Marcos Jr. camp chides Catholic clergy for ‘hateful and negative campaigning’

Presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s camp on Saturday rebuked members of the Catholic clergy who opposed Bongbong's candidacy, saying they should not allow themselves to become partisan.

In a statement, Marcos' spokesperson, lawyer Victor Rodriguez, said they were “saddened” that some men of the cloth had allowed themselves to become agents of “hateful and negative campaigning.”

“While presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos is calling for unity, we are saddened by the men and women of the Catholic [Church] who are doing the exact opposite and have abused the pulpit, allowing it to become a platform for hateful and negative campaigning,” Rodriguez said.

“As men and women of the cloth, they should be more circumspect, refrain from openly meddling with politics and stop making reckless imputation or statement that only serves as a spiritual, moral, social and cultural poison,” he added.

Earlier, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) warned the public against the "virus of lies" being sown in social media troll farms.

CBCP president Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David assailed what he considered as "radical distortions" in the history of Martial Law and the EDSA People Power uprising.

As to the May 9 national and local elections, the CBCP called on the public, especially the youth, "to examine carefully what is happening in our quest for a true and just society." —LBG, GMA News