The Philippines' biggest "atheist" communities are failing to exploit an opportunity of a lifetime

Filipino Freethinker honcho Red Tani with Carlos 'Damaso' Celdran back in the days before they lost the plot.

What's up with the Filipino Freethinkers, supposedly the Philippines' highest profile, most organised, and possibly largest atheist community? They were very active during the controversy surrounding the Reproductive Health Bill legislation as well as various activist initiatives related to gay rights. They also rallied behind Carlos Celdran when he was in hot water over his Damaso stunt.

Yet today, following the recent attacks against the Philippines' Roman Catholic Church, they have failed to step up to the occasion. The Catholic Church led by its lieutenants are clearly now on defensive mode and the situation presents a rare opportunity to sustain an effort to call their inconsistencies out and being to light their hypocrisy. Instead, however, the Filipino Freethinkers have, instead, chosen to focus more on their peeves against Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte as is evident in the position articulated by their leader Red Tani in a Facebook post...

And then there's the non-religious who have chosen to call Duterte their hero for criticizing the Catholic Church with no nuance. Duterte may be a blasphemer or a heretic or even an atheist in hiding. 

But he is no humanist or freethinker. His drug war betrays an unskeptical, unscientific, irrational mindset, and his obstinate devotion to it reflects that of any extremist fundamentalist fanatic. 

And even if he had the slightest hint of rationality by virtue of his rejection of dogma, hailing someone responsible for the massacre of thousands a hero in any way is quite a terrible thing.

All true, perhaps. But Tani and his mob are losing sight of the biggest and highest value target laid open to train their guns on by Duterte's "tirades". The Filipino Freethinkers it seems have chosen the CBCP as their "lesser evil" in this instance instead of seeing the more vulnerable target it has become today.

What a waste. Duterte will only be President for six years at the most. The CBCP will still be there when he is gone, and, by then, perhaps back in the embrace of a government and politicians in power who are back to drinking the Kool Aid served to them by these bishops in exchange for favourable content on their "pastoral letters" and Sunday mass homilies.