Don’t fund religion

Herbie Gomez .

PRESIDENT Duterte was wrong when he cautioned the Commission on Audit against blowing the whistle on moves by his administration to spend funds intended for the rehabilitation of battle-torn Marawi City for the annual pilgrimage of Maranaos to Mecca.

Duterte decided to slash P5 million from a P500-million budget set aside for Task Force Bangon Marawi as a “token of generosity” in order to “enhance the travel” of those who wanted “to fulfill a lifetime dream” of becoming pilgrims. For Muslims, he said, the pilgrimage to Mecca is more important than having a house to call their own.

That sounds like technical malversation of public funds no matter what angle we look at it.

I can understand that the hajj, the fifth pillar of Islam, is seen as the ultimate act of worship, and that Muslims are taught that they are supposed to make that religious journey at least once in their lifetime. That is faith.

Suppose someone claims to be the mouthpiece of some diety, organizes his own religion and makes its membership grow by the millions, and then teaches his followers that they are expected to make a religious journey to Las Vegas. Absurd as it sounds, that is faith — a matter that the general public exempts from questions and scrutiny. But would that justify then the release of government funds for the Las Vegas trips? We can surmise from Duterte’s warning to COA that his answer is “yes” if a religious undertaking like that becomes part of a culture.

This is what Duterte said: “Sometimes you have to take into consideration this so-called culture.” That is another way of saying that officials like him should bend the rules or circumvent the law “sometimes” in the name of culture or, in this case, religion.

I have taken note that Duterte has revealed that he was been funding pilgrimages since 1988 and that his daughter Sara, who has become his successor in Davao City, has continued it. That makes me wonder exactly how government money they caused to be used for religious purposes. It also makes me wonder if other religious groups are enjoying the privileges accorded those who dream of becoming pilgrims to Mecca. Simply put, if you give government money to Muslims, you have to give Roman Catholics planning to go the Vatican City or Protestants who want to go to Jerusalem, too. And what about the Buddhists? The list of religious groups in the Philippines is long.

People are free to practice their religion in this country, and  government should protect this right by all means. But organized religion should take care of their members’ travel expenses. Under no circumstance should these be shouldered by government. Pastilan.