By Atty. Howie Calleja
“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8: 31-32). In the context of the recent spite of troll-driven electoral misinformation; we appeal to all sectors of our society to see our electoral process through the “lens of TRUTH”. For without the TRUTH the sacredness of our 2022 polls will fall prey to duplicity and propaganda. Truth enlightens man’s intelligence and shapes his actions.
St. John Paul II reminds us: As a result of that mysterious original sin, committed at the prompting of Satan, the one who is “a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44), man is constantly tempted to turn his gaze away from the living and true God in order to direct it towards idols (cf. 1 Thes 1:9), exchanging “the truth about God for a lie” (Rom 1:25). Man’s capacity to know the truth is also darkened, and his will to submit to it is weakened. Thus, giving himself over to relativism and skepticism (cf. Jn 18:38), he goes off in search of an illusory freedom apart from truth itself … But no darkness of error or of sin can totally take away from man the light of God the Creator. In the depths of his heart there always remains a yearning for the absolute truth and a thirst to attain full knowledge of it.
As the enemy of TRUTH, we should unmask the propaganda and “lies” that blur our perception of the events surrounding our country’s electoral process. It is propaganda to say there were no human rights victims and Extra-Judicial Killings (EJKs) during the Marcos and Duterte regimes. But the truth is when Amnesty International has documented thousands of victims; and that there is even an existing law to pay human rights victims.
It is propaganda to get credit for the projects and/or accomplishments that are not yours, or to claim authorship of laws you have nothing to do with. Like for instance, the presence of windmills as a privately initiated enterprise being claimed as a government undertaking is all deception vis-à-vis the truth of being an absentee Governor, Congressman and Senator. It is propaganda to claim of championing the cause of the poor when the truth is that billions of pesos have been funneled into graft and corruption practices during the Marcos and Duterte administrations.
It is propaganda to claim innocence when truth is that there is a conviction in the Sandigan Bayan under appeal and that Marcos Junior himself is a Convicted criminal. And, it is Propaganda to claim that the Philippines’ Golden Years were under the Marcos Administration when the truth is that our country became the sick man of Asia as President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. through our foreign debts plunged the economy into a crisis, and run away with billions of stolen money with him and his cronies.
Marcos Junior and Sara Duterte are both hiding in a propaganda-driven and machinery-controlled electoral campaign whose narrative of lies, deceptions and fake news is what their unity team is all about. It is a propaganda tied to each of their family’s history of dishonesty. They would even discredit “truth seekers” by labeling them as agents of “black propaganda” —- reversing the real truth to their favor. And, YES, they would claim that they will never stoop down to the level of mudslinging against their political rivals but even worse is when you pollute the minds of the electorate with propaganda in the guise of truth whose end result is still to malign the dignity of other candidates. Enough with the Lies for only the Truth will set us free.