MANILA, Philippines—Two church leaders have raised their objections to Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio, a Catholic priest, seeking the country’s highest public office in the national elections next year.

A coalition of private groups on Sunday launched a movement to urge Panlilio and Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca to run for president and vice president, respectively.

It also launched a grass-roots fundraising campaign to support alternative leaders and politics.

“The more a priest goes up the political ladder, the more detrimental it could be to his priesthood,” said San Fernando Archbishop Paciano Aniceto, Panlilio’s immediate superior.

Aniceto told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Sunday that he was worried that the priesthood could be used for political ends.

Panlilio, who is suspended from performing priestly duties, defeated two administration candidates in a close race for the governorship in Pampanga in 2007.

He vowed to rid the home province of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of corruption mainly from alleged kickbacks from quarrying and “jueteng,” an illegal numbers game.

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said Panlilio should leave the priesthood if he wanted to run for president.

Cruz reminded Panlilio that universal Church law forbade clerics from assuming public office.

“How, therefore, could a priest be a politician at the same time (when there are) no less than two separate, official and categorical Church prohibitions to be such?” Cruz said.

Over the weekend, Panlilio told the Inquirer that he was open to the possibility of seeking the presidency with Padaca as his running mate.

On Sunday when the Inquirer published a story on the clamor for him to give the presidency a try, Panlilio said he was swamped with phone calls, text messages and e-mail expressing support.

Get dispensation

Cruz, an acknowledged expert on canon law, said there was no such thing in the Church as a priest “on leave.”

He said Panlilio was merely “suspended” as a priest, which means that he may not exercise his priestly ministries in the meantime.

“The problem with suspension is it just removed all the rights, but his obligations (as a priest) remain, until he goes back and when the archbishop receives him back,” Cruz said.

He advised Panlilio to first get dispensation from all his clerical obligations “definitively and permanently.”

“Then he is free to be and to do whatever he pleases. But to be a hyphenated priest-politician is a big anomaly in the Church and a dilemma, if not a scandal, for many lay people,” the prelate said.

Cruz said Panlilio should leave the priesthood now “so he would not drag the clergy and the Church into downright partisan politics” and “so he will not shame, divide or demean the clergy and the Church with his official blunders and personal liabilities.”

“Last and foremost, he will badly lose,” Cruz said.

He pointed out that it was only Panlilio who went on temporary leave from priesthood, when members of the clergy in other countries had either asked for dispensation or were dismissed when they sought public office.

Haiti, Paraguay precedents

The archbishop cited the case of ousted Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a Catholic priest who was first elected president in 1990. He officially resigned from the priesthood in 1994 reportedly upon pressure from the Vatican.

“It is only in the Philippines where we have a governor who was suspended from being a priest,” Cruz said.

In Paraguay, Fernando Lugo quit the cloth four years ago and run for president last year. His victory ousted the 61-year rule of the Colorado Party.

Aniceto’s disapproval of efforts to convince Panlilio to run for president was expected. Two months before the May 2007 elections, he told some 100 lay people gathered at a meeting that “priests are not of this world.”

“They fulfill Christ’s prophecy by bringing souls to heaven,” he said as he shot down the plan of concerned Pampanga residents to field Panlilio as a candidate for governor.

Moral force

Panlilio did run, saying the “extraordinary situation” faced by Kapampangan voters—that of choosing between candidates identified with jueteng and quarrying irregularities—necessitated a “moral force.”

He invoked a provision in canon law that allowed the clergy’s intervention when public welfare was at risk.

For her part, the polio-stricken Padaca left her job as a broadcast journalist to end a political dynasty that had ruled Isabela province for decades.

At a press conference in Manila, “running priest” Robert Reyes called on the public to set aside “one peso for change.”

The funds to be raised by the yet unnamed coalition would be for the 2010 national campaign of “alternative leaders” like Panlilio and Padaca, who the group said could rid the government of corruption and bring change to the country being nontraditional politicians.

Among the coalition members represented at Sunday’s forum were Reyes’ Kubol Pag-asa Community, a group advocating reforms in government; Pakisama, an umbrella group of farmers’ organizations; the Philippine Alliance of Ex-Seminarians (PAX); and Kaya Natin!, a movement promoting good governance.

Replicate

“Let’s replicate what happened in Pampanga, Isabela, and Naga on a national level,” said Ricardo Rico of PAX.

Pakisama national chair Crispino Aguelo compared selecting government leaders with limited choices of food. “We take what’s on the table even if we don’t like it. But why don’t we cook the food that we really want to eat?” he said.

Eirene Aguila of Kaya Natin! said the coalition was aware of the odds that it was up against, taking note of the clout, wealth and machinery of established political parties.

Despite the odds, it appears that the two governors are willing to give the presidency and vice presidency a shot.

“Several times, they (Panlilio and Padaca) said that they were open to running (in 2010) … They just want to see if the people will support them,” Aguila said.

From convenor to groom

Panlilio said he saw himself “more as a convenor” in the selection process for reform-minded candidates. “I am just helping in the selection of the candidates, but I am being chosen as the groom,” he told the Inquirer Sunday.

He said “the heart of the priesthood is to live the life of Jesus in the world.”

Ed Malay, a spokesperson of former President Fidel Ramos, said at the forum that the Panlilio-Padaca 2010 movement came as a surprise to him.

Malay said a Panlilio-Padaca tandem would change the complexion of the 2010 elections.

“People may be looking for change, an alternative to the usual political administration coming in term after term,” he said.

Fighting chance

Malay said the future of the Panlilio-Padaca movement would depend heavily on how organized the coalition would be and on its ability to reach the grassroots.

In a visit to the Inquirer offices in Makati City on Saturday with Panlilio, Ifugao Gov. Teodoro Baguilat Jr. acknowledged that the challenge to the movement was “how to convince voters that (Panlilio and Padaca) have a fighting chance.”

Panlilio said he was still in a process of discernment. He counted himself as among those unhappy with recent survey results showing traditional politicians (“trapo”) as leading presidential aspirants.

Panlilio said three “signs” would help convince him to seek the presidency: if the clamor of groups snowballs; if he does not see any other candidate who will genuinely serve the country and not his or her interests and family; and the result of his own “process of discernment.”

“If I decide to run and feel at ease, then to me, that’s a sign. If I am confused, then it’s a sign not to go for it,” Panlilio said.

Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan Sunday supported calls for Panlilio to form a coalition for the presidential election in 2010.

“We welcome this development for the cause of political reforms in the country. We must seek alternatives to ‘trapo’ politics and politics as usual,” Pangilinan said in a statement.

Malacañang sees no problem with Panlilio seeking the presidency. “The more candidates, the better,” Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said on Radyo ng Bayan. “It will give our people a wider latitude of choice for future leaders in our country.” With reports from Jeannette I. Andrade, Christine O. Avendaño and Christian V. Esguerra