A senior bishop told reporters the group's "preferential option" was to ask Arroyo to step down.
Armed forces chief of staff General Efren Abu warned all unit commanders on Friday to refrain from taking sides amid what he described as recruitment efforts by some retired officers.
Some of these retired officers have openly advocated a "revolutionary transition government" that could shut out de Castro, the constitutional successor if Arroyo quits, is incapacitated or removed from office by impeachment.
Political analyst Amando Doronila, writing in the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper, believes the church and the military could state their positions "in a matter of days, in view of the breathtaking velocity of the events that have narrowed the options for a constitutional solution of the crisis."
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