Ban on religion is denying Filipino culture

A couple of days ago, there was a magnitude 6.1 earthquake that struck Zambales and luckily it didn’t do any damage. Then last Tuesday another tremor struck the coastal village of Siokon, Bogo City in Northern Cebu, which registered a 3.3 magnitude in the Richter scale. What is Mother Earth telling us? That another earthquake is imminent? Coincidentally, yesterday, The Philippine Star came up with a report in the inside page entitled, “UN cites PHL Efforts to Lessen Effects of Disasters.”

This got my attention because more often than not, the UN gets “sugar coated” reports from various countries and the Philippines is no exception as governments always want to impress upon the UN that it can handle disasters when they happen. Really now? Why don’t we ask what is the Philippines doing to prepare for a Typhoon “Sendong” type of storm? What about that magnitude 6.9 earthquake last Feb. 6 that struck Tayasan in Negros Oriental where 43 were killed and scores are missing?

We in Cebu could never forget that incident because it made us Cebuanos look stupid and ridiculous with thousands running towards the mountains and hills because of a non-existent tsunami alert. Surely UN’s Margareta Wahlstrm, Assistant Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction, must have gotten that report about the Cebu incident where the national and local governments were totally hapless to handle the situation?

Now we are hearing again about another earthquake being predicted that has become viral in social networking sites. Mind you, I for one believe that we now live in the era of the chastisement… so it is easy for me to believe in anything. However, no one and I mean not anyone of us can prepare for a huge earthquake if it strikes us again. In my book, it is best not to prepare our bodies, but rather prepare our souls for any eventuality. 

But for those who truly want to prepare, there is an American magazine dubbed “Survivalist” which gives out tips on how to survive anything from a declaration of Martial Law, major blackouts or a nuclear holocaust.

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I fully concur with the observations of our beloved Ricardo Cardinal Vidal that the issue of banning religious icons inside government offices is no longer just about religion, but Filipino culture. We have been a Christian nation since that Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan, who was under the employ of the King of Spain, came into these shores to plant the cross that we still display along what used to be Magallanes St. and Rajah Humabon and his Queen Juana embraced the Sto. Niño.

Sure, in those days, the Cebuano royalty was probably taken in by the beautiful image of the Sto. Niño rather than being mesmerized by the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. But decades later, Christianity really took roots in Cebu and we have been a Catholic country from that time until the present. This is why when we have the Sinulog festivities; it is not just a religious event anymore, but a cultural and historical event.

There are no pre-Spanish festivals that I know that we celebrate today… even if we do know that Cebu or at least in our ancient past, Cebu was part and parcel of the Majapahit Empire and before that, we were part of the Sri Vishaya Empire. There are a few reminders of that ancient past that Magellan encountered. First that Humabon had the title of Rajah. This title comes from the word “Maharajah”. Across in Bohol, the title of Sikatuna was Datu, which reveals that he was Muslim. These two items teaches us that we really have a rich history. But after the Age of Discovery by the Europeans, we embraced Christianity and that is where we are today.

Mind you, nobody knew about the Kabataan Partylist nor its representative Raymond Palatino and we really don’t know what his agenda is? Is it merely to stir controversy so that people would recognize him or his partylist or is this fellow truly an atheist? Whatever it is… this fellow should be censured for trying to destroy Filipino culture. We know too well that the youth is the hope of the Fatherland, but in destroying Filipino culture… this fellow wants to erase our rich religious and historical past.

From day one… one of the things that I never liked in the 1987 Constitution is the creation of the partylist system. This system was poorly thought of or ill-conceived and the various groups never really represented the marginalized sector which was the original purpose of the Partylist. This is why if there was a Constitutional Convention (concon) I would strongly propose that we abolish the partylist system… for it is a waste of taxpayer’s money. They also get their own pork barrels… and we don’t even know if the money these partylist members get can reach their groups.

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