Why Candidates Ignore Secular Filipinos?

Because they can. And because the religious block has traditionally held sway over political candidates for a long time. 

While many still consider the Philippines as a very religious country, I think secularism is more prevalent in the Philippines compared to other Southeast Asian neighbours, say, Indonesia and Malaysia where Sharia is practiced. Throughout the history of our republic, our Founding Fathers had the courage to write in our Constitution the ‘separation of church and state’. But the comparison does not end there, nowadays Filipinos are able to practice secularism more freely in society, for example, we were able to unshackle the religious taboo of using birth control by giving women control over their reproduction through the Reproductive Health Law. Our society is more receptive of women’s rights. The recent furore over presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte’s rape joke about the female Australian missionary who was killed in Davao back in 1989 was one example. Filipinos are more sympathetic towards the LGBT community. When Manny Pacquiao dissed gay people calling them ‘worse than animals’; he got the ire of numerous Filipinos, costing him his Nike sponsorship and precious goodwill in the media.

We have a long way to go in terms of educating Filipinos about the dangers of religious fanaticism, but there are good signs that Filipinos are ready to accept secularism as a social and political reality. Of course, we are not about to force politicians to convert to atheism, but we would be more than satisfied to hear them speak in public against religious bigotry and fanaticism from the likes of Pacquiao, support separation of church and state, respect and protect women’s rights, LGBT rights including same-sex marriage, and to support reproductive health, divorce and euthanasia.

There are no official statistics yet as to the exact number of atheists and non-religious people in the Philippines that I know of, but I am optimistic that the number ranges from one to two million Filipinos, mostly college students and in their early twenties. If this is true, we must tap this resource and put it to good use to pressure and lobby political candidates to go our side. The onus is on us to present a united secular front. When Kabataan Representative Mong Palatino sponsored House bill 6330 seeking to ban prayer in government offices, the Catholic Church was in full force in the media and painted the bill as 'suppressing religion', calling it the ‘ban God bill’, while the best the secular movement in the Philippines could do was wrote blogs about it. Almost everyone in the atheist community was nowhere to be found. I know the secular community in the Philippines is still young, but we must be bold and audacious and we need a vision. Remember, we are not alone! We get huge support from numerous secular organizations that recognize the difficulty and hardship of building a secular community. In countries like Bangladesh, secular bloggers are routinely hacked to death by religious fanatics who view atheists and secularists as threats to their religion. We must never let this happen in the Philippines.

At the end of the day, we must use the political system to hold politicians accountable if they defile our secular values. We owe ourselves and future Filipinos to build a society free from religious tyranny and hatred.

The risks of democracy

It is still 2 years away from the 2016 Philippine Presidential election and yet Filipinos are already in full force endorsing candidates left and right. The inclusion and combination of some of these candidates, no doubt, will surprise, irritate and excite you. There is the Miriam-Duterte, Poe-Robredo, Binay-Roxas, Marcos-Gordon and Escudero-Gibo tandems. You can make your own tandem to suit your liking. Being a free speech loving secularist myself, if I would be given the chance to vote again, I would choose Miriam-Robredo tandem mostly because I am attracted to Miriam’s intellectual prowess and her liberal position on many social issues. I like Robredo’s integrity and her family’s dedication to honest governance in Naga. But that’s me.

 

Many Filipinos however, I noticed, are also drawn to Miriam, but in a different way. They claim they would vote for Miriam because of her no-nonsense approach to governance, her iron-will, her combative stance against corruption and incompetence, and because they say she can get the job done. Surprisingly they say the same thing about the firebrand Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who likes to utter shooting threats to anyone who he disagrees with. The latest one was when he said he would shoot the guy behind the Duterte-for-President Movement. He is shaping up as this election’s dark horse, a title previously enjoyed by Binay, who fell on the side because of numerous allegations of corruption.

 

So why are many Filipinos drawn to strong, authority figures?

 

Many are convinced that authoritarian rule is the solution to the rampant and uncontrollable crimes, corruption and lawlessness in the country. Irrespective of data and statistics, I would have to agree that this is true. Just listening to news and relatives at home, crimes are so worse in the Philippines even the police cannot help and protect you. Some, if not, most of the police are involved themselves. Remember the photo of the EDSA gun-poking incident last Sept 1? These and other criminals like the “riding in tandem” gangs that roam the streets of Metro Manila are enough to scare anyone to not visit the country.

 

Many point to the heavy influence of religion in human behaviour lulling our minds into non-thinking and non-questioning.

 

Many also point to the influence of a few oligarchic class who is the main cause of the poverty of so many Filipinos and who have kept this nation under their rule.

 

When situations get worse, as they already are in the Philippines, many Filipinos are forced to accept any candidate that comes along, no matter how corrupt and incompetent. Instead of looking for candidates that respect human rights and the democratic process, we are at times left with no choice but to endorse the worst kind of people in our society. An election, after all, is not just for display, it must be taken seriously. Elections must be the gauge of our maturing democracy. When a candidate accused of corruption promises he will do to the rest of the Philippines what he did for Makati, that alone should ring a lot of bells!

 

Democratizing countries like the Philippines, according to Gary J. Bass in the New York Times, often “lack the rule of law, organized political parties and professional news media.” Although those three items don’t necessarily guarantee a successful democracy, neither a sure-fire formula towards building a true democracy, I seem to agree with this assessment. Looking at the Philippines, there is hardly a semblance of rule of law as rich, powerful, corrupt people often get away with a crime; candidates who wantonly jump from one political party to another or even creating one for themselves; and a media that gleefully prioritizes TV personalities, ratings and showbiz instead of engaging viewers with critical thinking and frequent discussion on current issues.

 

It’s enough to make you lose hope and weep.