Churches urged to toll bells today to scrap pork

All church bells in the 34 parishes of the Diocese of Balanga in Bataan province will peal at noon Friday to demand the abolition of the pork barrel and decry the misuse and abuse of government funds, Bishop Ruperto Santos said.

The bells would also ring in the shrines of the Divine Mercy and Our Lady of Guadalupe, and a chaplaincy of the Our Lady of Fatima at Bataan Export Processing Zone in Mariveles town, Santos said in a text message sent to the Inquirer.

“[We are sending] out our message that pork barrel should be abolished because it has become the deadly instrument of corruption. In its place, [there] should be a more effective, direct and clean way of delivering service, assistance and justice to our people, especially the poor,” he said.

Other dioceses and archdioceses in Central Luzon have not announced similar plans, although this was a national call for protests.

On Monday, the Church People’s Alliance against Pork Barrel encouraged all parishes nationwide to toll their bells Friday for three minutes at 1 p.m. in a show of solidarity calling for the abolition of the pork barrel system.

The newly formed group consists of bishops, priests, nuns and lay workers from various denominations.

The group said the ringing of bells would “signal our deep attachment to the cries and struggles of the poor for justice, peace and society.”

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda urged the alliance to ring the bell for Janet Lim-Napoles and all those who pillaged the national treasury.

“Let anticorruption (bells) ring,” Lacierda said at a briefing in the Palace, maintaining that exposés of scams and prosecution of corrupt officials were offshoots of the straight path mantra of President Aquino.

“You can ring the bell for anticorruption. You can ring the bell against those who stole the money in the PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund), those who diverted the money to the (Janet) Napoles NGOs,” said Lacierda.

He said the pealing of the bells should alarm the grafters, not the Malacañang occupant.

“You want to ring the bell; you ring the bell against anticorruption. You want to ring the bell against those who stole the money of the people, and I agree with that. You ring the bell for that. You ring the bell for removal of the President, that’s a different story,” said Lacierda.

The newly formed group also supported the call for the abolition of the little known Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), which many sectors claim to be unconstitutional.

Asked if the administration was now amenable to abolishing the DAP, Lacierda said:

“You know, by the way, let me emphasize again, the DAP is a successful acceleration program that we did. The DAP is a mechanism, how do you abolish a mechanism? That’s a question,” he said.

Bishop Santos urged Bataan residents to make the “loudest sound possible to awaken our lawmakers, our government officials, the politicians and the citizens that people’s money not spent for the good and welfare of the people is stolen money.”—With a report from Leila B. Salaverria