27 August 2014 A.D./2nd
day of Dhu Alqa’da A.H. 1435
“Therefore, faithful to the objective moral law and the universally
honored constitutional principle that sovereignty resides in the people and all
government authority emanates from them, we declare that President Benigno
Simeon Aquino III has lost the moral right to lead the nation, and has become a
danger to the Philippine democratic and republican State and to the peace,
freedom, security and the moral and spiritual well-being of the Filipino people. We further declare that we have lost all
trust and confidence in President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, and we call upon
him to immediately relinquish his position.”
Thus reads the core and conclusive content of the quite
well-known “Lipa Declaration”. Kind and pleasing, the thus formally written
and publicly disseminated corporate conviction of the people concerned is
certainly not. But born of
disappointment and exasperation, it definitely is. It is thus but right and proper to have a
closer look into and a better understanding of the said admittedly some kind of
a “no holds barred” expression of a
common sentiment of those concerned. They
are not few and who in fact appear to be becoming even more and more in number
as those principally concerned therein are making rounds in the different
regions of the Country to make their pronouncement known. The following more key contents of the “Declaration” appear to be worth noting even
if only in order to better understand them – while taking into account the fact that the said “Declaration” is the collegial pronouncement of the
citizens of the Philippines from different faiths, from different places and
walks of life:
1. “Faithful
to objective Moral Law”
What is really right or wrong, truth or falsity, virtue or
vice – these are thus qualified by objective moral law. It is both vicious as well as ominous when
someone only does what pleases him – making morality irrelevant. Such is true particularly for the highest
public official in a Country.
2. “Lost
the moral right to lead a nation”
So it is that a supposedly national leader precisely loses the moral ascendancy
to lead a country when the same follows but what is his personal option, what
personally pleases him, what is beneficial to him personally. The interest and welfare of others are not
important.
3. A
danger to… the spiritual and well-being of the Filipino people”
Thus it is that such a leader of a nation becomes a danger –
a liability, a threat, a menace - to
those precisely supposed to be his followers.
Such a situation becomes a living reality when the said leader is precisely leading his
followers to spiritual disaster, their inhumanity to men.
“Immediately relinquish his position.” While this is an objectively logical and
rightful conclusion, what the individual concerned actually does, still remains
how own call. One thing however is clear
and certain: Respected, admired, revered
by the people, more and more he is not!
