MANILA. Rule Out the support of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) for the fresh bid to impeach President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In a pastoral statement, the 124-member CBCP yesterday said the present impeachment process would be an "unproductive political exercise" in determining the truth.

It said that citizens' negative perception of politicians would only deepen unless proponents and opponents of impeachment were both guided by concern for the common good.

Even so, the CBCP said it favored the search for the truth behind allegations against Ms Arroyo and that it respected "the position of individuals or groups that wish to continue using the impeachment process to arrive at the truth."

One of the CBCP members, Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez signed one of the four impeachment complaints against Ms Arroyo two weeks ago as a citizen who wanted to join the search for the truth amid the crisis of legitimacy hounding the Arroyo presidency.

The charges against the President include culpable violation of the Constitution in connection with claims she rigged the May 2004 election, graft and corruption, and abuse of authority that led to political killings and muzzling of dissenters. Ms Arroyo has denied she cheated in the last presidential election.

"In the light of previous circumstances, we are not inclined at present to favor the impeachment process as the means of establishing the truth," the CBCP said in a pastoral statement released yesterday.

The statement reflected the CBCP's position last year, when the President's allies in the House of Representatives cited a technicality to throw out a bid to impeach her and the bishops refused to join calls for her ouster but urged her not to ignore them.

"Unless the process and its rules, as well as the mind-set of all participating parties, pro and con, are guided by no other motive than genuine concern for the common good, impeachment will once again serve as an unproductive exercise, dismaying every citizen and deepening the citizen's negative perception of politicians - Left, Right, and Center," the CBCP said.

Titled "Shepherding and Prophesying in Hope," the statement was the product of a weekend-long deliberation among 89 bishops, including Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales.

While not exactly as fiery in tone as the one released in January, the latest statement again outlined the CBCP position on "social concerns," including electoral reforms and extra-judicial killings.

MISINTERPRETATION

Iñiguez said on cable network ANC that he was satisfied with the pastoral statement, but expressed apprehension that it could be subject to misinterpretation.

Reactions of groups and individuals to the pastoral letter depend on where they stand.
Malacañang and its allies welcomed it, but those critical of Ms Arroyo, including certain senators, were surprised by the stand of the bishops on impeachment.

"We concur with the bishops that impeachment is not the way toward change and resolution in our current political concerns," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said in a statement he read in Malacañang.

Bunye said the administration "welcomes and ponders with humility and sincere appreciation the moral counsel from the pastoral letter of the CBCP."

"The message offers many points of agreement and shared objectives between the government and the Church," he said.

STRANGE

Senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr. said he could not understand the CBCP. "Impeachment is the best, most peaceful way of seeking the truth," he said.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. was just as stumped. "That's the CBCP's privilege. While I don't see how impeachment can succeed, I find it strange that they are not convinced the complainants seek the public good," he said.

Even without the full backing of the Catholic hierarchy, impeachment proponents vowed to push through with their second attempt to impeach Ms Arroyo.

"If they favor the search for the truth but not through impeachment, then through what means?" asked House Minority Leader Francis Escudero, referring to the CBCP.

Escudero reminded the bishops that in batting for reforms in the Commission on Elections, "they have admitted that there was indeed cheating in the last elections."

"We, led by the citizen complainants, are pursuing the only available, legal and peaceful means at arriving at the truth and unless they (bishops) have an alternative to this we will continue to pursue this avenue," he said at a press conference shortly after the CBCP issued the pastoral statement.

CORRECT MOVE

House Majority Leader Prospero Nograles described the CBCP statement as a "correct" move.

"The House or Congress is not a correct venue to find guilt or innocence. It's the courts that will decide guilt or no guilt, not Congress in an impeachment case because Congress decides, as a policy, whether good or bad, to remove an official," Nograles said.

HYATT 10

Pro-impeachment members of the Hyatt 10 and the Black and White Movement said the impeachment case they filed would proceed, with or without the support of the CBCP.

Former Social Welfare Secretary Corazon "Dinky" Soliman of Hyatt 10, a group of former government executives and Cabinet secretaries, said she respected the position of the CBCP.

"We are going through a molting process as a people who believe in democracy and who believe in the people's rights in exacting accountability from its officials, including the President, through the representatives of the people," she said.

Vicente "Enteng" Romano, III, lead convenors of Black and White Movement, said the CBCP stand on impeachment reflected the people's distrust in political institutions and processes.

"Unfortunately, they (the bishops) do not recommend any other means through which we, the people who are genuinely concerned about the truth, can seek redress and resolution of the political impasse we are in as a result of the non-closure of the legitimacy issue that has hounded the administration," Romano said.

He said impeachment was the only constitutional venue left for the people at this time for seeking the truth. "If Congress will only give a chance for the complaint to be heard and the evidence to be presented, it will lead to a closure that will serve the interests of both sides. Then, we can all finally move on," he said.

PRIESTS SIGN 5TH COMPLAINT

About two hours before the CBCP issued its statement, two priests, including the parish priest of San Miguel de Archangel Church located inside the Malacañang compound, added their signatures to the citizens-backed impeachment drive.

Fathers Jerry Sabado and Ernesto Cruz joined Protestant pastors and lay Church workers in signing at the House minority office the fifth impeachment case due to be filed on July 24, when Congress reopens.

The 13 new complainants belonging to the ecumenical group Promotion of Church People's Response (PCPR) called on the CBCP to make a firm and unequivocal stand on the political crisis.

They reminded the CBCP of its "prophetic role" by supporting the people's move to ferret out the truth by way of an impeachment trial for Ms Arroyo.

Sabado, a Carmelite priest, insisted that the "social doctrine" of the Catholic Church called upon the priesthood to be the "ethical conscience" of society, which must "come into the (political) process to pursue truth and justice."

He said the principle of the separation of Church and State was only on governance, and not when the ethical dimension was being questioned.

Since the legitimacy crisis of the Arroyo administration erupted last year, the CBCP has issued four pastoral statements seeking to provide moral guidance in this predominantly Catholic country.

VERY SLOW

Asked how the public, especially the administration, had so far responded to the CBCP's calls, Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, CBCP president, replied: "They've been listening, they've been responding."

"We're moving forward but very slow," he told the Inquirer.

In their latest eight-page pastoral statement, the bishops devoted the first five pages discussing at length the doctrinal and theological foundation for the Church's involvement in social issues. They drew heavily on the Compendium of the Social Doctrines of the Church.

Days before the plenary assembly, the CBCP had been criticized for allegedly meddling in secular politics. "As shepherds, we offer our moral and religious guidance," the bishops said.

"On the one hand, religion must not be restricted 'to a purely private sphere.' On the other, the Christian message must not be relegated to a purely otherworldly salvation incapable of shedding light on our earthy experience," they noted, citing the late Pope John Paul II's "Centesimus Annus."

The pastoral statement was drafted by a committee composed of Archbishops Orlando Quevedo of Cotabato and Leonardo Legazpi of Caceres, Bishops Chito Tagle of Imus and Pablo David of San Fernando, and Bishop Francisco Claver, prelate-emeritus of Bontoc-Lagawe.