With barely six months left on Mrs. Arroyo’s tenure as the President of this country who openly pledge allegiance with RP Catholic Church, let me provide you some of her infamous activities and anecdotes I gathered from the Web on how she constantly abuse the duly constitutional separation of church and state during her term since 2001. Notwithstanding the fact the we are a sovereign nation under democracy resulted from the solid history of our national heroes, like Rizal and Bonifacio, who fought not only for national liberation, but also against the shackles of medieval religion brought by the catholic Spain..
On June 2003 – In an interview with Time, Mrs. Arroyo, when asked whether she found her job difficult, said she did, “but God having put me here, I’m undeterred in moving our nation forward.”
On August 1, 2004 – President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo attended a Holy Mass for the celebration of the Day of God, the Father and the Novena for the Holy Octave of Consecration to God, the Father held at the Ceremonial Hall of the Malacañang’s Palace.
On 2005 – In an interview by Cable News Network (CNN) President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo infamously admitted that the late Carol Wojtyla a.k..a Pope John Paul II also influenced some of her policies on issues ranging from the death penalty to population control.
January 7, 2005 – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo delared this date as a National Day of Prayer and Mourning for the thousands of victims of the deadly tsunami that struck neighboring countries last December 26, 2004.
On February 2006 – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo told the Foreign Correspondents’ Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) that her consistent opposition to capital punishment is due to her Catholic upbringing.
June 26, 2006 – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo gave Pope Benedict XVI a statue of Our Lady of Guidance and a copy of a law she recently signed outlawing the death penalty in the Philippines, telling him, “These are two expressions of the faith of the Filipino people.”
August 23, 2006 – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo offered Bishop Camilo Gregorio of Batanes, to be part of the Melo Commission, a fact-finding body that would investigate political killings in the country, however the Bishop turned down her offer.
On her 2007 – On State of the Nation Address (SONA) She mentioned on her closing statement “Pagpalain tayo ng Diyos at ang dakilang gawaing hinaharap natin.” (God bless us all and the glorious works ahead of us).
October 21 2008 – Under Executive Order No. 203 President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared Eid al-Fitr or end of Ramadan of Muslims to be a regular holiday.
On 2008 – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ 100 Leadership Forum, was quoted saying:
“There are many ways to skin a cat. Some ways are more Roman Catholic than other ways, so I use the Roman Catholic way each time.”
On 2008 – On State of the nation address speech(SONA) President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo quoted a line from Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Deus Caritas Est.
July 20, 2009 – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has designated a special day for the Iglesia ni Cristo commemorating the founding anniversary of the sect.
September 12, 2009 – She declared “National Day of Prayer for Peace and Sanctification of Spiritual Leaders”
September 21, 2009 – She declared National Holiday in Philippines in observance of the Eid’l Fitr 2009 for the Muslims.
November 27-28 2009 – Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has declared a two consecutive Public Holidays in ARMM in the observance of the Eidl Adha or the Feast of the Sacrifice which is observed by the Muslim Community.
Let us NOT forget the secular sins of the Arroyo regime, and do yourself and your country a favor, please consider the secular stance of your presidential candidate and other politicians regarding the issue of separation of church and state when you cast the vote in May 2010.
Are you Anti-Gloria or Anti-Catholic? For I have to say, your claims are quite unfair since like what you've said, an overwhelming majority of Filipinos are Catholic and also, if you are Catholic–a faithful, practicing one–won't you be happy with this? Yes, I agree with some of your points such as the removal of secular education from public schools, although any religion should be allowed to preach on those schools. But with some of your points like your comment on GMA's 2007 SONA about citing God, so you say that God in general should also be banned? And also, GMA's actions of honoring different religions such as her own Roman Catholicism, Islam and the Iglesia Ni Cristo just shows that she is being fair. In relation her policies on death penalty, I can hardly think of any religion aside from Islam existing in the Philippines that allows death penalty so why bother even if she says her ideas are inspired by a pope? As for population control issues especially artificial family planning, it's a Catholic thing but you have to admit that most of us are Catholics and are bound to follow its rules, and also, other religions are not that ignored because artificially family planning is not disallowed. Personally, I don't agree with it and if you are Catholic, you'd also better not to. But if you're not, just think that natural family planning deserves as much attention and knowledge by the people as the artificial method.
