Still, God.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Conrado de Quiros

I DON'T know if you believe in signs. But at the very time Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo went to Rome to seek enlightenment, the whole place was plunged into darkness. According to reports, the blackout paralyzed the city state, freezing transportation and communication, and throwing GMA's schedule into disarray. It messed up as well the lives of journalists, who could not send stories to their home offices. For once though, the Filipinos in Rome found their cell phones useful in more ways than to send text jokes with. The fuzzy light the phones emitted was enough to help them wind their way in their hotel rooms, or wherever they were when the power outage struck.

Even Rome, the Eternal City, can sometimes be made to feel temporal. Indeed, old and weary. But if you're a believer, you're bound to think God is sending a message to someone who keeps invoking His name for not very godly ends. Someone who keeps refusing to hear what he has to say. In this digital age, blackouts may be the physical equivalent of lightning bolts.

Shortly before the blackout, GMA had just announced that the Pope had blessed the Philippines through her. I leave the more theologically qualified to argue cause and effect. "We want to pursue our goals for the country in ways that we perceive more akin to how God would want us to do it. That's the greater conviction I received after meeting again with his Holiness." The Pope, she added, "is a very inspiring presence in our life, in my personal life and in the life of our nation."

Well, it's good to know that a Filipino who is not a priest or nun can feel the divine electricity surging through her and thence to her nation in 10 minutes of being with the Pope. The Pope met longer with incoming Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales, and several Filipino bishops who have helped build a "Church of the Poor" in this country, but none of them reported to have been similarly energized, enough to send the juices flowing to their bishoprics back home. Such was the electricity surging through GMA it seemed to have drained not just the heavenly supply but the earthly one.

That is one explanation for the blackout. The other is that God was pushed too far and took exception to the blasphemy. GMA said that the Pope has been a very inspiring presence "in our life, in my personal life and in the life of the nation," but there is no evidence, earthly or divine, for it. The most inspiring presence in our life, in GMA's personal life, and in the life of the nation in fact is not Pope John Paul II, it is George Bush II. It is not John Paul II that GMA takes to be God's direct representative on earth, it is George Bush II. It is not the Burning Bush GMA takes to be the Mosaic oracle, it is the Torching Bush.