Cebu prelate: Church workers running in BSKE polls must resign

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma (Photo from Cebu Daily News)

CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma had asked church workers and members of the laity to take a leave or resign if they were candidates in the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE).

“We would like those who are actively involved in the Church or parishes to resign,” the prelate said. “The reason is we do not want them to use their office in the church as a way of soliciting votes.”

Palma said he had issued a circular to all the parishes in the Archdiocese of Cebu on the position of the Church concerning its workers who were running in the Oct. 30 polls.

Show cause orders

“So, just resign for now and return after the elections,” he said.

The archbishop also reminded voters not to sell their votes in the BSKE and for candidates to stop vote-buying.

“On the part of the candidates, you have decided to run for a very honorable position. Let us do it fairly, clean, honest, and peaceful,” Palma said. “For the voters, let us also maintain the sanctity of the ballots. Forget about what you can gain (from selling your votes). This is not the way to hope for a better nation. At the start, we already started wrong with selling the ballots.”

Palma said he would be praying for an honest, clean and peaceful election. “And, of course, we do not use any means that would destroy the sanctity of the ballots.” The Commission on Elections in Central Visayas (Comelec-7) had issued show cause orders against nearly 490 candidates in the region for possible violations of election laws.

Data as of Oct. 18 showed 418 of them were from Cebu province, 56 from Bohol, and 12 from Negros Oriental.

‘Premature campaigning’

Central Visayas is composed of the provinces of Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental and Siquijor. No candidate in Siquijor had been issued a show cause order.

According to Comelec-7 Regional Director Lionel Castillano, these candidates will have at most three days to explain their side after receiving the order.

“They would need to answer the allegations, then we proceed from that,” said Castillano in a text message.

He said the complainant would be asked to sign affidavits for a possible preliminary investigation or for a disqualification case against the candidate.

The possible violations are mostly “premature campaigning,” Castillano said.

Most candidates started their campaigns with motorcades featuring drummers and motorcycles.

Others went house-to-house in the barangays as their supporters installed posters and tarpaulins at key areas in the villages.

The police did not report any untoward incident on the first day of the campaign, especially in the highly populated barangays of Cebu City.