Bacolod bishop,
priests call on Arroyo to resign
SAY IT’S NOT IN CONFLICT WITH CBCP 
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra and the priests of the Diocese of Bacolod yesterday called on President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to resign saying she has lost the moral ascendancy to govern amid  numerous accusations of corruption.

Navarra said their decision, that went a step further than the call of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, was reached by the majority of the priests as a reflection of the sentiments of the people.

The CBCP in a pastoral letter Tuesday had stopped short of calling on the president to resign.

Leaders of various religious groups in Negros Occidental called on the Lord to cast out what they called the evil and the wickedness that is in Malacañang at an interfaith rally at the Bacolod Public Plaza yesterday afternoon.

The call was made by Pastor Emilio Henares of the River of Life Church at the rally for truth, justice and righteousness attended by about 3,000 people, most of whom were students. The crowd failed to surpass the 10,000 at a Bacolod rally on Monday as expected by Henares Thursday.

Catholic, Protestant and Philippine Independent Church pastors and priests prayed for the nation, government officials, the president, military, witnesses and righteous leaders at the plaza and held a solidarity march to the Provincial Capitol Lagoon for the casting out of evil in government, releasing of doves and singing of Bayan Ko.

“Justice can never be attained through bursts of emotions but through the legal process of our Constitution.”

This was the reaction yesterday of Deputy Presidential Spokesman Anthony Golez to the call of Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra and the priests of the Diocese of Bacolod for President Arroyo to resign after the truth is heard.

“When the bishop called for the resignation of the president, then that is the time when he starts to wear the hat as a citizen of this country because the CBCP (Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines) has not supported those calls,” he said..