A “massive” multi-sectoral rally on the 22 nd anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolt will be held at the Bacolod Public Plaza Monday afternoon to air further support for Senate witness Rodolfo Lozada and to call on former National Economic and Development Authority chief Romulo Neri to come out and speak the truth.

Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra is calling on the public to join the rally Monday on the theme “Seek the truth, rise up to corruption, redeem our nation” and other build-up activities leading to it.

Fr. Aniceto Buenafe, director of the Social Action Center of the Diocese of Bacolod, said Navarra convened multi-sectoral representatives Monday to map out plans for the rally to call on the government to allow the truth to be told on the controversial National Broadband Network deal.

Also expected to join Monday's rally are representatives from the parishes and schools throughout the Diocese of Bacolod, Buenafe said.

Activities leading to the rally are a priests' unity meeting 4 p.m. Thursday and on Friday a multi-sectoral unity meeting at the Bishop's House at 2 p.m. to be followed by a 4 p.m. motorcade and noise barrage around Bacolod City starting from the Capitol Lagoon Park with the theme “Busina Para sa Pagpangita sang Kamatuuran (Honk for the search for truth), he said.

The public is urged to join the motorcade, Buenafe said.

The bishop today will also urge schools in Bacolod City to hold simultaneous masses at 8 a.m. Friday for truth and accountability and among those expected to participate are the University of Saint La Salle , University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos , Colegio San Agustin-Bacolod, La Consolacion College and Riverside College , Buenafe added.

The Catholic Church is calling for another people power to end alleged rampant corruption in the national leadership, but a different “brand” this time, Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines head, said in a post in his weblog (www.abplagdameo.blogspot.com) yesterday.

It has to be a move far from the previous one that installed a “more corrupt” leader, he said.

Lagdameo said it's high time for the people to do something that expresses the highest sense of national interests and should certainly not be “a repeat of the past.”

The CBCP head claimed many people fear that another people power might only bring the country from “one frying pan to a worse frying pan.”

“The call to communal action is a challenge to political conscience which would admit creative, imaginative and democratic response to political problems,” Lagdameo said.

The Church official said fighting government corruption needs something that cannot be done by mass protests alone.

The new brand of people power, he said, is the strength of a few who are willing to sacrifice for the country — inspired by “political charity.”

Meanwhile, Malacañang, in a press statement, said that “amid unfounded allegations of corruption” hurled against certain officials of the Arroyo administration linked with the long-cancelled NBN project, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday underscored the need to rid the bureaucracy of corruption to attain peace and economic prosperity.

In her opening statement at the Procurement Transparency Group-NEDA-Cabinet Group meeting in Malacañang, the President stressed that the government has put the anti-corruption campaign at the fore of its agenda.

''It is empirical that we fight corruption so we can attain further economic growth, increase investments that would create more new jobs for the people,'' the president said.

The government allotted last year some P3 billion in its war against corruption, ''the largest amount spent for an anti-corruption campaign,” she said.

The president said among the measures taken by the government to stamp out corruption included lifestyle checks on people in government.

''Dozens of officials have either been discharged from service or are facing corruption charges in courts as a result of the lifestyle check waged by the present administration,'' she said.

The President also said she has created the Procurement Transparency Group chaired by Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. to ''monitor and evaluate contracting of government projects.''

''The PTG has been tasked to partner with business, academe, religious and civil society groups to be government's watchdogs,'' she said.

''To rid the system of corruption, the participation of the civil society through the PTG is important,'' the president said.

She also cited the important roles the Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman play in the government's quest to rid the system of corruption and let truth and justice prevail.

The budget of the Office of the Ombudsman was doubled to allow it to hire more investigators and prosecutors, she said.

''The number of cases won by the Sandiganbayan increased by 5 percent due to more prosecutors and investigators who are focused on graft and corruption cases,'' she added.

“If we could resolve corruption charges in the democratic process, then our country would be respected as a democracy. Let us respect the rule of law, the key to peace and prosperity,'' the president said.*CPG

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