CBCP slams corruption, ‘selfish rich’

MANILA, Philippines - The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) yesterday called on the government to take further steps to stamp out corruption.

In its early message for 2015, declared “Year of the Poor,” the CBCP said corruption should be addressed as it continues to worsen poverty in the country.

“In the Philippines, this means, urgently: stop the corruption. Stop the misuse of the people’s funds,” said the statement signed by CBCP president and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas.

Apart from corruption, the CBCP said there is the need for the government to address pressing concerns on the environment, education and the economy.

“Stop the wanton destruction of the environment. Fight the poverty of the poor. Build vibrant companies that use our resources to create wealth for our people, but distribute that wealth equitably,” the CBCP said.

The bishops said it is also pertinent for the government to build “an economy that responds to the unconscionable poverty of the fishermen, the tillers of the soil, the urban laborers... (and) that is open to the world, but whose benefits do not exclude the poor.”

“Provide jobs. Provide education that respects all our people as human beings and children of God, not just cogs in a global production machine. But provide education relevant to the fight against dehumanizing poverty: basic education to all, and higher education to all who desire it,” the prelates stressed.

The CBCP also urged wealthy Filipino faithful to extend help to the poor. 

They lamented how wealthy Filipinos continue to enrich themselves without caring for the poor and sometimes, even at the expense of others.

“For you, the fullness of life is the good life: your doing. It is not gifted, but taken. It is not brought to you as a blessing from above, but seized as a result of pushing and shoving from below. It is not selfless, but selfish. It is fueled by pride, scheming ambition, the exhilaration of power, the taste of blood,” the bishops said.

“To achieve the sweet life, to outdo your ambitions, to over satiate your sycophants, to make them applaud without end, you abuse your bodies, you break the law, you violate your conscience; you ravage Creation. Your social life is your needy ego. You manipulate people, exploit their skills; take advantage of their weaknesses; pay them poorly. What is rightly theirs, you steal; what rightly belongs to society, you conceal. What is there for all, you horde for yourself,” they added.

The CBCP further lamented the growing gap between the rich and the poor in the country as shown by people who have more than one house and those who are left in the streets.

“You build your first house, then your second houses; you provide for your family, then for your second families. You fill your lives with deceit, hypocrisy and misery, and so glory in your ‘good life.’ You take great satisfaction in that you are not like the rest of the rabble,” the CBCP declared.