Chapter 12 - IN SEARCH OF TRUE LEADERS - The ERAP Is Not the Answer

Chapter 12 -
IN SEARCH OF TRUE LEADERS -
The ERAP Is Not the Answer

by: Arnulfo Yu Laniba
Agape Foundation (Agasoft)

Wednesday, October 17, 2007, Badbad Oriental, Loon, Bohol, Philippines --

I have been bothered by this issue for months and years: ERAP PARA SA MAHIRAP. ERAP was the key. ERAP holds the answer to our poverty, problems and difficulty. ERAP is our savior. ERAP is the one who loved the poor.

Did ERAP really love the poor? And was his standard of righteousness enough to emancipate this nation from its agony?

Not just one person told me of President Erap’s genuine sympathy to the poor. They affirmed to me his true compassion to the poor.

From the media coverage, we who are far from him personally, only could cite his acts of giving dole-outs to the poor who were pictured falling in line or not following the line.

My purpose of this article is to release my own assessment of the ERAP leadership and standard of righteousness though it will be incomplete because I could not read his heart and mind. So, I am not going to condemn him or to declare him a saint. Just using the guidelines from Jesus Christ, we can “know a tree by its fruits.” But remember, without passing final judgment on the person.

Who is ERAP?

We need to cite his bad side: He drank too much, with men of questionable character, even using Malacañan like a drinking pub.

He was being bribed or was he the one demanding for tong (commission) from gambling lords, drug lords, and from other illegal activities? He was charged and just recently adjudged guilty of plunder to the tune of over a billion pesos. Yet he maintained that he did not rob the country and that all those money came from, well, gambling and drug lords, since he has no big business ventures of his own.

To wrap up: ERAP ACCEPTED BRIBES FROM THE GAMBLING AND DRUG LORDS RIGHT INTO HIS POCKET AND GAVE ALMS TO THE POOR WITH HIS LEFT HAND AND MORE TO HIS MISTRESSES WITH HIS RIGHT HAND. Penny-alms to the poor, dollars to his mistresses. Groceries to the beggars, luxury to his mistresses.

In short, as far as we know or believe, Erap uses the lucrative evil businesses of vices to support his two expenses: the poor and his mistresses! The first in cents, the other in millions.

We saw televised or in pictures the luxurious mansions he built for his concubines.

Is ERAP really the model leader we have been looking for? The poor who have found no other on their side say “Yes”.

But I have a different view. Knowing it or not, Erap should have known that drugs and gambling are two of the leading evils that can swiftly destroy our youth, people and nation. Does he know that? Let us forgive if he didn’t. But his ignorance or our forgiveness does not make gambling and drugs less destructive. With Erap’s blessings and support, the increase and spread of drugs and gambling and heaven knows what other illegal harmful activities there were, shifted to the higher gear! If Erap ruled longer, I fear this nation’s fall would happen sooner than we thought!

Question: With this helmsman destroying the youth and people of the land through his support for the illegal drugs and gambling activities in the country, can you still say that his grocery and cash gifts to the poor proved that he loved the poor – that ERAP IS REALLY PARA SA MAHIRAP?

In my opinion, drawn after a long synthesis, ERAP IS NOT REALLY PARA SA MAHIRAP BECAUSE BY HIS INVOLVEMENT WITH THE DRUGS AND GAMBLING ACTIVITIES IN THE COUNTRY, HE WAS DESTROYING THE CHILDREN OF THE POOR AND THEIR FUTURE! Through the daily collection of money from the poor by drug pushers and gambling ushers, Erap was in effect collecting back what he had publicly given to the poor.

Forgive me to say, Erap is a hypocrite and a fake leader! His real love is not the poor but his self and his mistresses!

The Erap standard of leadership and righteousness will not bring the people to liberation. There is no real salvation with Erap.

And if he has genuine love for the poor, he should stop patronizing, protecting, and promoting what destroys the poor, such as gambling and drugs. His lips say he loves the poor, but his deeds speak louder than his words, namely: that he does not love the poor, but destroy them! His mouth utters one thing, his deeds says another.

I hope I have made God’s will and perspective clear and let us stop our stupid adoration to the wrong person. Erap is not the true hero. We are merely mistaking him to be the true hero because we did not recognize the true hero. Our true hero, if we are true Christians, is the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us look up to Him for the effective leadership and the standard righteousness which can truly deliver us from misery and death.

May this short piece help us become wiser in the coming days.

So be it!