“IF YOU can’t help your neighbor, at least don’t kill him,” said the Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama is not a Christian—he is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people.
Yet the Dalai Lama wouldn’t have done to young cancer patients what Margie Juico, former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) chair, did to them.
Juico is a member of a fundamentalist Christian sect.
She is the “unnamed Palace functionary” alluded to in Sunday’s Inquirer who reportedly drove away 200 young cancer patients from an old building inside the former Quezon Institute, now a PCSO compound, in Quezon City.
By evicting the young cancer patients from the PCSO compound, the youngest of whom was 2 years old, Juico, in effect, didn’t give the youngsters a chance to lengthen their lives.
That was clearly an unchristian act of the former appointments secretary of the late President Cory, President Noynoy’s mother.
At first I thought it was P-Noynoy’s idea to shoo away the cancer patients. But after inquiring from PCSO sources, I found out that Juico did it on her own.
In fact, according to my sources, P-Noy was upset when he was told about Juico’s move.
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But the question is, why didn’t P-Noy order the return of the cancer patients to the PCSO compound, and if that was not possible, give them another place to stay?
Getting upset over Juico’s decision was not enough.
The President should have ordered the relocation of 200 young cancer patients, if the old, rundown building within the PCSO compound was meant for another project.
Unless he doesn’t read the newspapers, the much publicized quarrel between Juico and Ricky Reyes, a high- profile beauty salon owner, over the uncharitable act of the former must have reached El Presidente.
If the President is concerned about the sick and the poor, he could have intervened and set aside an amount for the young patients from his discretionary fund.
P-Noynoy was probably appeased when Juico told him that the building housing the sick kids was a joint project of Reyes and the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, so he no longer pressed the issue.
It took Hans Sy, a member of the philanthropic Sy family that owns SM malls, to help build a home for the young cancer patients.
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A few meters away from Malacañang stands a hospital built by the Arroyo administration for sick elderly citizens.
The geriatric hospital was furnished with modern equipment during Arroyo’s time.
But when P-Noy took over, funding for the hospital stopped.
Why is our President so full of hatred for Gloria, his immediate predecessor, that even worthy projects undertaken by the past administration are discontinued?
Why can’t he forgive her if she, indeed, “sinned” against the President’s family?
Why is he so like his mother, Cory, who could not forgive and forget?
And to think that Cory was supposed to be a religious woman.
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Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte is being flayed for admitting he has two wives and two girlfriends.
Which do you prefer, an official who admits to being a womanizer or one who has many wives and queridas (mistresses) but hides the fact.
You’ll be surprised how many of our government officials maintain mistresses.
How would you react if you find out that a high government official is a pervert, making his bodyguards indulge in sex with a prostitute while he watches, and later taking over.
“Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,” said Jesus of Nazareth.