Sixteen members of the Catholic prelate led by Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales called on voters Sunday to beware of overspending candidates, saying that lavish campaign expenses in the past did not prove beneficial to the country. “Excessive campaign expenses in the past did not augur good and responsive governance,” said Cardinal Rosales, along with 15 other bishops belonging to the Manila Metropolitan Ecclesiastical Province, in a pastoral statement, excerpts of which were posted on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines news site. With more than P2 billion already spent by candidates on political advertisements alone, this year's election is touted to be the most expensive in the country's history, according to Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) executive director Malou Mangahas. “Everybody seems to be spending like crazy on advertisements,” Mangahas said in a forum earlier this week. The bishops' pastoral statement also pointed out that freedom in an election means “no physical coercion” or “threat or money used to influence or to buy votes.” The bishops asked voters to “choose freely the leaders of the country who shall be accountable to serve them.” They said voters should tally the candidates' respective positions on the issues of corruption and poverty, the “two major issues disabling the country today… (haunting) the country with destructive mutuality” because “as corruption increases, poverty worsens.” The prelates also stressed that voters should choose candidates who are “God-fearing; moral; not given to vices; reverent of life and its deserved decency,” those with real concern for the environment and the poor, and those that provide good examples of responsible Filipino citizenship. The Manila Metropolitan Ecclesiastical Province include the Dioceses of Antipolo, Imus, Malolos, Para?aque, San Pablo, Taytay, Cubao, Kalookan, Novaliches, Pasig, Puerto Princesa and the Military Ordinariate of the Philippines. The pastoral letter initiated by Cardinal Rosales were read in all parishes and churches of the Archdiocese and Dioceses of the Ecclesiastical Province Sunday or next Sunday in some areas. The pastoral statement, which appears to be just “an appeal to the conscience,” is obviously directed towards Nacionalista Party presidential candidate Sen. Manuel Villar Jr., according to Ateneo de Manila University political professor Benito Lim. “Although this statement is just telling voters to use their conscience, that statement is partisan. They (the bishops) are directing it against one candidate and it is clearly against Villar ,” Lim told GMANews.TV in a telephone interview. Villar has spent over P1 billion on campaign ads since November last year, according to AGB Nielsen.
