Super pressure

Lots of money is now openly flowing for the passage of H.B. 5043 commonly and deceivingly known as “Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development Act of 2008”. Incidentally, the title of this bill is exactly similar to the titles of the various ordinances passed by some local government units through the initiatives of the same foreign funded groups that have invaded our shores and intruded into our sovereignty, aggressively promoting its extremely harmful population control policy depicted as “Millennium Development Goals” to alleviate poverty in our land.

The formidable finances of these groups originated from the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the world’s largest provider of abortion and birth control devices founded by Margaret Sanger, as well as from major multinational pharmaceutical firms selling these birth control devices and artificial contraceptives. With the augmentation of its finances by US Congress, IPPF later on initiated the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), to “sanitize” the US backing, give the appearance of international consensus and circumvent national governments.

In our country, they have become more aggressive and cocky by precisely circumventing the national government and directly pressing some of our provincial board, city and municipal councils to pass ordinances promoting their population control policy.

One of these groups, a foreign funded NGO styling itself as “Philippine Legislative Committee for Population and Development” (PLCPD) has even put up its offices right at the very seat of the Lower House of Congress in the Batasan. With a P2-billion budget for this year, it is easy for the PLCPD to rent an office space in the Batasan premises, but the more important and vital question here is why the Lower House allowed a foreign group to use its facilities erected with the use of taxpayers’ money when they are apparently off limits to local NGOs or government agencies. Strictly speaking such act may not be considered as giving up part of our national territory, but definitely this is a matter for the Ombudsman to look into. Providing an office space to a foreign funded group so that it will have easy access to the legislators who will pass upon its pet bill (the RH Bill) is giving undue advantage to such party which is clearly in violation of the Anti-Graft Law.

The aggressiveness and arrogance of the foreign backers of the RH Bill is further manifested by that full page advertisements in major newspapers bought out by PLCPD urging members of the Lower House to pass the said bill by citing reasons that are utterly misleading and badly distorted.

First of all, it cited a survey conducted by Pulse Asia showing that 90% of the Filipino Catholics would like the government to subsidize their use of artificial contraceptives. The timing alone of this Ad and the publication of the Pulse Asia survey already tell us which group commissioned Pulse Asia to conduct it. The fee for such services, as usual, must be something irresistible.

Secondly, the figures in the survey readily show that almost if not all of the respondents belong to the poorest sector of our society who is the most gullible simply for lack of proper information. Indeed this is the same 90% referred to in our statistics living at or below poverty level. Hence everything they could get free is most welcome especially if the form of the question is leading and informs them that what they will receive is something “good” for them like their “reproductive health”.

Thirdly, survey results, no matter how accurate and overwhelming in numbers do not covert something wrong or evil into something right or good. Truth is never determined in a popularity contest. And the truth here is that the RH Bill gives universal access to various artificial contraceptive pills and methods most of which are dangerous to health, directly cause abortion or are the leading causes of abortion. And abortion is something evil as it involves the killing of an unborn child which is in fact a punishable crime under our laws. The fact that 90% of the Catholics would like the government to subsidize their use of these contraceptives does not make that use valid, legal and right.

It is most misleading and deceitful for the sponsors of the RH Bill to explicitly declare that they are against abortion and are not legalizing it when the bill itself subsidizes the use of contraceptives that directly cause abortion or lead to abortion.

Another grave deception being flouted by the supporters of the RH Bill including some economists and columnists is the alleged shocking report of 400,000 abortion cases in the Philippines annually. According to them, the common reason for this big number of abortions for both married and unmarried women is economic difficulty. Thus they point to abortion as the symptom of this social cancer stalking our land which cannot be solved by mechanical application of the law. They are telling us that this big number of abortions cannot be reduced even with the strict enforcement of the law penalizing abortion, but by helping women and couples control the size of their families through subsidized and coercive family planning (FP) methods.

But they are not telling us or refuse to see that these FP methods they are espousing include the use of contraceptives that cause abortion; that most of these contraceptives are not fail safe and may also result in unwanted pregnancies like what is happening in most countries that allowed women to develop this contraceptive mentality; and that these unwanted pregnancies eventually compels women to resort to abortion. In other words the RH Bill will not reduce the big number of abortion cases in the Philippines. On the contrary it may even result in the doubling of abortion cases!

“Pressure” in all forms must really be tremendous for the sponsors to doggedly pursue the passage of this RH Bill designed by a well funded foreign group out to impose its devious population control program that has already caused disastrous effects on other countries adopting it. The P33 billion proposed budget for this RH Bill is enough to entertain a belief that some people or groups in and out of government are out to make a lot of money if the bill is passed.    

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