TheEconomistFebruary 15th 2020 311“Y
ou haveto lose before you can win,”
explains Jesus Falcis. He is referring
to the Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss,
on procedural grounds, a petition he filed
in 2015 challenging a law which proclaims
that marriage can occur only between a
man and a woman. Mr Falcis finds a silver
lining in the fact that the judges did not see
any obvious constitutional impediment to
same-sex marriage. But he has little doubt
that the effort to secure it will take decades,
just as it did in rich countries.
Even by the standards of former Span-
ish colonies, the Philippines has extremely
socially conservative laws. It is the only
country in world, bar the Vatican City, to
outlaw divorce (except for Muslims). The
only way of ending a marriage, short of dy-
ing, is to have it annulled, but that can be
done only on narrow grounds and at great
expense. Abortion is illegal, too, and any-
one undergoing or performing one risks up
to six years in prison. Contraceptives, al-though not banned, are the subject of fierce
legal battles, as opponents try to prevent
the state from distributing them.
This is not simply a legacy of colonial-
ism or a reflection of Filipinos’ piety. Com-
pared with Mexico, say, another country
long ruled by Spain where four-fifths of the
population considers itself Catholic, the
Philippines is uptight. A constitutional
amendment and new laws adopted in 1974
guaranteed Mexicans’ access to contracep-
tion. Mexico City legalised civil unions for
same-sex couples in 2006 and abortion in- A further 17 Mexican states have since
legalised gay marriage.
Moreover, Filipinos seem less conser-
vative than the laws that govern them.
More than half think divorce should be le-
gal, according to surveys conducted in 2017
by Social Weather Stations (sws), a pollster.
Seven in ten support a law allowing the
government to distribute contraceptives to
the poor, which was enacted in 2012 but has
yet to be implemented fully. Lots of Filipi-
nos are openly gay. Manila’s annual gay
pride parade attracted 70,000 participants
last year, despite rain. Gay Filipinos enjoy
success in all manner of careers, from mu-
sic to sports. In 2016 a transgender woman
won election to Congress. Last year she was
re-elected with 91% of the vote.
So why are Filipinos’ views so poorly
represented in national legislation? The
explanation lies in an unfortunate mix of
politics and faith. About three-quarters of
Filipinos consider religion “very impor-
tant”, swsfound in 2018. A study the same
year suggests that almost four in ten voters
are likely to cast their ballots for a candi-
date endorsed by their church or religious
movement.
In recent years the clout of the Catholic
church has diminished somewhat. The
share of Catholics attending church weekly
has dropped from 66% in 1991 to 46% in- Father Jerome Secillano of the Catho-
lic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines
Social conservatism in the PhilippinesPapal power
MANILA
Why the Philippines is (almost) the only country where divorce is illegalAsia
32 Dutertev America
33 EthnictensionsflareinKazakhstan
33 A setbackfortheBJPinDelhi
34 Banyan: Indonesia and ChinaAlso in this section