A senior Roman Catholic bishop is hoping that the February 29 interfaith prayer rally would lead to President Arroyo’s resignation as various groups come together in response to the clergy’s call for “communal action” and a “brand-new people power.”

“It is a communal action and I think it would lead to ‘Gloria resign’. Where else will it go, ‘Gloria please remain?’” Lingayen Arcbishop Oscar Cruz told reporters Wednesday.

He, however, added that the call for the President to step down would not come from the bishops but from the various civil-society groups that are expected to attend the event in Rizal Park next Friday.

“The banners will say that [resignation], but it won’t come from the bishops,” he said after emerging from a two-hour meeting with opposition Sen. Jamby Madgrigal at the headquarters of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

Cruz, CBCP president Angel Lagdameo and Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Ińiguez met with 50 civil-society, business and religious groups Tuesday to discuss the current political crisis hounding the Arroyo administration.

They agreed to hold an interfaith prayer rally next Friday amid accusations of high-level corruption in government.

The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting is, likewise, holding regular prayers to urge other government officials to say what they know about the different scandals involving the Arroyo administration.

Madrigal said she went to Cruz’s office at the CBCP to seek “spiritual counseling,” which the latter said was a regular thing for the senator to do.

“I came here for spiritual counseling to make sure that we’re doing this not for self-interest but for the interest of the country,” Madrigal told reporters.

The opposition senator, who has been urging Commission on Higher Education Secretary Romulo Neri to give his testimony on the national broadband network deal, said she did not mention the former socioeconomics head in her meeting with Cruz.

Meanwhile, Ińiguez said the scheduled prayer rally is expected to be duplicated in other areas as people respond to the CBCP’s call for “communal action” and a “brand-new people power.”

“We expect this communal action to go deeper as the people get enlightened to what is wrong with the country. We see these happening in different degrees and by different groups,” he told the church-run Radio Veritas on Wednesday.

Palace: Conditions not conducive for ‘Edsa’; police on normal alert

Malacańang said on Wednesday that present conditions in the country are not conducive to a successful people power bid, and again urged President Arroyo’s detractors to just wait for the next national polls in 2010 to change the leadership.

A senior Roman Catholic bishop is hoping that the February 29 interfaith prayer rally would lead to President Arroyo’s resignation as various groups come together in response to the clergy’s call for “communal action” and a “brand-new people power.”

DAVAO CITY—US Ambassador Kristie Kenney and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chairman Murad Ebrahim had a historic meeting on Tuesday in the MILF camp in Maguindanao, but both sides declined to divulge the subject of their meeting.

THE Marilao-Meycauayan-Obando (MMO) River System—tagged recently as one of the world’s dirtiest—finally faces rehabilitation with the help of the environment department, local government units (LGUs), other concerned government agencies and private institutions.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Jema’ah Islamiyah (JI) bomber Dulmatin, whose complete name is Amar Usmanan, spearheaded the abduction of a priest-director and a teacher of a Catholic-run secondary school last month in the province of Tawi-Tawi.

DAVAO CITY—The Indonesian vice consul said he would favor stationing Indonesian antiterrorist troops here to help clamp down on the suspected traffic of Indonesian terror suspects believed to be hiding or getting their training in Southern Philippines.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—The two-day Second Tripartite Meeting among the government, Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and Organization of Islamic Conference  ended with an agreement to formulate “possible proposals” to amend the law on Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to ensure the full implementation of the 1996 peace pact with MNLF.

THE “ecosystem of corruption” and “oligarchy” that prevails in the government is well-embedded in the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), agrarian-reform groups said.