What Has Happened to Them?

While the Catholic Church is very categorical in its statement about the role of its ordained ministers towards politics, it cannot be denied that men of cloth have certainly been as (politically partisan) an animal as Aristotle, in his The Politics, believed human beings are so naturally.  In fact, in fulfillment of the so-called prophetic role of the Church, its leaders are actually very effective sociological (and political) force particularly as they do their lobby works for their institutional advocacy issues.  We have the issue of reproductive health as an example of this.  Any political leader who does not adhere to the line of the Church is perceived to be committing political suicide(of course, we have Juan Flavier who despite the open campaign of the Church against him for his endorsement of the use of condom and other artificial means of birth control still managed to win overwhelmingly in senatorial contests).  Now, bishops and priests are doing their advocacies against environmental threats, such as mining and even oil explorations.

Partisan politicking is also practiced by at least a couple of Catholic priests.  In 1971, Bohol had its first priest to be elected to a public office in the person of Fr. Margarito Gonzaga.  Fr. Eddie T. Panlilio, the elected governor of the province of Pampanga is the second to assume an elective post in 2007.

With the 2010 elections in the offing, it may be interesting to know what has happened to the three priest-politicians of the previous election.  They are Fr. Ed Panlilio of the Archdiocese of San Fernando (Pampanga), Msgr. Crisanto dela Cruz of the Archdiocese of Zamboanga and Fr. Ronilo Omanio of the Apostolic Vicariate of San Jose (de Mindoro).

We may start with Among Ed Panlilio, whose life has become an open book from the time he challenged the political giants of Pampanga, and scored a big win against them.  He became famous too when he exposed that he was given a five hundred thousand “gift” by Malacanan people for no justifiable reason at all.  He also made news when he was able to show that more revenues may be collected from the quarry fields of Pampanga.  He was seen going around with equally maverick Grace Padaca and other non-traditional political leaders advocating new forms of governance.  Lately, he even signified his intention to run for Philippine presidency.  And, just recently, he was sworn in as a member of the Liberal Party of Noynoy Aquino and promised to help organize and rally the party in his province of Pampanga, even as he was hinting that he would love to be back to priesthood.