{"id":51376,"date":"2015-06-06T16:20:41","date_gmt":"2015-06-06T08:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=51376"},"modified":"2015-06-06T16:20:41","modified_gmt":"2015-06-06T08:20:41","slug":"cbcp-president-urges-voters-to-end-dynasties-and-reject-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/06\/06\/cbcp-president-urges-voters-to-end-dynasties-and-reject-corruption\/","title":{"rendered":"CBCP president urges voters to end dynasties and reject corruption"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"CBCP<\/a>
CBCP President Archbishop Socrates Villegas (Facebook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013 Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) President Archbishop Socrates Villegas urged Filipino voters to cast their votes wisely. He also reminded them to end \u2018political dynasties\u2019 and reject \u2018the notoriously corrupt\u2019 in the coming national elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cA person who aspires for high office but who, because of inexperience, will be totally dependent on advisers is not the best possible candidate for national positions,\u201d Archbishop Villegas said in a statement of the church\u2019s voters education campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe exercise of the right of suffrage is not only a political right, it is also a moral obligation\u2026 While politicians plan and strategize, and, this early, find ways of circumventing the law against premature campaigning, the Church cannot be remiss in its obligation of forming the consciences of Catholic and Christian voters,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Archbishop Villegas continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not vote for family members running for the same positions as family members before them to perpetrate the family\u2019s hold on public office,\u201d he said, reminding voters yet again to choose candidates who are \u2018capable of leading and serving with probity, high above suspicion, and with skill, competence and wisdom that comes from abiding faith.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no monopoly on ability for government, and truly no one in government is indispensable\u2026 Vote, not because you have been paid, or promised bounty, not because you or your relatives have been promised employment or privilege but because you trust a person to lead the community and to lead the country,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Archbishop Villegas, however, did not specify the names of the possible candidates he was referring to in his letter. But he was firm on reminding voters not to \u2018readily jump on the bandwagon of condemnation in the absence of incontrovertible evidence.\u2019<\/p>\n

Lastly, the archbishop asked the public not to sell their votes.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust as the discerning voter will not be easily won over by all the flattery in favor of one candidate, neither should a voter allow \u2018demolition jobs\u2019 to dissuade him from choosing a person who is truly fit for office,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) President Archbishop Socrates Villegas urged Filipino voters to cast their votes …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":51377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ph","mauthors-cyra-moraleda","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51376","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}