CBCP must decide how churches should reopen

If there is anything Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and many other Senators totally fail to understand, it is that the 33-year-old 1987 Constitution, often called the Cory Constitution, needs to be changed because there’s just too many things wrong with it from day one. Yes, from the very first day that the 1987 Constitution was implemented, it already had serious flaws. For instance in electing Senators, they used to represent our various regions as Congress is representing districts. But the 1987 Constitution tells us that Senators are elected nationwide which is totally useless and stupid! 

Sen. Drilon attacked the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) for pushing Charter change amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), calling it “a total waste of time and resources.” This reminds me of the total silence of our Senators who are constructing an P8.9 billion Senate Office Building in BGC Taguig. Now please tell me Mr. Drilon that P8.9 billion to house only 24 Senators isn’t a total waste of resources? Nope, no one from ABS-CBN attacked our Senators on the utter waste of resources simply because for them getting a renewed franchise is more important for this media network. 

In hindsight the 1987 Constitution was supposed to replace the 1973 Constitution so the Philippines can modernize. But instead the few members of the Constitutional Convention did not give the Filipinos a better constitution… but a faulty one. This is why we need to change it right away! 

As reported by the media that there is an ongoing effort by the DILG to gather up to two million signatures over the next two months to back amendments to the Constitution, which will be submitted to Congress in July. But Sen. Drilon warns the DILG not to use COVID-19 activities to promote Cha-cha and advance their agenda. So what is Sen. Drilon afraid of? Perhaps the plan for a unicameral legislative body is one of them. Let me remind you that when the 1987 Constitution was ratified, computers did not exist nor cellphones were already invented. Hence the time for change is now!

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Apparently, the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) had ordained that the holding of religious gatherings has been allowed by the government in a modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) and modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) areas, limiting the number of mass attendees to five or 10 persons. What’s wrong with the IATF? opening a cathedral for only 10 persons is totally crazy! 

The IATF should not decide something that the archdiocese has the ultimate power to make – their decisions for their flock. For more than two months now Filipinos of which 80 percent are Catholic, have gone to what is known as Eucharistic fasting. Without the holy mass we cannot receive holy communion that is the pinnacle of our Catholic faith especially when we hear the mass on TV. I do know that many churches are now being prepared for the reopening of church services, putting certain guidelines for social distancing and washing of hands so there is lesser chance of getting infected. 

This is why I fully agree with Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo who said that the limitations the government set on the number of allowed persons inside churches were “unreasonable.” He added, “Imagine, big churches such as the Minor Basilica and Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Manila Cathedral) and the National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help (Baclaran Church) open, but there are only five persons inside. Why not give instead the instruction that there be one meter or two-meter distance between persons in a church?” Now this is what I thought that the IATF would have done but apparently failed to do.

 Unfortunately we learned that the IATF came out with the regulations without asking the opinion of religious leaders. This directive on religious activities was surely taken without any consultation with the religious sector. Just to remind the IATF that in Cebu the Sto. Niño Basilica on a given pre-virus day has over a thousand devotees praying inside. So allowing five or 10 people is a totally stupid thinking! 

So I dare the IATF to rethink again their scheme, maybe sit down with the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and give us Filipinos a way to rekindle our spirituality by reopening our churches without the interference of the IATF. They ought to know that the CBCP isn’t a local government unit (LGU) but an independent government in itself! They are even independent of the Vatican in Rome. Again let me reiterate that the time has come for the Philippines to restart its economy because this is not an easy thing to do. But for me we must give equal importance to reopening our churches and receive holy communion once again.

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