Statement of the Ecumenical Bishops Forum (EBF) on the Results of the May 2019 Midterm Elections
The hard-fought democracy in our country is a precious gift from God, and every Christian has the political and moral obligation to preserve it in every circumstance of our collective life as a people and a nation. The Filipino people’s vote is sacred for keeping our democracy dynamic, yet the flagrant and brazen breaches in the recent elections, which is the worst ever, reveal the criminal use of political power to thwart the sovereign will of the Filipino people.
The Ecumenical Bishops Forum (EBF) expresses its indignation for the gross and blatant violations in the conduct of the May 2019 midterm elections, marred with widespread disenfranchisement, vote-buying, tampering with returns and violence, and the vilification and harassment of those supporting independent and progressive candidates and partylists. Taking note of these violations in the election code, our democracy – which is the heart of the matter in the midterm elections – should be guaranteed before any proclamation is made.
The Filipino people is raising serious questions about the integrity, credibility and legitimacy of the elections. Churches have boldly denounced the elections as rigged and botched, and demanding for an investigation into the conduct of the polls. We strongly urge President Rodrigo Duterte to disprove that his government committed electoral violations. As the highest leader of the nation, he owes the people that obligation of guaranteeing that the results offered by the midterm elections legitimately expressed the Filipino people’s sovereign will.
We challenge President Duterte to answer accusations that he has engaged in, and tolerated electoral malpractices that will allow him to establish a political regime based on a concentration of power at his hands. He must establish that the elections has been truly a democratic process, and that none has been disenfranchised with their essential right to suffrage and that their votes are honestly counted.
Most importantly, he must disprove that he coerced and coopted the Commissions on Elections (Comelec) to manipulate election results, as the breach in the transparency in the Smartmatic automated election system (AES) and the suspicious failure of Vote Counting Machines (VCM) are widely believed to be merely ploys to guarantee the victory of his administration’s candidates through wholesale election fraud.
President Duterte must also answer allegations that public funds were used to bribe voters and disbursements were made from the national coffers to obtain political partisanship. He must also answer for the actions of state forces on the harassment and intimidation of progressive candidates and partylist organizations during the election cycle. It does not only speak of election fraud but the abuse and misuse of state powers and national coffers as well.
As the country faces its worst economic and social crisis, and should President Duterte be proven to have systematically and maliciously committed fraudulent actions in the elections, he must be rendered culpable for exacerbating rather than uplifting the state of our nation’s democracy from its present predicament. His failure to uphold the standards of electoral integrity will only strengthen the risk of democracy collapsing in our time which could have catastrophic consequences for everyone.
May we remind President Duterte that any government that exercises power through fraudulent means has no moral basis; and should his government does not right its wrongs by itself, the Filipino people have the patriotic duty to do so for the preservation of our democracy.
We acknowledge that our responsibility in helping shape the future of our nation transcends the elections. We, therefore, call on every Christian to faithfully live-out their divine vocation in upholding the common good, an essential expression of which is to fulfill their patriotic duty to defend our democracy. In a country like ours, where politics has become a rivalry of power and partisan interests, we are called to bring together our moral convictions and political choices to help build a better country.
Let us consciously work for renewed politics in the county and share the richness of our Christian faith in building a Philippine society where the sanctity of human life and the dignity of every human person are respected, where the common good, the people’s sovereign will and the principles of democracy in our country are upheld.
EBF Executive Board,
Bishop Deogracias Iniguez,
Jr.
Roman Catholic Church
Bishop Rex Reyes, Jr.
Episcopal Church in the Philippines
Bishop Joel Tendero
United Church of Christ in the Philippines
Bishop Dindo Ranojo
Iglesia Filipina Independiente
Bishop Ciriaco Francisco
United Methodist Church
May 18, 2019
Quezon City, Philippines
