By: Atty. Marlo T. Cristobal
Why so?
Being a lawyer, l am expected to pitch in in the legal discourse about the overwhelmingly mind-boggling corruption in the government that bedevils our country to the core — and with no end in sight. But l thought there is no more need to participate, for many lawyers are already flooding the country’s political landscape with their own whys and wherefores of this weird strain of corruption that has overtaken our country for the first time in its history given its horrible magnitude and viciousness. This kind of corruption has inflicted heavy and irreparable damage on the lives and health of all Filipinos as it triggers a free falling economy — in all its aspects — and spawning its consequential fast widening poverty and death among our people.
A number of these lawyers are good and brilliant lawyers and they speak publicly and honestly — yes honestly — with clear and sound logic and legal doctrines to condemn and fight off this unconscionable corruption and its equally incredible authors and defenders (l hasten to excuse here the lawyers hired by the corrupt to officially represent them in investigations and court proceedings. Legal ethics demands, as these lawyers’ sacred duty, to ensure the full rights under the law are fully rendered their clients irrespective of the lawyers personal judgment as to their clients’ guilt or innocence. As officers of the court, lawyers are duty bound to help the latter uphold unconditionally conscientiously the law and justice in every case and every person, hence, explains their ever energetic pleas in behalf of their clients).
The upsurge of modern and boundless contrivance of social media of our so-called “perilous times” echoes these legal harangues all over the country and the world, adding-on its ingenuity, argumentation and commentary. Thus proffering on further my legal opinion in the arena of this fight against this clearly Satan-sponsored wickedness in government is a sheer surplusage and will not make any difference anymore. After all, intellectually honest lawyers run on the same wavelength and speak the same rhetoric, and so they naturally sound off my honest thoughts and quieted diatribes. But despite all this fire and fury from these lawyers and individuals condemning to high heavens the utterly intolerable stench of corruption, hardly can we find its definite legal resolution, much less find the guilty men and women deservedly hanged in the highest trees of the supposed sublime and pristine Eden of law and justice. Yet the facts of this corruption are simple, documented and crystal clear: the executive and the legislative branches deliberately conspired to allot consistently a yearly humongous budget to fund big government projects, but all the corresponding funds for the latter were instead criminally and intentionally channeled — by some sleight of depraved mind — to the private pockets of these conspirators and their cronies. We only see at this point the evasive tiny flickering light at the end of this dark tunnel us Filipinos the government has jettisoned over. In my assessment, our legal deliverance from this darkness appears reduced to a mere pipe dream. Our legal system is despairingly struggling in its inherent weakness in the perfidious hands of its authors and implementors
But here comes the hope that we can hold on to.The true whys and wherefores of our current tragic fate as a nation, a subject unfortunately discoursed only scarcely in public, are not found in the law books of lawyers but in the book of the Lord — the Bible.
For all this pall of doom the powers that be in the legislative and executive establishments of government have unleashed to the entire nation and its people borne of their unbridled, staggering corruption unmatched in the nation’s history — our country is now in “darkness,” under “the rulers of the darkness of this age”, under “the power of darkness,” or in short, under “Satan, who is the god of this world,” as the Lord would describe and decry. (Please read Ephesians 6:12, NKJV; Colossians 1:13,GNT; 2 Corinthians 4:4, NLT). God sent His only son Jesus into our world to bring light, bring righteousness, to humanity but men love the dominion of Satan (Please read Colossians 1:13) because their deeds are evil, which explains why our present politicians and leaders exhibit not a shred of remorse or moral sensitivity in openly and pleasurably robbing the very people they have solemnly sworn to protect and serve, a documented more than one trillon pesos for 3 years since 2022 — and worse brazenly counting.
Satan impacting on people is a reality God no less revealed when He said we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against Satan and his demons, or in God’s specific words, “against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12, NKJV).
Make no mistake then, we are up against a super powerful Spirit that appears to ravage man-made law and legal system and render them incapable of giving us deliverance from our national catastrophe. As the defenders of this corruption get intense and increase in number, we get the signal that Satan is increasing his disciples and is further tightening his grip on the nation. It’s high time we take refuge in God who is “always ready to help in times of trouble.” (Psalms 46:1, NLT).God has strongly asserted, “Be still and know that I am God,” (Psalms 46:10) to let everyone know that He is supreme to everything. Let therefore the big time corrupt — and their defenders and aiders — in our midst watch out for their numbered days.
Since law is basically science in the sense it involves the methodical study and analysis of law and cases, l exhort the people of the Philippines to keep in their hearts and minds this universal and timeless adage:
“When science fails, prayer prevails”!
