The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
February 22, the anniversary of the start of the 1986 People’s Power Revolution, echoes with a different call this year. No more paeans to the son of the icon of democracy who led the popular revolt that toppled the Marcos dictatorship nearly three decades ago.
Instead, Filipinos are set to mark the day this Sunday with a protest rally at Edsa demanding that President Aquino step down.
Retired Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal and five other senior bishops, in a strongly worded statement read in Cebu City, said it is now “urgent and imperative” for Aquino, whose term ends in June next year, to resign.
The call has mounted amid deepening suspicion that Mr. Aquino’s security officials have stonewalled on the President’s behind-the-scenes role in the police-commando raid on terrorist bomb-maker Zulkifli bin Hir’s lair in Mamasapano, resulting in the massacre of 44 Special Action Force troops by Muslim rebels of the MILF negotiating peace with the government.
“We, bishops of the Catholic and other Christian Churches, have often been asked if there is a moral basis to this growing demand. Even long before the unfortunate events, the National Transformation Council has strongly articulated that the President step down,” the bishops said in the statement. “Recent developments have made the call even more urgent and imperative,” they added.
Vidal, who is chairman of the National Transformation Council, said Mr. Aquino should be held accountable for the death of the 44 commandos. “If we understand what is a Commander-in-Chief, if we understand the chain of command, of course, he has to account for that,” Vidal said.
Joining him were some of the most senior members of the country’s Catholic episcopacy: Cagayan Bishop Ramon Villena, Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, Zamboanga Archbishop Romulo de la Cruz, Davao Archbishop Emeritus Fernando Capalla and Naval, Biliran Bishop Filomeno Bactol.
Vidal’s statement followed a Mass for the slain commandos celebrated at his residence in Cebu City. He and the senior bishops said their plea for Mr. Aquino’s resignation echoed the Filipinos’ general sentiment.
The group said Mr. Aquino’s misrule endangers the lives of Filipinos and adversely affects the moral landscape of the nation.
“At all times and in all places, the Church should have the freedom to teach her doctrine and to pass moral judgment in those matters which regard the common good and fundamental rights and freedoms,” the group said. Incumbent Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, who distanced himself from the resignation call, said he wanted the President to publicly reveal his involvement in Operation Exodus that also linked relieved Philippine National Police Director-General Alan Purisima.