MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino on Saturday compared the resuscitation of the country’s economy and the his administration’s fight against corruption to the resurrection of Jesus Christ more than 2,000 years ago.
In his Easter message, the President recalled the Christ’s great sacrifice that Christians believe to have paved the way for the salvation of mankind and His triumphant rise from the dead.
“With His great sacrifice, He bore the sins of us all; He opened the door to the Kingdom of God the Father. Indeed, with his resurrection, everlasting life came to fore. This is also the rise that our country is showing now,” the President said.
He added that Filipinos should keep faith and trust in His great love, which would “bring us the light toward a progressive and just society.”
“We have proven that the key to success is to follow the good example set by Jesus Christ—doing what is right, charity and being concerned with our fellowmen,” the President added.
Catholic and Evangelical leaders took a step further by calling on Christians to examine their personal and communal lives and turn away from their sinful ways.
“Let us rejoice! But let our rejoicing bring about conversion. As Jesus has died to sin and risen to life in God, we should also die to sin and live for God,” Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle said in his Easter message. “The resurrection is not a return to human earthly life, a life still subject to evil and destruction.”
Bishop Efraim M. Tendero, national director of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches, said Christians should “submit themselves to the authority of the risen Christ… to transform our nation from a culture of corruption, to that of following the ‘tuwid na landas’ (straight path) that our President longs for.”
“Real change for good in all the branches of the government, the business sector, the media, other sectors of society, our families, and even in our very selves can only come as we let the resurrection power of Christ flow into our lives,” he said.
The President’s Easter message segued into a rundown of the gains of his administration, among them the investments in the Philippine Economic Zone Authority and the record highs registered by the Philippine Stock Exchange index.
Mr. Aquino said that following Christ’s example is also the reason why as early as March, the government had already registered its target of three million families in its conditional cash transfer program.
Mr. Aquino promised that those in government would do their job better “for us to achieve the desired changes faster.”
“This cannot be achieved by pulling one over the other, by always racing against each other, or by looking only after one’s self,” he said.
“This can only be accomplished by continuing to live by the teachings of Christ—in opening the heart to our fellows especially to the poor among our countrymen,” he added.