MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle led a prayer meeting with the Philippines’ top presidential aspirants on Monday, September 7, months before the 2016 elections. 

Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II confirmed to reporters that he was meeting with Tagle on Monday.

“I was just invited,” Roxas said. He said it was supposed to be a “pray-over” session with Tagle.

Rappler learned that Vice President Jejomar Binay and Senator Grace Poe also joined the meeting organized by the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).

Tagle led the candidates in an evening prayer, a source said. The cardinal also gave them “points for meditation.”

The meeting was held at the Manila archbishop’s residence in Intramuros, Manila. 

In an interview with reporters, PPCRV chairman Ambassador Henrietta de Villa said Tagle and the 3 candidates did not discuss politics during the meeting.

She said Tagle, instead, reminded them “what leadership is all about.” 

“Masaya ‘yung atmosphere,” De Villa added. (The atmosphere was light.)

She even recalled a light moment between Roxas and Poe, whom the interior secretary has been courting to be his vice-presidential running mate.

De Villa, the Philippines’ former ambassador to the Vatican, said that at one point, “Mar would let Grace go ahead” during the picture-taking. At that time, Poe was beside Tagle, and was telling Roxas to take her place beside the cardinal: “Ikaw naman dito.” (You can take this spot.)

Laughing, De Villa said, “Sabi ni Mar, ‘No, no, no. Kasi ‘di ba, he who would be first should be last?’” (Mar said, “No, no, no. Because isn’t it that he who would be first should be last?”)

Not endorsing bets

Tagle, the most prominent leader of the Catholic Church in the Philippines, is known to avoid talking about politics.

He is also less outspoken about national issues compared to other Catholic bishops.

One of the times he talked about a national issue was on August 13, 2013, when he broke his silence about the pork barrel scam, the Philippines’ biggest government scandal in recent history.

Back then, Tagle cried as he backed an investigation into the “heartbreaking” controversy. 

Breaking into tears, the cardinal said in August 2013: “Siguro maglakad-lakad kayo sa gabi, kapag nasa bangketa ka na, makikita mo ‘yung…’yung mga pamilya na nagbubukas ng kariton, para doon matulog. Mahawakan lang ninyo ang kamay ng mga mahihirap. Siguro naman maaantig ang inyong puso, sana.”

(Maybe you could walk around at night, and when you reach the alleys where the poor live, you can see the… the families who open their carts, to sleep there. Hold their hands. I hope it will move your hearts – hopefully.)

The Catholic Church remains an influential force in the Philippines, as 8 out of 10 Filipinos belong to this religious group.

The church has often lobbied for or against certain laws, such as the reproductive health law that it opposed. 

Still, it does not openly endorse political candidates unlike the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), a century-old Christian church that practices bloc voting. (READ: How potent is the INC’s vote delivery system?)

Other Catholic bishops, however, have been more outspoken about politics.

Tagle’s predecessor, the late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, helped in leading popular movements that ousted Philippine presidents – dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and actor-turned-pollitician Joseph Estrada in 2001. – Rappler.com