MANILA, Philippines — Up to 90.1 percent of Filipinos do not support the membership of an office of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
This was according to a survey conducted by Caritas Philippines on its Facebook page on Sept. 22.
The respondents used emoticons to respond to the survey question: What is your opinion on the CBCP-Public Affairs Commission (PAC)’s membership in the NTF-ELCAC?
At least 137 of the 152 respondents replied with an “angry face” emoticon while 7.2 percent or 11 respondents responded with a “sad face.”
Two or 1.3 percent of the respondents replied with a “like” while two respondents each answered with a heart and a “ha ha.”
Caritas said a majority of the respondents believed that the CBCP-PAC should not join NTF-ELCAC, noting the Church should ”stay true to its mandate of standing up for the poor, the hungry, the oppressed and the vulnerable.”
“The Church will have a stronger voice in dialoguing with the government outside the NTF-ELCAC by working in solidarity with the poor and other human rights groups,” the respondents said.
They said the Church should continue to build social friendships and dialogue with the faithful, the poor and most vulnerable sectors as well as civil society organizations, other faith groups and the government in its pursuit of establishing an “inclusive and sustainable peace.”
The CBCP had clarified that only the PAC is engaging with the NTF-ELCAC to ”address some Church issues vis-a-vis government, including the issue about the red-tagging of some cause-oriented groups and Church organizations.”