The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has been bringing out statements to guide the people on issues that affect the country. There have been voices, even among the bishops, questioning if these statements are being heeded at all. In spite of the doubts about the effectivity of these statements, the CBCP has decided once more in its plenary session last January to issue another statement on the forthcoming elections, with a faint hope that at least some people may be guided by it and act on it. Its statement, released last January 28, 2019, is entitled: “Seek the Common Good.” Among other things, it paints the crucial situation we are in:
“The midterm election on May 13 is crucial. In our country today the checks and balances in the government are being undermined. So far the senate is the institution in the government that is holding out as our country is inching towards total control. It is very crucial therefore that we elect candidates who are principled, courageous and who have the common good as their main concern and not their own political interests.”
So it encouraged lay people to bond and reflect together to pick the right candidates:
“We encourage voters to be very discerning in their votes. Let the lay groups engage in discernment circles to help one another know the candidates well and choose the candidates with the common good of the whole country in mind and not according to what the candidates promise, much less according to what they have received from these candidates.”
Then it pointed out a type of engagement that lay people can engaged in:
“Participation in politics for Christian lay people is not just to be limited to non-partisan involvement. Christians are also encouraged to engage in principled partisan participation. This means that they can campaign for good candidates as an exercise of their Christian faith.”
A not insignificant group of some 130 lay Christian leaders heeded the call. They organized themselves and discerned together the best senatorial candidates to support among the 62 contestants. Since 2015 these Christian leaders from the Catholic, Evangelical and Protestant persuasions have come up with GABAYKRISTO, a set of Christian criteria by which to measure the politicians. They researched the stance of the 62 candidates on various important national issues. They got the profiles of the candidates and they met several times to set up the criteria for screening the candidates. This is a serious kind of discernment circle that the bishops have been calling out. They call themselves the PEOPLE’S CHOICE MOVEMENT.
They came out with two layers of screening. The first screening is to vet the candidates on two knock-out issues: belief in God and federalism/charger change. They believe that a person who does not have the fear of God in him can easily abuse others. They also believe that the present state of the country is not ready for federalism and charter change. 30 candidates were eliminated on these two knock-out issues.
The 32 candidates who remained in the pool were then subjected to the second screening. They were rated using criteria based on GabayKristo, a guide of 20 specific questions which are divided into four categories –
• Character & Honor,
• Competence & Abilities,
• Faithfulness to public service,
• Faithfulness to God, the Constitution and the laws.
Each of the 20 questions was graded from 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest. The ten candidates with the highest scores were declared the selected candidates.
The following were the selected “10 BEST SENATORIAL CANDIDATES THAT OUR COUNTRY & PEOPLE NEED DURING THESE TIMES”. They are presented below in alphabetical order – –
1. Alejano, Gary
2. Aquino, Bam
3. Cominares, Nery
4. Diokno, Chel
5. Gutoc, Samira
6. Hilbay, Pilo
7. Macalintal, Romy
8. Poe, Grace
9. Roxas, Mar
10. Tanada, Erin
Our lay leaders, with the People’s Choice Movement, have done their work of discernment. Now is the task for all the lay faithful to campaign the deserving candidates so as to counter the money and the political machineries that the TRAPO politicians are using. There are still two months for all to do this particular exercise of the Christian faith.
Broderick Pabillo
March 25, 2019
