2 priests, 2 cities, one poll slogan: Change

Two priests hundreds of kilometers apart decided to cross the line dividing Church and State and filed certificates of candidacy (COCs) to run for government posts in next year’s elections.

In Iligan City, Jeemar Lucero Vera Cruz, 53, took off his cassock on Thursday as he was celebrating Mass to take on a possible new role—as the city’s vice mayor.

Vera Cruz, who has been serving as priest in the Diocese of Iligan for the past 29 years, is running in the ticket of Mayor Celso Regencia, a member of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), who is now detained on charges of plotting the December 2014 ambush of Rep. Vicente Belmonte. Belmonte survived the attack.

Belmonte, a member of the ruling Liberal Party, was expected to file his COC for mayor on Friday.

God’s call

Vera Cruz said he was just “responding to God’s call to help the constituents of Iligan City.”

He said he saw a need “to transform Iligan City, which is now on the brink of a political crisis,” which is endangering many people’s lives, including his.

Vera Cruz, who hails from San Remegio in Cebu province, said his departure from the priesthood was temporary, though.

The Mass that he celebrated on Thursday would not be his last as he intends to return to the priesthood after taking a plunge into politics, said Vera Cruz.

Vera Cruz, wearing a striped red and white shirt, walked out of the St. Michael’s Cathedral, where he celebrated Mass, to the Commission on Elections office here with at least 5,000 supporters and Regencia’s wife, Marissa, who filed her husband’s COC for reelection.

Political dominance

In Camarines Sur, 43-year-old priest Apolinar Rull Napoles filed a COC to run as representative of the first district and challenged the decades of political dominance by the Andaya clan.

Napoles is running as an LP candidate.

The Andayas have dominated the first district for decades, starting with the reign of Rolando Sr. as legislator representing the then 10-town district since 1984. His son, Rolando Jr., is incumbent representative.

After the 1986 People Power Revolution, Rolando Sr. was elected representative in 1987-1998. He died in 2001.

Rolando Jr., a lawyer, took his father’s place in 1998 until February 2006 when then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo appointed him as budget secretary. Arroyo’s son, Dato, took over the post from 2007-2010.

Rolando Jr. returned as representative of the now apportioned first district, which was reduced to five towns. Dato became second district representative, which was carved out of the five other towns in the first district.

Conscience

Napoles said he decided to run against Andaya because he wanted to put “conscience” in governance in the first district of Camarines Sur.

The priest said he has no relations with businesswoman Janet Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the 10-billion Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scandal, but admitted he visited her once in prison last year.

“They may attack me [on the basis of my surname]. I already met Janet. We are not relatives. I visited her because it is a work of mercy to visit the imprisoned,” said the priest.

Fr. Napoles is fifth of six siblings. His father, a former constabulary soldier, is from Del Gallego town. His mother, a retired teacher, is from Nabua town also in Camarines Sur.

Battling fear

On Thursday, a day before the deadline for the filing of COCs, Fr. Napoles went home to Del Gallego to consult his mother and siblings about his plan to run against the well-entrenched Andaya clan.

Fr. Napoles said he agonized on Thursday over running for an elective post. “It will disturb our simple family because we are not into politics,” he said.

He said, however, that his siblings expressed concern over him going against a powerful clan.

“I told them that it is not Andaya that I am against but ugly politics,” he said. “Shall we be afraid forever? If so, there will be no change,” said the priest.

After filing his COC, Fr. Napoles said he felt at peace.

Fr. Napoles said he was nominated to LP by Camarines Sur Vice Governor Fortunato Peña, the party’s provincial chair.

Fr. Napoles said Rev. Alberto Rojas, bishop of the Prelature of Libmanan, has already approved his leave from priestly duties on Thursday.

“The bishop is respecting my run,” Fr. Napoles said in a text message.

Fr. Napoles said he celebrated his last Mass at 8 a.m. on Thursday at the Sipocot parish church where he was first assigned.

“I choose to be active in politics as an option for social change. I will be the change I want to see,” he said.

On Tuesday, Fr. Napoles officiated rites at the grave of the late interior secretary Jesse M. Robredo when Rep. Leni Robredo, Jesse’s widow and now candidate for vice president of LP, came to visit to accompany Gabriel Bordado in filing his COC as representative of the third district on Camarines Sur.

Bordado has been endorsed by Leni to replace her as representative of the district.