The Philippines may start celebrating a “National Bible Day,” after a bill authored by Senator Manny Pacquiao (yes, the boxer) was approved by the Senate on third and final reading yesterday.
If enacted, the Philippines will dedicate the last Monday of January for a special working holiday — sadly, we would not get it off — to celebrate the Bible. All senators present voted for the approval of the bill.
When Pacquiao proposed the bill in December 2016, he said that it would call for “all Christians to altogether unite and celebrate the Holy Bible as the cradle of the Christian faith.”
The Philippines is a predominantly Christian nation but technically upholds the separation of church and state. Still, the influence of the Catholic Church is incredibly strong when it comes to issues they oppose such as contraception, divorce, and same-sex marriage.
This time though, the influence seems to be coming from Pacquiao’s Protestant beliefs.
Pacquiao, who was baptized and raised as a Catholic but became an Evangelical Christian in 2012, has been very vocal about his new faith and regularly quotes the Bible during his senate speeches to justify his stances on issues as diverse as the mining industry and the death penalty.
“And then with God, biblically, God allows to use capital punishment. Even Jesus Christ was sentenced to death because the government imposed the rule then,” he said in August 2016.
He also lost an endorsement deal with Nike earlier that year after saying in an interview that he believes gay people are “worse than animals,” a statement he justified on Instagram with — you guessed it — a Bible quote.
Pacquiao isn’t the only senator associated with the bill that has ties to a Protestant church. One of his co-authors, Senator Joel Villanueva, is the son of Christian evangelist Eddie Villanueva, the founder of the “Bible-based” Jesus Is Lord Church who ran for president in the 2004 and 2010 elections.
In a press release yesterday, Joel said that he is happy about the bill’s approval because “We believe that the Word of God is essential in our daily lives as it serves as guidance in every path we tread.”
Last year, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who identifies as Catholic, also declared January “National Bible Month.”
The National Bible Day bill still needs to be approved by the House of Representatives before it can be enacted.
