Church urges faithful: Don’t sell your vote

CBCP: Our one vote is our dignity

MANILA, Philippines — Church leaders yesterday urged the faithful not to sell their votes on election day, saying it “robs the voter of his dignity.”

“We are poor and people have already robbed us of basic services in life, of our environment, of our jobs. Let them not rob us of our dignity. Our one vote is our dignity – let us not sell it,” Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said.

Pabillo also urged the faithful to pray before deciding whom to vote for.

“Praying over our votes also helps us to choose well. If we pray over our vote, will we include in our list a thief, a dishonest person or one who promotes killing? If we pray over our vote, will we allow our vote to be influenced by money or, much worse, sell it?” he added.

Pabillo said the Catholic faithful should make this Monday’s elections their mission to guide the undecided and those who do not care who to vote for in the polls.

“A spiritual act of mercy is to instruct the ignorant and another is to counsel the confused. We can exercise these spiritual acts of mercy by helping people to vote well for the good of the country. We should always promote the good. Let us promote the good candidates for our country,” he said.

Pabillo reminded the voters that with the many candidates to choose from, voters should scrutinize and vote based on the candidate’s track record and if they would work for the “common good.”

In order to remember the names of the candidates they would support, Pabillo advised voters to bring “codigos” or a list of names of their chosen candidates.

“With many candidates to vote for, it is important that voters should have a list with them when they go to the polls. It is so difficult to remember all the names one has chosen in the polling place when there is a lot of noise, when it is hot, when people are queuing up and are waiting. These can pressure the voters to hurry up. It is easy to forget and make mistakes unless one has a well-prepared list,” Pabillo said.

Another way to prepare is through prayer, he said. 

“For us Christians, another preparation that is to be done is prayer. We always accompany with prayers important choices and activities that we do,” Pabillo said.

Pabillo stressed the importance and significance of the election.

“We do it only once every three years. Although we have only one vote, that vote represents our choice for our city, our province and our country. Therefore, we pray over our votes during these days of preparation,” Pabillo said.

On the other hand, the CBCP denied reports that Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle has endorsed several senatorial candidates.

Archdiocese of Manila-Office of Communications chief Fr. Roy Bellen clarified Tagle was endorsing “the process of discernment” for any particular candidate, contrary to reports.

“What he (Tagle) is endorsing is the process of discernment that each person can do as they prepare and choose candidates to vote for in the coming election,” he said. 

Bellen said using the process of discernment, voters would have different outcomes. 

“The result that they had in their discernment need not necessarily be the same result for all persons. It will differ based on the person’s experience, research and perception of the candidate,” Bellen said.

“What the cardinal is emphasizing and giving importance (to) is the personal experience of discernment and taking full responsibility of their choices in voting. Thus it becomes a choice that is informed, prayerful and product of discernment,” he added. 

Reports circulating online said the People’s Choice Movement (PCM), a lay group, has endorsed the candidacy of Erin Tañada along with his party-mates Gary Alejano, Bam Aquino, Chel Diokno, Samira Gutoc, Florin Hilbay, Romulo Macalintal and Manuel Roxas II, all from the opposition ticket Otso Diretso. 

Tagle has reportedly urged priests to inform the faithful of the choices made by the PCM where all Otso Diretso candidates were supposedly endorsed for Monday’s elections. 

Tañada went on to make a statement thanking Tagle for the endorsement.

“We have known Cardinal Tagle to be very circumspect with regard to the statements he makes, so this statement he came out …would go a step further from his usual character,” Tañada said. 

CBCP president Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles also clarified no one among the bishops made a political endorsement.

He branded such reports as “fake news.”

“News is circulating that the CBCP has endorsed a number of senatorial candidates. This is pure fake news! Absolutely not true! Bishops and priests are not allowed to do that. That is clearly partisan politics,” Valles said in a statement.

“I repeat: the CBCP did not make any such endorsement. The CBCP continues to appeal to all Filipinos: vote wisely in the coming elections. Let us continue to pray to the Lord for a peaceful, credible and honest elections,” he said.  – With Robertzon Ramirez