Tagle: Philippines’ corrupt political leaders ‘are not God’

The Bishop of Kidapawan Jose Colin Bagaforo said a group of clergy had joined the Trillion Peso March Movement to fight the ‘systemic corruption’ and ‘excessive greed’ of officials.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle said politicians in the Philippines must remember that they are “not God” following a major corruption scandal.

“Please, you are human beings. You are created in God’s image. Can you please look at yourself and, with humility, say, ‘I am not God. I should not pretend to be God. I am a creature with many other creatures, and so my responsibility is to take care of what God has given to us for the good of all,’” Cardinal Tagle told the ABS-CBN News Channel.

Tagle, pro-prefect at the Dicastery for Evangelisation, was the Archbishop of Manila from 2011 to 2019. The 68-year-old theologian, who finished his doctorate at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, remains an influential voice in the Filipino Church.

Speaking in an interview published on 4 October, Tagle expressed disbelief at the corruption controversy involving billions of pesos for flood control projects. He said it demonstrates “the mystery of the capacity of human beings to destroy each other through corruption”.

Acknowledging that this was partly a failure of formation by the Church, the cardinal challenged Filipinos to go beyond the massive protests that have rocked the country in recent weeks. “After the rallies, we should now look for lasting change, because we cannot effect change simply by expressing our anger,” he said.

Other Church leaders have condemned the corruption scandal, even joining protests in different parts of the country. A Church-led protest on 21 September drew thousands of people, and a bigger one is being prepared for 30 November, a public holiday in honour of the nineteenth-century Filipino revolutionary Andres Bonifacio.

The Bishop of Kidapawan Jose Colin Bagaforo, 71, said a group of clergy had joined a new movement to fight the “systemic corruption” and “excessive greed” that have led to poverty in the country. Their “Trillion Peso March Movement” is named after the successful “Trillion Peso March” protest on 21 September.

“We, the conveners and leaders of this Trillion Peso March Movement, declare that corruption is the root of poverty, inequality, and injustice in the Philippines,” said Bagaforo on 1 October. “We all call on every Filipino to join this collective fight for an honest, transparent, and accountable government.”

Protests against corruption have taken other forms too. On 22 September, an historic church in Bulacan, north of Metro Manila, said it returned a pick-up truck donated to the parish by a government engineer who was dismissed due to the flood control scandal. The parish council of Obando church said it received the truck “in good faith” and now wanted to “convey our stance on the true value of justice and what is right”.

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