Cong Corrales  WITH a little more than a month until the filing of the certificates of candidacy, the city will surely be looking forward to a political showdown next year. It’s a three-pronged battle royalé for the executive seat of the city government. Yes, folks, it’s official. Just this Sunday, 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez announced on air that he will be running for city mayor in 2016. How poetic. Announcing he’ll run for city mayor just in time with his birthday. Cute. I think it would be safe to assume that incumbent Mayor Oscar Moreno would seek another term next year, if only to continue and institutionalize the programs he has started. About a fortnight ago, the then city political kingpin Vicente “Alas”Emano also declared his intention of taking back city hall. His minions over at the legislative have been missing him, I believe. Meanwhile, 1st District Rep. Rolando “Klarex” Uy claims he was contemplating on not running for reelection in the 1st District supposedly due to “lack of resources.” Uy told The Gold Star Daily he is retiring because, financially, he supposedly couldn’t bankroll another political campaign. Uy even taunted erstwhile bedfellow Emano saying the latter isn’t getting any younger and should “seriously consider retirement.” So unless, local industrialist Elmer Francisco will make a last-minute decision, the race for the city mayor’s seat will be a three-pronged race then. This should be interesting.
  • •
I’d like to expand what I posted on my Facebook wall on Sunday. I posted: “I am an atheist but I believe that being a Christian is more than just being able to quote the Bible. Usbown kowww, Christians should practice what they preach—tolerance, peace, love, and understanding.” I must have touched a common chord among my friends on- and offline. Well, at least, 32 of ‘em “liked” my post. Haven’t you noticed that the more religiously devout people are, usually, the more they are alienated from their own humanity. Most of the times, they are even the most cruel to people who they think are beneath them. I think I have joined about half a dozen religious groups before when I was young. I even nearly entered priesthood. I did not survive past pre-noviate. All my experiences with the religious groups I joined in before made me come to a conclusion that religion has no monopoly on morality. In fact, almost all of them are based on a reward system. It is so well-ingrained in our psyché that oftentimes it make us passive. I had one particular experience that made me decide that I don’t need some sort of reward to be morally sound. It was a demolition of a local slum. People there were dirt-poor. However, when the time came for their houses to be destroyed, their community pastor told them not to resist the demolition team. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” wailed the pastor. He then goaded the people to sing: “Balay ko sa langit nagasidlak-sidlak.” I was so enraged. There, they were singing about their “mansions” up in the heavens while their shanties—which they have called their homes for the better part of their lives—were being decimated by men with sledge hammers whacking away. Imagine the delusion this pastor was promising them. The people slept under a bridge that night. It was then that I, as humorist George Carlin once said in one of his comical skits, decided I used to be a Catholic until I reached the age of reason and reality.