A Maranao local populace reacted in uproar when Dr. Ricardo F. De Leon who replaced Dr. Camar Umpa as MSU president, entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the university campus Catholic minority thereby giving a thousand square meters of vacant lot in MSU. The agreement was signed by De Leon on behalf and a certain Edwin Dela Pena, a Roman Catholic Bishop.
Signing the agreement without the prior consent of the university’s Board of Regents (BOR) is seen as De Leon’s selfishly taking advantage of his position to hurt the sentiment of the Maranaos. In an open letter De Leon, local Muslims strongly appealed to the MSU president to “listen and heed to what we thought is best for Muslims and Christians relationship”. It said MSU has been an instrument to dispel prejudices, misconceptions and distrust among Muslims and Christians.
The practice of religion is a basic freedom of every Filipino. Goes with this freedom is the right to establish a house of worship. But to use a government property to build such a house is illegal. The law requires that no government property be used for private purposes even if it’s for religious intent.
While there is religious freedom, there is also the doctrine of the separation of Church and State. This is a basic democratic tenet every person living in a democratic country is duty-bound to learn. But leaders of religious and sects take advantage of this freedom and at the same time violate the separation of religion from the government. Many churches, mosques, temples and other houses of worship mushroom everywhere. Some stand in wrong places.
The thousand of hectares of land donated by the good people of the Islamic City of Marawi was for the purpose of educating the cultural minorities and equip them as active partners in nation-building. No way would they allow it to be used for any religious purposes directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously converting their generations to a religion other than their own. No sane Maranao would ever do that.
On the other hand, De Leon’s Maranao sympathizers are worried on the antagonistic sentiment against the establishment of a Catholic center. They invoked that mosques are being established all over the country and such hostile sentiment may affect them in Christian areas.
I don’t beg to disagree with that line of thinking. Aren’t they not aware that the Muslims never built a mosque anywhere in the Philippines owned by the government. True, mosques proliferated everywhere but every piece of land where there stands a mosque is bought by the Muslims from non-government persons. Or don’t they understand that the Muslims were never allowed to build a mosque within the UP campus in Diliman, Quezon City because UP authorities said it would be a violation of the separation of Church and State doctrine. If it couldn’t be done at UP, how and why could De Leon do that in MSU?
The said open letter also accused De Leon of exploiting some members of respectable families in Lanao and Marawi City and using them of justifying hi dark motives by driving away from the dormitory Muslim women who were performing Islamic teachings and even branding them as “terrorists”; dictating the way Islam celebrate Eidel-Fitr and Eidel-Adha by having consultations with Ulama done in divide and rule manner; making innocent students and coward Muslims celebrate Christmas by parading with big lanterns and burning the night with dances and wine; wanting to destroy the Great Attributes of Allah (swt) by making ninety-nine ascending steps going to the King Faisal Mosque so that every passer will step on each of the names of Allah (swt): converting the highly regarded Maranao cultures to an “Ati-Atihan” Festival, and establishing a Catholic Cathedral under the guise of an interfaith center inside the campus.
