March 10, 2008   •   VOL. 46, NO. 5   •   Oakland, CA

Philippine bishops condemn
government’s culture of corruption
 

By Catholic News Service

MANILA, Philippines (CNS) — Following their special Feb. 26 meeting on the corruption crisis President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration is facing, the Philippine Catholic bishops issued a statement condemning the “culture of corruption” and recommending steps to fight it.

In the statement, issued at an evening press conference, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines urged Arroyo and the government to lead the fight against corruption, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News.

Priests clench their fists during a Mass in support of Rodolfo Lozada, a former government official whose testimony in a corruption probe has triggered a political scandal in the Philippines. The Mass was celebrated at a school gymnasium in Manila, Feb. 17. CNS PHOTO/CHERYL RAVELO/REUTERS

“We come to you as pastors, for that is our precise role,” the bishops said. “We do not come as politicians whose vocation it is to order society toward the common good.”

The bishops called on Arroyo to allow her subordinates to testify on the aborted national broadband network deal involving a Chinese company and recommended that she rescind a 2005 executive order restricting such testimony. The executive order requires heads of departments to secure the president’s permission to appear at congressional hearings.

“We are convinced that the search for truth in the midst of charges and allegations must be determined and relentless, and that the way to truth and integrity must be untrammeled, especially at the present time when questions about the moral ascendancy of the present government are being raised,” the bishops said in the statement.

The bishops also urged the “media to be a positive resource of seeking the truth and combating corruption by objective reporting without bias and partiality, selective and tendentious reporting of facts.”

Archbishop Leonardo Legaspi of Caceres, who read the statement at the press conference, told reporters the following day, “Explicitly we did not ask for (her) resignation, but asked for the president’s participation in the reforms.” He explained that the bishops’ letter acknowledges “the reality that the president must be part of the effort to seek reform and find the pathways for the nation to come to political maturity.”

Whether there is sufficient reason to call for a resignation “was not the point” of the bishops’ discernment, he said.

“Asking the president to resign is a political exercise that we leave to the people to decide,” the archbishop said, adding that “it is not our competence” to decide this.
Archbishop Orlando Quevedo of Cotabato said that even if the bishops did not call for the president’s removal their statement carries a reminder to Arroyo that “people in many sectors of society are questioning her moral ascendancy,” and she is expected to exercise this.

Meanwhile, some supporters of Arroyo’s resignation expressed disappointment over the bishops’ statement.

Leah Navarro of Black and White, an anti-corruption movement, described it as “bland.” Speaking in a televised interview, she said their “hands-off” posture during political turmoil makes them seem irrelevant. Her group will have to seek guidance from other “more truth-seeking and dedicated” Catholic leaders, she added.

Representatives of groups meeting in Manila Feb. 27 to plan an interfaith prayer rally for truth echoed her disappointment.

“We want to challenge our bishops to go beyond whatever is hindering them to take the next step,” Alvin Peters of Youth ACT Now! told reporters.

In an interview with UCA News Feb. 27, Father Ranhilio Aquino, dean of the graduate school of law of the Benedictine-run San Beda College in Manila, said it was courageous of the bishops to take “the moral high ground by not dipping their finger into partisan politics.”

He said the bishops “took a positive step” in urging the president to revoke the executive order and enable executive-branch government workers to testify at legislative inquiries without the president’s permission.

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