 CBCP
PERMANENT COUNCIL
Pastoral Statement on the Present
Political Situation
- Greetings
of peace to all our countrymen and women particularly to all our
political leaders! As religious leaders we are concerned with
justice, truth, peace, and love—values of the Kingdom
of God. For this reason
the present political turmoil in Manila
deeply disturbs us. Political bickering, stubborn and self-serving
divisiveness along the lines of political allegiances among our
leaders, endless suspicions and speculations liberally and sometimes,
perhaps, irresponsibly disseminated by media, political intrigues
and military plots, endless investigations, charges and countercharges
of graft and corruption, attempts by doomsday soothsayers to exaggerate
the actual situation by projecting what is happening in Manila
to the entire country, calls for resignation or snap election—all
these demoralize us especially as they seem to ignore the common
good of all and indicate a fatal loss of perspective. We are especially
concerned about the impression that our political leaders are
out to destroy one another and in the process bring down the entire
Filipino family. All these must stop, for certainly the Lord is
not pleased with what is going on.
- Indeed,
we are suffering politically and economically. Our people have
many valid issues to complain about, especially about the economy
and “too much politics.” Each sector of society has
surely a share of the blame by commission or omission. Therefore,
our current economic and political situation calls for harmony
and unity, for total commitment o the task of economic recovery
and political renewal.
- In our
pastoral statement of July
8,2003, we denounced graft and corruption fot he umpteenth time. Even as we acknowledged our own
failures in the Church, we also set up short-term and long-term
measures to renew ourselves as leaders.By
the same token we will strongly support all initiatives by the
government that will seriously combat everything that ails our
political system, taints our political behavior, and misuses political
power. In this struggle for integrity, it is sin itself, both
personal and social—the lack of morality in politics—that
we must combat.
- Therefore,
we urge all our political leaders, particularly our President,
to respond positively and effectively to the valid issues regarding
graft and corruption that various groups, both in government also
in civil society have brought to public attention. We urge that
the results of investigations made by Congress on various charges
made against its own members or against other parties be made
known and duly implemented. We also urge that our leaders desist
from political grandstanding and seemingly endless power games
and political jockeying that, among other factors, make politics
no longer an instrument for the common good.
- We wish
to help our people and political leaders towards that vision of
society that the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines articulated;
“a free nation… where moral principles prevail in
socio-economic life and structures, where justice, love and solidarity
are the driving forces of development… a sovereign nation
where membership is a call to participation and involvement and
leadership a summons to generous service.” The truth, the
pursuit of peace and justice, the common good must be supreme,
and not ulterior political and personal motives. Let us not, therefore,
destroy one another, let us build up one another as befits being
members of the one Filipino family under God.
- We pray
and hope that the proposed political summit would contribute significantly
to the renewal of politics and to our economic recovery.
For the CBCP Permanent Council
+Orlando
B. Quevedo O.M.I.
Archbishop of Cotabato
President
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines
September 1, 2003.
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