DESPITE people’s growing disappointment over the administration, it would be fruitless to ask the Roman Catholic Church to “unseat” the President because the bishops are not the “sovereign Filipino people,” said the former head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

“It is the people of the Philippines who establish or dismantle their government. The Church in the Philippines is surely not the sovereign Filipino people, hence, it would be a big mistake to expect the Church to make or unmake a government,” wrote Archbishop Oscar Cruz of Dagupan-Lingayen in his blog on Monday.

Cruz, a critic of the Arroyo administration, said the two people power revolutions that paved the way for the ouster of two presidents, would not have been possible without the people’s participation even if it were initiated by a Church leader.

“In both instances, it was but one Cardinal, a handful of bishops, some priests and sisters who were there. Not the CBCP, much less the Church in the Philippines,” he explained.

Some civil-society groups have been urging the CBCP to call for the President’s resignation amid scandals that have been plaguing the administration.

While calling the present government as “morally bankrupt” the clergy restrained itself from urging Mrs. Arroyo to step down earning criticisms from some sectors who say that the CBCP has succumbed to apathy.

However, Cruz said it is the “sovereign people of the Philippines,” not the Church that is the most powerful in this country as declared by the 1987 Constitution.

“It would be a gross blunder to ask the CBCP to seat or unseat a ruling administration. This is neither meant to demean the Church nor to belittle the CBCP. It is but stating a solid and standing truth,” he explained.

Bishop: Fruitless to ask Church to unseat President Arroyo

DESPITE people’s growing disappointment over the administration, it would be fruitless to ask the Roman Catholic Church to “unseat” the President because the bishops are not the “sovereign Filipino people,” said the former head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

Malacañang on Monday expressed confidence that the administration will weather the exposé of Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. on alleged irregularities in the botched national broadband network (NBN) deal with a Chinese company, saying it has survived “more serious” challenges in the past.

TAGUM CITY—A counterinsurgency summit here has proposed economic measures heavily accented with anticorruption and law-enforcement moves, including a proposal compelling local governments to submit development plans before they can receive their internal-revenue allotments (IRA).

THE Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) chief, Maj. Gen. Nelson Allaga, clarified on Monday that the soldiers who participated in a predawn raid against a suspected Abu Sayyaf lair in Maimbung, Sulu, early last week were not suspended pending results of the investigation into the incident that resulted in the death of seven civilians caught in the crossfire.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—The government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Committees on Cease-fire and Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) have jointly dismissed the circulating rumors that the peace process has collapsed owing to the perceived impasse on the peace talks.

FOLLOWING the complaints raised by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the garbage-collection contractors, Rodriguez Mayor Pedro Cuerpo was suspended by the Rizal Provincial Government for 60 days.