DOUBLE STANDARD: Jaime Cardinal Sin was accused, again, of violating the separation of church and state when he made a remark interpreted by some quarters as encouraging a parishioner, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, to run for president in 2004.

Why should it be wrong for Cardinal Sin to offer advice to an individual, but right when Executive Minister Eraño Manalo of the Iglesia ni Cristo, for instance, instructs all his church members to cast a solid vote for specific candidates in national and local elections?

Critics of the Cardinal demand that he shut up on political issues, but they keep quiet when the Iglesia head issues marching orders to his followers before casting their votes in the polls. Why the double standard?

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MANALO FEARED: While the Cardinal’s words may influence a personal decision of Mrs. Arroyo, the INC Minister’s order affects — and is in fact intended to affect or even decide — the results of an entire election.

Yet the Cardinal is accused of breaching the wall separating church and state, while the Minister is admired and envied for his being able to make politicians tremble in fear and pay obeisance to him.

While many politicians are afraid of Minister Manalo (because of the solid vote he claims to deliver on Election Day) but not of Cardinal Sin, they should not carry prostitution too far.

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FREEDOM OF SPEECH: Is the Cardinal less of a citizen whose right of free speech must be curtailed? Is he not entitled like everybody else to equal protection under the Bill of Rights?

On the contrary, it is Cardinal Sin’s duty as shepherd to his flock to advise them on anything relating to their lives, including secular matters — as it is also their right to ignore him if they so wish.

Advising the faithful on temporal matters is not, per se, a violation of the separation of church and state. It could even have salutary effects on individuals and communities, and contribute to a stable and well-ordered society.

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NO STATE RELIGION: In guiding the faithful, the Catholic Church — much less the Cardinal who is archbishop of Manila — is not attempting to install a state religion. Neither is it on a covert crusade to capture the government or any of its agencies.

As guardian of faith and morals, the Church may try influencing government policy where and when it deems proper and necessary. But so do other groups, lobbies and religions without wreaking havoc, hopefully, on the system.

Catholicism has been with us for five centuries and Cardinal Sin for a few decades, but there has not been a single act of the Manila archbishop that a court can validly rule as violating the separation of church and state.

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OTHER SECTS FAVORED: But note that there are a number of significant inclusions and exemptions in our laws made in deference to other religions.

For instance, our Muslim brothers are allowed, solely on the basis of their religion, to have more than one wife when the rest of us are struck down as criminals if we carry on as they do.

They are also allowed to have their own courts that render judgments under laws based on Islam that are not applicable to the majority of Filipinos. Yet nobody cries separation of church and state.

Members of some sects are exempted from rendering military service and saluting the flag on the basis of their religious beliefs. We doubt if Catholics would be similarly exempted in this jurisdiction if one day the Vatican ruled that they should not bear arms or salute state standards.

We think reasonable men can safely allow the good Cardinal to indulge in his harmless pastime of commenting on politics and a host of other mundane topics.

Free speech is healthy, even if sometimes it is funny. The Cardinal’s critics may want to give it a try. Cheers!

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FVR PRESSES GMA: It says here that former President Ramos is pressing Mrs. Arroyo to make up her mind on whether to run for president in 2004 or not.

Sir, don’t bear too hard on the President. Let’s not add to her stress. This is the wrong time to force a decision, because the surveys still show her lagging behind other presidential pretenders, including two clowns.

If pressed to announce a decision today on the basis of available data, the decision is likely to be for her not to run. Is that what Mr. Ramos wants? Why would she announce her candidacy when most indicators today point to a debacle?

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AMATEURS GALORE: Her doting husband Mike is frantically trying to massage the surveys – meaning the surveyors and the surveyed (if they do exist at all) — to show her rating to be on a steady upward swing.

If he cannot produce the desired charts until D-Day (the still secret Decision Day), the wife will not run. If the wished-for upturn takes time coming, she will be forced to delay announcing a decision.

If we may offer an observation: Comparing her strategists and gofers with those of the opposition, we think she is surrounded by amateurs. That’s one reason why, like this benighted nation, she keeps running around in circles.

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SEARCH FOR WMDs: Here’s another tip, this time for the posse sent by President George W. Bush to turn Iraq upside down to find the Weapons of Mass Destruction supposedly stashed away by Saddam Hussein before he pulled a vanishing act last April.

Kibitzers are also welcome to follow these 1-2-3 search steps, if they are adept at using a computer for Internet browsing:

1. Go to the www.yahoo.com site and type “weapons of mass destruction” on the slot of the yahoo search engine.
2. Hit the “Search” button before it also disappears. You’ll then see a page showing the first 20 top entries on the subject — out of about 1,430,000 such items scattered all over the worldwide web.
3. Click on the first entry on that list – and the wild goose chase begins/ends!

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PIATCO REACTION: We received an email from Segismundo Diaz, spokesman of the Philippine International Air Terminals Co Inc. (Piatco), reacting to our comments last Tuesday on the stalled opening of Naia Terminal 3. He said in part:

“I beg to disagree with (your) assessment that Piatco is “pouring money into public relations and efforts related to getting a favorable decision from the SC.”

“As you can see, Piatco detractors spend millions through one-page newspaper advertisements of which your paper had been one of the beneficiaries, while Piatco seemingly comforts itself with letters to the editors and columnists. In swaying the high court to its favor, I feel Piatco’s helplessness, knowing the difficulty of the task, realizing it is up against the country’s most influential law firm that has representatives not only in Malacañang and in the Supreme Court but in almost all seats of power. Even one of Piatco’s detractors, former SEC Chairman Perfecto Yasay, admitted on television news last week the potential danger such influence could inflict on our political institutions.

“I hope you realize the 41 alleged deficiencies were simply products of the over-fertile imagination of one Gloria Tan-Climaco. Piatco still had two months to go on its construction timetable when President Arroyo ex-parte declared the GRP-Piatco Concession Agreement null and void. Hence all work on NAIA Terminal 3 had to stop.

“Between the hallucinations of a non-engineer presidential adviser on strategic projects that there are deficiencies and the actual engineering works of an internationally recognized airport builder, 300-year-old Takenaka, is literally comparing oranges and apples. Tan Climaco was outside her field of specialization when she commented the thickness of the glass panels could not withstand a jet plane’s blast.

“If government takes over the private facility ­- whatever the scenario for the takeover -­ it would still be confiscatory, reminiscent of authoritarianism. An audit of a private facility whose contract had been nullified would complete that scenario. Under the circumstances, the audit could only be justified once Piatco claims reimbursement.”