By Merlina Hernando-Malipot

Making Bible reading mandatory in all public elementary and secondary schools will be a violation of the Constitution, an education advocate on Friday said.

Lawyer and education advocate Atty. Joseph Noel Estrada said that the proposal will be “violative of the principle of separation of Church and State and the Non-Establishment of religion provision in our Constitution.”

Earlier, Minority Leader Bienvenido Abante Jr. filed House Bill 2069 or the proposed Mandatory Bible Reading Act of 2019 which aims to make Bible reading a part of the curriculum of public school – both in elementary and secondary schools.

“If only Biblical discipline, principles and standards are taught and inculcated in the minds of our children, there would be no much problems on leadership, governance, and peace and order,” he said.

READ MORE: House leader wants Bible to be a mandatory read in public schools

Estrada, who also serves as the managing director of the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA) – the largest organization of private schools in the country – pointed out that “allowing the citizens to practice their religion is not equivalent to establishment or fusion of Church and State.”

He added that “while establishment of religion is not allowed in government agencies, ‘accommodation’ of practice of religion is permissible according to the Supreme Court.”

The government, Estrada noted, accommodates the practice of religion in government agencies without violating the non-establishment clause of the Constitution such as “our Muslim brethren, who are government employees, are allowed to worship their Allah even during office hours inside their own offices; the Seventh Day Adventists are exempted from rendering Saturday duty because their religion prohibits them from working on a Saturday; even Christians have been allowed to conduct their own bible studies in their own offices; exemption of members of Iglesia ni Cristo from the coverage of a closed shop agreement between their employer and a union; and exemption of members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses from observing the flag ceremony out of respect for their religious beliefs.”

However, Estrada pointed out that “once government money is used for mandating the practice of a belief or religion as in the case of a law mandating the reading of the Bible in all public schools (and obviously purchase of Bibles for distribution in the public schools), clearly there is establishment of religion violative of the Constitution.” Given this, he noted that public institutions “should remain public and therefore secular.”

Should his proposal be passed into law, Abante noted that the Department of Education (DepEd) will be in-charge in promulgating the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the proposed act.