MANILA -- The influential Catholic Bishop’s Conference (CBCP), coming out from a 10-hour emergency meeting last Tuesday, slammed widespread corruption in government but stopped short of calling for beleaguered President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s resignation.

        Archbishop Leonardo Z. Legaspi of the Naga-based Archdiocese of Caceres, one of the three bishops that drafted the pastoral letter, explained that the prelates did not ask for the President’s resignation because it is beyond the limits of the clergy since it is a “political exercise which we leave to the people to decide.”

        But the bishops did not dismiss the possibility of new form of “people power”. They warned the people, however, to carefully consider calls for such an uprising because it could “weaken our democratic structure.”

        Meanwhile, in Naga City, City Mayor Jesse M. Robredo led a group of concerned citizens from the civil society in a noise barrage caravan around the city’s main streets during the rainy afternoon last Monday (Feb. 25) that coincided with the nationwide commemoration of EDSA 1.

        The caravan was joined by over 50 private vehicles that converged at the starting line along St. Joseph School road.

        They blew their horns as they motored around Panganiban Avenue, Penafrancia Avenue, Bagumbayan, and the city’s central business district where shoppers and pedestrians gestured their oneness with and support to the automobile-bound rallysts.

        The vehicles displayed posters and stickers expressing support to Lozada’s crusade for truth and demanding President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to resign.

        The city mayor called on the Nagueños for a bigger rally on Friday, Feb 29, in solidarity with the interfaith rally in Manila.

        Fr. Joe Dizon of Solidarity Philippines said the rally (in Manila and elsewhere in the country) was mainly aimed as a gathering to condemn the corruption in the administration, although those calling for Mrs. Arroyo’s ouster were also welcome.

6-point highlights
        The bishops’ pastoral letter also urged the President to revoke Executive Order 464 that bars members of her Cabinet from testifying before congressional probes into cases involving alleged corruption in her administration.

        Archbishop Legaspi who read the CBCP pastoral letter explained further that the prelates did not ask for Ms. Arroyo’s resignation because they “expect” the President to be “part of the efforts to seek reforms.”

        The bishops listed six points as highlights of their pastoral letter/statement:

        1. Condemn the continuing culture of corruption from the top to the bottom of our social and political ladder;

        2. Urge the President and all branches of government to take the lead in combating corruption wherever it is found;

        3. Recommend the abolition of EO 464 so that those who might have knowledge of any corruption in branches of government may be free to testify before the appropriate investigating bodies;

        4. Ask the President to allow her subordinates to reveal any corrupt acts, particularly about the ZTE-NBN deal, without being obstructed in their testimony no matter who is involved;

        5. Appeal to our senators and the Ombudsman to use their distinct and different powers of inquiry into alleged corruption cases not for their own interest but for the common good;

        6. Call the media to be a positive resource of seeking the truth and combating corruption by objective reporting without bias and partiality, selective and tendentious reporting of cats.

Malacañang grateful
        In Malacañang, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye thanked the bishops for their statement.

        In a text message sent to reporters Tuesday evening, Bunye said the bishops’ recommendations “certainly deserve very serious consideration.”

        He said the nation deserves a respite from “frantic, irrational and dangerous call for the President to resign, while the real truth has yet to be established by the court of law.”

        Meanwhile, at the Senate hearing last Tuesday, Communications engineer Dante Madriaga, a ZTE consultant, claimed that an alleged bagman, Ruben Reyes, received $41 million from ZTE in three batches, with some of the money going to Pres. Arroyo and her husband, and part of it used to help administration candidates in last year’s elections. With reports from GMANews.TV and Associated Press.