BEFORE the headline topic, a quick take on the pledge by some senators to banish from the 2027 national budget bill the pork-barrel insertions made by the House of Representatives.
Will the Senate actually do this? Both chambers must enact a single General Appropriations Act (GAA) for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s approval, so that one chamber cannot impose its will on the other.
Rather, they must reconcile their GAA versions in the bicameral committee, which, unfortunately, has been abused for insertions not even in any GAA version, including billions of pesos reportedly added by senators.
There’s one litmus test to watch as the Senate deliberates the House version of next year’s budget: Will the mammoth insertions made by Majority Floor Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos, the president’s eldest son, be touched?
Among all House members, Sandro got the largest additional public works projects in the 2027 budget bill: 405 outlays added to those proposed by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). Among these are more than 200 public building items, up from just four.
Total DPWH spending now earmarked for Sandro’s projects exceeds P4.7 billion, nearly 12 times the P400 million proposed in the draft GAA submitted by his father in August.
If most of Sandro’s insertions are legitimate undertakings that should be in the budget, that suggests gross DPWH incompetence or ignorance in failing to identify the projects. Heads should roll.
Naturally, Palace Press Officer Claire Castro defended Sandro’s insertions, arguing that such projects are not inherently corrupt. But critics decried that many additions — among 7,000 nationwide totaling P190 billion — lack programs of work, certifications of implementability, geotagged photos and other crucial attachments.
So, Honorable Senators, will you grill Sandro and other insertion-happy House lawmakers just as Senate and House committees lambast and question ordinary Filipinos at hearings? And how much will Sandro’s P4.7 billion be stripped of possible pork?
Not to mention the rest of the P190 billion in added outlays from the House, said to be for amassing electioneering war chests for 2028.
Bantayan!
‘Pray hard for China’s dream’
On the headline question, devout believers would probably answer yes. The God of love always wants peace and harmony. Our Lord himself declared in the Nov. 1 Gospel reading for the Solemnity of All Saints: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
But some devotees may have China fears, like those of the reported 1948 and 1949 Lipa apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Carmelite postulant Teresita “Teresing” Castillo, recounted in a 1991 documentary by the late June Keithley and dramatized in the 2024 play “Grace,” the last work of the late dramatist Floy Quintos, and the upcoming movie by veteran director Ben “M7” Yalung, to be shown during Holy Week.
Though the Vatican declared that the Lipa events “not of supernatural character,” thousands of devotees have believed due to astounding events at the time, especially showers of rose petals, including the late Lipa bishops Alfredo Obviar and Alfredo Versoza. Both are now Servants of God — the first stage in the sainthood process — the two prelates were initially skeptical of Castillo’s testimony until petals rained on them.
On China, Castillo recounted a message from Mary on Oct. 17, 1949, over two weeks after the Oct. 1 victory of Chinese communist revolutionaries under Mao Zedong over Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces, which fled to Taiwan. As the Carmelite aspirant told it, the Blessed Virgin told her:
“Pray hard for China’s dream to invade the whole world. The Philippines is one of its favorites. Money is the force that will lead the people of the world to destruction. Prayers, sacrifices, self-denials and the daily recitation of the Rosary will soften the heart of my Son, as I said before.”
Mary’s reported warning about China did not seem prescient for decades. Drained by Japanese invasion and civil war, then hobbled by Maoist ideology, China was no global invader in 1949 or in the succeeding half-century.
But in recent years, after decades of economic reform and rapid development, China now has the world’s second-largest economy; top trading, manufacturing and science and technology sectors; and some of the most advanced weapons, like hypersonic missiles.
With Western hegemony weakened by Europe and Middle East debacles and challenged by Eurasian powers China, Russia, India and the Islamic bloc, China is now seen as rivalling the United States as a world superpower.
So, will Mary’s Lipa warning, if truly from heaven, come to pass? Not so fast.
Warning about China’s global ambitions does not necessarily mean setting aside peacemaking with the Chinese. When Our Lady of Fatima warned that Russia might spread its errors — the godless, totalitarian tenets of communism — around the world, she did not instruct hostility toward the Russians. Rather, she called for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart by the pope with instructions for all bishops to join him.
So, finding ways to build harmony and peace with Beijing may well be heaven’s wish. It’s certainly the preferred way of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Vietnam, which fought two wars with China, has superb relations with the region’s superpower.
Even our nation is rightly pondering how we may also move toward harmony with China. President Marcos called for a reset of relations, though his security chiefs remain fractious toward Beijing, like segments of America still seeking to “contain” China.
Last week, 22 Philippine business organizations called for easing tensions. And on Nov. 3, Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro had a “frank and constructive” phone discussion with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, a member of China’s ruling Politburo, on the direction of bilateral relations.
In fact, the administration of US President Donald Trump has been enhancing ties with China, though elements of the so-called neoconservatives seeking to preserve American dominance are still hostile toward Beijing. Trump may well ease overseas frictions after his Republican Party’s massive losses in the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Let’s hope the advocates of peace in Washington and Manila fulfill heaven’s call for peace on earth. Amen.
