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The Secular Movement in the Philippines: Atheism and Activism in a Catholic Country

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The Secular Movement in the Philippines: Atheism and Activism in a Catholic Country Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2018 The secular movement in the Philippines: atheism and activism in a Catholic country Blechschmidt, Alexander Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-157305 Dissertation Published Version Originally published at: Blechschmidt, Alexander. The secular movement in the Philippines: atheism and activism in a Catholic country. 2018, University of Zurich, Faculty of Arts. The Secular Movement in the Philippines Atheism and Activism in a Catholic Country Thesis presented to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the University of Zurich for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Alexander Blechschmidt Accepted in the fall semester 2018 on the recommendation of the doctoral committee: Prof. Dr. Johannes Quack (main supervisor) Prof. Dr. Peter J. Bräunlein Zurich, 2018 In memory of my mother, Angela Blechschmidt (1960-2015). And for my father, Reiner Blechschmidt, who kept his promise to stay at her side during the good times and the worst. ii Contents Acknowledgments … v List of Figures … x List of Abbreviations … xii Introduction … 1 1. Atheists and Nonbelief in Philippine Society … 24 2. Organized Secularism in Metro Manila: An Overview … 51 3. The Filipino Freethinkers (FF) & the Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society (PATAS): Foundational Histories, Organizational Structures, and Activities … 86 4. “You Are Not Alone”: FF between Atheism and Secularism … 124 5. “Good Without God”: PATAS between Atheism and Humanism … 156 6. “A Bunch of Rich Kids”? Social Class, Agency, and Different Kinds of Atheism … 192 Conclusion: Shifting Relations, Productive Tensions … 221 References … 234 iii iv Acknowledgments As can be said for any research project based on ethnographic fieldwork, the following study on the secular movement in the Philippines would not have been possible without those people who accepted and welcomed me as a foreign researcher among themselves — or at least tolerated my presence and my questions. Thus, first and foremost I want to thank all the activists and members of the Filipino Freethinkers (FF) and the Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society (PATAS) — as well as members and former members of the other like-minded local groups including the University of the Philippines Atheist Circle (UPaC), the Tiger Freethinkers at the University of Santo Tomas, and the Humanist Alliance Philippines, International (HAPI) —, whom I have met during my stay in Manila and who readily shared their stories, thoughts and views with me in numerous informal contexts, and/or even agreed to be interviewed and recorded in a more formal setting. Further, special thanks are due to the atheists and freethinkers who have provided me with leaflets, newsletters, pamphlets and other stuff produced by some of the previously existing secularist groups. They thereby greatly helped me to (re-)construct a local history of atheist activism. At FF, I particularly want to thank the group’s founder and president, Red Tani, and the core group members Garrick Bercero and Kenneth Keng, who enthusiastically supported my research all the way through. At PATAS, I specially thank Tess Termulo, Yek Lai Fatt, and Thomas Fleckner for their interest in my work, and their various contributions to it on different levels. The long-term atheist activist John Paraiso and all his friends at Luneta, who welcomed me at their nightly debates there, provided me with invaluable insights into some of the historical developments and contemporary dynamics of atheism in Manila — and always made sure that I got back home safe. Maraming salamat po! Poch Suzara, or the “grandfather” of atheism in the Philippines as he is often referred to, has helped me not only with his willingness to be interviewed twice, but also with allowing me to attend the Sunday morning meetings of his “coffee shop atheist” friends. Although I often struggled to get up that early, I enjoyed these get- togethers very much. For their kindness, their patience with regard to my questions, v and for inviting me for a cup of coffee more than once, I wish to greatly thank all the members of this group. Aside from the people mentioned so far, there were so many more whom I would like to express my deepest gratitude here. However, I guaranteed them anonymity and thus can’t refer to them by name. All the names used in my thesis are therefore pseudonyms, except for the ones mentioned above, for known public figures, and for those who saw no need for being anonymized. While I hope that my interlocutors might find themselves represented in a reasonable way in my writings, I’m sure there will be parts on which they might have a very different take. This is, of