By Nestor Ravilas

Jesus was arrested and instantly subjected to trial. The trial has to be hastened, or the people who just welcomed him as king a day ago will be awakened from their sudden stupor and stash him away from the scene. Pieces of evidence against the accused must be presented immediately to secure conviction. Did he violate the Torah? Did he challenge the Roman emperor? Culpability along these lines would gain him capital punishment. Cutting the story short, Jesus was convicted and eventually punished with death, not because the evidence presented proved him guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Rather the intention and desire of those in power outweighed all evidence gathered and propounded.

In the same manner, the case of Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno is not about the evidence of the crime/s charged her of that will disqualify her from the public office. It was about the intention and desire of those people in power who wanted her out. Legal experts might quarrel as to the validity of contesting parties’ arguments and counter arguments, evidence and counter evidence. But the battle is no longer resides in the domain of laws, but in the intention and desire of the sovereign who have corrupted both political institutions and morals of this country through the assistance of the senate, the congress, the police, the army, and the peace builders behind him.

Evangelicals must be sensitive in this faculty called, intention. We are trained after Jesus who reduced sin and culpability in mere harbouring bad intentions. Lustful thinking was equated to the evil of adultery. Hence, we have to be aware that evidence against CJ Sereno will not matter in the end, it will be outweighed by the desire and intention of Pres. Duterte to push her out. It almost coincides with his assumption to power the move to oust Sereno from the SC. It was him who sets everything in motion; not Calida, or anyone has an interest on her head but the president. The mere rumor comes into recognizable shape when piqued by Sereno’s feisty stance then he suddenly freaked out, exposing him as the brain behind all this. All the fight in defense of the CJ and of the independence of the Supreme Court must be consolidated in deflecting the whims of this childish dictator. We cannot isolate this struggle from the major scenario where the entire nation is being subjected into tyranny. We have to fight for Sereno, for Robredo, for Morales, for all the bereaved families of victims of EJK, and we have to fight for every Filipino who have the right for decent and dignified existence. Oppose the fascist!