RH Bill advocates untiringly invoke the concept of the "separation of Church and State," but do they really understand what they say? I have enlisted here the provisions that supply the details regarding the separation (or should it rather be the relationship) of Church and State. Little do the RH advocates know (or little do they want to know), that it is their bill that attempts to disregard this "wall of separation".
Article II
Section 13. The State recognizes the vital role of the youth in nation-building and shall promote and protect their physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual, and social well-being. It shall inculcate in the youth patriotism and nationalism, and encourage their involvement in public and civic affairs.
Does this sound that the Church and the State has nothing to do with each other? The contrary is true. The Church shares with the State the same advocacy to promote and protect the whole aspect of youth and the citizens’ human person. It also encourages their involvement in public and civic affairs. The Church opposes the RH Bill because it puts the physical health of men and women at risk; it attempts to reshape their morality, to discredit spirituality, to poison the intellect with manipulated science and false self-image; and it will eventually ruin their social welfare because the bill promotes hedonism and self-serving lifestyle.
Article III
Section 5. No law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed. No religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights.
This section was written to protect religious freedom. The expression, “separation between Church and State” that Thomas Jefferson coined was originally intended to create an imaginary separating line that would emphasize the constitutional fact that the government has no right to prevent anyone from practicing his religion, or to violate his rights of conscience. The RH Bill, on the contrary, disregards and attempts to breach the “free exercise” clause and, thus, the “separation” provision by obliging everyone to practice particular actions that would violate the individual’s rights of conscience.
Article VI
Section 5. (2) The party-list representatives shall constitute twenty per centum of the total number of representatives including those under the party list. For three consecutive terms after the ratification of this Constitution, one-half of the seats allocated to party-list representatives shall be filled, as provided by law, by selection or election from the labor, peasant, urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, women, youth, and such other sectors as may be provided by law, except the religious sector.
This provision is perfectly compatible with the Church’s teaching that no clergy can engage in partisan politics, which means they cannot run for an office or directly endorse a candidate. However, they can speak about politics since they are also citizens of the country and, most of all, because love and justice would sometimes demand it. That is part of their mission to be the salt of the world.
Section 28. (3) Charitable institutions, churches and parsonages or convents appurtenant thereto, mosques, non- profit cemeteries, and all lands, buildings, and improvements, actually, directly, and exclusively used for religious, charitable, or educational purposes shall be exempt from taxation.
This is another example that there is no divorce between the Church and the State as RH Bill advocates want to believe. The Constitution is very specific about its relationship with the Church and all other religions. It is not indifferent to it.
Section 29. (2) No public money or property shall be appropriated, applied, paid, or employed, directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, sectarian institution, or system of religion, or of any priest, preacher, minister, other religious teacher, or dignitary as such, except when such priest, preacher, minister, or dignitary is assigned to the armed forces, or to any penal institution, or government orphanage or leprosarium.
Article IX - C
Section 2. The Commission on Elections shall exercise the following powers and functions:
(5) Register, after sufficient publication, political parties, organizations, or coalitions which, in addition to other requirements, must present their platform or program of government; and accredit citizens' arms of the Commission on Elections. Religious denominations and sects shall not be registered. Those which seek to achieve their goals through violence or unlawful means, or refuse to uphold and adhere to this Constitution, or which are supported by any foreign government shall likewise be refused registration.
Article XIV
Section 3. (3) At the option expressed in writing by the parents or guardians, religion shall be allowed to be taught to their children or wards in public elementary and high schools within the regular class hours by instructors designated or approved by the religious authorities of the religion to which the children or wards belong, without additional cost to the Government.
Some people want to believe that the State is absolutely secular in the sense that it must not be influenced by the concept of a power greater than itself but should rather be godless. Unfortunately for them, that is not the case. The Constitution recognizes God and even implores for His aid “in order to build a just and humane society and establish a Government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace.”
And since the State recognizes the vital role of the youth in nation-building (Article II Section 13), and the right of spouses to found a family in accordance with their religious convictions (Article XV Section 3), one of its ways to promote the welfare of the youth is to allow religion to be taught in public schools. If the State has really nothing to do with the Church, then it would rather prohibit prayers, let alone religion class in public schools since these institutions are run by the government. But since the State understands its relationship with the Church, it would not do that.
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