{"id":2833,"date":"2014-02-25T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2014-02-25T00:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=2833"},"modified":"2014-03-31T16:09:41","modified_gmt":"2014-03-31T08:09:41","slug":"retired-bishop-scores-virtual-dictatorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/02\/25\/retired-bishop-scores-virtual-dictatorship\/","title":{"rendered":"Retired bishop scores \u2018virtual dictatorship\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Archbishop<\/a>
Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz. Photo courtesy of CBCP.<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

As the country observed the 28th anniversary of the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution, a former head of the Catholic Bishop\u2019s Conference of the Philippines said Tuesday said the country was still under a \u201cvirtual dictatorship,\u201d with the government using money to get what it wants.<\/p>\n

Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz cited the passage of the reproductive health law and the removal by impeachment of former Chief Justice Renato Corona to explain his point.<\/p>\n

At a church forum in Intramuros, Cruz claimed that in both instances money changed hands to ensure the outcome desired by the Aquino administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a virtual dictatorship\u2026 meaning to say, the executive has the legislative and the judiciary branches under its command,\u201d said the prelate, lamenting that the three branches of government, among the symbols of democracy, appeared equal only \u201con paper.\u201d \u201cIn reality, they\u2019re not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou understand that the RH law was passed because money changed hands. Corona was impeached because money changed hands\u2026. This is sad. As far as I am concerned, here we go again\u2026 money is the one that manipulates our own government system more than reason and ethics,\u201d said Cruz.<\/p>\n

He referred to disclosures that the Aquino administration used funds from the so-called Disbursement Acceleration Program to sway Congress into impeaching Corona in 2012 as well as passing the family planning measure, which the Catholic Church has staunchly opposed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should not be that way. The very fact that you are using money to influence this and that, that is already foul. I hope I am wrong but the reality is sad but it\u2019s the truth. It\u2019s money that runs the present government,\u201d said the bishop, a consistently vocal critic of the Aquino administration.<\/p>\n

But he was quick to add that the kind of dictatorship the country endured in the hands of Marcos was \u201cmuch worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was actual dictatorship. This (Aquino administration), I call only virtual dictatorship,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  As the country observed the 28th anniversary of the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution, a former head of the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":2834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[249],"class_list":["post-2833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ph","tag-rewrite","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}