DAGUPAN CITY-Almost a year has passed after he made a brave expose on the evils of jueteng, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz still feels the heat of his crusade, aggravated when he headed the Silent Majority Prayer Movement after he was reportedly included in the order of battle of the government.

Cruz told newsmen Sunday that he will willingly go with arresting officers if they arrest him.

He said he got the information that he was included in the order of battle list “from a written intelligence report obtained by media and directly read to me by a media practitioner I know”.

But Philippine National Police Chief Director General Arturo Lomibao denied that Cruz was included in the list.

“He might just be imagining,” Lomibao said.

But the prelate said, “With all due respects, General Lomibao does not know everything and one of these he does not seem to know is this matter”.

Cruz said he got an information that based on an intelligence report, “the claim is that I am a coup plotter and a destabilizer”.

“I was laughing and laughing and the interviewer was also laughing with me. We were both laughing,” he said.

He said he “has been branded many things in many ways before from being a pedophile to a Don Juan, coup plotter, a destabilizer and the question is what’s next?

I seem to be the apple of the eye of the administration, he said.
He called the intelligence report citing him as coup plotter and a destabilizer as a “poor intelligence”.

The Silent Majority Prayer Movement is a group that uses prayer power amidst the crises besetting the country.

“The wonder of wonders is the claim that the basis of this supposedly intelligent finding is my leadership in the silent Majority Prayer Movement-which is an informal gathering of people open to all groups and individuals serious of praying for the nation in turmoil and disarray,” he said.

“If this is the kind of intelligence the country has, heaven help us,” Cruz said.

He said present during the first and so far the only gathering of the movement were no less than 14 bishops, archbishops and a cardinal. If the intelligence community would only be fair, it should include all of them in the roll of honor. Why discriminate against them and treat me with preferential attention?,” Cruz said.

In his anti-jueteng crusade, Cruz was invited, together with his witnesses, to testify in the Senate and it was there where it was revealed that billions of pesos were spent for election purposes.
“I think that that revelation could have been very painful to the administration,” Cruz said.

Identified as a critic of the administration, Cruz said he is laughing about this report that he was among those who plotted the ouster of Mrs. Arroyo.

Cruz said the most serious agenda as thrice already enjoined by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines is the search for truth in the 2004 national elections.

The more relevant issue to resolve is where have big public funds gone, Cruz said.

He added that the very intriguing question begging for an answer is why the gag order made on public officials who know the truth about suspect dealings of the government.

“Everything else appears to be but a diversionary tactic,” he said.