TWO protest actions—one by some 2,000 Roman Catholic Filipinos and the other by militant groups—built up in Metro Manila during the weekend, which coincided with the eve of the 32nd anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolution.
The estimated 2,000 Catholics had their pre-dawn protest in Manila, the country’s national capital, against a push to legalize divorce, with church groups also using the “Walk for Life” march to slam President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly drugs war.
The church groups are worried about the possible passage of a divorce bill, being championed by Duterte’s allies in Congress, headed by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.The Catholic Church counts about more than 80 percent of 106 million Filipinos as followers, and its lobbying has helped to make the Philippines the only state in the world aside from the Vatican where divorce is illegal.
Abortion and same sex marriage are also outlawed.
“Christ the Lord raised marriage to the dignity of a sacrament. Let not Congress lay waste these victories with a divorce bill,” a commission of the country’s Catholic bishops said in a pastoral letter read at the march.
“What God has joined together, no man, no human being must separate. No to divorce.”
Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle had underscored that life was a gift that should not be taken lightly in his homily in a Mass after the “Walk for Life” on Saturday morning.
The other protesters had their actions at two sites on Edsa to denounce moves to change the 1987 Constitution, written by appointees of then President Corazon Aquino, swept to power in 1986 by the so-called Edsa Revolution that toppled then President Marcos, declared winner by the Batasang Pambansa and the Commission on Elections in the snap elections in Febrtuary 1986.
The Dasal at Ayuno (Prayer and Fasting) Laban sa Cha-Cha Para sa Demokrasya, one of the groups participating in the demonstrations, told reporters its members faced eviction threats but stressed they would stand their ground.
Activist priest Fr. Robert Reyes, along with another fellow priest, a nun, and five farmers, who are members of Dasal at Ayuno, were fasting for democracy, which Reyes said was currently “very sick” and on the brink of demise.
“These are signs of dying democracy. The death of democracy, I’m not celebrating it. I’m fasting for it. I’m praying for it,” he told some reporters.
“It’s dying. It’s very sick. But we might be able to save it… but it can only be saved if people will wake up,” he added.
Reyes said they were on their eighth day of fasting during the weekend, which they started last Feb. 17.
Reyes said the farmers’ health have started to deteriorate so they might end their fasting Sunday. But he said he would continue.
Asked when he would break his fast, he shrugged and said in 2005, he survived 44 days of fasting in protest against then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
“In July 10, 2005 until Aug. 22, 2005, I sat there in a corner and fasted for 44 days against Gloria,” he recalled.
“And she’s back. And now Gloria’s with [President Rodrigo] Duterte. It’s a very nice nightmare. It’s getting more and more complicated and uglier and bloodier and more bizarre. Our politics is bizarre,” he said.
Another group, members of the activist Gabriela women’s alliance also marched with the Voices of Women for Justice and Peace on Edsa with fresh calls on the Duterte administration to halt its bloody counterinsurgency war and war on drugs it claimed were producing record numbers of extrajudicial killings.
“On the 32nd anniversary of the Edsa People Power uprising that toppled the US-backed Marcos dictatorship, women rise, resist and unite against unapologetic Marcos worshipper, President Rodrigo Duterte, who wants to bring back rapes, brutal killings, mass arrests, and military tribunals of the hated dictatorship we overthrew in 1986,” said Gabriela secretary-general Joms Salvador in a statement.
“We say never again to one-man rule, plunder, and absolute subjugation of the nation by imperialist masters,” she added.
Another group of militant protesters against charter change flocked to the People Power Monument ahead of the commemoration of the 32nd anniversary of the peaceful revolt.
Speaking to ANC, Bayan Muna secretary -general Renato Reyes Jr. said amending the country’s Constitution should not be the government’s priority as there were more pressing national issues.
“The people demand that the administration address the economic problems they are experiencing…these are far more important issues compared to the push for charter change,” he said.
Malacañang earlier declared Feb. 25 as a special non-working day in celebration of the 32nd anniversary of the 1986 popular revolt that ousted Marcos and installed Aquino in 1986.
Duterte has not personally taken a stance on the divorce bill.
But he has actively attacked the church since taking office in mid-2016, accusing the clergy of sexual abuses and hypocrisy.
The church in turn has been one of the most outspoken critics of Duterte, particularly his human rights record, with the government admitting to the killings of some 4,000 suspects in its drugs war. Activists say the real toll is three times that number.
Bishop Broderick Pabillo, one of the leaders of Saturday’s rally, said the church’s opposition to divorce and its criticism of extrajudicial killings under Duterte emerged from a shared “pro-life” stance on both issues.
“All of that involves life: the taking of life, even divorce…. That deals with the family that is the centre of life,” he said.