MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE) The core group of the Moral Force Movement, which was initiated by Chief Justice Reynato Puno, was announced publicly Tuesday by Supreme Court spokesman Jose Midas Marquez.

The group includes Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) chair Marixi R. Prieto, who is also a trustee of the Metrobank and Gerry Roxas foundations.

The others in the core group are Ambassador Henrietta de Villa, chair of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and the National Movement for Free Elections; Monsignor Gerardo Santos, president of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines; Dr. Emerito Nakpil, retired bishop of the United Methodist Church; retired brigadier general Jaime Echeverria, president of the Association of Generals and Flag Officers;

Dr. Milwida Guevara, director of the Synergeia Foundation and a former undersecretary of the Department of Finance; lawyer Andres Juan Bautista, dean of the Far Eastern University Institute of Law; and Noorain Sabdulla, a 2008 Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines awardee, who will represent the Muslim youth in the movement.

Marquez said the core group “focus on defining and electing transformational leaders in the coming 2010 elections” and will issue guidelines to stop “moral decadence.”

“Transformational leaders are those who induce followers to transcend their self-interest for the sake of the organization or the greater whole, and [who] activate their [people’s] higher order needs and appeal to their moral values to mobilize their energy and resources to reform institutions, as contrasted with transactional leaders who merely motivate their followers by appealing to their self-interest,” Marquez said.

However, he stressed, the Moral Force “will not endorse any specific candidate.”

The core group has already met twice with Chief Justice Puno, Marquez said.

However, he said Puno will leave the group once it is fully established.

The Chief Justice has said he is not interested in seeking public office himself despite calls for him to run for president.

Puno earlier said the Moral Force Movement seeks to revive the country's moral values as set forth in the 1987 Constitution.

He had also urged politicians to stay away from the movement to ensure it is highly respected and gain strength.

Among the values Puno said should be preserved are the preamble of the Constitution which commits the Filipino people to building a just and humane society and "establish a Government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity, the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace…"

Puno said the movement’s immediate concern is to ensure clean and honest elections in 2010.