Withdrawing their support for RH Bill

With so many candidates seeking the Office of the Presidency, this means that the 10 or 15 million votes needed to win the election will undoubtedly be distributed amongst all the major candidates. The so-called “masa” vote will no longer be expected to be a massive or solid block, while the youth sector is something we ought to watch very carefully as they are more intelligent and more independent minded about the fate of their future. This also means that issues like charter changes, Federalism, respect for languages and cultures and yes, even the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill will surely make or break Presidential candidates.

Just before I left for Dubai, I attended the Task Force for Family and Life Philippines (TFFLP) orientation at the Sacred Heart Center where members of Cebu’s Charismatic Communities were in full force. The theme of that orientation was “RH Bill No.5043: A Clear and Present Danger.” This gives you an idea that the Charismatic communities and NGO’s are on the warpath against the members of Congress who are pushing for the passage of the RH Bill and those running for President better be wary that if they would push for the approval of this bill, they would lose vital votes.

Let me point out clearly that the Catholic Church does not run the TFFLP; rather this is the handiwork of Lay charismatic communities that concurs with the stand of the Catholic Church against the RH Bill. That orientation forum was actually a “Call to Arms” informing Catholics of the clear and present danger of supporting the RH Bill. While this organization is apolitical, they will definitely make the RH Bill an electoral issue. Best of all, these charismatic organizations have a nationwide network.

You may brush aside this organization, but I would like to believe that they are making themselves heard. Just a couple of days ago, a news report from Malaya reported that Rep. Monica Prieto Teodoro, the wife of Lakas-Kampi Presidential bet Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro, Jr. had withdrawn her support for the RH Bill. She called it as “defanged” and “toothless” in solving the nation’s population problem, as it does not really address the needs of the people living in poverty. That is because public money would be wasted in putting some kind of birth control programs.

Rep. Teodoro pointed out that she would rather spend the resources of the government to shelter or feed the poor. This change of heart stems from her realization when she said, “Population growth is not a problem if resources are available and well-managed to cope with the additional people requiring public service, employment, housing, and so on.” Rep. Teodoro couldn’t have said it any better. This is what we’ve been saying all along, that ugly politics have diverted needed funds for the poor and into the pockets of greedy politicians who stuffed themselves with the people’s money to become rich beyond their imagination.

This is why so many politicians are running for public office and those that have been around for decades continue to hold onto to dear power… even to the point of killing their political opponents, which the whole nation and the world just witnessed with the Maguindanao massacre. If you looked at the palatial homes of the Ampatuans in Maguindanao and in Davao, it just makes you wonder where they got the money to live to richly and it’s a no-brainer why they would kill to keep their political power.

Rep. Teodoro also pointed out that the majority maternal deaths could be traced to lack of proper medical facilities. I fully agree. This week, we featured on TV Glory Reborn an NGO led by David and Hilary Overton from the United States and since the year 2003 they already had 1,800 births from the poor pregnant women of Basak, Pardo who couldn’t afford to bear their children in our medical institutions. Thank God for Glory Reborn, they delivered all healthy babies who could have died from poor health care.

This turnaround by Rep. Teodoro hopefully should inspire the other co-authors of the RH Bill, like Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz to also withdraw her support for this highly-deceptive bill. After all, she’s running for Mayor of Mandaue City, which has a very strong church-based organization. She better consider this issue very seriously. But I dare say that we shouldn’t be happy of candidates backing from the RH Bill. They must make a promise never to revive this evil bill, like Dracula returning from the dead!

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It was a swell party last Wednesday night at the Marco Polo Plaza for the Aboitiz Group of Companies Christmas party for the Cebu Media where they turned the Ballroom into a playroom. The theme this year was “Pirates of the Caribbean” and the games were all about searching for the hidden treasure that resulted in handsome prizes. It was fun seeing Aboitiz top executives playing with Cebu’s media like they were all little children! And as always, the Marco Polo food was delicious, my compliments to Chef Luke Gagnon!