Good government crusade to be launched in Pampanga rally

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Catholic, Protestant and Muslim leaders in Central Luzon will cross religious boun-daries as they launch in a prayer rally here today a crusade seeking the ouster of President Estrada.

Former President Corazon Aquino and former House Speaker Manny Villar are expected to attend the rally starting at 2 p.m. at the Villa del Sol compound in Barangay Magliman.

The prayer rally will also launch the Citizens’ Crusade against Corruption and for Good Government (Crusade-CL), said Pastor Alan Cabas of the United Methodist Church in Angeles City.

The convenors of the crusade, according to Cabas, include Archbishop Paciano Aniceto of Pampanga, Bishop Rolando Tria Tirona of Bulacan, Bishop Deogracias Iniguez of Zambales, Central Luzon Ecumenical Council chairman Margarito Nuqui, Bishop Alberto Ramento of Iglesia Filipina Independencia, Imam Hadji Gafour Cana of the Muslim community in Pampanga, Bishop Leo Drona of Nueva Ecija, and Rev. Elmer Mangako of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches.

"Religious believers belonging to different churches and faiths in Central Luzon will express their collective outrage over the moral bankruptcy and bungling ineptitude of the Estrada government (during the rally)," Cabas said in a statement.

He said the Crusade-CL will strive for "inter-faith solidarity and fellowship, cooperation and collaboration toward collective actions in matters concerning the public good."

Alex Cauguiran, spokesman of the Coalition for the Ouster of Erap (CORE) founded in Angeles last month, said tens of thousands of people from the six Central Luzon provinces are expected to attend today’s rally to press Mr. Estrada to resign.

"We expect no less than 3,000 people from each of the provinces, and much more from the host-province of Pampanga," he said.

Cauguiran said the rally will start at 2 p.m. at the vast Villa del Sol compound where about 24,000 people attended a similar prayer rally last Nov. 20.

But not all participants seem to support the call for Mr. Estrada’s resignation. A source from the Save San Fernando Movement Foundation, composed of local businessmen, said they merely want an impartial trial of the President’s impeachment case in the Senate.

Cauguiran said delegations from Nueva Ecija, Bulacan and Tarlac will assemble at the corner of MacArthur Highway and the Olongapo-Gapan Road here, while those from Bataan, Zambales and Olon-gapo will converge at St. Jude Village in Barangay Dolores from where they will march to Villa del Sol.