SW News: The Catholic Church's pro-life event known as the "Walk for Life" in the streets of the Philippines capital will return on February 18, almost three years after the government outlawed mass gatherings because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A statement issued on Friday by the Council of the Laity of the Philippines (CLP) said that thousands of people were expected to gather in Manila this month for the first "Walk for Life" after the country was struck by COVID-19.

The meeting's president, Raymond Daniel Cruz Jr., announced that the events would begin at 4 a.m. at the Welcome Rotunda in Quezon City and end at 8 a.m. at the grandstand of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, where a program and mass would be conducted.

Even throughout the pandemic, according to Daniel Cruz Jr., "our spirit of upholding life has never wavered, even during the pandemic."

He said that they have become even more cognizant of the importance of life and continue to pray and work diligently to preserve and protect it. Cruz stressed the need to continually communicate to everyone our deep conviction in the value and sanctity of life in today's culture.

The organization's Facebook page replied to a question about what it does each year following the event by writing, "The annual walk for life serves as a symbolic reminder for everyone to always defend life, so let's all support life, even if it's only in our own, little ways."

The first annual Walk for Life was conducted in 2017, and it has since become a yearly tradition in the ongoing struggle to defend the "culture of life" against the "culture of death." To promote "solidarity in upholding the dignity of life," from the time of conception till death, the CLP and the Episcopal Commission on the Laity of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines host this event yearly.