MANILA, Philippines (CNS) Philippine bishops decided not to join a protest rally against the president and alleged corruption, instead holding a "Mass for truth" at their headquarters. The Feb. 15 Mass was held prior to the afternoon rally in the main business district in Manila. Opposition politicians and leftist groups protested the latest crisis surrounding President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News.
Arroyo and some Cabinet members are under fire amid allegations of corruption in a national broadband network contract that has since been canceled.
Political opposition leaders claim the rally was the first of several.
The Mass was the bishops’ response to the call by Archbishop Angel Lagdameo of Jaro, the Philippine bishops’ conference president, for "communal action" in light of the nation’s "search for truth and justice."
Rodolfo Lozada, a former government consultant, testified before a Senate committee Feb. 8. He implicated the former head of the election commission, Benjamin Abalos Sr., and Arroyo’s husband, lawyer Jose Miguel Arroyo, as among those involved in corruption in the awarding of the contract to a Chinese telecommunications company to establish a national broadband service.
Lozada said the $329 million network contract contained $130 million in kickbacks.
The bishops also voiced their concern in a Feb. 14 statement.
"Let us pray, in particular, that these hearings (into alleged corruption) will be protected and guided by God’s Spirit, so that the truth will be ferreted out and our government and people can move on along the road of true progress and peace," said the statement.
Bishop Deogracias Iniguez of Kalookan, head of the bishops’ public affairs committee, told UCA News Feb. 13 that he would not attend the rally because the opposition sponsored it.
Salesian Sister Estrella Castalone, executive secretary of the Association of Major Religious Superiors, denied reports in local papers that her association was a sponsor of the rally, which she termed a "political exercise of the opposition."
Sister Estrella told UCA News the association was not taking part in the rally because their involvement in the issue is not anti-government but rather a call to uphold the truth.
"We are not partisan," she said.