Church leader urges Filipino president to pray about resignation decision

The head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has said it was up to president Benigno Aquino to decide whether he should resign, “after prayerful discernment”.

Mr Aquino is facing a growing outcry for his resignation, with a few individual bishops joining the call, a week and a half after 44 policemen were killed in one of the bloodiest encounters with Muslim rebels in recent history.

Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan, conference president, said in a statement on Wednesday that the conference did not have a collective position on whether Aquino should resign, especially since it does not have enough information.

He added it was not clear “what truly happened” in Mamasapano and that conflicting accounts have been reported.

Protesters have said Mr Aquino was ultimately responsible for the deaths after a police raid to bring in a suspected international terrorist went awry. Government officials said Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters ambushed the commandos in a hard-to-navigate, remote area of Mamasapano, a rebel stronghold.

The rebels said the troops gave no warning ahead of the operation and cried foul over what they said was the government’s “lack of coordination” with them.

Archbishop Villegas emphasised the need for a “credible” truth commission or fact-finding body.

“The CBCP therefore strongly suggests that the members of any such committee, though appointed by the president, must be endorsed by and acceptable to the public, recognised for their probity, acknowledged for their truthfulness and characterized by their boldness,” he said.

Philippines vice-president Jejomar Binay said on Tuesday that the truth commission should not be made up of presidential appointees and suggested some Church leaders be included.

Multiple investigations are underway, with politicians calling for even more groups to look into the incident. Congress is currently scrutinizing a proposed law that would create the Bangsamoro autonomous region in Muslim-majority Mindanao, but the deadly clash placed some deliberations on hold, pending investigation results.

The government and rebels signed a peace accord last March, and negotiators from both sides are in the midst of guiding implementation of the agreement through various steps in the peace process. The ceasefire between them had gone unbroken for about three years.