Priest denies church silence on abuses of Arroyo administration

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino was lying to Pope Francis when he told the head of the visiting Roman Catholic Church that local clergy were silent about the abuses during the previous Arroyo administration, “biking priest” Fr. Amado Picardal said yesterday.

In an article posted on the CBCPNews website, titled “Was the Church Silent Under the Arroyo Administration?” Picardal criticized Aquino for the speech he delivered when Francis made a courtesy call at Malacanang on Jan. 17.

“His welcome address to the Pope in Malacañang was pathetic and a monumental embarrassment to the nation. He was not just rude, he also did not speak the truth,” he said.

“That was un-presidential of him. This was the lowest, ugliest moment of the papal visit,” Picardal said.

Picardal dramatizes his advocacies by making bicycle trips across the country. The Redemptorist priest is also the executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-Committee on Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC).

While Aquino mentioned the courage of the clergy during martial law days as well as their contribution to the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution, he also denounced them for reportedly being silent in the face of abuses during the Arroyo administration.

 “I supported his candidacy because I thought he was a decent man who continued the legacy of his parents whom I admire so much. I was mistaken,” he said.

Picardal said in his personal opinion the Chief Executive “bore false witness against the Church in front of Pope Francis, the whole nation and the whole world.”

“The Church was not silent during the dark days of martial law, the Church was not silent during the Arroyo administration, and the Church is not silent under Aquino’s administration. It is not his hair – or lack of it – that has to be admonished. It is what is lacking below his hair,” Picradal said.

“He follows the neo-malthusian solution to the problem of poverty: more free condoms and birth control pills,” the priest added.

The CBCP official pointed out that while there may have been some members of the clergy, religious and faithful who were silent, there were also many who spoke out against the abuses of the previous administration.

Citing news reports, Picardal said Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra led more than 10,000 marchers on March 8, 2006 in a prayer rally to denounce then President Arroyo’s state of national emergency, threats of martial law re-imposition, mining expansion and Charter change, among others.

In 2008, then CBCP president Iloilo Archbishop Angel Lagdameo disputed the Arroyo administration’s claim of economic progress and condemned the corruption in government.

Lagdameo was even quoted as saying that Arroyo was corrupt and “the time to prepare a new government is now.”

Then Balanga Bataan Bishop Socrates Villegas clarified that they were not calling for another mass revolt. “We are making this statement because we believe that if we had been less corrupt we would be better prepared to face the impending global crisis.”

Villegas said then that the problem of the Philippines was not population but corruption. “We are not social troublemakers, we are soul troublemakers. We want to disturb consciences… then the change that we want in government and society will really come from within us,” Villegas said.

Even the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP) provided support and sanctuary to Jun Lozada, the whistle-blower in the anomalous national broadband network deal with ZTE under Arroyo.

Picardal said he too denounced the former leader by doing a “Bike-Tour” around the country in April 2008.