THE UNIVERSITY hailed the refusal of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to join calls for the resignation or ouster of President Macapagal Arroyo after the House of Representatives voted to junk the impeachment complaint against her.
But UST officials said the search for truth should continue while allowing the nation to move on amid political distractions.
This was decided by the UST Committee on Social Concerns on Sept. 8, two days after the vote. Rector Fr. Tamerlane Lana, O.P. presided over the meeting of the committee, composed of certain deans, Dominican priests, and academic and non-academic officials and members.
While the committee members agreed that the vote was “legal” and “constitutional,” they also pointed out that the process failed to establish the truth.
But they said they had expected the junking of the complaint, as it was weak and the administration had the numbers. They said the result confirmed what UST pointed out in its July statement, “An Appeal for the Pursuit of Truth to Save our Nation,” that while impeachment is a constitutional means of resolving the political conflict, it could hardly establish the truth as impeachment is a political process. “Truth and truth-seeking must be depoliticized,” the statement said.
Fr. Clarence Marquez, O.P., Institute of Religion director and a member of the committee, said the outcome of the impeachment process only proved the need for a non-partisan “Truth Commission.”
To help seek the truth after the failed impeachment, the committee is formulating key “conscience questions addressed to the administration, to the opposition, to the bishops, to the NGO’s,” Marquez said.
Marquez added that the questions are “broad enough to address the problem without taking a partisan stand.” After the “question stage”, the committee will make recommendations on the conduct of the search for the truth, he said.
CBCP statement
In its latest statement, the CBCP called for a continuing search for the truth within legal bounds.
“The search for truth must continue and must be guided by the principles of the rule of law provided by the Constitution, and by the moral principles of justice and common good,” the CBCP statement said.
There had been speculations that the influential CBCP would change its stand after the House of Representatives threw out the impeachment complaint.
But the CBCP leadership stood firm. CBCP President Archbishop Fernando Capalla instead asked the people to move on and focus on eradicating poverty caused by “excessive politicking.”
“Let us not further contribute to this poverty by our inordinate involvement in activities that further oppress the poor and divide our people,” Capalla said, reading the statement.
UST social concerns committee member, Social Research Center director Dr. Ernesto Gonzales, said even granting Malacañang’s claim of economic growth despite the political turmoil, it is uncertain that the people would be fed.
According to sources, majority of the committee members, including the Rector, would not join calls for the President’s resignation or ouster. They hailed the CBCP majority opinion, particularly that of Caceres Archbishop Leonardo Legaspi, O.P., a former CBCP president, and whose views are said to be sought and respected by the other bishops.
In an interview with a Catholic foreign news agency before the CBCP’s controversial July statement, Legaspi, UST’s first Filipino rector, said the bishops might have to consider the concept of “Roman law and order”—that if the alternatives to President Macapagal-Arroyo were worse, then the bishops would have no choice but to support her.
Legaspi later helped draft the CBCP statement that rejected calls on the President to resign while also asking her not to ignore them.
