With the election season beginning to heat up, a top Catholic official urged the electorate to study the track record and platform of candidates.
Cardinal Jose Advincula, the archbishop of Manila, said that voters must look at the integrity before choosing candidates to support in the May 2022 elections.
“We pray that there will be a deep assessment of the programs and platforms of every candidate, as well as their track records,” Advincula said in Radio Veritas.
One thing to do, according to him, is to form “circles of discernment” among lay people to guide them in their choice of political candidates.
He said it is important for voters to deeply discern as a community on the characteristics and track record of each candidate.
“It is our call for the people to create their ‘circles of discernment’ so that we can hear and follow the will of God,” Advincula said.
The cardinal also encouraged voters to consider the position of candidates regarding respect for human dignity, common good, social justice and societal charity.
“We hope that these will be the prevailing considerations of the people in choosing our next leaders,” he said.
Archbishop: Vote buying is ‘mark of the devil’
Meanwhile, a Catholic archbishop advised the electorate to vehemently refuse vote buying, which he branded as a “mark of the devil.”
Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan urged the voters to help end vote-buying by not selling their votes.
“Vote buying is a mark of the devil. It puts a price on the person of the voter,” Villegas said.
“It is even worse when the vote buyer puts a price on their votes and tempts the poor,” he said.
The former head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines noted how politicians are baiting the poor during elections.
“During elections, the poor are like fishes looking for food. But instead of feeding them, the politicians put out bait as vote buyers,” Villegas said. “They fed the poor, but they also hooked them.”
The archbishop also lamented how vote buying destroys the heart of democracy and the people who make up the nation.
“When a fish is made boneless, it cannot grow anymore. It flails. Democracy flails if we don’t destroy vote buying,” he said.
Villegas made the statement as he lamented vote buying has already started in the guise of giving ayuda (assistance).
“This is not early assistance. This is early corruption. They are working hard to bait poor people. It has begun,” he said. CBCP News