IF only President Duterte had made good his threat of abolishing the House of Representatives we would be spared from the incomparably shameful act of congressmen fighting over their pork barrel allocations in the midst of this huge virus crisis. The President’s threat early on in the presidential campaign was amply rewarded with characteristic heavy turn-coatism from the major opposing political parties after he won the elections.
The congressmen have repeatedly made a mockery of the law outlawing pork barrel. We are not taken for fools to think that government projects no longer benefit the lawmakers, the main driving force in the ongoing squabble threatening the House leadership.
The shockingly huge amounts of P8 billion for Speaker Allan Cayetano’s district in Taguig and P12 billion for Deputy Speaker LRay Villafuerte’s district in Camarines Sur that was promptly denied by Cayetano as lump-sums should again alert the Senate to scrutinize the proposed national expenditures. Only Senators Ping Lacson and Minority Leader Franklin Drilon are raising a howl against the substantial pork insertions in the national budget. Why?
‘Only Senators Ping Lacson and Minority Leader Franklin Drilon are raising a howl against the substantial pork insertions in the national budget. Why?’
***
Most of the characters in the news for the past five months are dismaying and horribly uninspired, save for the selfless frontliners at hospitals and on the streets. Our outward circumstances have done little to make us deeply hopeful. I think there is much to find if we look at other “leaders” who command “other forces” alien to this world broken by decadence and a deadly disease.
Head Pastor of the Born-Again church, Church So Blessed, Hiram Pangilinan writes in his book, Healing Is Yours: “By the turn of this century, many preachers and ministers have started documenting the healings and miracles that were happening in their ministries.
There have been so many of them to account for so I will name only a few to give proof that the healing ministry continues well into our time.
“When one thinks of healing in the 21st century, the ministries of Randy Clark, Benny Hinn, A.L. Gill, Rodney Howard-Browne, John Arnott, Heidie baker, Che Ahn, Bill Johnson, Todd White, Reinhard Bonnke, Kevin and Chad Dedmon, Lesley Anne Leighton, Jack Taylor, Leif Hetland,Jim Rodgers, Jason Westerlfield and Carlos Annacondia come to mind.”
Some of them came under attack by traditionalists who believed that healings and miracles had already stopped. Todd White is one of the few evangelists who has been conducting healings in the streets and malls in the US and Europe. Videos document how short pairs of feet suddenly grew and broken spines healed after his brief healing prayers.
The most astonishing stories come from Heidi Baker’s ministry in Mozambique where the dead being raised to life have become common. Documents list nearly a hundred had been brought to life again. The inspirational lift from reading or watching these “good news” online provides a genuine and tremendous spiritual enlightenment.