From Oklahoma, I found the account of Governor Father Ed Panlilio concerning the 500,000 pesos ($11,000) stuffed in a sack that was routinely handed to him after a meeting with GMA as a reminder of how utterly corrupt politics is in our country. Only one other politician verified this transaction while another traditional politician claimed it was “standard procedure” to be given assistance money for various community activities.

I hope the good priest keeps up the fight to expose these shenanigans that no longer repel most of us. We have become so jaded and so accustomed to this shameful system. Shameful because there are people who do not have the means to eat more than once a day and shameful because we seem to give more care to the palay seeds that farmers strew in the fields over the educational investments we need to be making so that the next generation will become more competitive.

David Brooks wrote “Politics, as you know, is a tainted profession. Professional politicians cannot serve their country if they do not win their races, and to do that they must grapple with a vast array of forces that try to remold and destroy who they are. No normal person can withstand the onslaught of egotism and come out unscathed. And so there are two kinds of politicians: those who become creatures of the process, and those who resist and retain the capacity to be appalled by what they must do.”

We need to support Father Panlilio. We need to thwart any attempt to unseat him in the ongoing recount of votes from last May. We need to fight for these increasingly rare politicians who fight for us all.