The governing body of Catholic bishops in the Philippines has not publicly endorsed senatorial candidates for the Southeast Asian nation’s mid-term elections on May 12, 2025. A supposed “pastoral letter” that circulated online before the vote bore signs of fabrication.
“Their moral authority will be lost if they continue to engage in political activity,” reads a Visayan-language Facebook post shared May 9.
It features screenshots of a document under the letterhead of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and with the signature of its president Cardinal Pablo David (archived link).
“We humbly present the names of several individuals whose lives and aspirations we commend to the discernment of the faithful,” reads the apparent “pastoral letter” to the nation’s deeply Catholic population before listing the names of 12 Senate bets (archived link).
Similar posts surfaced elsewhere on Facebook just before millions voted in a mid-term election largely defined by the explosive feud between President Ferdinand Marcos and impeached Vice President Sara Duterte (archived link).
With 80 percent of precincts reporting, Senate candidates aligned with Duterte were on track to claim five of 12 seats up for grabs, an initial tally from the poll body released by local media ABS-CBN showed as of May 13 (archived link).
The tally, if it holds, would give the vice president one more seat than predicted in nationwide polls — a potentially crucial vote in a looming Senate impeachment trial tentatively scheduled for July.
In a statement released on May 10, CBCP’s secretary general Monsignor Bernardo Pantin said they do not endorse individual candidates (archived link).
They instead provide “moral and social guidelines to help the faithful make informed choices.”
“If names of candidates are mentioned in supposed Church endorsements, consider them false or misleading,” he added.
Read the full story on AFP Fact Check.