The Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP) lambasted the camp of presidential aspirant and former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for criticizing the Catholic Church’s activities to inform the faithful on the coming national elections.
The group tagged the Marcos camp “hypocrite” after its spokesperson accused Catholic clergy of allowing churches to “become a platform for hateful and negative campaigning.”
“May we remind Marcos that he was recently endorsed by Brother Mike Velarde and Pastor [Apollo] Quiboloy … and he even thanked Velarde for this endorsement,” said Kej Andres, national spokesperson of SCMP.
Velarde is leader of the Catholic charismatic group El Shaddai while Quiboloy heads the “Kingdom of Jesus Christ” sect. Quiboloy recently made headlines after the US FBI released its “Most Wanted” poster with the photo of the pastor.
Quiboloy, who claimed to be the “Appointed Son of God,” has been charged in the United States of “conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, and sex trafficking of children; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; conspiracy; bulk cash smuggling.”
Andres said the Marcos camp “disses Catholic clergy only because it is not useful for him as awakened clergy people go beyond (the) simple endorsement” of the candidacy of Vice President Leni Robredo and Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan.
“Different from their vague concept of ‘unity,’ more Church people are united to forward principled politics denouncing martial law, plunder, and historical distortion — all legacies of the Marcoses and Dutertes,” Andres said in a statement sent to the media.
“We commend the people of cloth for promoting Godly concerns of human rights and economic justice and channeling these demands by endorsing the correct candidates done through careful discernment and reflection with the flock,” he said.
Andres stressed that the Christian faith “is not separate from worldly concerns,” adding that Christians “must go beyond the walls of our churches to internalize the conditions of the flock.”
During the 1986 People Power Revolution, Christians — Catholics, Protestants, and Evangelicals — joined the uprising that ousted the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
“We hope that more clergy and laity would follow Christ and struggle against the sinful situation of the current Philippine society,” said Andres.
