JESUS Christ was also a victim of red-tagging, one of the oldest strategies of corrupt politicians, according to Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines president and Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David.
Bishop David said Pontius Pilate, the Roman official who presided over the trial of Jesus and ultimately ordered his crucifixion, knew that the accusation against Christ was untrue—that He was an accomplice of rebel groups who wanted to overthrow the power of the Roman empire over the Jews.
“In short, Jesus was red-tagged,” he noted.
Bishop David said red perhaps is the color of Good Friday to remind Catholics that Jesus’ death on the cross was the result of red-tagging.
“It has to do with politics, bad class politics,” David said in his homily during the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord at the San Roque Cathedral on Good Friday.
He stressed that politics itself is not bad and only becomes bad “when we allow it to fall into the hands of people whose intentions are not for the common good but personal interests.”
“It’s like the trend again now. Look at what happened at people like Doc Naty,” said Bishop David, referring to community health and human rights advocate Dr. Maria Natividad “Naty” Castro who was being linked to communist rebels by the police and military. Castro was released recently from detention following a court order dismissing the kidnapping and serious illegal detention case against her.
“Of course, because she is very smart and a very good doctor, because she has a degree, high credentials and can become rich as a doctor, she was immediately branded as a suspect just because she wanted to serve the poor in remote villages as a doctor. One nun said, “Is it like that, just because you are serving the poor, you are already a communists right away? Can’t we be a Christian first?” the Caloocan bishop said.
David said the same red-tagging was done to Jesus.
“He is said to be the organizer of the poor fishermen in Galilee, and He lives in remote places such as deserts and mountains, and He is even related to a well-known activist prophet named John the Baptist and is also sharp-tongued. So He is immediately branded as a subversive,” he said.
David said a sign was even placed over Jesus’ head when He was crucified and the accusation against Him was even written in three languages so that many could understand: Hebrew, Latin and Greek.
“It was like a warning: Don’t follow him if you don’t want this to happen to you. INRI is no different from those that were placed by those in bonnets who killed those on the drug watch list. Of course, when the sign is seen–people will just shut up and say–maybe it’s okay, after all, a plague of society was killed,” he said pointing out that at the height of the government’s war against drugs “drug-tagging was the trend”.
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