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Philippines Church and State
Church and state were officially separate in the 1990s, but
religious instruction could, at the option of parents, be
provided in public schools. The Catholic Church's influence on
the government was quite evident in the lack of resources devoted
to family planning and the prohibition of divorce.
The Catholic Church and, to a lesser extent, the Protestant
churches engaged in a variety of community welfare efforts. These
efforts went beyond giving relief and involved attempts to alter
the economic position of the poor. Increasingly in the 1970s,
these attempts led the armed forces of President Marcos to
suspect that church agencies were aiding the communist
guerrillas. In spite of reconciliation efforts, the estrangement
between the churches and Marcos grew; it culminated in the call
by Cardinal Jaime Sin for the people to go to the streets to
block efforts of Marcos to remain in office after the
questionable election of 1986
(see From Aquino's Assassination to People's Power
, ch. 1;
Political Role
, ch. 5). The resulting
nonviolent uprising was known variously as People's Power and as
the
EDSA Revolution (see Glossary).
The good feeling that initially existed between the church
and the government of President Aquino lasted only a short time
after her inauguration. Deep-seated divisions over the need for
revolutionary changes again led to tension between the government
and some elements in the churches.
Catholics fell into three general groups: conservatives who
were suspicious of social action and held that Christian love
could best be expressed through existing structures; moderates,
probably the largest group, in favor of social action but
inclined to cooperate with government programs; and progressives,
who did not trust the government programs, were critical both of
Philippine business and of American influence, and felt that
drastic change was needed. Progressives were especially disturbed
at atrocities accompanying the use of vigilantes. They denied
that they were communists, but some of their leaders supported
communist fronts, and a few priests actually joined armed
guerrilla bands. There appeared to be more progressives among
religious-order priests than among diocesan priests.
The major Protestant churches reflected the same three-way
division as the Catholics. The majority of clergy and
missionaries probably were moderates. A significant number,
however, sided with the Catholic progressives in deploring the
use of vigilante groups against the guerrillas, asking for
drastic land reform, and opposing American retention of military
bases. They tended to doubt that a rising economy would lessen
social ills and often opposed the type of deflationary reform
urged by the IMF
(
International Monetary Fund--see Glossary).
Data as of June 1991
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