course, unavoidable. Nevertheless, it also could provide a promising link for continuing and deepening our conversations that we have started in the Philippines. And, as Red once told me, when I asked him about how he usually chooses the topics for the FF discussion meetings: “So really, disagreement is what makes for a fun discussion!” At the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, where I was affiliated at the Department of Anthropology, I would like to acknowledge my host Nestor Castro, and the faculty, as well as Michael L. Tan, the university’s current chancellor (who at the time was the dean of the UP College of Social Sciences and Philosophy). They all warmly welcomed me at UP and encouraged me with regard to my research plans. I’m grateful for having been able to stay at this prestigious state university known for its liberal and activist “spirit.” For taking care of me at the UP Balay, the on-campus guesthouse for international students and researchers, where I was able to stay during my fieldwork, I want to also thank the staff. Before and during my fieldwork in the Philippines, and especially in the writing phase afterwards, I was intellectually as well as emotionally supported by my supervisors, Johannes Quack at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and Peter J. Bräunlein at the University of Leipzig, Germany. Both of them have helped me enormously with their respective expertise, and always in a very kind, motivating, and empathic way. For this I want to thank them and I hope they can now say that in the end it was worth doing so. My research about organized secularism in the Philippines was part of the Emmy Noether project on “The Diversity of Nonreligion” (QU 338/1-1) headed by Johannes Quack, and as such was made possible through the generous funding by the German Research Foundation (DFG). I greatly profited from working together with two other vi PhD candidates who were also part of the research team, Susanne Kind and Cora Schuh. Especially my early drafts benefited greatly from their thoughtful comments and constructive criticism, as well as the input of their supervisor Monika Wohlrab-Sahr (University of Leipzig) during several internal workshops. Likewise important, however, have been our numerous conversations in and outside our formal team meetings about the ups and downs of pursuing a PhD since they constantly assured me that I was not alone on this (sometimes rather difficult) path. At the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Zurich, I not only had the chance to meet and work with wonderful colleagues and fellow PhD students, but also to present and discuss parts of my research on various occasions. While they are too many to be mentioned here individually, I want to thank all of them for their input and encouragement. Mascha Schulz, a fellow PhD candidate at the chair of Johannes Quack gave me some very helpful comments on some of the arguments presented in my thesis, and for that as well as her friendship and advice I want to express my gratitude. I was able to present different drafts and versions of my chapters at various workshops, conferences, and colloquiums, such as the XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology 2014 in Yokohama, the workshop “Être indifférent aujourd’hui en France et en Allemagne: entre religion, spiritualité et sécularisme” 2013 in Strasbourg, the XXI IAHR World Congress 2015 in Erfurt, the AAR Annual Meeting 2015 in Atlanta, the workshop on “nonreligion” for PhD students organized by the Emmy Noether research group on “The Diversity of Nonreligion,” the research colloquium at the Anthropology Department of the University of Lucerne, the Emmy Noether Guest Lecture Series 2017 of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, as well as the NSRN Annual Conference 2016, which was hosted together with the final conference of the Emmy Noether research project on “The Diversity of Nonreligion.” At all these places I received very insightful suggestions and questions from the audiences and participants, including Bettina Beer, Stephen LeDrew, Dominik Müller, and many more. Although I can’t name all of them individually here, their input shall be gratefully acknowledged. For their interest in my project, their friendly encouragement and helpful comments on some of my arguments, which I presented at several of our workshop sessions, I also want to thank the members of the research team on “New Perspectives on Religion in the Philippines” (NPRP): Adrian Hermann, Deirdre de la Cruz, and Giovanni Maltese as vii the main organizers, as well as Wei Jiang, Isaac Donoso, Marlon Sales, Analyn Salvador- Amores, Scott MacLochlainn, Jayeel Cornelio, Smita Lahiri, Rosa Castillo, and Kerstin Radde-Antweiler. There are three persons in particular, who have helped me at maybe the most crucial point during my writing phase in overcoming the nightmare that probably haunts every PhD student and/or professional author now and then: a total writer’s block.
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