3 - Cracks in the Wall of Separation?: The Church, Civil Society, and the State in the Philippines

Summary

INTRODUCTION

At daybreak on the morning of 25 February 1986, I awoke from a restless night's sleep on a road behind Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, Philippines. Around me were seminarians, religious sisters, and lay people; we were there as a human barricade to prevent the reinforcement of troops loyal to President Marcos, who were holed up inside the camp. As the sun came up, I offered Mass there in the middle of the road and my companions joined in, devoutly indeed for none of us knew what dangers the day might bring. In fact, the day was to bring the overwhelming good news that Marcos had abandoned the presidential palace and was on his way to Honolulu.

One episode of that night is worth noting. An army patrol in a truck approached the barricade. Trained in the spirit and practice of non-violence, our group greeted the soldiers politely, and a negotiating committee went to meet with them. The officer in charge said that they had orders to deliver food to the men in the camp. We made sure that no arms were being smuggled in, shook hands all around, opened the barricade, and parted as friends. I do not know whether that patrol eventually defected to our side; it is clear, however, that the spirit of respecting one's opponents as fellow human beings and Filipinos, a spirit inculcated in seminars by churchbased, active non-violence groups, had much to do with the success of the unarmed popular uprising.

In addition, many will recall dramatic images of religious sisters, rosaries in hand, blocking the path of army tanks; of General Ramos, a Protestant, in the midst of the crowd with a statue of the Virgin beside him. Much more could be added, but this may be sufficient to suggest the powerful role played by religion, religious symbols, and the Catholic Church in the recent political history of the Philippines.

In what follows I shall not attempt to give a precise definition of civil society. The term was introduced in the Philippines in a series of discussions held in December 1993, followed by a three-day workshop involving social scientists and social activists in June 1994.