SAN PABLO CITY, Laguna, Philippines—The Philippines should bask in its new-found global renown as “uniquely against divorce,” a priest said Thursday.
“Even if we are the only country in the world that has not legalized divorce, it does not mean that we have to join the bandwagon that supports it,” said Fr. Jerry Oblepias, director of the Family Life Ministry of the San Pablo Diocese.
Divorce, he said, remains to be part of the “death culture that seeks to destroy the family.”
“Once the family is destroyed, degradation of values is surely at the doorstep,” he added.
Oblepias was reacting to renewed interest in divorce after Malta, a tiny Roman Catholic country in the Mediterranean, voted in a referendum on Saturday in favor of divorce. Although the result is nonbinding, the Maltese parliament is likely to approve it.
The Philippines is the only other country in the world where divorce is banned, apart from the Vatican city-state.
Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan has revived a divorce bill first introduced nine years ago, saying the Philippines should not be kept in the Dark Ages.
The House committee on revision of laws on Wednesday opened hearings on the proposed measure seeking to expand grounds for the annulment of marriage, currently granted for psychological incapacity.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, a widower, has expressed support for the move. “It is very difficult to let two people who cannot live together continue to live together,” he said.
Sen. Pia Cayetano, chair of the Senate committee on youth, women and family relations, also supports the proposal.
No Palace stand yet
President Aquino, a bachelor, has yet to express his stand on the proposed divorce law although he has voiced support for a population control measure that has strained Palace ties with the Church.
The Catholic leadership is also attempting to block passage of a proposed law that would allot state funds for the population program.
Oblepias, echoing the position of the Catholic hierarchy, was adamant in saying that as an independent and Catholic nation, Filipinos should stand on the side of morality “no matter what happens.”
“It is good to stand out uniquely in terms of morality. No to divorce,” he said.
“As Filipinos, we are used to being unique in the world. We are the only country which held the Church-backed peaceful Edsa People Power which ended the infamous dictatorship in our archipelago.”
Oblepias also pointed to Manny Pacquiao, the first boxer to hold titles in eight boxing divisions.
He likewise pointed out that the Philippines is also “eternally unique” for being the only Christian nation in the Far East.
An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Thursday downplayed the results of a survey by Social Weather Stations (SWS) which showed that half of Filipinos favored the legalization of divorce.
“You [should not] put into a count a very moral issue such as divorce. I think whatever the survey might say, we do not put too much importance to it,” Fr. Melvin Castro, CBCP-Ecumenical Commission on Family and Life executive secretary, told reporters.
“What is 50 percent? Even if they say it’s 60 percent, it does not count,” Castro added.
He also questioned the “sudden” release of the survey results when the divorce bill had just been filed in the Congress.
Survey favors divorce
“How quick for them to conduct a survey. The bill had just been introduced to the committee level and then all of a sudden, there’s already a survey,” Castro said, although he added that he did not want to put malice in the SWS move.
Half of adult Filipinos surveyed by SWS in March said estranged couples who are living apart should be allowed to divorce so they could find another spouse. A third of respondents disagreed while the rest were undecided, it added.
“Net agreement (was) a big change from merely neutral opinion six years ago, when 43 percent agreed and 44 percent disagreed,” SWS said.
The shift owed mostly to the change in view of the men—whether married or single—and married women, as well as both sexes among the poorer classes, the polling firm added. With a report from AFP