Catholic voters in the Philippines are not really known to vote as a bloc during elections. Every one of them has the right to vote for candidates based on their personal assessment, whether a candidate is Catholic or not.
Unlike, say, the Iglesia ni Cristo whose members would largely depend on their leaders in choosing candidates, Catholics are not really united when it comes to voting.
Although Catholic leaders would sometimes call for the faithful not to vote for certain candidates on issues surrounding morality, the appeal is not necessarily compulsory. The call would just really serve as guide for Catholic voters. Whether the faithful would follow the appeal or not is really their call.
In the 1998 presidential elections, the Catholic Church battled tooth and nail against the candidacy of Joseph Estrada. The entire Church leadership took the cause campaigning against the then vice president.
But the result was a huge blow to the Church. Estrada handily won the elections, becoming a majority president.
Now, a Catholic movement is trying to show vote power in the May elections. The influential El Shaddai of Mike Velarde and other lay organizations are reportedly joining forces to campaign for pro-Church candidates.
The groups will try to muster millions of votes for senatorial candidates opposing the Reproductive Health Law. There are 3,000 Catholic communities scattered around the country and the groups are hoping to deliver at least six million votes for their candidates.
Velarde is widely known to command vast influence and respect. A charismatic leader, Velarde has hundreds of thousands of followers going to his sermons. But the question is: can his power produce millions of votes in favor of pro-Church candidates?
As we have said Catholics are not used to bloc voting. But this is not to say Velarde and his groups are bound to fail. But since the bishops failed to generate enough force in their crusade to use the faithful to compel their district lawmakers not to pass the RH bill, can Velarde and his groups succeed this time?