CBCP forced to grudgingly acknowledge the obvious

John Nery sez:

In a previous column, I called the January statement of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines intellectually dishonest, for making a false distinction between the concerns of Metro Manila and those of the provinces. But the February statement--the result of an emergency plenary session, called less than a month after the regular one in January--forcefully does away with the distinction. It finally, if belatedly, acknowledges that the entire country faces a "crisis of truth." This, I think, is a useful declaration; it pulls the moral rug from under any continued Malacanang attempt to ignore or evade or undermine the ongoing Senate investigation into the National Broadband Network controversy.

They had no choice, John, because their last pastoral letter (written by Fransisco Claver?) was out of touch with reality.

Here's what the PDI editorial said then:

The CBCP did not call the administration to account for the many “sins” that have been imputed to it. On the contrary, it called the many problems of the country “simply rumors, fears, suspicions, imagined wrongs.” “Because these are reported in the newspapers, we begin to believe that they are true.”

Corruption in government is part of the “rumors, fears, suspicions”?

To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.