Clarifications needed re: Davide’s Truth Commission

LAWMAKERS AND FORMER PRESIDENTS ARE TO BLAME FOR FATAL ROAD ACCIDENTS: Why are there so many road accidents happening around us today, killing scores and scores of passengers and even mere innocent by-standers?

The simple reason is that our congressmen and senators and all our previous presidents were remiss in their performance of their duty as protectors of the people.

You see, in all the years that they have been in power, they talked almost about everything, but they did not see it fit to amend, modify or revise the country’s archaic laws on road accidents which do not have any capacity to send to prison any erring driver.

I am sure all of them knew that under current laws, a driver found responsible for the death of one person---or even a hundred---will be sentenced to only four years of imprisonment, which means he need not be detained because of probation. Why then did not our lawmakers and presidents do anything about this?

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CLARIFICATIONS NEEDED RE: DAVIDE’S TRUTH COMMISSION: The Aquino administration must clarify immediately whether the criminal cases that many groups already filed against former President (and now Pampanga Rep.) Gloria Macapagal Arroyo should await the outcome of the investigations of Hilario Davide’s Truth Commission before they can be acted upon.

I think that, under the law, Mrs. Arroyo can ask that the criminal cases against her, directly filed with the justice department right after she stepped down from the presidency, be suspended in the meantime that the Truth Commission is still investigating her.

This is under the “prejudicial question” doctrine, which says that when the issue of the guilt of innocence of someone being accused of a crime is already being tackled in another forum, the criminal cases that have been filed against him should be suspended or held in abeyance in the interim.

In line with this, the Davide Commission must likewise clarify how much time it will take to investigate Mrs. Arroyo and the Arroyo family. It must also clarify what would be the nature of its proceedings, as well as what would be the effect of any its reports, conclusions and findings.

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WEDDING AT CANA, AND MARY’S ROLE AS MEDIATOR BETWEEN MAN AND JESUS: The Bible’s account of the wedding in Cana, where Jesus turned the water into wine as narrated in John 2:1-11, now forms part of the Holy Rosary of the Roman Catholic Christians as its Second Luminous Mystery (or Second Mystery of Light).

Among many Christian believers, this part of Jesus’s life is often unknown or is little heard of, although it should occupy a place of importance because, as the Bible itself in John 2:11says: “This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana, in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.”

Being the very first miracle of Jesus, it is significant to note that the Bible appears to have portrayed Him as a little hesitant in performing it, considering His refusal to do anything when Mary, His mother, first approached Him when wine had run out during the wedding banquet. Jesus told Mary: “Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come.”

But it was only because of Mary’s persistence---she told the servants, “do as He says” even when she was already rebuffed by her Son---that Jesus relented and, as the Bible itself emphasizes, this became His first ever recorded miracle, the very first revelation of His glory.

If anything at all, therefore, this wedding totally justifies the Roman Catholic Christians’ giving of importance to Mary and calling her, among others, as the “mediatrix of all grace”.

Indeed, it is conceded that the only mediator between God and man is Jesus Christ. But, as shown by the wedding at Cana and the turning of the water into wine, Mary is the most effective mediator between Jesus and man.