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Fr. Roberto P. Reyes

Cambodia and the Philippines in the seventies treaded similar paths. Cambodia was ruled by the blood thirsty Pol Pot while the Philippines was run by a sophisticated politician whose rhetoric coated atrocities with trade mark Marcosian language. I grew up listening to President Ferdinand Marcos moving and convincing speeches the way that Hitlers Youth fed on Der Fuhrers powerful  spiels.  Official statistics put the victims of Pol Pots brutality at approximately two million between 1975 to 1978. The deaths and disappearances of the Marcos era pales by comparison. The Cambodians have had to pay more than Filipinos for their freedom.

 Many years after Pol Pot and Marcos, an eerie similaritry still grips both countries.  Two recent and separate articles speak of a similar situation pervading the two countries. Former Canterbury Archbishop Lord George Carey spoke of the need for Cambodian youth to develop ethical leadership in a profoundly corrupted country. Filipino Journalist Jose Montelibano criticizes the silence of the hierarchy of the predominant catholic church in the Philipppines in the face of worsening hunger due to corruption.

 While politics is normally vulnerable to corruption, religion is expected to be less prone to the latter. Cambodias predominantly Buddhist hierarchy suffered big loses during Pol Pots time when the dictator branded the monks parasites and without hesitation murdered thousands of them. No such religious persecution led to such massive murders of the Catholic hierarchy in the Philippines, yet Montelibano underscores the disturbing silence of the Catholic hierarchy on poverty and hunger spawned by a corrupt and self-serving political leadership.

 The political leadership of both countries do not give any importance to the voice of the poor. Elites continue to run the government which works with the hierarchies of various churches. While religion continues to be a vital tool of renewal and liberation, it can also play the useful role of legitimizer, of providing the spiritual, moral and cultural bases of the current government. Religions obviously can be compromised and controlled. As such, they become mere political tools without ethical ascendancy and influence.

 In order for religion in both Cambodia and the Philippines to exercise ethical influence, it needs to extricate itself from the controlling grip of political and elitist power. Can this be done? Who will do it? When will it happen?

People in dire situations like war, die either of the harsh conditions of inhospitable terrain or their spirits begin to wilt and die within a physical container called the body. The internally displaced peoples of Sri Lanka, Burma or the Philippines  need more than humanitarian aid. Whatever it takes to keep the human spirit alive and vibrant is the work of groups and individuals both within and outside the countries concerned. There is one example of such a group and individuals in Sri Lanka.  Their efforts should be commended , supported and even replicated.