The Palace joins President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and the whole Christian community in the observance of Easter Sunday.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ on the cross not only is the fulfilment of the promise of the Messiah that on the third day he will resurrect from his death in the cross, which is the cornerstone of Christianity, but it symbolises the truism that after going through pain and suffering there will be healing, that after a storm a new dawn beckons, and that after this pandemic of a disease there is a new tomorrow that awaits us and the world.

As we struggle to overcome the worst calamity we face as a nation, let us still thank the Almighty for sparing the rest of humanity who will, like the Phoenix, be reborn from ashes and build a new order of love and peace among mankind, coming from what it seems to be a spiritual cleansing that we are all undergoing.

“Love one another” was what the Redeemer had taught the Christian world, and this is the most fitting time that we embrace and practice this teaching, that even the non-Christians and the agnostics can relate. For it is only in loving one another can we protect each other from this scourge of a disease.

We wish everyone a meaningful and faithful Easter Sunday!

Christ has risen! So will we rise from this tragedy that has befallen us.

Salvador S. Panelo
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel
& Presidential Spokesperson