Youth groups are already reacting strongly against House Bill 6330 or the proposed “Religious Freedom in Government Offices Act”, which Rep. Raymond Palatino filed last week.
According to several youth groups, the bill, which proposes to ban religious rites and symbols in government offices, including publicly-owned areas, will, in fact, repress religious freedom.
For others like Joy Candelario, HB 6330 is asking Catholics who work in government to refrain from personal religious expression, something highly unnatural for a predominantly Catholic country like the Philippines.
“It is like asking someone to take off his clothes,” she added.
Candelario, former head of the Youth Desk of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences – Office of Laity and Family, said that she would more readily support a bill promoting equality among different religions.
The solon is also drawing flak from young U.P. Diliman alumni who do not think Palatino is truly championing “religious freedom” by authoring the bill.
Mylene Kaye Dones, a fresh art studies graduate from U.P. Diliman, said in an interview, “You don't create an environment for religious freedom by doing away with what seems to [be] the dominant religion.”
Dina Ileto, a U.P. Diliman graduate student who serves in the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice youth ministry in the Diliman campus, said that a true example of “religious freedom” is U.P. Diliman itself where a Catholic church is just a few feet away from a Protestant church, the Church of the Risen Lord.
Other young people went so far as to say that Palatino never represented the interests of young Filipinos to begin with.
Guilian Geronimo from De La Salle explained that Palatino’s party Kabataan party list only represents the aspirations of young Filipinos who embrace “Socialist-Communist ideals” and who consequently do not believe in God, a small percentage in contrast with the majority of young Filipinos who are Catholic.
Esteve Medina Mata of the Columbian Squires challenged Palatino to come up instead with legislation that would help the youth find jobs. [Nirva’ana Ella Delacruz]
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