Palace brushes off Catholic bishops’ ‘no-el’ warning

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang on Thursday dismissed the concern of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) for a no-election scenario this 2019 due to the draft federalism charter passed at the House of Representatives.

In a statement, CBCP warned the public against moves to cancel the midterm elections this May, citing the “vague” House version of a federal constitution.

“Its version of federalism is vague and it will do away with the 2019 elections,” CBCP said following their plenary assembly in Manila over the weekend.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo downplayed this cautionary of Catholic bishops.

“There is no connection with that, I cannot see a connection. The President said there would be elections and it will be clean, honest and credible,” Panelo said in a Palace briefing.

Duterte has previously said elections would not only be held as scheduled but would also be clean and orderly, dousing speculations of a no-election scenario.

READ: Duterte vows clean elections in 2019, warns pols on guns

/kga