Committed and conscientious

Few images are as happily disjointed as the one offered by Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago last June 19. On the day she renewed her marriage vows with her husband Narciso Santiago, she also threw her support for the divorce bill, saying she was “just trying to exercise my freedom of conscience.”

She insisted that she was a committed Catholic, one who chose her religion freely – and in doing so she hit the right note in the efforts to have divorce legalized in the country. The only reason the Philippines remains the only country outside the Vatican not to allow divorce is the Roman Catholic Church, which does count the majority of the population as its members. But having the majority does not mean it is the sole protector of the people’s morals; other faiths approve of divorce, and that in no way means they are immoral.

One also needs to examine what this majority is that the church holds. According to the latest statistics, 80.9% are Catholics; that leaves 19.1% belonging to other religions, or more than 20 million people. It is for these, among others, that Senator Santiago is standing. Her conscience dictates that while she is a strong Catholic, many of her compatriots are not. And if the call is for their needs to be served, then she cannot let her own religion stand in her way.

More importantly, however, the senator said she is fighting “for the oppressed Filipino poor woman,” a good number of whom are trapped in abusive marriages with no legal way out. It is interesting to note that a church that has only men in its clergy is blocking the divorce bill; women all over the country are fighting for release from relationships with men who abuse them. Who is to say they do not have the right to be set free? Perhaps more than anything or anyone else, it is for our women’s rights that our lawmakers must fight. It is a welcome development to have Senator Santiago on this side; she who embodies both the committed Catholic and the conscientious official who must serve her whole constituency.

Smoking kills

Jo Ramos, daughter of former President Fidel V. Ramos, was a popular figure in her heyday as a singer, athlete and all-around celebrity. She was well liked and personified the best in the modern Filipino: ambitious but caring, forward looking but still respectful of the past, hard working but still knowing how to have fun. Her many media appearances were breaths of fresh air, especially since she showed no interest in taking advantage of her being a President’s daughter for her own advancement. She was like her father, fully aware of the responsibilities of her heritage and carrying it well.

But she had a vice that, by her own father’s assessment, would literally take her life: smoking. According to the former President, Jo had been a smoker for the last 25 years of her life, and this, he said, may have caused the lung cancer that killed her the other day. She was only 54.

We mourn the death of an icon of recent years, but we also take the opportunity to remind ourselves that, to put it simply, smoking kills. The irony in Jo’s death is that her father, nicknamed tabako, was a smoker who quit. It is never too late to stop the habit, but it has to be done now if one is to have a fighting chance.

Jon Joaquin is the managing editor of the largest circulation newspaper in Mindanao, the Mindanao Daily Mirror in Davao City.

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