Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III has filed a resolution, urging elected leaders and all Filipinos to heed Pope Francis’ call to live simply and in “outstanding honesty, integrity, and commitment to the common good.”
In filing Senate Resolution 1110, Pimentel said Filipinos should follow the lead of the pontiff, citing the humility the latter has shown during his five-day visit to the country.
“A reformer who is not afraid to shake things up, Pope Francis chooses to live simply as manifested, among other things, by the emblems of his office that he wears at public functions like the silver pectoral cross and the silver papal ring instead of the gilded symbols of the papacy that others before him preferred,” Pimentel said in the resolution.
“True to form, Pope Francis even requested the organizers of his Philippine trip to remove posters depicting his face along the roads of typhoon-ravaged Leyte, and to replace the posters with portraits of our Lord Jesus Christ, in order to emphasize that the focus of the event should be Our Lord Jesus Christ, and not the Pope,” he said.
The resolution also noted that when when the Pope paid a courtesy call to President Benigno Aquino III in Malacañang last January 16, he rode in a “humble car instead of a flashy one.”
“And in that event, his humility was magnified when the television cameras caught the Pope opening the door of the car himself before the protocol officers could do it for him,” it said.
The Pope’s call to live simply, the resolution said, became more relevant as the Philippines faces the challenges of achieving inclusive growth, “which despite the sincere efforts of the government today still excludes a significant percentage of our population who continue to live in poverty and want.”
“To respond positively to the papal challenge for us to live simply, it behooves our political leaders to show the way by their living with honesty, integrity, and commitment to the common good so that our nation’s resources are channeled properly to benefit the people, especially the poor, in a culture where the human rights and dignity of everyone are cherished and respected, and justice is done to them whatever their station in life may be,” it further said.
Pimentel also expressed hope in the resolution that legislators would be inspired by the Papal Visit’s theme: Mercy and Compassion and the examples set by the Pope himself, by passing more laws that will benefit the common good and uplift the poor and underprivileged.
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