Court says religious leaders should keep out of politics

"Religious leaders must stay out of the worldly and the temporal, which is beyond their domain."

This was the ruling of Manila Judge Concepcion Vergara of Regional Trial Court Branch 49 on the petition filed by a lawyers’ group, Social Justice System (SJS), to stop religious leaders from endorsing politicians during elections.

Samson Alcantara, SJS president, hailed Vergara’s ruling as victory for the group in its quest to bar religious leaders from endorsing politicians during elections.

In their petition, Alcantara said the court should declare whether or not the act of religious leaders in endorsing a candidate for elective office is valid. Alcantara said religious endorsement of candidates is violative of the spirit of the Constitutional provisions.

SJS also wants clarification on the practice of some religious leaders in requiring members to vote for a particular candidate.

"Is the Constitutional principle of separation of Church and State meaningless? Can a religious group that cannot even be registered as a political party perform the acts of a political party?" SJS asked. "If so, should not the principle be deleted from the Constitution?"

The group insisted that the Philippines is a democratic, not a theocratic, state and therefore the Church should not dictate how the state should run its affairs.

Named respondents in the SJS petition were Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, El Shaddai servant leader Mike Velarde, Iglesia ni Cristo executive minister Eraño Manalo, Jesus is Lord Fellowship head Eddie Villanueva and Ang Dating Daan head Eli Soriano.

Vergara cited Bible verse John 18:36, which stated that "Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world. If it were, servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews." This, he said, could be regarded as defining the role of the Church to stay out of "the worldly and the temporal."

"When the Church tries to run a secular state, it risks the loss of humility which is an indispensable virtue of a godly life that the religious are supposed to lead," the judge added.

The STAR tried but failed to contact Peachy Yamsuan, chief of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), and Mel Robles, spokesperson of El Shaddai leader Mike Velarde, for comment.