Retired Marines Colonel Ariel Querubin. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Retired military officer and Medal of Valor awardee Ariel Querubin confirmed his resignation from the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals (BCBP) after a number of its officials expressed “individual support” to the presidential bid of vice president Leni Robredo, who he alleged to have links to the communist armed movement.
“I don’t want to support a candidate sleeping with my enemy,” Querubin told INQUIRER.net in a message on Thursday.
BCBP is one of the lay organizations of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
Querubin was among the retired military officers who have declared support for the candidacy of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
The retired Marine colonel-turned-erstwhile rebel leader claimed that Senator Panfilo Lacson’s claims of Robredo’s alleged links to the communist armed wing, New People’s Army drove him and other retired senior Armed Forces and police officers into throwing their support behind Marcos.
“It’s my conviction as a former soldier and a Medal of Valor awardee. Her alleged links with the CPP-NPA that Sen. [Panfilo] Lacson revealed prompted the retired senior AFP-PNP officers and Medal of Valor Awardees to sign the manifesto supporting BBM,” he said.
Robredo, who decried what she called a “red tagging” towards her and her volunteers, also said she will not support groups that espouse violence to reach their objectives.
To date, the BCBP as an organization has not endorsed a presidential candidate.
However, even in a pastoral letter posted in their website, the BCBP leaders said that while they remain non-partisan, they “made a choice to stand firmly in defense of truth and reject all forms of lies, particularly the prevalence of fake news in the social media and various attempts at historical revisionism related to Martial Law.”
A number of BCBP members have expressed “individual support” to Robredo’s presidential bid, according to the letter seen by INQUIRER.net. However, the officers said their decision is not meant to be imposed on the entire leadership.
It would be recalled that Querubin had a role in the 2006 standoff at the Marines headquarters in a bid to protect military officers from their removal from service due to a foiled coup against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo following the “Hello Garci” scandal.
He has since returned to the fold of the law, and had taken his oath of allegiance.