Vote God Joins Hope Run

CEBU, Philippines - Last April 9, 2010, Dilaab along with hundreds of leaders from the Church, business and NGO sectors, as well as professionals, students and families joined Cebu’s over 2,000-strong PNP and AFP forces on a covenant run for Honest, Orderly and Peaceful Elections (HOPE). The run for HOPE coincided with the commemoration of the 68th anniversary of the “Araw ng Kagitingan.”

Fr. Carmelo Diola, Overall Coordinating Steward of Dilaab Foundation, said that the run for HOPE “reminds us of our common humanity and our desire for a transformed nation. This is a journey that is taken one step at a time.” He further added that “there is a river of change flowing through our land, fed by various tributaries of change. One tributary is people and sectors coming alongside in a non-partisan spirit for the common good. Another source of change is the clamor for honest, orderly, and peaceful elections.”

Led by PNP Chief General Jesus Versoza, AFP Central Command Commander Lt. Gen. Ralph Villanueva and Fr. Carmelo Diola, the HOPE covenant run started at 4:30 in the morning from three key points in the city of Cebu and converged at the Archbishop’s Palace along D. Jakosalem St. which was bedecked with VOTE GOD streamers and posters from the gate to the huge open grounds where a short program was held.

The program started with an ecumenical invocation followed by short talks from Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, Region VII Comelec Director Atty. Ray Rene Buac, Police Regional Director PC Superintendent Lani-O R. Nerez, Lt. General Ralph Villanueva and General Versoza. The speakers reminded everyone that the coming elections are a crucial crossroad in the Philippines’ journey as a nation and reminded that unity, honesty, integrity and devotion to country and to God must prevail to ensure peaceful, orderly and credible elections. Cardinal Vidal, in his speech, emphasized that “with this gathering together, we are being given the spiritual energy and the empowering power to act together so that the national exercise of our democracy will happen peacefully, orderly and credibly.”

VOTE GOD is a faith-impelled advocacy that encourages every Filipino to choose good and reject evil through prayerful discernment. It calls on people to choose the way of God during elections. It infuses Christian values into the electoral process and reverses the systematic exclusion of such values during elections, as noted by the CBCP in 1997. It does not endorse individuals or groups, rather it proposes a concrete mechanism (LASER test – acronym for Lifestyle, Action, Supporters, Election Conduct) to help people to form their conscience and make up their minds as to whom to vote for. The LASER test is a tool for what Pope Benedict XVI refers to as “the evangelical formation and pastoral accompaniment of a new generation of Catholics working in politics.” VOTE GOD also offers candidates a spiritual space through recollections so as to become credible candidates.

A symbolic releasing of doves by the sectoral representatives and covenant signing by all the participants concluded the HOPE covenant run.