Secular rituals before religious avowals

Aside from the happiness I felt over my daughter Eunice’s feat of earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in development education, magna cum laude, and her being chosen to deliver the valedictory address during the graduation exercises of the University of Asia and the Pacific at the PICC last June 7, I was pleasantly surprised that the ceremony began with the singing of our national anthem. Until then I had this notion that UA&P, being an institution run by the Opus Dei, a fundamentalist Catholic order, would normally start any proceeding with a prayer.

I have attended public gatherings and proceedings under the auspices of government agencies which invariably begin with invocations or prayers and then proceed to the singing of the national anthem. Indeed, flag ceremonies nowadays are usually preceded by religious avowals though denominated as ecumenical prayers.

In the early 1970s, during my college days, UP Iloilo Dean Dionisia Rola was emphatic on the primacy of secular practices over religious rites in school activities. She directed that all official proceedings in UP Iloilo begin with the singing of the national anthem. I think that has been always the norm in the UP System. I was thus not surprised that last April 25, when I attended the graduation of the UP School of Economics where my eldest daughter Sofia earned her AB Economics degree, cum laude, the commencement exercises promptly began with the singing of the national anthem.

With the recent upsurge worldwide of violent strife arising from religious fanaticism, the observance and propagation of secular concepts and practices should be undertaken by public and private institutions, multisectoral groups and the citizenry. After all, the separation of the State and religion is enshrined in our Constitution.

Secularism simply means that religion should not play a role in government, education or other public parts of society. It protects the right to manifest religious belief in so far as it does not impinge disproportionately on the religious freedom of others. To require everyone to join a prayer before the singing of the national anthem is a violation of the right of nonbelievers, atheists, agnostics and free-thinkers.

The singing of the national anthem before religious invocations or prayers is crucial in instilling secular precepts, values and practices in our people. This is a pivotal step toward insulating the country from the evils of religious sectarianism and

fanaticism.

—EDWARD B. CONTRERAS,

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