Good job in compiling these, however you can call me "kontrabida" for not campaigning against these holidays. Like i said in our drinking gather, these holidays benefit working people and I will be the last person to fight against additional resources for myself and others. 🙂
Call me a hypocritical secularist, but i won't give you the right to say that to me unless you can prove you are really embodying your protest against these holidays – BY PERFORMING AN ACT OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE OF RETURNING YOUR HOLIDAY PAY! LOL
Moving on, I'd rather focus on other unsecular practices that would be worth fighting for, like:
1. DISMANTLING and ending the subsidy of government owned structures that are religious in nature, like chapels in state-owned educational institutions and hospitals, and monuments that are religious in nature.
2. Banning the funding of Christmas-related decorations of local, provincial, and national governmental bodies (yeah, you can call me Ebenezer scrooge).
3. A secular-natured overhaul of the public education system which includes the removal of values education / religion subjects and banning of prayer (even ecumenical ones) during school activities.
There are many ways to interpret the special religious holidays provided by the state. One of them is in the form of 'bribery' to pacify secular activists just so for the short time benefit of the working class people, like you and me. Another, which I think is more of the case, as the state leader's 'investment' on political support of the whole congregation to advance an agenda, which in the long run comprise much more of a problem than benefit to the whole society. Whatever the case may be, state-sponsored religious holidays are indications that we are still living in a semi-theocratic leadership and secularists need not to be complacent by mere illusion of privilege.
I very much commend the outline of your secular universe, and I hope that more and more will realize the urgent need for a secular vanguard in this country.
Geri: The holiday discussions are a very complicated subject to which i am willing to discuss more. However, please note that though i am very much anti-religion, my practical approach for a solution would be a pluralist one. And though you have known me as much of a radical anti-statist, i will be giving state-based solutions for the purpose of discussion and practicality (syempre disclaimer muna baka isipin ninyo lumalabnaw na ako).
An idea i would like to push forward would be treating it like leaves or i would call it Holiday Credits. All employees of a company or government institution should be given the same amount of credits to be consumed on their most revered holiday. So if the RCs and the Protestant sects want to celebrate Christmas, then they can consume most of it there. Same as the Moslems for Ramadan. For the others i don't really know and i don't care, but they now have the freedom to celebrate it by using their leave credits. You can use it to celebrate Flying Spaghetti Monster day or whatever. I'll use it for comic book days, orgy days, april fools day, and halloween
And about "leaders investment for political support", i agree. But as much as i want to attack it, as a student of politics i just treat it as manifestation of Realpolitik. It all boils down to power, and not religion. If i am an atheist but still a politician who want to retain power, i would still consider using these tactics, because they are very effective.
E ito lang e:
… 4. An end to the exemption from taxes of all religious institutions and activities. All income and property must be duly recorded and reported to the BIR and LGUs, at bayaran nyo ang karampatang buwis! Mga buwis-it!
This is a very good article, however, I believe it is an "overkill".
I am an atheist and believe some of her declarations are indeed related if not influenced by different religions, but I want to remind everybody that the executive is not the government.
We need to look also at the mistakes committed by the legislative and the judicial branches of the government.
Right now, the Philippines would benefit from an enforcement of an acceptable level of tolerance rather than full and total commitment to "political correctness".
After we cannot deny it, that the Philippines is not yet ready.
Help me on this, you imply that secular violations are happening all over the government and not only limited to executive body, then you complain that what I wrote was an overkill?
Excellent job, Geri! One of my favorite posts on the site of all time. Of all time!
Gott mit uns!
Sieg Heil Gloria! o o o
:))
Amazing list! Secular sins indeed.
Though I'd let these 2 items pass: June 2003 and 2007 SONA.
Thats it, We are officially living in a Theocracy.
Great article.