We, a coalition of secular, humanist, and atheist organizations in the Philippines, stand against the Magna Carta of Religious Freedom in its current form. We feel that the authors' intentions are biased, unfair, and violating the very purpose of the proposed bill.
The primary author, Eddie Villanueva is a known religious leader who now holds political power in the Philippine Congress. After many years of propagating his church in a business-branching-like model, stood against the SOGIE bill and argued that “To craft a preferential law against the rights of all other sectors of the society for just one particular sector, to me this is unfair, this is class legislation…” in an interview last 2019 has now proposed a bill that will give preferential treatment in favor of religious organizations, corporations, and associations. We have nothing against religious lawmakers if they uphold their sworn oath to serve the entire nation, including those who do not have the same beliefs as theirs.
On the explanatory note of the bill, we are also deeply concerned that the authors completely disregarded the contribution of secular people to the abolitionist movement. In contrast, slavery is justified for the longest time in some biblical passages. During the Martial Law era, though we cannot discount the participation of some religious societies, it was secular organizations that constantly abhorred the injustices, namely, the civil society.
