Church and State in the New Republic of the Philippines

Abstract

Relations between the Philippine churches ? especially the Roman Catholic Church ? and the Marcos regime are worse now than at any time since the declaration of martial law in 1972. At its 17-23 January 1983 meeting, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) voted to withdraw from the Church-Military Liaison Committee (CMLC), established in 1973 to resolve con troversies between the Catholic and Protestant Churches and the military, and on 20 February 1983, the CBCP issued a pastoral letter, read in more than 3,000 parishes, accusing the government of economic mismanagement, corruption, and repression. Although the bishops will continue discussions with the military in an expanded church-state body that includes representatives from other government agencies, relations between the two institutions have in fact deteriorated. The with drawal from the CMLC came in the wake of intensified church-military con troversy over the extent to which the churches are infiltrated by communists.2 Raids on church institutions and the arrest of priests, nuns, and laymen suspected of leftist tendencies increased considerably in 1982, and since July 1982, the government-controlled media have published numerous articles critical of the so called church radicals, but not explanations and clarifications from church offi cials. Tensions are unlikely to ease, according to the bishops, without fundamental governmental reforms that would accept a certain pluralism of positions in the way . . . people strive for justice according to their faith.3 Although martial law was terminated in January 1981, the powers of the President and the military remain largely unaltered. Marcos continues to issue decrees, and, despite the dismantling of military tribunals and detention centres, the military continues to arrest persons suspected of anti-government activities. Such powers ? justified in the name of national security ? have frequently placed the government and the Catholic and Protestant Churches at odds as priests, pastors, nuns, and layworkers engaged in the churches' social action pro grammes are often put under suspect and sometimes detained for alleged subversion. The current church-state conflict cannot be fully understood out side of the structural context of the development programme and increasing militarism of the Marcos regime, and of the exhortations of Vatican II to the clergy to work on behalf of the poor. While the government's export-led development programme as well as the military's tripling in size since 1972 are well known, changes within the Philippine churches are more obscure. Thus, church-state rela tions in 1981-84 are analysed within the context of political divisions within the