MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / May 6, 2013) – United Nationalist Alliance senatorial bet JV Ejercito Estrada thanked the Catholic lay group called Lay Initiatives for Elections 2013 or LIFE 2013 of the Archdiocese of Cebu for its support to his candidacy.
Pro-life advocate Ejercito Estrada, who is also a strong advocate of the Church, was in Cebu City over the weekend and met with LIFE members. He also met with Fr. Ramon Opredo and joined him in a unity prayer rally in Plaza Independencia.
Ejercito Estrada, who fought hard against the passage of the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill, is among 6 UNA candidates endorsed by LIFE.
The Archdiocese of Bacolod in Iloilo province earlier endorsed Ejercito Estrada in its so-called “Team Buhay” candidates, mostly lawmakers who rejected the RH bill. Ejercito Estrada was also endorsed by El Shaddai and Solidarity Vote Movement Manila, among others.
Kidapawan Bishop Romulo dela Cruz said he is supporting the decision of the lay leaders behind those movements, saying “it provides the concrete opportunity to communally examine each incumbent candidate’s record of accomplishments and performance history. Needless to say, this movement provides a concrete way of examining who, among those running for office have and will truly serve the people.”
“Hence, we support our lay leaders’ decision to seek the election of those candidates who are closest to the Catholic and Christian ideals of leadership. We hope the public declaration of our lay leaders’ choices will result in more votes cast this coming election, will stand of God, for life and for family and environment.”
In his Pastoral statement on the May 2013 Elections, he said: “ Last April 8, 2013, the priests of the Diocese of Kidapawan and I met and agreed to come out with a pastoral statement clarifying what our position is on the so- called “Catholic Vote,” which has since been re-named by the lay organizers as Solidarity Vote Movement.
Similar to the movements in Manila, Cebu and other parts of the country, our lay leaders are in the process of planning and discerning, for the May 13 elections and to come up with a list of candidates, on the national level who are closest to our criteria of being pro-God, pro-Life and pro–Family.
The Lay Initiative for Elections 2013 or LIFE 2013 in Cebu has come up with their own list of senatorial and party-list candidates that they are endorsing. El Shaddai Manila as well as Solidarity Vote Movement Manila, have done likewise.
Those are all lay initiatives, and we as Church leaders have no objections to the efforts that endeavour to provide informative guidance based on Catholic, Christian principles.
We are happy that our laity today is putting into concrete actions their responsibilities as baptized Christians and Members of the Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ. Their efforts at objectively measuring local and national candidates according to the standards of the Gospel, and the moral principles taught by the Church, together with Filipino values that respect life, family and the environment, deserve not our objection but our endorsement.” (Mindanao Examiner)
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