Press statement of Senator Loren Legarda

ON PUNO'S MORAL FORCE

I welcome the moral force movement launched by Chief Justice Reynato Puno. The persons who compose the core group are indeed well respected and accomplished individuals whose integrity and patriotism are unquestioned.

It is truly necessary that civic-spirited, intelligent and esteemed individuals should guide our people in the selection of officials who should be elected in the 2010 elections. The coming elections are crucial to our common destiny, a possible turning point in our history.

With our people desperately looking for a way out of their misery and poverty, we cannot afford to make a wrong turn as this could mean more social disorder and chaos from which there could be no turning back.

ON HOLY WEEK OBSERVANCE

The Holy Week observance is a significant and solemn occasion. It is a time when we turn our thoughts to the travails of our Lord Jesus on earth so He could extend to us our salvation.

It should also be a time when we should contemplate our national condition, as more and more of our people, particularly the poverty-stricken masses, compare their sufferings here on earth to the Passion of Jesus Christ. To an increasing number of Filipinos, this is the contemporary meaning of the pabasa.

I therefore urge my fellow politicians, public officials and leaders of the private sector to use this occasion to also solemnly contemplate our national situation and to say a prayer for our entire people that they be rescued from their prolonged state of poverty, hunger, unattended diseases and social despair.

ON VIGILANTE KILLINGS

The authorities cannot escape responsibility for the unabated killings of and assaults on journalists, judges, lawyers and common people who are suspected of petty crimes. It can hardly be denied that the generally unsolved assassinations of these individuals have been staged in a symmetrical modus operandi that can only be interpreted as stage-managed. Their numbers in recent years are also unprecedented.

It must be remembered that the government is duty-bound to uphold the rule of law. Journalists alleged to have violated libel and slander laws should be haled to court, not shot down by helmeted assassins. So with lawyers and judges who are only doing their duties. Even suspected criminals are guaranteed their day in court.