Seat of Government Vulnerable to the Devil’s Influence

By Andrei Nicholas S. Bonete

Is the Philippines’ Malacañang Palace the base of operations of the devil?

In the political arena, there are winners and losers, successes and failures, unity and misunderstandings. Each government has its distinctive story to tell of daily endeavors. There are actions or decisions that gain recognition from or degrade the integrity of its position in both the local and the international community. They are surrounded by different political problems. There are vulnerabilities that are being exploited to level down the credibility of the governing body and seize control. It is here, in this arena where many battles take place everyday to keep good governance standing firm.

Looking back into history, during medieval times, a king’s castle represents the seat of power of a country and is also the focus of attack from enemies. A variety of methods are being done in order to capture the seat of power and be claimed victorious. Before a direct attack proceeds, cunning yet effective methods such as employment of spies to gather search for weak spots, poisoning of water supply, capturing supply routes to starve the people and weaken the defense force and much more are used.

German forces used the Blitzkrieg military offensive tactic to seize control of France during the 1940’s. Blitzkrieg means “Lightning War” and it uses surprise attacks to prevent the enemy from forming a coherent defense. It concentrates its forces on a focal point and uses initial bombardment followed by a ground attack composed of tanks and infantry.

In this modern era, aside from a direct military offensive like those applied to Iraq to fight Saddam Hussein and Afghanistan to combat the Al Qaeda, a more subtle approach is being employed to gain control of the key positions in the government and eventually increase its influence to its constituents.

There are two kinds of human beings in this world: The good and the bad, the hero and the enemy. The enemy uses different approaches to determine a government’s strengths and weaknesses and exploit it for their benefits. What is a human being’s weakness that is being exploited by the enemy, ultimately by the devil? Is it love for money, power?

Corruption in politics, for example, is one of those man-induced difficulties that is of concern to the international community. The Transparency International (TI) director for anti-corruption and governance initiatives David Luna once said that “Corruption clearly results in the misallocation of resources and tends to be more prevalent where systems of governance and political will to combat corruption are weak.”

This statement of Luna was made following the release of the 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International (TI). Many of the much needed sums of money are being diverted to the greedy who just can’t have enough.

Greediness on the other hand is the selfish desire for or pursuit of money, wealth, power, food, or other possessions, especially when this denies the same goods to others. A person who lacks material wealth can be bribed with material wealth. In the Global Corruption Report 2007 which was issued on May 2007 by Transparency International,“different forms of judicial corruption continue to afflict many parts of the world.”

The report also mentioned that in Africa, of those who have dealt with courts, one out of five admitted paying bribes to favor them. If bribing doesn’t work, there are other forms wherein the enemy can influence the person involved and one way is blackmail.

There are instances that some are being blackmailed as published in the newspapers. Blackmail is defined as the act of forcing somebody to pay money or do something by threatening to reveal shameful or incriminating facts about him or her. This is nonetheless an effective tactic to influence anyone, particularly in different areas in the government. The assailant gathers information that is related to the target: personal information, character references and other pertinent data. Once the necessary information is gathered, if the target doesn’t carry out the conditions of the assailant, then the information is used against the target.

One option to gain control any key area in the government is to inflict fear. The assailants threaten the person with a variety of methods like threatening to harm or to an extent, kill somebody dear to the target such as family, friends, or relatives. Once the target cannot bear the pain and agony being inflicted, eventually submits to the assailants to do their bidding. This is also considered a form of corruption.

These are some of the many methods that the enemy uses, whose influences come from the devil, towards any individual, most especially to key areas in the government where power is enough to influence anyone.

Other approaches are much more subtle. The results could be devastating as it affects the economy. The enemies are constantly on the move to gain a strong foothold and gain control of the system. Once in control, there’s no telling what will happen next.

It has indeed come to the world that the seats of power are being influenced by the devil because it is here where laws are being made and being taken into effect. It is also here where the influence of the devil is strong. Deceit, lies, temptations, money, wealth, power are what the devil tempts the person in order to gain control of him and his thoughts.

Why is the seat of power vulnerable to such attacks? It is because the high positions within the government are the best place to start spreading the devil's misdeeds. Compared to a much smaller scale, he could only do damage to a very few number of individuals whereas when he has total control of the head of state or key positions in the government, the terror is in a much grander scale.

The enemy or the devil uses innumerable methods in order to lure the person to his traps. Money, women, power are some of his works. When the person falls into his trap, he is being blinded little by little until he is under the devil’s control.

What the Philippine government needs, since the 2010 elections is fast approaching, is a person who has a strong character, a person who isn’t easily swayed by the influences that the devil could possibly induce to gain foothold in the high positions in the government.

How does one avoid the devil? What are the characteristics of the devil? If you want to know more, Ask Bro. Eli Soriano. The Bible will answer. When you hear that a Bible Exposition will be held in your area, grab the opportunity to ask him.

Soriano said, “Malacañang is the base of operations of the devil.” The Philippines is corrupt according to surveys and that won’t change for as long as the devil has control of the system.