The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Saturday said it will not accept donations from politicians, especially those with businesses involved in “destructive industries” such as coal and fossil gas projects, logging, quarrying, and destructive mining.
“Accepting donations from politicians is a touchy subject, and especially politicians in power. [We never know] if those funds come from the government,” CBC Virgilio David said during the 123rd CBCP Plenary Assembly on Saturday.
“In general, we have a policy like that, on acceptance of donations, because we don’t want to encourage patronage politics,” David added.
The CBCP said it wants to see a candidate who will give attention to the environment in the 2022 polls, even as the influential Catholic leaders said they won’t endorse any candidate.
Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police (PNP) is prepared to carry out “warrantless arrests” against those proven to have threatened journalists this election season, its spokesperson said on Saturday.
Police Spokesperson Col. Roderick Augustus Alba said this developed after the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) designated the police as so-called media security focal persons or “media security vanguards.”
“If we need to arrest the persons concerned, we have enough evidence, we could do warrantless arrests or if someone has already filed a case (with) warrants of arrests, we can apprehend them,” said Alba, the chief focal person nationwide for media complaints, during a televised public briefing.
“Of course, we will examine and validate all complaints. Not all of them are valid or related to (journalists’) jobs, some personal but still we are still willing to help,” the PNP spokesman said.
So far at their level, police have yet to receive complaints, Alba said.
The election period started on January 9, while the campaign period is set to start next week.
The CBCP, meanwhile, also does not encourage businessmen involved in industries affecting the environment to donate to the Catholic Church.
“To avoid such embarrassment, please don’t donate,” David said, adding that Church officials must be critical in checking the source of donations.
In a pastoral statement issued by CBCP, church leaders decried the pain dealt by the COVID-19 pandemic paired with environmental problems, as the country became battered by storms.
“This is concerning as, while suffering from the impact of the pandemic, climate-vulnerable nations have also experienced intensifying calamities due to the instability of our biosphere. The Philippines, for example, was battered by multiple tropical storms including some declared to be the deadliest in the world from 2013 to 2021,” they said in a statement.
Because of environmental problems, David encouraged the public to be vigilant over industries being shut down by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
“Even with the implementation of our ecological laws, we are weak with that. They say we have the best laws, but the question is are they
being implemented?” the bishop added.