You have something to say: Will Philippine "democracy" controlled by big families be good?

There are words like jade: Will the Philippine "democracy" controlled by big families be good?

If there are words like jade, reading them at random is better than ten years of reading

(1) The Catholic Church is close to the bottom but protects the top

84% of Filipinos believe in Catholicism, and the Philippines is one of the two Catholic countries in Asia. The Catholic Church in the Philippines has been playing a strong and unique political and social role for more than 500 years since the Spanish colonists forcibly proselytized in the Philippines and ruled the Philippines in the form of theocracy.

During the Spanish colonial period, the Catholic Church in the Philippines had a unique political status and function, and was a staunch defender of colonial rule and a vested interest. In 1569, Spain established theocratic colonial rule in the Philippines and began to forcibly order Filipinos to convert to Catholicism. Subsequently, Catholic church organizations were established throughout the Philippines to spread Catholicism and develop Catholic power. The Archbishop of Manila is the leader of the church administrative system in the Philippines. He is recommended by the King of Spain and appointed by the Pope. Below the archbishop are the bishops, who are the leaders of each diocese; below the bishop are the diocesan priests. Relying on the authority of the church, the archbishop not only exercises sovereignty on behalf of the Pope, but also safeguards the royal power and sovereignty of Spain on behalf of the King of Spain. The Catholic Church held large amounts of land and had veto power over the appointment of governors.

During the American colonial period, the theocratic colonial system was replaced by the American civilian government. Economically, the American colonial government reduced the economic influence of the Catholic Church by purchasing church lands. At the same time, the functions of the Catholic Church were limited to the religious field, and its political status was greatly weakened.

The Catholic Church as a whole is conservative. Although the lower-class poor groups are the main targets of the Catholic Church's activities, and some grassroots bishops actively support the national and democratic causes of the Philippines and care about the interests of the lower-class people, the Catholic Church generally belongs to the mainstream elite class in the Philippines. After the independence of the Philippines, the Catholic Church, as a large landowner, had independent economic resources. Despite its underdeveloped economy and high poverty rate, the Philippine Catholic Church ranks among the top three in donations to the Vatican. The Episcopal Church operates a number of national newspapers, radio and television stations, and has thousands of schools of various types, attended by more than one million students. The main function of the Catholic Church is to promote and maintain traditional values, such as opposing family planning, divorce, capital punishment, etc. The role of the church is to maintain the existing social order and ease social conflicts.

During the Marcos era, the Philippine Catholic Bishops Conference adopted a "critically cooperative" stance toward the government, "that is, the church supported the government's correct plans such as land reform, but morally opposed and even condemned the government's unreasonable As compensation for the church's actions, including the adoption of a neutral stance, such as the abuse of political prisoners and the denial of basic human rights to the church, the government gave up its early plans to establish an absolute system of separation of church and state. It agreed to resolutely oppose the abortion of legality. Re-examine the government-supported family planning program.” According to research by Western scholars, the Philippine Catholic Bishops Conference was divided into three factions: conservatives, centrists and radicals. "Conservative bishops are represented by Cardinal Rosales of Cebu, accounting for 58 out of 46 members. They only care about whether the interests of the church are violated and support the Marcos government; the centrists are represented by Cardinal Xin. , there are 18 people, accounting for 23, in addition to caring about the interests of the church, they criticize injustice in the Philippines; the radicals, represented by Bishop Clavo, have 15 people, accounting for 19, they care about the interests of the church, but compared with the above two groups "They pay more attention to social injustice issues and adhere to the church community liberation model." During our inspection in Manila, Mr. Assis, secretary-general of the Manila Episcopal Church, said, "The role of the church is to educate and make ordinary people aware of and solve problems." We must use normal legal means. If the problem can be solved by legal means, there is no need to use non-legal means to solve the problem. Many local demonstrations are spontaneous movements of the people. The church is a bystander, but it has the responsibility to tell the people the facts. the truth.

Democracy is used to shape society, but society is also transforming democracy. Whether it is democracy that shapes society, or society that transforms democracy, a complex historical drama is unfolding in the Philippines.