Disputing the views of one of their leaders, militants within the Catholic Church yesterday defended resorting to people power if there would be massive fraud in next week’s elections and said the greater sin was for the Church to do nothing. Sr. Mary John Mananzan, a convenor of the poll watchdog Kontra Daya, said taking to the streets was the only option available.
“With due respect, I disagree vehemently [with Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales],” Mananzan said.
“It’s more irresponsible if you do nothing,” Mananzan said at a press briefing. “Where would you go? To Congress, to the Supreme Court? Even Art Panganiban, the former Chief Justice, said all of the institutions of government are severely compromised. So where will you go but to the power of the people?”
She said a candidate and his supporters had a right to protest if they were cheated, just as any citizen should not sit idly by if his rights were trampled upon.
“If you don’t, you are an irresponsible person,” she said.
Archbishop ready to join
Rosales said the other day that warnings of another people power uprising in case of widespread vote fraud were “crazy [and] irresponsible” and that the conditions that produced the 1986 popular revolt against Ferdinand Marcos were not present now.
The cardinal said that if there was a basis to call for people power, he was not averse to it, but that he saw no reason for it at this time.
Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, who has his own misgivings about the automated elections, said he would join mass movements if the elections did not reflect the people’s will and the process was shot full of holes.
“Just because we are priests doesn’t mean we don’t care about the world,” Cruz told reporters. “The truth is, under the laws of the Church, a priest needs to be concerned about truth and justice. That is canon law. Clerics have to be involved in the promotion of justice and peace in society.”
He said it was wrong for one to “speak and do nothing” if irregularities were committed.
‘We should fight’
Cruz also said his reading of Rosales’ statements was that the cardinal saw no reason to support any people power now, but not that he would not support any people power at all.
“When the situation warrants it, I do not think he’s closed to a people power per se,” he said.
Fr. Joe Dizon, also of Kontra Daya and a staunch critic of the administration, said he understood Rosales’ position, but that people should protest against poll cheating or failure of elections, especially if this would lead to an interim government under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“If fraud and failure of elections will lead to a holdover government, we should fight these. If fighting these needs mass movement, that is the right of the people. The people should see that their strength lies in that,” Dizon said.
Rosales made his remarks in reaction to statements by Liberal Party standard-bearer Sen. Benigno Aquino III holding out the possibility of a people power if he was cheated in the polls.
Erap advice
In a recent interview with Bloomberg information and news service, Aquino said that if “the people’s will is frustrated,” demonstrations could make the street protests in Thailand—which have been marked by bloody clashes—look “mild” in comparison.
Aquino’s spokesperson Edwin Lacierda told the Philippine Daily Inquirer the other day that people power “is an option that he (Aquino) will take” if it was clear that he was robbed of victory. Otherwise, he would accept defeat.
Deposed President Joseph “Erap” Estrada cautioned Aquino against calling for people power but added he would back such a protest if there would be glaring cheating in the elections.
“I would like to tell my good friend, Sen. Noynoy Aquino, not to speak too soon as if he had already won,” Estrada said.
“He might like to take a lesson from his mother [Cory Aquino] and speak with more humility. After all, the race is not yet over…. (May) the best man win,” he said.
Estrada also said: “We can have all this people power again. If there is a glaring cheating and manipulation of the election, of course, I’ll join hands with him. But as of now let us not preempt that.”
Estrada spoke at a news conference where his party presented three sets of survey results showing him at solo second place behind front-running Aquino, with Nacionalista Party candidate Sen. Manuel Villar in third place.
The Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino said the surveys—conducted in April—included one commissioned by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile’s Jaka Group of Companies. The others were conducted by the Magdalo group of soldiers and the Department of Interior and Local Government.
Deputy presidential spokesperson Gary Olivar said Rosales’ remarks showed there was no basis for calls for “street adventurism.”
“We are gratified by the position taken by the cardinal who is obviously a man of peace, who speaks for our Church, and is committed to peace,” Olivar said at a Palace briefing.SIC: INQ