Filipino bishops split on call for ouster of president

February 25, 2015

Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, the retired Archbishop of Cebu, has joined with civil leaders in the Philippines in a “National Transformation Council,” calling for the removal of President Benigno Aquino, calling for the establishment of a transitional government.

The call for Aquino’s ouster was issued, ironically, on the 29th anniversary of the “people power” movement that deposed the Marcos dictatorship and brought Corazon Aquino, the mother of the current government leader, to the presidency. Today, Benigno Aquino’s critics charge him with corruption and nepotism.

Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan, the president of the Filipino bishops’ conference, told the AsiaNews service that Cardinal Vidal and his colleagues on the National Transformation Council do not speak for the Catholic hierarchy. “We bishops have a moral duty which is to shake consciences and also ask uncomfortable questions, but we cannot and we should not invite people to revolt,” he said.

Archbishop Villegas also rejected the comparison of the current situation with the birth of the “people power” movement. “That was a military dictatorship,” he said; “this, No.”

The justice minister of the current government, Leila de Lima, has charged that the National Transformation Council is engaged in sedition, saying that by calling for the formation of a transitional government the group is implicitly seeking support from the military.

 

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Further information:

• "People Power" returns after 29 years calling for President Aquino to resign (AsiaNews)