CBCP issues it's ritual call for clean elections

(rolleyes)

From the Daily Tribune:

With all the questions in the May 2004 elections left hanging, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) yesterday said Filipinos “cannot afford yet another controversial electoral exercise that further aggravates social distrust and hopelessness.”

In a pastoral statement read by Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, also the president of the CBCP, he urged voters to “choose wise, discerning and experienced people” especially that the question of the legitimacy of the Arroyo presidency remains unsettled.

“These coming elections in May 2007 are especially important. Many of our current political problems which have hindered fuller economic development and social justice, especially for the poor, can be traced to unresolved questions concerning the conduct of past

elections,” Lagdameo told a press conference during the end of their three-day plenary assembly.

He, however, stressed the CBCP is not inclined to give guidelines but the church hierarchy leaves them to bishops to issue their own guidelines that would help voters in choosing their candidates, adding they would better know the realities happening in their dioceses.

The prelate said they are mobilizing the basic ecclesiastical communities in the respective dioceses to ensure honest, orderly and peaceful elections.

“We are determined that we come together once more and organize ourselves more effectively than we have done in the past to make this year’s elections credible and free of violence as possible,” the CBCP president added.

“We seek only one thing: To apply the values of the Gospel to our electoral process,” Lagdameo stressed.

Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, for his part, said the results of the May 2007 polls will determine the fate of the government particularly on the unresolved legitimacy issue hounding President Arroyo.

“The coming elections will be the real people’s initiative. Don’t talk about Cha-cha (Charter change) this time but let’s talk first of how the people feel about the current administration and this unresolved cases in the previous election,” he added.

Assuming that the May 14 polls are clean, honest and peaceful, and the administration candidates win the majority, the prelate said it could be considered “a closure to the controversy” surrounding the Arroyo administration.

“If they are clean and honest election we should be able to get the pulse of the masses and their feelings in general about their thinking of the government,” Ledesma said.

“If the administration candidates win the majority in the elections that means the people agreed to them but then again if it’s the majority of the opposition candidates that win that also send a signal,” he stressed.

Errr... what signal, your holiness?

Once again, napaka-vague ng sibahan. And HOPING for clean elections under this administration WITHOUT CREDIBLE REFORMS and a thorough housecleaning within the COMELEC is foolish and naive. It's as if we have never learned our lessons from the 2004 election fiasco.

And as long as those Garci COMELEC officials involved in the dagdag bawas operations + plus Chairman Ben Abalos remain at the COMELEC, magkakaroon pa rin ng dayaan, THAT I GUARANTEE YOU.

The oppositon back in 2004 protested Garcillano and Barcelona's appointment, pero they were ignored by the administration (natch!), CBCP and civil society groups. Now the calls for a credible COMELEC revamp and investigation on the 2004 Gloriagate fraud among the COMELEC officials are being swept under the rug again, and people are asking us to just cross our fingers and hope na this time, there won't be any massive fraud.

Sabi ni MLQ3:

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has issued its ritual calls for clean elections. The President immediately embraced the bishops, a tactic she’s perfected since 2005. The problem is that prelates thrive on nuance, which is anathema to politics. So, the bishops look like fools while the Palace goes full speed ahead with confidence-eroding activities like Ebdane’s appointment to Defense.

From the Tribune Editorial:

Not surprisingly, the Catholic bishops came up with yet another “neither here nor there” pastoral statement, which, by comparison, is really no different from the past vague pastoral letters they had been issuing under the Gloria regime.

They spoke of the need for the nation to have credible polls, as the country, so they say, cannot afford another controversial poll exercise that “further aggravates social distrust and helplessness.”

And how do the bishops go about ensuring clean and honest polls? Through the mobilization of the basic ecclesiastical communities in the respective dioceses, they said, as they vowed to be better organized this time around.

In resolving the problem of Gloria Arroyo’s illegitimacy, resulting from the massive electoral fraud in 2004, and to put a closure to this festering problem, the bishops offer a very simplistic solution.

The elections, they intoned, will serve as a referendum on Gloria and her government. If the majority of administration candidates win in the polls, this could be considered as a vote of confidence for Gloria and her government, and would serve as a “closure to the controversy” bedeviling the current administration. If the majority of opposition candidates win, that victory also “sends a signal.”

Signal to what, they naturally did not dare say, since vagueness would allow the same body of bishops later on to claim that there was no massive poll cheating, and that whatever little cheating there was, was largely on the local level. Then, the same body of bishops will tell the nation, “Let us all put a closure to the past controversies and support the Arroyo government, and let us all move forward.”

Why then do the Catholic bishops think that the Filipino people will take the results of the polls — should the administration win the majority seats — as a closure to the past controversies surrounding Gloria’s illegitimacy? Because of their say — so in proclaiming that the polls were honest and credible?

They said the same in 2004 and even insisted that there was no massive cheating and that the voice of the sovereign Filipino people was upheld. Besides, to date, even as the same bishops speak of clean and honest polls, never once did they directly admit that there was massive electoral fraud in 2004, even when the evidence shows this charge to be accurate and true.

No, the CBCP has lost it's moral compass and credibility, especially since the supported erap's impeachment but not arroyo's.