The Philippines cannot afford yet another controversial electoral exercise that will further aggravate social distrust and hopelessness, the Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines said yesterday.

In a letter to the dioceses and parishes, the CBCP said this means that every parish organization and institution, and the Basic Ecclesial Communities most especially, must be mobilized to form linkages with one another and with other like-minded civic and religious associations that are working to help clean the dirt from the easily corrupted electoral process.

The letter issued at the bishops' 94th plenary assembly held over the weekend at the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center in Paco, Manila also said, "We seek only one thing: to apply the values of the Gospel to our electoral process."

Bishops call on gov't:
Complete land reform
BY CARLA GOMEZ

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines yesterday called on the government to complete the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, defective as it is, next year as it has been targeted, and scored recent killings related to its implementation.

"And if it is not sufficiently implemented by then, the program should be further extended and funded more seriously and generously. But we ask that the law itself must be reviewed and improved," the CBCP pastoral statement issued by its president, Archbishop of Jaro Angel Lagdameo said. The statement entitled "The Dignity of the Rural Poor, A Gospel Concern," said that the over-riding social concern of the Church of the Philippines has been all these years centered on the inequitable distribution of the nation's wealth and the endemic social injustices that underpin that evil.

Cops warn of more violence
if self-installation continues
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

The police and agrarian reform groups yesterday warned of more violence if Task Force Mapalad insists on adopting the practice of "self-installation" on the portions of land awarded to their members, without coordinating with the Department of Agrarian Reform and other concerned government agencies.

Senior Inspector Placido Composa, La Castellana police chief, yesterday reiterated his appeal to TFM members to observe proper coordination, to avoid violence.

Composa also urged DAR to resolve the agrarian reform conflict in the 144-hectare Hacienda Malaga-Velez property in Brgy. Robles, La Castellana, to prevent further loss of lives among farm workers and other innocent individuals.