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By Rene Q. Bas, Editor in Chief
Many top-ranking Filipinos sharply critical of
the Arroyo administration told The Manila Times they respect the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines for upholding
Church doctrine in its pastoral statements issued in response to the
political crisis engulfing the nation.
These Filipinos appreciate the CBCP’s
restraint in not calling for the resignation or ouster of President
Gloria Arroyo unlike her other foes who have spoken and written
against the Catholic Episcopal conference for not joining in their
anti-Arroyo struggle.
Among these high-ranking and well-respected
Filipinos are the Aquino presidency’s Finance Secretary Jesus P.
Estanislao and central bank governor Jose Cuisia as well as the
majority of the 80 former Cabinet members and chairpersons of
Constitutional commissions who have formed themselves as the Former
Senior Government Officials group. That group has roundly criticized
President Arroyo’s administration for its lack of transparency,
bad governance and indifference to corruption.
They said they have come to believe, as a result
of Mrs. Arroyo’s refusal to attend to their demands, that Mrs.
Arroyo is central to the corruption in her government.
Some members of the group are calling on
President Arroyo to resign. But some would not go that far for the
moment because, former Secretary Estanislao told The Times, “the
FSGO has decided as a group to wage the campaign to pressure the
administration to institute drastic reforms ‘incrementally.’ ”
The Times learned that most of the 80-plus FSGO
members do agree that the CBCP has served the Roman Catholic Church
well by observing the Canon Law and doctrine forbidding clerics from
engaging in political action unless it is of momentous urgency in
defense of the Church.
Estanislao explained that not only Church
doctrine and Canon law make it prudent for bishops not to act about
political and economic problems beyond their duty to teach about the
moral aspects and to give guidelines to the faithful.
“It is also better to let the laity to do the
work of protesting and taking action. We can take stronger action
than priests and bishops can,” he said.
Top bankers
Three of the country’s top bankers The Times
talked to also declared their appreciation of the CBCP’s
restraint. They disagreed with the politicians who have been
attacking the bishops for not being as “bold and as politically
concerned” as the late Jaime Cardinal Sin.
They all requested not to be named—in keeping
with their apolitical posture. But one of them asked this writer to
tell Times readers that they should heed the CBCP’s call for
“prayer and communal reflection in their Basic Ecclessial
Communities and their parishes, and then act as one to pressure the
government into reforming.”
An insurance-group executive, George Winternitz,
managing director of Winternitz Associates Insurance Inc., did not
mind being named and quoted as saying that he and scores of his
colleagues would like to see corruption disappear in the government
and the private sector.
“We all should take the bishops’ exhortation
seriously though. We should also examine ourselves, all of us
businessmen, and workers in businesses, to reform ourselves. Little
acts of graft may be tiny compared to the US dollar millions they
are talking about in Senate investigations,” Winternitz said.
“But these also contribute to creating that continuing culture of
corruption that the CBCP is asking the government to combat.”
Stockbrokers who want President Arroyo to resign
talked to our reporter Likha Cuevas. They also expressed agreement
with the CBCP for the bishops’ refusal to be drawn into taking
sides politically.
One of them said, “The CBCP is right and I
think what the bishops want is really what the silent majority
want.”
Our reporter Jomar Canlas talked to Atty. Samson
Alcantara, president of ABAKADA Guro Inc., a teachers and lawyers’
group fighting for social justice and against corruption. He is a
bar topnotcher and the petitioner who won the case in the Supreme
Court for the removal of the Pandacan Oil Depots.
Alcantara is happy with the CBCP for being
apolitical now. He has always been upset by the political activism
of various religious and church groups.
“It is a strong statement recognizing
corruption in the government but done in a subtle manner made by the
members of the cloth. It is a strong stand. Everybody says there is
corruption. But they cannot condemn because there is no proof.” He
said it is up to laymen to work and provide the proof.
Among the country’s topmost politicians,
Makati’s Mayor Jejomar Binay—who is an ardent activist against
President Arroyo and the president of the United Opposition—is
strongly faithful to the Catholic bishops and the CBCP.
Binay told The Times the CBCP decided correctly
in not asking for the resignation of President Gloria Arroyo but
strongly condemning her administration’s corruption.
Manila’s Mayor Lim is also respectful of the
CBCP stand.
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