Philippines: Church Maintains Stand on Arroyo Debate

The Roman Catholic Church of the Philippines is expected to reiterate the stand of its 10 July statement in which it stated it would not follow calls from around the country for the resignation of President Gloria Macapagul-Arroyo.
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Archbishop Fernando Capalla of Davao said “Not in my life time” to an inquiry as to whether any changes would be made to the Church’s July statement. The archbishop added: “It has never been done before.”

Archbishop Capalla said that to change the statement would be “so unfair” and mean that “the bishops are stupid, that they can insult themselves by changing a statement like that”.

The archbishop called instead for politicians and religious leaders to begin a process of reconciliation by restoring “true friendship” between the warring sides.

“True friendship is what this country needs urgently,” he said at the opening of the National Summit of Religious leaders in Cebu City Tuesday.

“Our country today is rocked by warring factions who are full of hatred for one another. There is a lot of un-peace, social unrest and political turmoil because friendship has been broken."

Capalla added that "our people in government, society, economics, politics and culture cannot work effectively together because true friendship has been lost.”
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The comment comes from the outgoing president of the 85-member Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) despite accusations against the Church that it has not done enough to defuse political tension.

The 12-member permanent council of the CBCP will come together to discuss the impeachment complaint against Ms Arroyo, as well as its implications on the political council, at a meeting on 13 September.

Calls were made for the resignation of Arroyo amid allegations she won last year’s elections on fraudulent grounds and that her family had received illegitimate payoffs for gambling debts.