By Blanche S. Rivera
Inquirer News Service
THE EIGHT-MILLION strong El Shaddai flock, led by President Arroyo’s spiritual adviser Mike Velarde, decided yesterday it would no longer hold pro-administration rallies, a decision made before Mrs. Arroyo last night sought snap elections.
The disclosure was made by Manila Auxiliary Bishop Teodoro Bacani, adviser to Velarde, in a meeting with officials of Catholic schools nationwide.
Bacani said the El Shaddai group, which has staged pro-Arroyo rallies to counter the snowballing campaign against the President, will "not be used for pro-Arroyo demonstrations’’ this time.
He revealed that even the El Shaddai leaders were "divided’’ on the matter of backing the President, who has offered to step down after a new successor is elected in May.
"I always have breakfast with them, and some actually don’t like the President,’’ Bacani told his anti-Estrada audience of around 400 at the Paco Catholic School in Manila. ``There is no official El Shaddai line now.’’
Velarde, Bacani and Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Vidal are among the few Catholic clerics known to be close to the President, who has been harshly criticized by the Church for his leadership, as well as his lifestyle habits.
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