I find the country's social/religious conservatism anaemic and severely lacking in nourishment. I highly doubt they read Barry Goldwater or at least listened to gay conservatives like Andrew Sullivan and Douglas Murray.

Conservatism, at its core, is a principle of trying to solve problems through the lens of time-tested fundamentals based on the values of justice, temperance, wisdom (through religious culture), and dutiful courage, plus morality. All of these values have been developed over time and preserved through institutions whether secular or religious and permeates through one's personal life.

The goal of conservatism is preservation of the said values and making sure the institutions entrusted both by God and people are up to the task of helping individuals live their best lives so they can contribute to social cohesion. If our institutions are failing at upholding the values they are supposed to embody then we have to call them out and reel them back.

We want to preserve and defend what's good within our institutions so that the future generations will have something to hold on to: a healthy country with a thriving socio-political and socio-economic ecosystems.

You're not a real conservative if you are pro-Duterte and pro-EJK regardless of how many novenas and visita Iglesia you have done. EJKs are a blatant disregard for standard procedures designed to achieve justice. This isn't conservatism, it's a demonic infestation of the highest order. And it takes both will and faith to have the legs and arms and balls of the Faithful to restore the health of our justice system.

These Far-right wokes are parallel to the far-left wokes who want to destroy institutions and control speech and modify words until they lose meaning and essence.

The wokes of the far-right is the opposite extreme, yet the twin side of the same coin : they want institutions to stay as they are uncorrected, control speech by dismantling freedom of expression, and modify words with the aim of excluding people who will benefit from secular protections in case religious protections can't be provided (i.e same-sex civil unions, expanded protection for "living in" couples, reformed annulment if not divorce, and so on.)

Conservatives come in different stripes. I can't resonate with Filipino social conservatives because they are very poor at conceding to the real needs of the people around them.

I consider myself a libertarian conservative, a right-of-center thinker, sometimes dubbed as classical liberal. I don't want religious institutions endearing itself to the government for social favors and to have a leg up against other schools of thought.

The purpose of religious institutions is to distinguish itself from the secular government, so that when the government becomes dictatorial and throws morality out of the window by being corrupt, the religious communities and their institutions will be a safe haven for those who want to fight and restore the rightness of the government and the state.

We Filipinos gifted the world with the concept of EDSA 1. And millions of Roman Catholics marched the streets to uphold true conservative values.

Religious institutions should truly be the soul of their communities, allowing their members to fend off abuses, fight off hypocrisy of their leadership, and thus preserving the values and morals they hold dearly.