The Clergy for Good Governance (CGG), including voices from the Archdiocese of Cebu, has denounced proposals for snap elections, a revolutionary government, and mass resignations as misguided responses to corruption.
In a strongly worded statement, the clergy stressed that what the country needs is not an abrupt change in political leadership but a change of conscience and a renewed commitment to justice.
‘We say this with moral clarity: The answer to corruption is not a snap election-it is a snap of conscience,’ the clergy declared.
Their message, delivered with pastoral urgency, called on national leaders to confront wrongdoing not through political maneuvering but through moral accountability and the full force of the law.
The statement reflected the clergy’s deep concern over the human cost of corruption. They spoke of ‘the mother forced to choose between medicine and rice, the father ashamed he cannot send his child to school, and the families fractured by migration in search of a future.’
‘Every stolen peso has a face, a name, a soul crying out to God,’ the clergy said, emphasizing that corruption is not an abstract issue but a daily injustice that affects real lives.
On August 22, members of the clergy gathered at the Senate not as protesters but as priests-praying with breaking hearts and calling on leaders to return to moral responsibility.
They vowed to return, bearing ashes as a sign of repentance, to remind officials that power is temporary but justice is eternal.
Their call, they said, is ‘not for shame but for salvation, not for rhetoric but for reform.’
The clergy rejected selective justice and political shortcuts, urging the prosecution of all those guilty of plunder regardless of rank or affiliation. They demanded the return of stolen public funds and the permanent disqualification of corrupt officials from public office.
‘No resignation, no political maneuvering can erase the injustice done to the Filipino people,’ the statement read.
Echoing this stance, Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), urged Filipinos to uphold the rule of law and reject drastic measures such as coups, military rule, or snap elections.
‘Let the rule of law work. What we need is not a new election term-but long prison terms for the plunderers,’ Cardinal David said earlier in a homily at the Birhen ng Fatima Mission Station in Caloocan City.
He cautioned against dismantling institutions built to serve the common good.
‘If a child gets dirty, we bathe the child-but we throw away the dirty water, not the child,’ he said.
‘The same goes for government. Even if it fails us, we must not throw it away-it’s something we have built together. Let’s repair it, guard it, and make it work.’
Cardinal David also warned that removing corrupt officials without systemic reform would only perpetuate the problem.
‘Even if all the corrupt officials were to die, they would just be replaced by others like them,’ he said. ‘We are all part of the problem; therefore, we must all be part of the solution. We must help dismantle this culture of corruption.’
As public frustration grows over alleged irregularities in government flood control projects, the clergy’s message serves as a sobering reminder: true reform cannot be achieved through political shortcuts. It must be built on truth, justice, and the consistent application of the law.
‘Repentance must be seen in reform, not rhetoric,’ the CGG statement concluded.