From the State of the Soul of the Nation Address

From CBCP for Life. Emphases (via underlining) mine.

(UPDATE: A more detailed article can be found in the website of the UST Varsitarian: 'State of the Soul of the Nation' Address: Faith and democracy can coexist'.)

SSONA affirms people’s hope, issues call to President P-Noy

MANILA, July 25, 2011–Several hours before President Benigno Simeon Aquino III was to deliver his first State of the Nation Address (SONA), a crowd of some 1,500 gathered at a historically significant place to take part in a “Congress of the Faithful” and listen to designated representatives of the Pro-Life Coalition deliver its own “State of the Soul of the Nation Address” (SSONA).

From the Corazon Aquino Kalayaan Hall of Club Filipino, where former President Corazon Aquino –the current President’s late mother—took her oath as president after the 1986 Edsa revolt, former Senator Francisco Tatad started the Address on a firm but reassuring note:

“We gather here today in our own name, and in the name of all Filipinos who want to live in truth, justice, freedom, peace and love – in a country that fully recognizes and respects the inviolable dignity of every human person, the State’s irrevocable duty to every citizen, and God’s unfailing providence, from which ‘all blessings flow.’”

He stated that the event was being carried out not to dispute or nullify the President’s words in his SONA, nor was it to imply that the Club Filipino address was the “true SONA,” but “to examine our objective national condition, express our faith and hope in the good things to come and give voice to our just anxieties and fears about the new challenges we face and many recurring ills.”

‘We swear allegiance to the same Constitution’

“We affirm the same truth about man, and profess the same commitment to human life, the family and marriage, which both the Church and the State are totally committed to protect and defend,” he said.

“We swear allegiance and loyalty to the same Constitution, and the same flag, and we claim the same rights and stand by the same duties as citizens.

May [the President] succeed in rekindling our people’s faith in his ability to inspire and lead them along the right and righteous path.

‘Soul of our nation’

We want to listen to the President. And we want all our countrymen to hang on to his every word. But we ask the President and the entire government to listen to us as well in the true spirit of give-and-take.

Before giving the floor to the succeeding speakers, Tatad explained the context in which the Address was crafted.

“By the phrase ‘the soul of our nation,’ we mean the transcendental, moral, intellectual, spiritual and religious qualities that define our being as one people, that bind us together and make each one of us a part of the other in a covenant with the same providence, and assure us that God was speaking to us when he said, “Hearken to my voice, for I will be your God, and you shall be my people” (Jer 7: 23).

Among the speakers who highlighted the call to the President to manifest a deeper faith in the nation’s human resource and to respect fundamental human realities was Pastor Reyzel Cayanan of the Baptist group Biblemode Youth.

Invest in a robust population; respect laws on marriage, life

“We are a young nation with a robust and vibrant population. This is our primary and ultimate resource, our basic and abiding strength. We only need to invest in it and develop it.

“We are a nation of believers, and that is a source of an even greater strength,” Cayanan continued.

“Contrary to the error insisted upon by the dogma of political correctness, faith and democracy can coexist, without one harming the other. For as Alexis de Tocqueville points out, ‘despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot.’”

“We must reject the proposition that we could enact a law – any law – that removes the most fundamental area of human behavior, such as the intimate exercise of the procreative and unitive aspect of every marriage, from regulation of the moral law,” he said.

Eleanore Palabyab, M.D., president of Doctors for Life, asserted that the more serious kind of corruption than the kind on which the President’s campaign message is hinged—was the rejection of the laws of God and the twisting of moral principles merely to satisfy the dictates and whims of the flesh.

“Aming dalangin na maging malinaw sana sa ating Pangulo ang kanyang tungkulin na ipagtanggol ang buong katotohanan tungkol sa kabanalan ng pamilya, pag-aasawa at buhay,” Palabyab said.

Other speakers during the SSONA were former Congressman Bienvenido “Benny” Abante, former Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) chief Bro. Rolando Dizon, Soldiers of Christ elder Erlinda Arcadia, and World Youth Alliance Asia-Pacific (WYAAP) regional director Renelyn Tan.

Besides matters of life, family and marriage, also taken up during the over two-hour SSONA were the state of the economy, the poverty picture, the plight of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), peace and order, education, health care, environmental concerns, agrarian reform, foreign affairs, the fight against corruption, and electoral reforms.

The SSONA was preceded by a Eucharistic celebration at nearby Santuario de San Jose Parish. Officiating the mass was Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo together with other clergy; the homily was delivered by healing priest Fr. Fernando Suarez.

Various faith-based groups, socio-civic organizations and youth representatives marched from the church to Club Filipino, with some youth groups staging dynamic demonstrations of pro-life sentiments right outside the club. (Diana Uichanco)