I realize that the controversy regarding the attempted departure of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been raging these past weeks and I have intentionally steered clear from commenting on it.

For one, I was waiting for developments.  Second, my feelings about it are rather strong and when feelings are strong, it is best not to speak.  Third, I needed facts and there were very little facts: people were acting out of perception of facts but not stating facts at all.

Yesterday’s news article settled things for me:  Gloria has no life-threatening medical condition or disease that necessitates immediate treatment abroad.

I remember that on the morning after Gloria was prevented from leaving the country, I went to the drugstore and the clerks were so happy.  They said they had prayed that she be not able to leave the country because she had to answer for her many crimes.  I agreed with them that Gloria should answer for her supposed crimes but I did not understand their glee.  Gloria’s little stunt, the Supreme Court’s knee-jerk reaction and Leila de Lima’s defiance might cause a political crisis: it was not a matter for celebration at all.

As days went by, it was becoming more and more obvious that people were angry and they would be dissatisfied if anyone allowed Gloria to leave without facing the charges against her.  I was not alone in feeling this.  But then again, people wanted to get past the PR wars the irritating volleys of press releases and soundbites.  People wanted to know what really is the matter with Gloria and what should be done.  I was not alone, either.

I have mild scoliosis, and I understand what lower back pain is.  Gloria has had three surgeries, one after the other in the space of four months.  I can just imagine her pain.  I can also understand that patients recovering from spine surgery have to wear that Minerva brace.  Gloria is lucky that she did not need a Stryker frame.  Her pain may be real.  Surgery is always painful.

I don’t believe in karma, either.  Karma is a buddhist concept that teaches its followers that doing good and doing bad things have far reaching consequences that extend beyond one’s lifetime.  Having done bad things will result in being reborn again and again in a lower life-form until a person’s soul has been cleansed of the bad karma.  I don’t believe in karma.

I do believe in the Biblical principle of sowing and reaping.  It is found in Galatians 6:7 and it says: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked; whatsoever therefore a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

This principle has three parts:  the first is the human tendency to deny that he can ever be made to account for wrong things he has done; the second is that God, the righteous Judge cannot be mocked or made fun of, we cannot hide anything from Him, his judgment will be just and truthful; and the last is the ordained natural principle that trees are known by their trees and the fruit one harvests is exactly the same type as the seed that was planted: mangoes don’t grow from atis trees, after all.

Gloria has not been forthright or truthful, in this, public perception is keen and accurate.  She said she was not going to run for office after she had served out the term she had inherited when former President Joseph Estrada was ousted from the Presidency.  She ran anyway.

She said that there was no cheating in the polls, that she had clearly won a by a 1 million margin of votes over Fernando Poe, Jr.  But again, this was proven untrue because we all heard her distinctive voice on the Hello, Garci tape.  She clearly knew there was cheating, she had done her best to manipulate the election results by employing the genius of a Comelec official who specializes exactly in manipulating election results.

She went on TV to say sorry.  She looked appropriately contrite.  But later, she went on to say that she never apologized for cheating, she never cheated and there was nothing to apologize for.  She brazenly claimed that she was just sad and sorry for her lapse of judgment in calling a Comelec official while she was a sitting incumbent who was running for office.  She totally denied having participated in any cheating.  She was just sorry for not having any sense and called Garcillano.

So many times, witnesses came forth and claimed corruption, Arroyo denied any wrong doing and managed to defeat impeachment attempts by the sheer force of the impenetrable wall of Congressional allies who have been galvanized by tremendous amounts of pork barrel.

The government is near bankruptcy, funds are unaccounted for.  Yet Gloria went and painted the town red in New York at the Cirque and stayed at a very expensive hotel in the Big Apple.  No public funds were used, she says.  A wealthy Congressman footed the bill.

Filipinos are not heartless.  They are just tired of being lied to.  They probably feel some pity for Gloria who is in pain, but they also feel that she has brought it upon herself.  Lying creates stress, stress when prolonged results in tissue breakdown, tissue breakdown leads to disease.

Lies have a life of their own.  I remember when my children were in kindergarten and they came home after a lesson on living an non-living things and they kept pointing to objects and wondering out loud whether they were living or non-living things.  They had parameters to measure each object by: whether the thing was capable of growing, whether the thing breathed, and whether the thing multiplied.

If we are to use these parameters, we can conclude that lies are living things: lies grow, lies breathe and lies multiply.  Lies are a living thing.

Lies grow: one small insignificant lie has to be propped-up by other small insignificant lies until the lies become a mass of lies.  Lies breathe: actually, they suck and sap the life out of the liar and the people he lies to; lies float on the wind and it is like droplets of infected vapors floating in the air that others breathe in.  And then, lies multiply:  one small lie leads to another lie and you will have to keep track of all the lies so that they all smoothly cover one another or else, the lies will contradict one another and the whole ecosystem of lies will disintegrate and decay.

This is what we are seeing here. Look at the glum and pitiable expression on Gloria’s face.  She is bombarded and beleaguered.  We see the lies bursting all around, the pus of infection, compromise and wrong doing oozing out of the lesions these lies have caused on the national soul.

I doubt if anyone believes that justice will be served.  Filipinos are not that naive.  They will instead just enjoy and relish the drama of comeuppance.  They will avidly anticipate the drama of a trial. But they know that no one will get what he truly deserves.  Just the fact that she gets a dressing down will be enough for now.  That she will be eventually convicted is too much to hope for.  That she will serve any jail time is totally out of the realm of possibilities in the Philippine justice system.

Just to see that she trips over the same lies she had sown and strewn the nation’s path is enough for us.  That’s why I liked yesterday’s news.  The doctors were called to testify and they testified that her medical condition was improving and that she was fit to be treated as an outpatient.

Hah! Touche!

As usual, when we trim off the hype and the rhetoric and seek the facts, the facts prove simple:  yes, Gloria was sick; yes, she was seriously sick; but the sickness has been treated; her suffering, although real is not life-threatening; medical facilities and expertise in our country are sufficient to treat her condition; there is no need for her to go abroad to seek immediate treatment.  This is enough to terminate the TRO issue in the Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court was either duped, they were inveigled, or they were not sharp enough to cut through the  lies presented as half truths.

Heads and balls will roll, so to speak.  Lawyers, doctors,  a justice secretary, even a Chief Justice will suffer from the lies Gloria has breathed out.  They so willingly breathed deeply into their soul Gloria’s lies.  And worse, instead of coughing into their elbow or into a handkerchief to prevent the spread of infection, they tried, by their words to breathe it out onto us.

The common sense of the common people tell them not to breathe in the lies, nor the air contaminated with lies.  It must be said that lies are an infection carried by infected droplets expelled by an infected person.  These droplets of lies are released into the air when the liars speak.  And the droplets stay suspended in the air until someone breathes the droplets it.

The droplets then hit the moist and warm environment of out mucus membranes where they lodge in our airways, breed, multiply and infect the entire system until the infection has sucked the life out of the host.

For the infection of lies, there is no hope of a cure except a reality pill and a truth serum.

Jesus Christ is the truth.  The truth will set us free!