Although present day-to-day existence may deny the fact that life in our country is deteriorating, the newspapers are portraying a bleak picture of life. First, grinding poverty in here. Not all of us are privileged to have three meals on our tables each day. Hundreds of our people live in squalor. They are either dressed in hand me downs or in rags but that would not pose much of a problem for us in the tropics. There is no assurance of a better tomorrow.

Because of poverty, peace and order is a problem. Many commit crimes invoking necessity as reasons. Since there are no opportunities for earning a living, they turn to felony not for their daily needs but for emergencies. There are criminal elements, which use poverty as an alibi. When the have nots band together to seek betterment, most turn to insurgency hoping that a new system that would give them en opportunity of earning a living or equal sharing of national wealth.

People look up to the government for remedies. However the perpetual deadlock between the administrative and legislative prevent any sensible law to be passed. Although they may cry themselves hoarse claiming beneficial laws enacted, the populace do not feel the effects of their efforts. The feeling of hopelessness resulted in the clamor for the change of the present system.

One move was to change the president. Extra constitutional change of chief executives in the Philippines had been bloodless so far but there is no guarantee that it will remain so. It takes only a single volley to precipitate a bloody incident. If politicians resort to constitutional remedies, entrenched powers would frustrate the move since they never had it so good.

Then there is the clamor for Charter Change. To prevent the legislative - administrative deadlock, a parliamentary form of government is proposed. The move is welcomed by the 1.7 million strong Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines . To the surprise of many, the Church opposed the proposal. The reasons are obscure. Then a bishop filed an impeachment case against the President of the Republic.

These twin moves are not the only cases filed against a member of the Philippine government. There is a bishop who takes the administration to task because hueting in his diocese is coming back to life. The latter may be acceptable to constitutionalists but the former is not. Bishop Diogracias Iñiguez cannot resort to hair splitting when he claims he is filing the impeachment case as an ordinary citizen of the country.

It is not clear whether the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippine approve of the move of one of their members. It is a common concept that once a person is ordained as a minister of God, he is no longer himself but the instrument of the Almighty. He may be a man but only to himself and his immediate family. All his pronouncements, actuations and deportment are governed by his position. He is the Church and not the man. Without that concept, he cannot act in behalf of the Church in Church matters.

If this intrusion into politics continues, the Church is treading on dangerous grounds. Churchmen need all the wisdom, integrity and authority to remain as God's vicars on earth. Now not all Catholics blindly accept the pronouncements of Church officials. If a high church official is proven wrong in his pronouncements be it in religious or political matters, it is the Church that will suffer. Politics is a very dirty game. None came out clean.