CEBU CITY – Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma asked Church workers and members of the laity running in the barangay elections on October 30 to resign or take a leave of absence.

PALMA (FB)
Palma said resigning or taking a leave of absence will prevent people from suspecting that the Church is being used to woo voters.
“We would like those who are actively involved in the Church or parishes to resign. The reason is, we do not want them to use their office in the Church as a way of soliciting votes,” the prelate said.
A circular containing the position of the Archdiocese of Cebu on its workers running in the barangay elections has been issued to all parishes under the Archdiocese of Cebu, said Palma.
“So resign lang muna (temporarily) and come back after the elections," Palma added.
The prelate reminded voters not to sell their votes and asked candidates not to resort to vote-buying. “On the part of the candidates, you have decided to run for a very honorable position. Let us do it fairly, clean, honest, and peaceful,” Palma said.
Palma is praying that the elections will be honest, clean, and free from any violence.
“For the voters, let us also maintain the sanctity of the ballots and not think of what you can get (from the candidates). This is not the way to hope for a better nation when at the start, we already started wrong by selling the ballots,” Palma said.