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By Anthony Vargas, Reporter
The Catholic Church has given
anti-government groups the thumbs-down.
The streets are the easier route
to “imagined” freedom, the Metropolitan Ecclesiastical Province
of Manila said on Friday in a pastoral letter that it will deliver
tomorrow, Palm Sunday. The province covers the archdioceses of the
cities of Manila, Pasig, Parañaque, Caloocan, and Antipolo;
Novaliches; Malolos, Bulacan; Imus, Cavite; Taytay, Rizal; Puerto
Princesa City, Palawan; and San Pablo City, Laguna.
The put-down came as opposition
and militant groups held a rally at Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila to
demand that President Arroyo step down over alleged corruption in
her government. Allied organizations tried to march to Mendiola
Street near Malacañang Palace but were blocked by police.
Pro-government groups staged
their own demonstration at Welcome Rotonda in Quezon City, where
other opposition and militant groups had converged. No clashes
between the two sides were reported as of press time.
In admonishing forces critical of
President Gloria Arroyo and her government in the pastoral letter,
the church apparently was also lashing out at bishops who have
joined calls for her resignation over the alleged graft under her
watch.
The archdiocese hinted that it
fears that the street protests by the anti-Arroyo groups will turn
violent. It then reiterated its earlier stand on sticking to
peaceful and non-violent means in ferreting out the truth behind
allegedly corruption-tainted transactions of the government,
including the aborted $330-million national broadband network
project.
“A nation built on contempt is
completely unimaginable. As pastors, we cannot tell you less, even
if some will resent the way we teach. It is for everybody’s good,
especially the very poor among our brothers and sisters that we now
address [for them to heed] this call for communal renewal,” the
pastoral letter said.
The letter called for “moral
changes” in the Arroyo government. It cited the “social and
political mess” that the country is experiencing.
This call, it said, goes beyond
the question of truth. “Probity is about integrity of all, the
accuser and the accused.”
“We are unhappy, and we [feel]
betrayed,” the pastoral letter said, apparently over the
unresolved corruption and other issues against the Arroyo
administration.
The church said alleged
irregularities in all government contracts and controversial deals
starting from the lowest level up to highest level violate the
seventh Commandment, “Thou shall not steal.”
“Fraud in business,
overpricing, bribery in contracts, cheating in legitimate taxes and
the smuggling of taxable goods . . . all these are among the many
forms of violating the seventh Commandment,” it added.
The church explained in its
pastoral letter that the seventh Commandment does not exempt
allegedly shady contracts that have been entered into by the
government, including the scrapped broadband deal with China’s ZTE
Corp.
“The seventh Commandment covers
not only the corruption deals [at present] that have been exposed,
but also all deals at all levels of government service of all
administrations and governance,” it said.
The church called on government
leaders to lead the way toward change, repentance, and conversion
for finding the true meaning of freedom.
“We need the leaders from the
highest to the lowest and their families not only to lead us, but
also give us examples of repentance and true humble conversion,”
it said.
Quoting several verses from the
Bible, the church likened the process of renewal to the journey made
by the Israelites who escaped from Egypt.
Apparently convinced that cash
had changed hands in the allegedly irregular transactions, it urged
that the money that was “stolen” from the people be returned to
its rightful owners or to the poor.
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