Philippine Atheists

The Commission on Elections or COMELEC is reportedly banning campaigning on Christendom’s Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. I think the separation of church and state principle ought to be tested in the legal system if we are to understand its intent, to let the courts interpret it for everyone alike - Christian or not. With the current state of affairs, I’d be surprised if the framers of the constitution understood it as well or they were merely suggesting these things they have written in the constitution of the republic. Only few of them have expressed opinion on the matter though an opinion is still much better than no opinion at all. About the election rule in question, the COMELEC official said the ban is “religion-blind.” Who does he think he is fooling? It has Christianity written all over it in big bold red letters! It is very much religion aware and religion-advancing short of establishing Christianity as official religion of the state. Quoting the article, “he said Muslim candidates and all areas where Islam was the only or dominant religion were also covered by the prohibition” which of course implies that there are only two religions in the Philippines. While Thursday and Friday are already official public holidays of religious nature, the government getting out of its way to ban activities of public nature so as not to “offend” the sensibilities of the majority Catholic populace during the holdiays already made for them is, IMO, too much. The least it could do is observe the days as if they are regular days. The government, or the COMELEC in this matter, should be there to promote the public good and not to promote the Catholic public good. Otherwise, let’s just call the COMELEC, CACOMELEC or Catholic Commission on Elections so everybody understands.

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