Bishops to tackle antipork bill

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma: At the helm of people’s initiative FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma is expected to present to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) a draft bill seeking to permanently scrap the presidential and congressional pork barrels through a people’s initiative.

Palma will personally take the matter up with his fellow prelates at the 109th CBCP Plenary Assembly at the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center in Manila, according to Nardy Sabino, convenor of the Church People’s Alliance against the Pork Barrel (CPAPB).

The three-day assembly, which closes Monday, is the highest decision-making body of the 120-strong Catholic Church hierarchy in the country.

“(Archbishop Palma) said he was going to present it to the bishops. That’s also the reason we had the finalization meeting before [the plenary] because he wanted to bring the draft bill and show it to his fellow bishops,” Sabino told reporters in an interview.

Sabino said that Palma, a former CBCP president, was at the helm of the people’s initiative as this was the archbishop’s advocacy to stem corruption in government.

“I hope the Church leaders will be actively involved in this initiative and the campaign to get rid of the pork barrel,” Sabino said.

The CPAPB, a coalition of Catholic clergy, religious and lay organizations, is one of several antipork groups seeking to pass a law through a people’s initiative that will make it a crime to insert pork barrel funds and other lump-sum items in the government’s spending plan.

The CPAPB initiative, which will be launched in Cebu next month, aims to gather 5.4 million signatures as provided for under Republic Act No. 6735, or the People’s Initiative Law.

For the initiative to succeed, it needs to collect signatures of at least 10 percent of the registered voters across the country, of which every legislative district must be represented by at least three percent of its registered voters.–Jocelyn R. Uy