Or leave the church.

That his name is being floated as presidential timber is more troubling. It seems that the weak democracy made in America’s image is now desperately seeking grounding in another colonial remnant.
While America gifted the R.P. democracy, the Spanish instilled Catholicism.  When your two big ideas are the result of imperial rule, it seems there’s little else the Philippines can do. The colonial mentality is hardwired into its DNA.
(E-mail: emil@amok.com)