NAGA CITY—The position of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) not to endorse the impeachment move against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo presents a collective analysis which views the numbers game in Congress as incapable of ferreting out the ‘objective’ truth, according to Archbishop Leonardo Z. Legaspi, one of the framers of CBCP’s recent statement.

        Legaspi said that the two impeachment moves the Filipino people had gone through which had always been dictated on the basis of the number is not the right method to resolve the issue on the question of credibility of the president.

        “But we are not against impeachment per se. We believe it is not the right method to ferret out the objective truth at present circumstances,” Legaspi explained.

        The bishop said that they also do not want to descend to the level of partisan politics when they issued the statement because he said it contradicts the role of bishop as shepherd of the faithful in dioceses.

        He brushed aside criticism that the CBCP statement is vague because he said it is not intended to explain the feeling of the people.

        Legaspi said that the CBCP statement has no intention of giving recommendations which partisan politics and media could make use of for their own motives.

        He said that the CBCP statement mulled during conference, held twice a year in January and July, is not even included in the agenda that tackle reports on pastoral work in the dioceses all over the country.

        But Legaspi said that issuance of CBCP statement has become a tradition that evolved from the Marcos years when fear gripped even the bishops who were afraid to speak out on their own.

        He said the situation during that time called for the unity of voice of bishops on burning issues that directly affected the dioceses so that the CBCP statement tradition during the conferences came to be.