[Rear View] Alan Cayetano’s selective piety

Many have doubted him, Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano declared in a testy press conference the day after a tense evening at the Senate marked by gunfire and the escape of Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa — wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the drug war killings — like a thief in the night.

But God, he added, has never doubted him.

I envy Cayetano and his conversations with God. I grant him that these are privileged conversations between him and the Almighty. I have no right to question if such conversations are real or exist only in fevered dreams, and I am not interested.

This is, however, getting to be predictably boring. After all these years, Cayetano’s invocation of God and the holy word carries as much sincerity as a monobloc chair.

Hypocrisy

Cayetano, a self-proclaimed ambassador of Jesus Christ, is a Scripture-quoting politician of breathtaking hypocrisy.

There are many instances where the wide chasm between Cayetano’s professions of faith and the causes and personalities he has championed has been on display.

What has elicited the strongest reaction were the remarks he made on March 20, during a Senate foreign relations committee hearing called to tackle the arrest and detention of former president Rodrigo Duterte.

It was in this hearing that he shocked the public by declaring, “More than being Alan Cayetano, or a senator, a former secretary of foreign affairs, a former speaker or congressman, I believe I am an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

He invoked the Lord’s Prayer to argue that governance should align with “God’s culture and God’s purpose.” Then he proceeded to defend a man accused of mass killings.

He did not examine the legality of Duterte’s detention at The Hague. He framed his defense not in law but in theology.

These remarks exemplify Cayetano’s audacity and deceit, for how can a true ambassador of Christ ignore the families of the victims of Duterte’s drug war? Such a believer would demand accountability and speak for the voiceless. Instead, Cayetano invoked Duterte’s right to dignity and the presumption of innocence. This generosity of spirit does not extend to the thousands killed in the drug war, whom he had summarily labeled, when he was foreign secretary, as drug pushers. He has once again invoked the sacred to defend the profane.

This selective piety is not new. It sums up his political career.

The Cayetano brand

In a political career spanning several administrations, Cayetano has insinuated himself with whoever is in power, only to stab them in the back when they no longer help advance his interests.

He has fallen from grace a few times. Yet if we channel his way of thinking, these defining moments are merely God’s way of testing him. How he achieves redemption falls outside the realm of doctrine. Plotting and scheming his way back to positions of power is his means of achieving the divinely ordained. The reality is that he plots and schemes for his own glory.

He has spoken publicly about “biblical values,” lectured pastors on how Scripture guides purpose and principle. He opens his speeches and public appearances with verses, and kneels in public prayer in official events. Yet when situations demand compassion for the poor, the defense of human rights, and a stand against a murderous administration, his faith wavers, or is conveniently silent.

Cayetano is not the epitome of a Christian public servant. Far from it. He is a politician who has mastered the optics of faith. It is his political brand.

Accountability

The Gospel, which Cayetano so freely invokes, teaches love, justice, and the protection of the innocent. It speaks consistently and forcefully for the poor, the marginalized, and the victims of those in power. It does not offer spiritual cover to the powerful.

Cayetano wields the Bible to attack his enemies, to achieve selfish ends, to mask un-Christian acts and present them as preordained. In the hands of this self-righteous and deceitful politician, the Bible is a mere prop, its words misquoted and misapplied to justify a selfish agenda.

Being an ally and defender of several administrations, Cayetano sees himself beyond the reach of accountability. He presumes that his political obeisance imbues him with invincibility, a license to commit acts inimical to public interest. He considers himself untouchable. And that, to him, is God’s trust at work.

Cayetano has built a political career by using the Scriptures to falsely accuse people and destroy names and reputations, to defend extrajudicial killings, and justify the misconduct of his patrons and allies. In time, he will face judgment before his God. For now, in the mortal world, it is perhaps time for accountability and reckoning. – Rappler.com

Joey Salgado is a former journalist and a government and political communications practitioner. He served as spokesperson for former vice president Jejomar Binay.