Breaking with tradition, six local Catholic bishops have thrown their support for Ang Kapatiran Party (AKP) standard bearer J.C. de los Reyes, calling it “the conscience vote for 2010.” Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, Bishops Antonio Tobias of Novaliches, Joseph Nacua of Ilagan, Antonio Palang of San Jose de Mindoro, Vicente Navarra of Bacolod, Joel Baylon of Legaspi and retired Bishop Teodoro Bacani have declared support for De los Reyes, an outspoken critic of the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) Bill. Although it had earlier urged its followers not to vote for candidates advocating the bill, the Catholic Church as a whole has never openly endorsed a political candidate. In an article posted on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) website Saturday, the Church announced that it is “breaking [the] tradition of offering commentary on election-related moral issues without endorsing candidates.” The bishops said the party's platform “was formed based on Christian precepts [and] is worth supporting by any intelligent Catholic.” “I hope that it will catch fire in the imagination and hearts of our formation of this political party. I hope people would join it in great numbers and promote it among fellow Filipinos,” said Bacani. Likewise, Tobias said “the Ang Kapatiran [is] the conscience vote for the 2010 election.” “The Kapatiran [Party] stands on principles for the common good, not on personalities. That is the way of genuine representation in government,” added Nacua. Arguelles, who earlier announced that the Catholic Church will not engage in partisan politics, defied tradition by being one of the first to openly endorse the party. “We will stand by our position. We really have to do something now and be sincere to what is happening in our country,” Arguelles said. Navarra, meanwhile, said that his endorsement of Kapatiran is “a matter of conscience” and that he is “standing for what is right and necessary.” Arguelles added that Bishop Palang has also given his support for de los Reyes and his partymates. In a statement it provided to GMANews.TV Friday, the AKP said a seventh prelate supporting De los Reyes is Bishop Joel Zamudio Baylon of Legazpi, Albay. But the CBCP clarified Saturday that Baylon had only described the AKP as having “a clean-government platform... but stopped short from directly endorsing Ang Kapatiran.” “We remain humble with the gestures of the bishops to come out openly for the party's principles and platforms. And if we may quote a pastoral advice from Bishop Navarra, he says in his text message to us [that we must] not glory in numbers, rather let us glory that God works mysteriously in the hearts if his people,” said an official statement sent to GMANews.TV by the AKP. De los Reyes has constantly underscored his “pro-life” stance on reproductive health, openly condemning sex education in schools as promoting promiscuity and immorality among the youth.
