It’s simple, really. There is no divorce in the Philippines because the country effectively remains a theocracy. The overlords of its seemingly secular government are the Cardinals of Rome. Its best and brightest citizens are educated in chi chi private Catholic schools. Its main Opposition bloc — the Yellowtards — are in bed with the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
How then can Filipinos ever hope to get a modern divorce law enacted?
Even more interesting, Filipinos continue to include Roman Catholic rites in their wedding ceremonies. Catholic priests are given prime seats at the presidential tables at wedding receptions feeding their pathological need to live at the top of the social ladder and rub elbows with beautiful people. And, of course, the Church comes away from that scam laughing all the way to the bank.
If Filipino “activists” and “progressive” politicians are truly serious about instituting divorce and other modern secular laws, they should start with examining the primitive and obsolete relationship their constituents have with their Roman overlords. Perhaps they should go as far as call for an opening of the Church’s accounting books and even propose that the mega businesses and asset holdings of the Church be subject to taxation.
Filipino activists should learn to look deep into the issues they presume to “fight” for and identify root causes rather than ride waves of merely “trending” topics. Rather than avoid confronting realities such as the culpability of the Church for the Philippines’ intellectual backwardness, they should directly challenge the views of even their closest political allies. So long as the truth does not play a major part in their rhetoric, those who issue the shrillest slogans will continue to slide into irrelevance as they lose the trust of Filipinos who are increasingly able to see through their hypocrisy.
Webmaster of Get Real Philippines