Thousands call for truth
AT MASSES, MOTORCADE
BY PATRICK PANGILINAN & NIDA BUENAFE

An estimated 10,000 students and members of the Catholic community in Bacolod City attended the simultaneous masses for truth and accountability yesterday morning in eight city schools while around 100 vehicles joined the motorcade from the Capitol Lagoon to the Bacolod City Public Plaza, with a noise barrage capping the activity in the afternoon.

Students and teachers packed the San Sebastian Cathedral and the venues at the University of St. La Salle, St. John’s Institute, University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos, Colegio de San Agustin, St. Rose of Lima, West Negros University, and Riverside College where the masses where held, Bacolod Social Action Center director, Fr. Aniceto Buenafe, said. 

In the mass at the Santuario de La Salle, Bishop Vicente Navarra called on the young laity of the Catholic church to take part in searching for the truth on present political issues, particularly on the ZTE-National Broadband Network controversy.

Senator Mar Roxas yesterday stressed that the truth about the national broadband network controversy and the abduction of Senate witness Rodolfo Lozada Jr. must come out, but any change in the country’s leadership should be done through Constitutional means.

“I am for the Constitution and the rule of law and opposed to any extra-constitutional undertaking. The only thing that separates us from anarchy is the law, otherwise the rule of the gun will reign at the expense of our democracy and economy,” Roxas told the DAILY STAR in a telephone interview.

The statement of support of  Negros Occidental officials  for  President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo  does not mean we condone corruption, Manapla Mayor Manuel Escalante said yesterday.

Escalante, president of the Negros Occidental Association of Chief Executives, was reacting to the call  of the United Negrenses Yearning for the Truth, for  national and local officials to defend the people’s interest and stop mouthing the line of Malacañang.

The call was  in reaction to a joint statement of Negros Occidental congressmen, provincial officials and mayors expressing their full support for Arroyo in the midst of the present crisis hounding the country.