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CBCP wants EO 464 scrapped

MANILA, February 26, 2008— The Catholic bishops’ hierarchy has called on President Gloria Arroyo to dismantle Executive Order 464 and allow her officials to attend any probe and tell the truth.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines issued the statement Tuesday night after a whole day consultative meeting in a bid to discuss current political issues.

In a 2-page pastoral statement, the bishops are convinced that letting her officials testify in investigations could somehow help bring back credibility to her administration.

The CBCP said Arroyo should take the move immediately especially now that questions about the moral ascendancy are being raised against the government.

Various groups described the EO 464 as a notorious gag, which Arroyo has clamped on the mouths of executive officers who are in a position to reveal incriminating truth.

“We strongly recommend the abolition of EO 464 so that those who might have knowledge of any corruption in branches of government may be free to testify before the appropriate investigating bodies,” the bishops said.

The prelates urged Arroyo to let her subordinates to reveal any corrupt acts, particularly about the ZTE-NBN mess, without being obstructed in their testimony, “no matter who is involved.”

The bishops noticed that, whenever government officials are called to testify in any probe, rarely do such officers claim the lame excuse of executive privilege.

The law, the CBCP said, remains the biggest obstacle to the discovery of truth, which must be pursued.

Some Church leaders believe that the total abandonment of EO 464 can be the kick off of nursing somehow her ailing presidency.

Saying that the country is facing a “crisis of truth and the pervading cancer of corruption,” the prelates also urged Arroyo and other government agencies to lead in fighting corruption.

“We condemn the continuing culture of corruption from the top to the bottom of our social and political ladder,” the statement read.

The CBCP likewise appealed to senators and the Ombudsman to use their distinct and different powers of inquiry into alleged corruption cases "not for their own interests but for the common good."

They also asked the media to be a positive resource of seeking the truth and combating corruption by "objective reporting without bias and partiality."

For the long term, the prelates renewed its call for “circles of discernment” at the grassroots level, recognized lay organizations, religious institutions and in the academe.

Such “communal action” at the grassroots level, the statement added, will perpetuate people power so brilliantly demonstrated to the world at EDSA 1.

"It is people power ... at the grassroots will find out the culture of truth and integrity we so deeply seek and build," it said.