In the last few years, the Filipino Freethinkers have encountered a number of big bigots in the local scene whose words and actions truly show an unwillingness to embrace fact instead of fiction, and equal human rights instead of being selfish and dictatorial. From Senator Tito Sotto’s literal laughter in the face of maternal deaths, to Eric Manalang’s plea that our mothers should have aborted us, we’ve gotten to know quite a few bad eggs.

For the 3rd Filipino Freethinkers Forum this coming April 1, we will be handing out the 2012 Biggest Bigot Award to the person YOU think has worked hardest at being a close-minded douchebag. As our prize, the winner gets to have money donated in their name to the cause they are directly opposed to! Isn’t that nice? Everybody wins!

To vote, simply click here and cast your vote! Some of your choices include Senator Tito Sotto, Manny Pacquiao, Archbishop Oscar Cruz, Archbishop Teodoro Bacani, Eric Manalang and Rizalito David.

Follow your heart and vote away! Voting ends March 31, and we’ll announce the winner right after the forum. And for those interested in attending the forum, please RSVP here.

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Image from cosmicsnark.com

The Freethinkers were also finalists in “The Advocate” category, and in the voting polls that comprised 10% of the total score, the group received the most votes in both spots.

“We are thrilled to receive this award, as the group would not have gotten to where it is now without the help of social media,” says Red Tani, President of the Filipino Freethinkers. ‎”However, we want to remind people that actions and conversations should not end in the realm of social media. Intelligent ideas are worthless if they’re not implemented in the real world. Online and on the ground advocacy and activism should go hand in hand.

‎”We’re also happy that we won the major prize considering the circumstances. Not only do we promote the Reproductive Health bill, we’ve been criticizing the Catholic church hierarchy without reservation. We were afraid that controversial issues such as these would keep us from winning. Maybe this recognition from Globe is a sign that the Philippines not only tolerates but welcomes our progressive ideas.”

Other awardees of note were National Chair of the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines Elizabeth Angsioco, and Broadway star Lea Salonga, who won in “The Advocate” and “Ballbreaker” categories, respectively. Both women are the Freethinkers’ allies in the fight for the passage of a comprehensive reproductive health bill in the Philippines.

With 29,270,000 Filipinos online spending 41.3% of their time on social media, the Philippines is often dubbed as the “Social Networking Capital of the World.”

We’re up for The Advocate and The One. 

The Advocate is

…a person or a group of individuals who worked to improve the state of a societal cause in the Philippines through social media. This person or group invested time and effort (and sometimes even money) for the betterment of other people’s lives.

The One is

…the most influential trendsetter that shaped opinion, moved people, and ultimately starting fire in Philippine internet. This person is ahead of the pack in terms of online popularity and content.

For both The Advocate and The One, the Freethinkers have spearheaded concrete online and offline actions for social change, and have sparked discussions and broken conventions. Many of our endeavors, such as the incident with Pro-Life Philippines at the Manila Cathedral, the expose at the Faces of the RH Bill forum, the expose at the Defensores Fidei anti-RH lecture, the infamous “Why the RH Bill is Bad” satire piece, the similarly notorious COFAL humor piece, and the discourse re: the recent censorship debacle at the CCP, among others,  show the value we place in the power of social media to further our cause and make people not only think, but act.

The One is the top category of the lot, a.k.a. Best Overall, so it’s an especially awesome honor to be nominated. Moreover, the winner of each category will get a staggering Php100,000. If the Freethinkers bag both categories, that’s Php200,000 that will go to furthering reason, science, and secularism in order to vastly improve every Filipino’s quality of life. That’s a lot of bishop costumes, guys.

Here’s the clincher: 10% of our scores will be coming from YOUR VOTES, which will be collected from August 10 up until August 24. Here’s what we need you to do:

1. Go to the official Globe Tatt Awards site.
2. Vote for us in The One category.
3. Go to The Advocate category and vote for FF.

To vote, you’ll need a Facebook account, and you can help us out there too! 20% of our scores will depend on our online popularity (i.e. number of fans, followers, subscribers, views, mentions, visitors), so liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, etc., and telling your friends to do the same will make a world of difference.

Once again, we implore you, kind reader:

Red, Frank, Michael and myself were there at the finals. You guys should have seen us – we were all dressed to kill *no photographic evidence, sorry*

Again, thanks for all your support and don’t worry, we still have until 2012 to win. You do know what’s going to happen on 2012, right?

To our loyal readers (both of you), sorry for not updating as often. We’re working on ways to get more content to you soon. And thanks to the Composed Gentleman and to all those who voted for us!

So if you’d like our website to win and be featured on the award’s 152nd week, please vote for us at Composed Gentleman’s website.

Just tick our checkbox on their poll widget on the right sidebar (see pic on the right) and click Vote.

Thanks for your support, and remember, vote wisely!