SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: A GLIMPSE
ON THE CHURCH’S INFLUENCE ON PHILIPPINE PUBLIC POLICY
POSITION PAPER IN
THEOLOGY 11
BY:
ALARIN, KRIZZA MAE -
CASILLA, MARIE ERICA -
DELA CRUZ, MARGARETTE ANNE /
FLORES, JAIRUS
FUENTES, ELMIE JASTER
RIMANDO, JOHN VRIX -
SALARDA, JAJA LOREN
TADINA, NIKO ALWYN
TIZON, ALLIYAH SUZETTE /
DATE:
MARCH 2022
I. INTRODUCTION
The separation of Church and State is established under the Philippine Constitution
of 1987. The concept of this law is to stop the government from sponsoring a religion,
promoting religious ideas, and requiring individuals to practice a particular faith. While the
concept recognizes the boundaries between temporal and spiritual functions, it also
maintains a distinctive and cooperative connection between the Church and the State
aimed at the common good.
As students in a Catholic School where the Church and the State are tackled in our
lessons, and a member of our community and this country, we can’t deny the fact that even
with this law, there is still a huge impact or influence of the Church in the Philippine
Policies that are strictly amended by the State. This creates chaos between the believers of
the both of them. Thus, people become confused most of the time when given the
circumstance that the two components contradict each other. What should they believe, the
Church or the State? Should the law in the Separation of the Church and State strengthen or
get demolished?
Religion in the Philippines
The Philippines takes pride in being Asia's sole Christian country. More than 86
percent of the population is Roman Catholic, 6% is affiliated with different nationalistic
Christian cults, and 2% is affiliated with one of more than 100 Protestant denominations. A
strong 4% Muslim minority, concentrated in the southern islands of Mindanao, Sulu, and
Palawan, coexists with the Christian majority. The other 2% live in isolated highland areas
and follow non-Western, indigenous beliefs and traditions. Despite its statistical
insignificance, the Chinese minority has had a cultural impact on Filipino Catholicism,
infusing it with many of the ideas and practices of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism.
Filipinos had a pantheon of gods, spirits, animals, and men who guarded the
streams, farms, trees, mountains, woods, and residences in their pre-Hispanic religious
system. It was believed before that Bathala is superior to any other gods available and
believed in the country since Bathala was the one who created the Earth and man. Regular
sacrifices and prayers were performed to the said gods and deities living in the country. It
was also part of the belief that the reward or punishment received after death was
determined by one's actions throughout life.
Two new faiths, Islam and Christianity, were brought to this indigenous religious
basis, and a process of cultural adaptation and synthesis started, which is currently
ongoing. With the arrival of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi in 1565, Spain brought Christianity to
the Philippines. Islam had been expanding northward from Indonesia into the Philippines
archipelago since 1350. Islam was well established on Mindanao and Sulu by the time the
Spanish arrived in the 16th century, with outposts on Cebu and Luzon. The Muslim districts
possessed the greatest and most politically integrated civilization on the islands at the time
of the Spanish invasion, and if given more time, would have united the whole archipelago.
Legaspi soon scattered the Muslims from Luzon and the Visayan islands and began the
process of Christianization, following their historical legacy of expulsion of Jews and Moros
[Moors] from Spain (a determination to eliminate any non-Christians). During the three
centuries of Spanish administration on Mindanao and Sulu, however, dominance over the
Muslims was never attained. Muslims were never completely pacified during American
control in the early half of this century during the so-called "Moro Wars," and there has
been hostility to national integration by considerable portions of the Muslim population
after independence, notably in the last decade.
While Islam was kept in check in the southern islands, Spain conquered and
converted the rest to Hispanic Christianity. To convert the rural inhabitants, the Spanish
seldom used military force; instead, they used an outstanding show of pomp and ceremony,
clerical clothing, pictures, prayers, and liturgy.
The Philippines as a State
President Harry S. Truman issued a proclamation on July 4, 1946, recognizing the
Republic of the Philippines as an independent country. On the same date, the United States
and the Philippines signed a treaty in which the US abandoned all claims to the Philippines,
which had previously been under American control.
The Philippines is a religiously friendly secular state. According to Kuru (2009, p. 7),
the secular state is defined by two key characteristics: (1) institutional religious control
over legislative and judicial processes; and (2) constitutionally required neutrality toward
faiths, as well as the non-establishment of an official religion or atheism. Despite the fact
that the majority of the population is Catholic, the Philippines is home to a diverse range of
faiths (Baring 2011), with constitutional guarantees on religious freedom and non-
adoption of a state religion. The Philippines as a secular state is distinct from that which
existed during the Spanish colonial period (1570–1898). During Spanish control, the
Philippines had an unrivaled alliance of religion and state. “Church influence was so strong,
thinking became uniform, unorthodox ideas were condemned, and original scholarship was
non-existent” (Aprieto 1981, p. 23). The American colonization of the Philippines (1901–
1946) altered church-state relations. The Americans formed a secular government that
upheld religious neutrality and tolerance to the letter.
Nonetheless, the constitution calls for religious tolerance in some areas of
government. For starters, the state enables priests, preachers, ministers, and dignitaries to
be sent to "the armed forces, or any correctional facility, or government orphanage or
leprosarium" (Article VI, Section 29.2). Second, it exempts religious institutions and their
property from taxation if they are "employed for religious, charitable, or educational
purposes" (Article VI, Section 28.3). Third, the State permits optional religious instruction
in public elementary and secondary schools at no additional cost to the government,
subject to the expressed written consent of parents and guardians and the designation of
instructors approved by religious authorities of the religion to which the children belonged
(Article XIV, Section 3.3). The history and construction of Western culture are inextricably
linked to Christianity. The Church has historically been a major provider of social services
such as education and medical care, as well as an inspiration for art, culture, and
philosophy, and a powerful role in politics and religion. The Catholic Church in the
Philippines has long had a role in the country's politics and morality.
The Church-State Separation in the Philippines and Other Countries
In an 1802 letter to a group of individuals connected with the Danbury Baptists
Association of Connecticut, Thomas Jefferson used the phrase "separation of church and
state." He declared in this letter that religion is “a matter which lies solely between Man &
his God,” and that the government should not have any influence over people's beliefs.
Therefore, he stated: “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole
American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of
separation between Church & State.”
Government and religious organizations are separated to varied degrees in different
countries. Several countries have established explicit barriers between religion and state
since the 1780s. The degree to which the government and religion or religious institutions
are actually separated varies greatly. In certain nations, the two institutions are still closely
linked. Those with high levels of religious freedom and tolerance paired with firmly secular
political cultures have retained state churches or financial links with some religious groups
far into the twenty-first century, demonstrating the various variations on separation.
However, countries such as Australia, South Korea, Croatia, France, Italy, Mexico, and more
have different extent of Church-State Separation.
And as stated in the very first paragraph, the Philippines has been practicing the law
on the Separation of the Church and the State since 1987. Section 6 of the 1987
Constitution of the Philippines declares, "The separation of Church and State shall be
inviolable." This reasserts, with minor differences in wording and capitalization, a
declaration made in Article XV, Section 15 of the 1973 Constitution. Identically, Article III,
Section 5 declares, "No law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious
profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed. No
religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights."; echoing Article
IV, Section 8 of the 1973 Constitution verbatim.
