In an online survey conducted by the church-run Radio Veritas, they found that many Filipino Catholics now see marriage prior to living together as “pointless”.
I find this finding very sad.
According to the Veritas Truth Survey (VTS) conducted in January, majority of the respondents disagreed with the question: “Should couples get married first before living together?”
Forty five percent of the respondents said marriage is not a requirement before living-in; 40 percent said they believe in a marriage-first arrangement; while 15 percent were undecided.
Radio Veritas President Fr. Anton Pascual termed the survey “a challenge in the Church’s ongoing mission to evangelize the faithful, most especially nominal Catholics, on the beauty of the sacrament of marriage.”
According to Father Pascual, “To instill this social reality on the respondents’ perception towards common law partnership, we should evangelize our Catholic faithful on the transcendent value of marriage which places God in union between husband and wife.”
VTS head Bro. Clifford Sorita has said he believes the results reflect the “instant mentality” of the youth.
“This comes from the ‘instant mentality’ which comes from this young age group. The somewhat- prolonged courtship process [that] our elderly have experienced is something foreign among our young,” Sorita said.
Relationships can be likened to a gourmet dish — it takes effort and commitment to prepare, it takes time to savor it. Each dish, or shall I say, each relationship is a delightful mixture of many ingredients that must be treated skillfully and with precision.
Through time, I have witnessed how couples easily get upset due to very petty things. For instance, a text message that isn’t replied to promptly, or a call that isn’t answered immediately. These small “infractions” are then used to justify leaving a connection/relationship before any serious exploration.
We have become ‘hurry up and microwave it’ individuals who expect instant results, instant gratification, with no applied effort.
The problem is that “conversations” have turned into curt, apathetic, and detached text messages, turning arguments into long, intense, and biased blame-game — and abruptly using them as excuses to leave a relationship.
We have become so obsessed with quick fixes, with the “add water and shake” formula. We have become so fixated on instant relationships that we have forgotten that real connections take honest-to-goodness material time.
Even in our social, economic, and political lives, we still go for the quick fixes, and band-aid solutions.
Today, millions of Filipinos remain jobless not just because of the pandemic but because government has failed to create a clear policy that would spur job recovery.
We are aware the economy cannot simply recover even after the health crisis will have long ended. But who is researching on and formulating a “job recovery vaccine”? Even Sen. Imee Marcos admitted, “Millions of Filipinos, now unemployed and bankrupt through no fault of their own, desperately need that jab in the economy’s arm — but no one seems to be in charge.”
In my view, the government has been stuck with short-term, band-aid solutions to unemployment, such as financial assistance, and cash-for-work programs. Instant cash, instant work, instant kilos of rice (given by some public office aspirants). No wonder instant noodles are so popular.
The local Team Kasaligan has an agenda to spur livelihood prospects of the people, leading to job-creation and sustainable development.
These initiatives might be viewed as a slow process, nonetheless, these are surefire methods to prop up the economic lives of Dumaguetnons.
These are not your daily quick fixes, not band-aid solutions, and definitely not stemming from an “instant mentality”:
1) Enact an ordinance creating the Cooperative Development Office of Dumaguete to advance sustainable economic development, poverty- reduction, inclusive growth, and social justice; convert associations of operators and drivers for-hire services into a Transport Sector Multi-Purpose Cooperative, and provide them technical and financial assistance;
2) Enact an ordinance providing Financial Backing for New Cooperative Members who are qualified but poor residents;
3) Enact an ordinance providing Food Production Assistance in Integrated Urban & Rural Farming, Inland & Marine Fisheries providing farmers with sufficient farm inputs, machineries, post-harvest facilities; expertise to develop idle lots; budget to build more farm-to-market roads, and implementation of a Bagsakan Center program;
4) Enact an ordinance Strengthening the Bantay-Dagat and Coastal Law Enforcement in Dumaguete; and amending the Coastal Resource Management Ordinance to penalize purse seiners fishing; provide quality patrol boats for law enforcement activities; increase incentives for the enforcers; establish a Community Fish Landing Center; and provide bancas and fishing gears to the fisherfolks;
5) Conduct consultations with the marginalized sectors so that government will know what interventions to provide to improve family income and quality of life;
6) Enact ordinance improving the Public Market and the Slaughter House, and providing for supplementary but essential infrastructure needs
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Author’s email: [email protected]
