Catholic bishops have expressed disappointment over the results of the May 13 elections where proadministration candidates dominated the Senate.

“For me and most of the bishops, clergy and religious and Catholic lay leaders, this fact is very disappointing,” Bishop Arturo Bastes of Sorsogon was quoted as saying in a report by United Catholic News (Ucan).

Catholic leaders had called for “independent-minded” senators, who could check the alleged antilife policies of the Duterte administration.

President Duterte has asked for a return of capital punishment and the lowering of the criminal age for minors.

He has also been criticized by bishops for the thousands of killings under his war on drugs.

Bishop Ruperto Santos expressed hope those elected would exercise independence, according to the Ucan report.

“Given a fresh mandate, let us pray that they will live up to our expectations and we will not be sorry we elected them,” he said.

New bishop

Monsignor Fidelis Layog, recently consecrated auxiliary bishop of Lingayen-Dagupan, urged clergy to be courageous amid the death threats they face for their critical stance against alleged rights abuses of the Duterte government .

“Being threatened and attacked has always been the experience of the Catholic Church from the very beginning,” he said in his ordination on May 8.

“The Church has faced persecutions in the past and even up to this time. Let us not fear, knowing that we are never alone. God is with us. God will prevail.”

Among those who have received death threats is Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas.

Layog received a degree in biblical theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, or the Angelicum.

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