Catholic bishops should be more visibly politically active

Stirred by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) pastoral letter titled “Beyond Survival: Rising Above the Floods of Corruption” dated Sept. 8, parish-based and civil society Catholic groups organized an anti-corruption march along EDSA between the EDSA Shrine and the People Power Monument on Nov. 30, Andres Bonifacio Day, a holiday. Because of that and the CBCP encouraging the public to join the march, expectations of a huge turnout were high.

While the organizers claim that the assembly on EDSA on Nov. 30 was of significant size, the general assessment was that it fell way short of the high expectations. The Philippine National Police estimated the gathering to be around 5,000 participants.

In contrast, when Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin called on the Filipino people in the late evening of Friday, Feb. 22, 1986 to protect Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Armed Forces Vice Chief of Staff Fidel Ramos, who had bunkered down in Camp Aguinaldo and Camp Crame, respectively, after declaring their withdrawal of support for the Marcos dictatorship, hundreds heeded the cardinal’s call initially.

Cardinal Sin at that time was the most influential and visible voice of the opposition within the Catholic hierarchy. He was the symbol of courageous leadership in the fight for democracy and justice in the Philippines.

The crowd swelled into a massive throng of 2 million over the weekend, forcing the late President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. and his family to flee the country on the evening of Monday, Feb. 25, 1986. That event is the very reason that the EDSA Shrine and the People Power Monument are on EDSA.

Maybe pastoral letters urging the flock to join movements for good governance or initiatives that demand justice, accountability and retribution have lost their “bite” or influence. As the CBCP pastoral letter of Sept. 8 said, “We too have often failed, whether by silence, by tolerating corruption in our own ranks, or by not setting a consistent example of integrity.”

The bishops were silent on the transfer of PhilHealth’ P89.9 billion to the national Treasury to finance the National Government’s unprogrammed appropriations; the Office of Vice-President Sara Duterte spending P125 million in confidential funds in just 11 days in 2022; and the Pharmally grand scam in 2021.

The bishops tolerated corruption in their own ranks. Some of them accepted money from President Gloria Arroyo, not for their charity missions but for their personal use. One bishop had the temerity to ask for a car as her birthday gift to him. He got it.

Maybe it is also a matter of issues. The CBCP pastoral letter of Sept. 8 called on the faithful to denounce graft and corruption, while Cardinal Sin asked his flock to protect and support those who would overthrow a dictatorship.

Perhaps, it is a matter of setting examples. During the brutal martial law rule of the dictator, many bishops not only denounced the abuses of the military, but they also took action against military operations.

In 1973, just one year after the imposition of martial law, a group of seven bishops issued one of the strongest open letters against the atrocities of martial law. They were dubbed the Magnificent Seven. They were Bishop Julio Xavier Labayen of Infanta, Bishop Antonio Fortich of Bacolod, Bishop Felix Perez of Imus, Bishop Orlando Quevedo of Kidapawan, Bishop Jesus Varela of Sorsogon, Bishop Federico Escaler of Kidapawan and Bishop Miguel Gatan Purugganan of Ilagan.

Bishop Labayen was a vocal advocate for human rights, supporting Church and grassroots groups working against abuses like torture and illegal detention. He also provided legal assistance and training to victims of human rights abuses and injustices.

Bishop Fortich supported victims and activists as well as families of victims of enforced disappearances. He attended almost all court sessions for the “Negros Nine” case, where a group including a foreign priest from his diocese was falsely accused of murder by the military.

He provided sanctuary to hundreds of villagers displaced by military offensives to take shelter in church facilities. He gained international awareness on the plight of the poor in Negros. Pope John Paul II even visited Bacolod in 1981 and spoke out against the oppressive conditions, an event widely seen as a diplomatic blow to the Marcos regime.

Bishop Perez worked to mitigate the harshness of the regime by using church mechanisms to document abuses and assist victims.

Archbishop Quevedo spoke out forcefully against human rights violations, including illegal arrests, torture and killings that occurred in his diocese. He worked against land-grabbing by Marcos’ cronies and the eviction of communities due to government projects. He publicly condemned specific acts of violence associated with pro-government paramilitary groups, such as the 1985 murder of Italian priest Tullio Favali by a paramilitary band.

Bishop Varela, as president of the Philippine Federation of Catholic Broadcasters, used this position to openly criticize President Marcos at a time when most media outlets were censored or under direct government control. He was among a group of petitioners who filed a case in the Supreme Court in 1975 to challenge the legality of Marcos’ decrees and his authority to hold office under either the 1935 or 1973 Constitution.

Bishop Escaler, as the prelate of Kidapawan and Ipil, was known for his progressive, pro-poor stance and for advancing the cause of human rights. He served as an adviser to the Task Force Detainees, an organization that documented cases of abuse. He was a vocal critic who issued statements that Marcos’ policies were providing aid to rebel groups by fueling social unrest and injustice.

Bishop Purugganan provided support for some 20,0000 peasants who were farming an 11,000-hectare tract of land spanning the Haciendas San Antonio and Santa Isabel in Ilagan that was being claimed for large-scale commercial agribusiness purposes by Marcos’ cronies. The bishop placed the entire social action network under his office to help the farmers’ struggles. In December 1981, he led over 50 priests, nuns and journalists to visit the haciendas in defiance of soldiers and private guards who tried to keep them out.

There were bishops other than The Magnificent Seven who were also known for their open criticism of the Marcos dictatorship and for providing sanctuary to the targets of martial law agents.

Bishop Francisco Claver of Malaybalay used the pulpit, the print media and the radio to condemn the violations of martial law enforcers, and admonished the abusers, including Bukidnon Governor Carlos Fortich, whose family-owned huge landholdings in the province. He was involved with the Association of Major Religious Superiors composed of 2,500 Catholic priests and 7,000 nuns, most of them teachers who have led prayer rallies and symposiums at leading women’s colleges.

Archbishop Oscar Cruz, a close friend of the family and archbishop of Dagupan-Lingayen, was also a staunch critic of Marcos. After the fall of the Marcos dictatorship, he described a destroyed bust of Ferdinand Marcos as a “monument to evil,” warning politicians never to become what Marcos was.

He was also known as one of the most vocal critics of President Arroyo, often speaking out against corruption scandals and election fraud issues, such as the “Hello Garci” controversy, the P728-million fertilizer scam and the NBN-ZTE deal.

In a 2015 interview, the archbishop predicted that then-presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte would be “worse than a dictator” if elected. “Such a creature is dangerous, much more if he is chosen as the country’s head of state,” he said.

These religious leaders and the broader CBCP of that dark era had set an example of political activism. While the CBCP had issued pastoral letters condemning President Duterte’s war on drugs and reign of terror, only Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of the diocese of Caloocan and Archbishop Socrates Villegas, immediate successor of Archbishop Cruz, had set the example of political activism.

Bishop David provided sanctuary and legal assistance to drug users and the families of victims of the war on drugs, advocating for a rehabilitative approach instead of the extrajudicial killings espoused by the government.

Archbishop Villegas issued strong statements condemning the “reign of terror” and the “culture of death” that the war on drugs had created. He called on churches to ring their bells every evening as a “wake-up call” for the nation to condemn the violence.

For the CBCP pastoral letters to recover their bite or influence, more bishops should be more visibly politically active like Cardinal Sin, Bishops Labayen, Fortich, Varela, Purugganan, Escaler, Cardinal David, and Archbishop Villegas.

Oscar P. Lagman, Jr. has been a keen observer of Philippine politics since the 1950s.