Email: fred_amora@yahoo.com

Kon wakay kuarta dili ka modaog sa election dinhis atoa. Busa kadtong nagsige kadaog, daghag kuarta. Ang pangutana: dis-a man sila anang daghang kuarta? Sueldo?

What’s this? A new church?

No..no…no. It has nothing to do with churches nor about religion, cults or sect. It is just a small group of friends who nurture imaginations just like what the late John Lennon wrote in the lyrics of his song “Imagine”. “Imagine there’s no heaven, no hell below us.”

So why IGLESIA? Well, “Iglesia” actually doesn’t mean religion or church. It is taken from the Greek word “Ekklesia” that means people, group of individuals who share the same visions and aspirations in life.

Don’t rush to judgment that “Iglesia ni Fred Amora” is another movement wherein members will be asked to sing, dance, raise their hands, jump three times, then ordered to recite the act of contrition. There is also no imposed tithing of 10% of their income. Certainly this is not among them; this is a group composed of simple freedom loving people, who love God and country (and their neighbors), would stand tall so that honor and justice may live.

You think there are still people like these in this world today? Yes of course… there are many and most of them are readers of this Sunday column. They would even send me e-mails once in a while. In their comments, observations and views of things in today’s maddening world, lots of them feel and wish the same things that Fred Amora prays everyday.

Most of them pray that our people would wake up from the “state of stupidity” during election time. They wish that our people respect themselves as human beings, not like dogs that bow to their masters when thrown a piece of bone.

Many of them are out of the country or if still here, have evolved into better lives; have wrestled free from the stalking poverty that still grip most of our people in the countrysides today.

Of course, these people who probably are now dollar earners or have good business in the city, has a better or wider view at the top, comparing things way back home. Experiencing transition between earning a fistful of peso and a bundle of dollar or euro, of course is a diploma by itself.

And a diploma holder can qualify as a good teacher.

A case study of escaping from “state of stupidity” is the success story of a friend who now lives in Florida, U.S.A. He was once a municipal mayor (elected) and we are quite close and we share the same “hallucinations”.

When he ran in the elections he told me: “Bay manghatag ko ug uwan-uwan kay kon wa, di ta modaog.” He succumbed to vote-buying, surrendered his principles and he won.

But when he ran for reelection, he lost despite his sterling performance and graft-free governance.

“Bay naunsaay man nga pildi man ka,” I asked him.

“Ang mga tawo bay di matabang. Walay bili ug unsa imo performance. Didto sila botar sa ahong kontra kay tag 500 ang hatag kontras akoa 50 ra.” My friend abandoned politics, migrated to the USA and seem to have found his green, blueberry hills there.

The story ends with this note: Kon wakay kuarta dili ka modaog sa election dinhis atoa. Busa kadtong nagsige kadaog, daghag kuarta. Ang pangutana: dis-a man sila anang daghang kuarta? Sueldo?

He. Hee. Sweldos konsehal P18,000 (Salary Grade 24); sueldos mayor P24,000 (Salary Grade 27), sueldos congressman P35,000 (Salary Grade 28). Unya maigo na ipamalet ug boto pag-abot sa election?

The simple equation is that this country’s politics is Investment= Returns. Ug mopohonan, magpa ginansiya. Therefore government elective position has now become a “lucrative business” - a monkey business allowed and tolerated by a stupid nation.

Thought for the day:
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.”
- Lord Acton (1834 - 1902), British historian.