No sooner had news of the collapse of the belfry at the Basilica del Santo Niño from last week's 7.2 magnitude quake made the rounds than a slew of nasty tweets began circulating on social media underscoring the predominantly Catholic makeup of most of the structural destruction.
The tweets and Facebook comments made distasteful and disrespectful references to the Santo Niño and how the Holy Child allegedly failed to protect the seat of its devotion. Much had been made about how Catholic churches seem to be the hardest hit among the old structures.
If there is anything positive that emerged from these provocative comments on social media, it is that most Catholics chose to ignore the comments. Almost nobody felt the need to dignify the nasty comments by engaging those behind them in a pointless debate.
This is not the time to engage in a religious debate. A great tragedy has just befallen the nation. And while it's true that Catholic symbols and places of worship have apparently borne the brunt of the destruction, the human cost of the quake has cut through the boundaries of religion.
The Philippines may be imperfect in many ways. It has a lot of shortcomings. There are many things that shame Filipinos before the world. But if there is one thing it can truly be proud of, it is in the freedom of everybody to worship as he or she pleases.
And so we have all over the country a mushrooming of many churches belonging to other religions, many of them looking more beautiful and resplendent than many of the Catholic places of worship. There can be no greater manifestation of religious freedom than this one.
That is why it is very disheartening to note that despite the apparent mutual respect that different religions accord one another, there just had to be a few wayward adherents who just cannot seem to let tragedy pass without sneaking in some nastiness.
It is hoped that such nastiness is limited to a few wayward souls and not reflect on the strength of mutual respect different religions have so far managed to accord one another. Break that respect and we will all suffer a much greater tragedy than natural calamities.