Divorce in RP? This is not part of our culture!

I was up in the beautiful Mountain Pines Place in Kalugmanan, Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon over the weekend for a three-day retreat with the Opus Dei. This place was about 17 kilometers up in the mountains from Camp Philips of Del Monte Corporation and the view was totally breathtaking! It is set on a 200-hectare property (at night, the only noise you’ll hear is from the sound of raging waters passing through a small brook) at the foot of Mt. Kitanglad in Bukidnon, just across the valley is the longest zipline adventure zone in the country called Dahilayan Gardens. This place is full of pine trees, just like Baguio City, except that you can still smell the trees, something you can’t do in Baguio anymore, thanks to motor vehicle pollution. 

I reckon that the reason why most retreat houses are perched up in high mountains far away from civilization is because high up in the mountains, there is serenity which allows us to retreat from the usual hassle and bustle of life and allows us to reboot our mind from all clutter of our daily life, especially our spiritual life which too often we have neglected due to life’s daily demands.

The retreat was officiated by our dear friend and my spiritual director Fr. Roy Cimagala and the University of Asia and the Pacific (UAP) head Prof. Bernie Villegas. It was the first time I met Prof. Villegas and call it my good fortune that he didn’t talk about the economy, but on the need to return back to God for the sake of our country, something we need very badly.

There is no doubt that there is a naked attempt to destroy the accepted way of life and culture of the Filipino people. We have been a Christian nation for over 450 years now, and now in the 15th Congress, aside from the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) Bill, there is a proposal authored by Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan and Rep. Emerenciana de Jesus of the Party-list Gabriela (aren’t they a staunch ally of the Communist Party of the Philippines?) to allow divorce in the Philippines. So before you start debating on which side of the fence you would choose, let me remind you that we are still a Catholic country and as such, the Filipino culture that we all love stems from being a Christian society. Divorce is not a culture of the Pinoy!

First of all, who are these Partylist Representatives from Gabriela? Are they even Catholic? If they are, are they merely cradle Catholics or are they “cafeteria” Catholics… the kind who would only choose six out of the Ten Commandments instituted by God? Call this our wake up call, but should we allow Partylist Representatives whom we know nothing about who only has a three-year stint in Congress to change our centuries old culture?

So what if divorce is allowed in the US and in many other countries? Have you seen the latest figures about the huge number of broken families in the US vis-à-vis the figures in the Philippines? If you ask me, divorce should not be allowed in this country because the only professional group who would be extremely happy about our having divorce are lawyers who would profit most from this law!

Being a Catholic nation, the Church frowns on this because God does not permit divorce. So allow me to quote the Bible on Matthew 19: 3-9:

“Some Pharisees approached him, and tested him saying, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?’ Jesus said in reply, ‘Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator made them male and female and said, ‘For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together no human being must separate.” Mind you, this is what our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us.

Prof. Bernie Villegas pointed to us that today, Filipino culture as we have known it for many generations, is under attack by those who seek to destroy our Christian way of life. When one supports the Reproductive Health (RH) bill that wants to prevent pregnancies through the use of artificial conception… this is an affront to marriage and to the woman as she merely becomes a sex object and sex is no longer for procreation, but for fun and pleasure! Now they’re adding more ammo to destroy the Filipino family via the proposed Divorce bill.

Rather than allow divorce which people wrongly think solves a failed marriage, there’s a group promoting the Discovery Weekend designed for couples planning to get married. It was brought here by Fr. Ruben Tanseco and is so successful, it is now a foundation headed by Mike and Cristina Asis. This is held every month in Manila and has been held in Cebu, Davao and Talim Island. Why don’t we instead make it a law forcing couples planning to marry to take this pre-Cana seminar as I was told that those couples who took this had strong marriages. Divorce only promotes broken families!

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected] or vsbobita@ gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.