Calungsod for our leaders

Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama attended Saturday’s start of the hundred-day countdown to the canonization of Visayan teenager Blessed Pedro Calungsod.

The presence of the two officials at the religious ceremony testified anew to the dynamic relationship betweeen faith and public life in the Philippines.

Government officials in general would do well to make sure that they go beyond niceties towards their religious counterparts at these special occasions and let the lessons from Blessed Pedro’s story inspire their career.

One of the Visayan’s virtues was humility.

Centuries before hagiographers dug up and reconstructed his story, Blesed Pedro set out from the Visayas to the Marianas Islands with only one goal: to serve.

He contributed to the growth of the islanders even in obscurity and certainly did not work, as any demagogue obsessively would, to go down as one of history’s great men.

His ethic stands in stark contrast to that of many leaders today who are afflicted by a kind of anxiety for political survival that sees them trumpeting as extraordinary achievements what they do for their constituents as a matter of justice (with “epal” posters and signs to boot).

Leaders should trust their followers to acknowledge them for their service at the right time instead of wasting time and resources indulging an inordinate appetite for the limelight.

Blessed Pedro also practiced the virtue of loyalty, which our civil leaders should imitate, too.

The Visayan stayed with the Jesuit missionary, Fr. Diego Luis de San Vitores, to defend him from physical assault.

This election year, cynics expect the severance of friendships and shifting political allegiances among the mighty.

But we need to see parties with principles that adherents can stick to and political leaders who are comrades in arms for the good of all instead of ad hoc alliances designed solely to catch a bigger share of votes.

Further, we would like to see fewer and fewer arguments ad hominem and more intelligent, civil discourse among our leaders in and out of election year.

If the bitterness of political quarrels is removed from the campaign season perhaps it can also be excised from the supposedly quiet years.

Then we would not have discords like what we saw or continue to see between the late vice governor Gregorio Sanchez Jr. and Governor Garcia, Mayor Rama and Congressman Tomas Osmeña, the Durano brothers in Danao City and the current and former dispensations in Compostela town, among others.

Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal said he hopes the runup to Blessed Pedro’s canonization (incidentally also the runup to the time for those interested in public office to file their certificates of candidacy) would be for all Filipinos a time of grace.

We hope that the leaders concerned would take courage and be inspired by Blessed Pedro to walk the path to political maturity by sharing their inner reserves of grace.