CBCP president: Redeem state, not dismantle it
Corruption in the government can only be resolved by reforming instead of dismantling democratic institutions, Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David said, as he described calls to establish a military junta as attempts by dynasties and plunderers to avoid accountability.
“We seek not the collapse of the state but its redemption,” David said in a Facebook post on Sunday, as he called for a “dismantling, not of the government itself, but [of] the corrupt networks that have captured and crippled it.”
The aim of criticizing, investigating and holding public officials accountable is “not to destroy, but to strengthen” government institutions, he said, adding that “we do not need to burn the house down to get rid of the rats.”
“What the country needs is not another revolution of rage, but a revolution of integrity,” said David, who is also president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
“We must restore the systems of checks and balances, counteract disinformation, reform the electoral process, end patronage politics and political dynasties, and renew the moral foundations of public service,” he said.
‘Unholy union’
David said calls to establish a “civilian-military junta,” which came from some retired military officers who attempted and failed to stage a coup d’etat during the Sept. 21 anticorruption rallies, were “attempts by discredited dynasties and plunderers to save themselves from accountability.”
“These are the same forces that engineered the so-called ‘Uniteam’ alliance during the last elections—an unholy union of political dynasties now turning against each other for power,” David said. “When crooks quarrel with crooks, it is not justice but survival they seek.”
Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. earlier confirmed that some retired military officials tried to convince him and other younger officers to withdraw support from President Marcos, but their efforts were rebuffed.
Redemption possible
David in his post also called on the Church to “remind the nation that institutions can be redeemed.”
“Our faith tradition calls us to the hard work of purification, not annihilation,” he said. “We recall that after the 1986 People Power Revolution, the Church and the people did not abolish the state; they reclaimed it.”
“We restored democratic institutions that had been desecrated by dictatorship. It would be a betrayal of that grace if, in the face of corruption today, we were to abandon democracy in favor of another shortcut—be it a revolutionary government or a civilian-military junta,” he said.
