Gov’t workers’ training by ‘spiritual’ group’s stirs Baguio

Baguio City Hall

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — A group of church leaders here has called for an investigation of the leadership and values training being given to city government employees by a life-coaching foundation, saying it could be a violation of the separation of church and state.

The Baguio-Benguet Ecumenical Group (BBEG) on Monday said the city government would pay the Way To Happiness Philippines Foundation Inc. P4 million in taxpayers’ money for the training program.

According to the BBEG, the foundation has not hidden its ties to the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology founder and author of the book “Way to Happiness.”

The book outlines 21 “precepts” about good social behavior that have been marketed as a “nonreligious moral code based wholly on common sense.”

Taxpayers’ money

Scientology is an American religion developed by Hubbard in the 1950s which advocates that every human being was born good and must follow a set of moral behavior to attain individual and spiritual fulfillment.

The religion, which has drawn celebrities, has been treated with skepticism by many sectors.

The church leaders said “taxpayers’ money must not be used to pay the foundation for Baguio government projects no matter how noble the intent is.”

“We are not saying [Scientology] is bad,” Bishop Oscar Magallanes of Good News Community Churches told the city council on Monday.

Magallanes said local scientologists were welcome to advocate ethical behavior programs alongside the BBEG, which is composed of Catholic, Protestant and Pentecostal churches and charismatic groups.

But in its position paper, the BBEG said employing any religious organization for government tasks would violate the constitutional provision on the separation of church and state.

That provision states that “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 region.”

“We have contributed to the city government’s values formation program for free,” Magallanes said, referring to the City Hall-sponsored “character city” council, which enforces the government’s moral recovery program.

Not scientologists

Remy Pastor, one of the foundation’s officials, said they were all volunteers from various faiths. “We are not scientologists,” Pastor told the Inquirer by phone on Tuesday.

She said that they used Hubbard’s book as one of their inspirations for promoting a “moral, value-centered lifestyle” through a secular organization.

Mayor’s backing

Mayor Benjamin Magalong, who had required employees to undergo values and leadership training under his administration, had vouched for the foundation.

“We are not aware of their [foundation] religious association,” Magalong said. “Besides, the training is not anchored on religion. We start our training with a prayer just like good Catholics and Christians.”