MANILA, July 27, 2010— If President Aquino is sincere in combating corruption then he should prosecute even the staunch allies of former President Arroyo that jumped to his administration.

This was how Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo reacted to the pledge of Aquino clean government and by possibly prosecuting former President Arroyo for her alleged corrupt activities.

The bishop urged Aquino to make sure that all individuals that had worked with Arroyo in misleading the nation in the past nine years be made accountable regardless of their current political affiliation.

Pabillo chairs the National Secretariat for Social Action – Justice and Peace of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

He said the chief executive should look beyond politics in making sure that justice will be served for the Filipino people.

“He (Aquino) should realize that this is not a political game. It should be a game of honesty,” Pabillo said.

Sparing his newfound allies, according to Pabillo, would make Aquino no different from Arroyo.

“If he spares them, we will just go back to the way we were before… Isn’t it what Arroyo used to do? She had been coddling her people,” he claimed.

In his first State of the Nation Address, Aquino yesterday noted how his predecessor’s rule misled the people about the country’s situation and left the nation’s coffers nearly bare.

The President also related how his Cabinet officials have discovered a number of alleged anomalies of the Arroyo administration in just the first three weeks of his administration. (Roy Lagarde/CBCPNews)