Don't just dismiss resign calls, bishop told Arroyo

First posted 04:36am (Mla time) Aug 22, 2005
By Christian V. Esguerra
Inquirer News Service

TAKE into account demands for your resignation.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo got this piece of unsolicited advice from Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo during their closed-door meeting at the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) compound in Manila last week.

"I repeated to her that the bishops' stand in our pastoral letter did not change," the incoming CBCP president said in Filipino in an interview with the Church-run Radio Veritas yesterday.

Lagdameo was referring to the CBCP's July 10 statement on the worst political crisis of Ms Arroyo's 4-year-old presidency. It was sparked by allegations that Ms Arroyo cheated in last year's election and demands that she resign. The President has denied manipulating the vote.

The CBCP statement has received both commendation and criticism for shying away from mounting calls for Ms Arroyo to step aside.

While Malacañang has played up this purportedly favorable position of the bishops demands that Ms Arroyo stand down, Lagdameo said the statement, titled "Restoring Trust: A Plea for Moral Values in Philippine Politics," was also quite clear.

Lagdameo stressed that bishops had urged Ms Arroyo not to "simply dismiss" calls for her resignation.

Options to resolve crisis

The prelate said he also reminded the President about the three options outlined by the CBCP to pull the country out of its political problems.

"Three things were clear in our pastoral letter: impeachment, truth commission, and what they call her voluntary resignation," he told the Veritas' CBCP On Air program.

In the statement, the bishops said: "we recognize that nonviolent appeals for her resignation, the demand for a truth commission, and the filing of an impeachment case are not against the Gospel."

Ms Arroyo earlier promised to form a truth commission to look into allegations that she rigged the 2004 elections as suggested in wiretapped conversations between her and former Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, who has fled the country.

She has since been silent about the fact-finding body which was also endorsed by the Bishops-Businessmen's Conference.

The impeachment proceedings remain stuck at the House of Representatives with the opposition accusing administration lawmakers of blocking the effort on technicalities.

Lagdameo yesterday said he was not bothered by the verbal clashes in the House committee debating the impeachment process.

"Of course, there are arguments and clashes because each one is looking for and defending the truth," he said. "I think that's the right of everybody."

Impeach move must go on

The bishop earlier said the proceedings should continue, "no matter how painful they may be."

Some Church insiders saw the President’s visit to Lagdameo as a frantic effort to solicit the CBCP's support behind the troubled Arroyo administration.

A priest said Malacañang was probably trying to convince Lagdameo to initiate another CBCP statement, one that would unequivocally back the President.

A number of CBCP employees recalled seeing the President teary-eyed when she emerged from the nearly hour-long meeting with the prelate. One priest said he thought the President did not get what she wanted and was upset.

However, Rigoberto Tiglao, chief of the Presidential Management Staff, denied that Ms Arroyo had shed tears.

Lagdameo said he did not see Ms Arroyo crying because he was in a rush to fly back to his archdiocese in Iloilo. Despite admitting that they had discussed the CBCP statement on the crisis, he insisted that Ms Arroyo had visited him simply to greet him on his 25th anniversary as a bishop.

"Let them form their own conjectures but it was really just a private visit so she could greet me on my jubilee year," he said.