No, there is no such thing as a catholic vote

Allow me to begin this column as my observation that today is the 60th Death Anniversary of the Avila Clan patriarch, Don Jose Avila. Since he was born in 1886 as the son of the parish priest of Carcar, Fr. Manuel Rubio Fernandez, the shame and scandal in the family forced his mother to send him to school in St. Joseph’s College in Hong Kong. Now Hong Kong at that time wasn’t the Hong Kong you know today. It was a backward country with so many Chinese hooked on opium; a drug that was later issued a prohibition.

After he was schooled in Hong Kong, Don Jose Avila returned to the Philippines at the turn of the century and prided himself as one of the first Filipinos/Cebuanos who spoke English. Remember the Lingua Franca at that time was Spanish and English was new to Filipinos. I recalled many times when my grandfather would take us riding his car and he spoke to his driver in English with a British accent.

He was popularly known as the “little governor” in Cebu because the governor then, Dionisio Jakosalem, did not speak English. This is why I have some black-and-white photos of my grandfather in our house along Mango Avenue with American governor general Dwight F. Davis (he created the world-famous tennis tournament, the Davis Cup).

Don Jose Avila had “The Cebu Advertiser” an English-Cebuano newspaper much like The FREEMAN today. He bought the Teatro Junquera from an American and renamed it Teatro Oriente (now the Oriente Theater) and put in the latest technology at the time…a cinema projector during the days movies evolved from silent films into talking motion pictures. Don Jose Avila had four daughters and two sons. My father, the late Jesus S. Avila, was the youngest and his only brother Tio Bingbing died in the sinking of the S.S. Corregidor in Manila Bay. This is why I have no first cousins bearing the name Avila. So today, I remember the life of my grandfather, Don Jose Avila.

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We are now approaching the final corner of these midterm elections and apparently certain groups against President Rodrigo Duterte are calling for the so-called “catholic vote.” This brings us to the question whether or not there is such a thing as a catholic vote. This issue has apparently come out because Pres. Duterte has been badmouthing the Catholic Church and many priests; hence even the Otso Deretso is calling for catholics to vote against the candidates allied to Pres. Duterte.

Again, I would like to emphasize that I do not give any importance to what Pres. Duterte says against the Catholic Church simply because he is no longer catholic. Come on…how many non-catholics, especially those former catholics who then use their new knowledge of the Bible to lambast the Catholic Church? The reality of our times is that the Catholic Church does not vote as a bloc. It never did! Way back in 1998, the Catholic Church went out totally against candidate Joseph “Erap” Estrada, although unofficially, of course, but still Erap won the presidency! In 2013, the Church openly campaigned against five reproductive health advocates. Only one of them did not make it and then Pres. PNoy Aquino had this bill passed into a law.

But we must not forget that the Catholic Church successfully ousted the dictatorship of Pres. Ferdinand Marcos by supporting the coup launched by Juan Ponce Enrile and Fidel V. Ramos with Cardinal Sin openly supporting them. Cardinal Sin was again successful in ousting Estrada in 2001 due to his corruption. But unlike the Iglesia ni Cristo, which openly supports candidates, the Catholic Church has not been able to forge its followers into one political bloc.

Too bad that there are more than 75 million Catholics in the country and many of them are voters, but you would see these voters lining up the precincts on election day to cast their votes not as Catholics, but rather as citizens of this country. There is a commonality with Philippine presidents that they lose their “magic” during the midterm elections. Unfortunately for those against Pres. Duterte, his popularity is still at 80% and his endorsement of candidates still holds power. Let’s face it, majority of the Filipino people still believe his war against drugs. The economy is holding on and people still flock to the president like a rockstar wherever he speaks.