3 Luzon archbishops ask youth to register, vote in 2022 polls

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA

LAOAG CITY — Three archbishops in northern Luzon have called on the youth sector to register to vote and participate in the coming 2022 national elections.

In a pastoral letter issued Sunday, Archbishops Marlo Peralta of Nueva Segovia, Socrates Villegas of Lingayen Dagupan, and Ricardo Baccay of Tuguegarao said that it is the youth’s “moral duty to resist and correct a culture of murder and plunder” in the country.

The letter added that the free elections would “allow the selection and change of representatives in the most effective way to make political authority accountable.”

“We plead with our youth and first-time voters to register themselves,” the pastoral message read.

The appeal to the nation’s youth was included in the pastoral message which called for a full investigation of “any whiff of corruption” in the government and curb those who obstruct the legal processes.

Amid an unprecedented pandemic, the archbishops said the “poor are slowly dying from joblessness and due to confusing quarantine classification.”

“While other nations have risen from the pandemic, our death toll continues to rise,” they said.

“We appeal to the sense of patriotism of the reluctant candidates to bring back ethics in our political life and run according to your conscience and not according to the surveys,” the message said.

“This is not the time for despair but courage. This is not the time to be quiet but stand up for God,” the archbishops said.

/MUF