Friday, March 07, 2008 Speak Out: CBCP statement By Amado Cabaero
ON the anniversary of the Edsa people power revolution 22 years ago, I was reminded of the following statement of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) issued on Feb. 13, 1986 under the presidency of Cardinal Vidal:
“According to moral principles, a government that assumes or retains power through fraudulent means has no moral basis. For such an access to power is tantamount to a forcible seizure and cannot command the allegiance of the citizenry.
“If such a government does not of itself freely correct the evil it has inflicted on the people, then it is our serious moral obligation as a people to make it do so.
“We are not going to effect the change we seek by doing nothing, by sheer apathy. If we did nothing, we would be party to our own destruction as a people. We would be jointly guilty with the perpetrators of the wrong we want righted.
“The way indicated to us now is the way of non-violent struggle for justice.
“This means active resistance of evil by peaceful means-in the manner of Christ. And its one end for us now is that the will of the people be done through ways and means proper to the Gospel.”
The same challenge faces us today. CBCP’s advice to the people today is “communal action” which can be interpreted in so many ways.
