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Philippine Catholics Keep Hopeful Attitude Despite Unsettling Times

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Times Staff Writer

Nearly a million Filipinos poured into a downtown Manila park last Tuesday afternoon, not for a political rally, or a rock concert, or a government handout.

They were there for a Roman Catholic Mass.

It was one of the largest religious gatherings in the history of this devoutly Catholic nation. And, as the people knelt beneath a 250-foot bamboo cross and listened to the blessings of Cardinal John O’Connor, the archbishop of New York, he noted that this was a rare symbol of how this impoverished, troubled country of 57 million people is getting through one of its most turbulent periods.

The ceremony merited only brief mention in the following day’s newspapers. More attention was paid to reports of candidates for public office being killed, of a rash of bombings that have terrorized Manila. Yet it was a symbol of hope, of a faith that has somehow held the Philippines together despite the turmoil.

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Church Divided

The church, to which almost 90% of all Filipinos belong, may well be divided, as some experts say, between conservatives and liberals over issues such as the Communist insurgency and growing human rights abuses by the armed forces. Yet the religious optimism of the peasants, laborers and urban slum dwellers seems almost unfazed.

As O’Connor put it in his sermon Tuesday in Manila’s Luneta Park, “I have personally never seen anything like this, anywhere in the world.”

Clearly referring to the Communist uprising and terrorism by right-wing extremists, O’Connor said: “No force, no power, however violent, will ever be able to topple this cross of Christ, nor sweep that cross off of these islands or out of your hearts. . . . No force will ever destroy your hope, and I say this because I believe you truly are a people of hope.”

But there are other, more concrete symbols of hope. The most important was sitting in the front row at Tuesday’s Mass--President Corazon Aquino.

Embodiment of Faith

Aquino, who was surrounded by motorized carriages bearing 10 ancient icons of the Virgin Mary, the Philippines’ patron saint, is the very embodiment of the nation’s hope and faith, according to political and religious figures alike.

Although some critics charge that Aquino presides over what amounts to a theocracy that relies more on prayers and miracles than political expertise, few doubt that the president’s personal faith, and the faith most Filipinos have in her, have political significance.

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“The main commodity that we have in this country today is hope,” said Alfredo Bengzon, a neurosurgeon who serves as health secretary and national peace commissioner.

“The president is one of the embodiments of that hope. It is a mistake for the people to see the president as a manager or as an executive, even as commander in chief. But the main commodity that the people of this country, civilians and military alike, are looking for right now is hope. And that is the one job that she does very well.”

Asked whether the Philippines can survive on hope alone, Bengzon replied: “Of course not. It’s like oxygen. You need more than just oxygen to keep a critical patient alive, but without it the patient will surely die.”

Still, critics mock Aquino for turning to God rather than her advisers at times of crisis. They cite as an example the uprising of last Aug. 28, when hundreds of dissidents in the military attacked her residence near the presidential palace.

Forces loyal to Aquino finally put down the uprising, but several days later, when Aquino’s youngest daughter, Kris, told gossip columnists that the president had gathered her family into a dark room and prayed for an hour at the height of the attack, even a sympathetic Western diplomat commented: “My God, government by God; management by miracle.”

Aquino was bombarded by telephone calls from friends in the United States, who warned her that she would be politically damaged by stories about her praying in moments of crisis.

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‘That Is Really Me’

Later, the president was quoted as saying: “I can’t help it. That is really me. I know it’s difficult for people in America and other countries to understand, but that is really how things work here in the Philippines.”

It is not difficult for Florentino Rubino to understand. Rubino, 39, has spent the last 18 months in a terminal-care ward of Manila’s National Orthopedic Hospital, and he is another symbol of hope.

Nearly two years ago, at the height of Aquino’s election campaign against the authoritarian President Ferdinand E. Marcos, Rubino was a municipal chairman of Aquino’s party on the island of Panay. Marcos’ supporters tried to persuade Rubino to give up his political work, and on Jan. 3, 1986, four gunmen attacked him in a restaurant and riddled him with fire from an M-16 automatic rifle.

Rubino’s left arm and ear were shot off. The bones in his left thigh were shattered. His body was filled with bullets. But somehow he survived.

Last week, in his hospital bed, Rubino told a reporter that he misses his arm, that the steel pins in his leg are painful, and that he sometimes feels that both he and the price he paid for supporting Aquino have been forgotten by the president and her government.

Beneath a tinsel Christmas ornament and a wall sticker bearing the words “I love Jesus,” Rubino leafed through a collection of tattered newspaper clippings and talked about how he had challenged the political warlords on Panay “to help bring democracy and peace back to our country.”

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Now, he said, things have changed. “Things are still not peaceful,” he went on, “but Cory (Aquino) is good, and there is more hope than there was before. Things are better now than they were before, but I cannot really say why.”

Rubino’s wife, Aniolina, who has sat beside his bed every day for the last 18 months, nodded in agreement.

“The important thing,” she said, “is that Florentino Rubino lived. And he is still alive. He can still see his six children. And he can still fight to recover. We still have hope.”

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