Iglesia Filipina Independiente SUPREME COUNCIL OF BISHOPS

1500 Taft Avenue, Ermita, Manila, Philippines 1000

THE IGLESIA FILIPINA INDEPENDIENTE is a congregation of new men educated in and liberated by the teaching of Christ, dedicated to the worship of God in spirit and in truth, nourished and sustained in the Eucharist, and commissioned to be witnesses to God's love in the world.

Tele-Facsimile: +63-2-521-3932 P.O. Box 2484, 1000 Manila, Philippines E-mail: om@ifi.ph Website: http://ifi.ph

SERVE JUSTICE TO THE POOR, SEND PLUNDERERS TO JAIL,

ABOLISH THE PORK BARREL

“Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; (neither) thieves nor the greedy (will) inherit the kingdom of God.”

(1 Corinthians 6: 9-10)

In the spirit of justice, that gift of God that helps us live in uprightness, we, the Supreme Council of Bishops, again speak out against bureaucratic corruption as the most recent controversy over the pork barrel system caught our eyes. The disturbing reality - where our people suffer from worsening economic difficulties while government resources, intended to uplift them from the misery of poverty, are systematically stolen from the nation’s coffers - manifests the shocking extent of injustice that is being borne by the Filipino people.

The multiple cases of plunder in the government’s pork barrel system, exposed through the scam that involves Mrs. Janet Lim Napoles and implicates other high ranking government officials, is much more than a case of thievery. The controversy has pulled down the curtain of hypocrisy that for decades has covered the syndicated distribution of government resources to the hands of the few while the people are left with badly shaved social services entangled to patronage politics.

The fact that the billions of pesos being plundered are allotted to a constituency of mostly poor people makes the crime more intolerable. It has come to simply mean taking money from the beggar’s alms plate or taking a bowl of porridge from the hands of the poor dying of hunger, done repeatedly year after year. We thus see the pork barrel scam as another manifestation of systematic injustice bred by bureaucratic corruption that arises from the country’s bankrupt political system.

We, therefore, hereby call on President Benigno Aquino III to abolish the pork barrel system in the soonest possible time. He must make every effort, at the same time, to recover the trust of the people towards the bureaucracy through persistent efforts to prosecute and punish plunderers regardless of who they are. However, for justice to prevail and for peace to dwell in our land, investigation and prosecution must go beyond Napoles, government officials and politicians linked to her.

Investigations must include the Department of Agriculture which has allowed bogus Non-Government Organizations get government accreditation, the Department of Finance which has tolerated systematic corruption over the years, and the Commission on Audit on why it is only now that they have come with published audit reports. Investigation on the reported connections of pork barrel scam operators to the Office of the President must take precedence. President Aquino must also account himself to the people over the nature and control of the presidential pork barrel that rips a huge amount of money from the national budget.

We also call on the faithful and the Filipino people to be ever vigilant and join protest actions calling for the abolition of the pork barrel and for bringing to the halls of justice those involved in the scam. Towards the same call, we likewise instruct all our parish priests to bring to the pulpits this concern for justice, and organize and mobilize our communities to participate in protest actions in the spirit of service and solidarity with the poor among our people. In service to God’s people, The Rt Revd Dr Vic Esclamado The Most Revd Ephraim S. Fajutagana Chairperson, Supreme Council of Bishops Obispo Maximo

4th September 2013, Diocese of Cagayan de Oro