Edu Punay of the Philippine Star reports that an official of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) is seeking to exempt priests from the number coding scheme because of the "on call" nature of their vocation.
According to the report, Fr. Edu Gariguez, executive secretary of the CBCP National Secretariat for Social Action, is asking the government to grant an exemption from the scheme to priests because they "need mobility" to administer their pastoral duties, such as officiating weddings and sick calls. "If there's traffic, our ability to give pastoral ministry will suffer," Gariguez said.
The CBCP official added that priests will be particularly affected by the "anticipated heavy traffic in the major roads in Metro Manila due to the Skyway 3 extension project."
For more on this story, log on to Philstar.com.