MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – In the Philippines, the principle of separation of church and state doesn’t exist in the real world, especially in politics.

With an overwhelming majority of Filipino voters married to their Catholicism, no politician campaigns without invoking Divine Intervention.

The so-called Yellows constantly seek the intercession of their creation of a ”Saint Cory, “ in the hope that the late former President would shower them with blessings, and luck in their quest for public office.

Like many Yellowtards, Vice President Leni Robredo has been to many pray-overs in the company of priests, nuns and the laity.

Long before Presidential candidate Manny Pacquiao entered politics, he had openly declared that he gave up womanizing and other vices to focus on religion, and along the way, calling homosexuals ”worse than animals.”

In the midst of Presidential daughter Sara Duterte Carpio’s pronouncement that she is not seeking a national position in deference to his father who has accepted the Vice Presidential nomination of the ruling PDP-Laban party, her supporters are calling for a nine-day novena hoping that she would have a change of heart.

And now, in the heat of a word war between Pacquiao and Duterte supporter Pastor Quiboloy, the latter has threatened to run for President just so he could debate the boxer-Senator.

Is it time for the Philippines to adopt its own version of the American Pledge of Allegiance: ”One nation, under God?”