Ordinary Catholics for BBM not Leni

The Catholic-run Radio Veritas has released the results of a survey that asked 2,400 Catholics who they will vote for as the next Philippine president based on their faith and values. Forty-eight percent said they would vote for Leni Robredo while 38% said they would vote for Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Third was Panfilo Lacson and Isko Moreno at 5% each. Manny Pacquiao had 2%, Leody de Guzman and Norberto Gonzales 1% each.

"For the Catholic voters that served as respondents for this survey, it tells us that based on Catholic values and beliefs, VP Leni has a significant advantage over former senator Marcos Jr. and that Catholic voters are inclined to vote for her," said Fr. Anton CT Pascual, president of Radio Veritas. I cannot help but admire the positive outlook of Fr. Pascual. Because, objectively speaking, it is BBM I see also winning this survey.

If you look at the numbers, and the numbers alone, of course it is Leni with her 48% winning over BBM who only had 38%. But this is a Radio Veritas survey. This is strictly a Catholic survey. The respondents were restricted in their preferences to vote only in accordance with their Catholic beliefs and values. And the Catholic Church has not only declared BBM as evil, it stopped just short of declaring Leni a saint.

Given the restrictive parameters and qualifiers, one would have thought BBM would get zero in a purely Catholic survey. But BBM getting 38% in the survey? Not only that, he is just 10% behind Leni who, surprisingly (?), got only 48%. What happened here? Or maybe the question to ask is what happened to the Catholic beliefs and values upon which the respondents were supposed to have based their choices.

In the course of the campaign, nay, in the course of their lives ever since patriarch Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was ousted, the Marcoses have been ostracized, vilified, hated, libeled, damned, and otherwise eaten alive by critics and political enemies. At the forefront of these relentless assaults, or not very far removed therefrom, are Catholic bishops, priests, and nuns.

I do not think Catholic beliefs and values vanished overnight, thereby allowing BBM to win over 38% of the vote. What I believe happened is that ordinary Catholics have more sense than what their shepherds give them credit for. Ordinary Catholics do not subscribe to the dirty politics of their bishops, priests, and nuns. They know how to keep their beliefs and values inviolate.

The huge 38% vote of BBM in a Catholic survey based on Catholic beliefs and values is a resounding repudiation of what the wolves in sheep's clothing dictate by way of open example. The "disappointing" 48% of Leni is a reverberating rejection of the hate that characterizes her campaign, and which the bishops, priests, and nuns not only encourage by way of tolerance but sometimes actively participate in.

Perhaps it is also instructive that the left-leaning Leody de Guzman would get 1% in the same Catholic survey. What this development tells us is that the Catholic hierarchy in the Philippines is hopelessly out of touch with reality, out of touch with its base, out of touch with the means by which to effectively shepherd its flock. In this way has the assessment of Fr. Pascual swung from encouraging to delusional.

There is no such thing as a Catholic vote, as what this Catholic survey shows. Filipino Catholics, bless them, have enough good sense to separate their beliefs and values from their politics. They are unlike their shepherds who have no qualms allowing the use of churches as political venues and hijacking even Lenten rites to make political statements. What a spectacle that the shepherds would go one way, the flock another.