Unnecessary

The unfolding events surrounding the controversial RH bill show that this administration is really bent on enacting it into law. The reason is now obvious. The outside pressure looks overwhelming and irresistible at this stage and it has apparently reached up to Malacañang from Congress. It gives truth to the claim that PNoy must have really committed to Obama in his last visit to the U.S. the passage of this measure; hence the sudden and undue rush to vote on the bill.

The most worrisome and dangerous aspect of PNoy’s commitment to Obama is Obama’s open and aggressive promotion of abortion not only in the U.S., but worldwide. So it is now quite clear and undeniable that the alleged “reproductive health” being promoted by the bill is nothing but a guise to relax or even do away with our restrictive laws on abortion’ which makes the bill clearly unconstitutional.

But still bent on passing the bill, its sponsors in the Senate tried to belatedly introduce amendments supposedly addressing the objectionable portions therein. Senator Pia Cayetano moved for the deletion of the entire section in the bill which Senate Majority Leader Tito Sotto claimed could be used to effectively legalize abortion. Then she also moved to amend the provision enumerating certain birth control drugs and supplies in the list of essential medicines and just provided that the Philippine National Drug Formulary System (PNDFS) be observed in including or excluding birth control supplies in the list of “essential medicines”.

In the Lower House, Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II says that the lawmakers are crafting an amendment in which the distribution of contraceptives would be limited to the “poorest of the poor” who could not afford them, after making an “informed choice” on how to plan their families.

The Senate amendments do not substantially change the bill. Even if the PNDFS is used in determining the birth control supplies to be included or excluded in the list of essential medicines, the inclusion of some contraceptives in said list is still possible because the application of the PNDFS is left to the discretion of individuals apparently from the Department of Health (DOH). In fact this official may still include all the contraceptives in the list. So the effect is that the government will still subsidize the use of contraceptives that cause or lead to abortion.

The same is true in case of the Lower House version. The subsidized use of contraceptives is still retained only that it will be limited to the “poorest of the poor” who may avail of them after making an “informed choice”. This is like saying that if you belong to this group you can use contraceptives that directly or indirectly kill the unborn child in the womb for as long as you made that choice after being duly informed of such consequences. Under this amendment, persons are justified to commit a serious crime simply because they belong to the “poorest of the poor”. If this amendment is passed many will even be claiming that they are among the “poorest of the poor” to escape liability for a crime. Definitely, this is not a valid law.

Hence, both the Senate and the Lower House amendments still provide that the government should subsidize the purchase of contraceptives and make them available to people especially the impoverished who decide to use them after making an “informed choice”. Indeed whether in its present or amended form, the bill is not necessary anymore because as Senator Tito Sotto pointed out, all the problems supposed to be solved by the bill are already addressed by 23 existing laws, decree, administrative and executive orders, rules and regulations.

PNoy and his minions in Congress are pushing for the bill’s passage simply because International agencies supported by the US government like the USAID, United Nations Fund for Population Administration (UNFPA) and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), wants the government to subsidize their population control program through the use of contraceptives that cause or lead to abortion. This is a fact that has not been and cannot be denied, thus prompting numerous readers and objective observers to raise this valid question: why should the government cater to the whims and caprices of people who cannot control their urge to have sex?

Actually, there are several valid points and questions in this controversy that have not been denied, answered or refuted with concrete facts and figures. Instead they are simply ignored or met with “deafening silence” clearly conveying the message that they are true and correct. And worse, the persons raising them are even attacked personally. Such is the case of Senator Sotto. He raised several valid points in his “turno en contra” speech that were never refuted or disproven. Instead he was accused of plagiarism that is entirely irrelevant and immaterial to the issues raised. Then up to now the following allegations have not been shown to be incorrect: the real authorship of the bill; the meddling and lobbying of foreign interests groups trying to impose their hidden agenda of population control through abortion; the use of foreign lobby money to corrupt some members of media and survey groups; the engagement by the WHO of the Ateneo University in conducting a research or reproductive health in the Philippines which is being tied up to the position paper recently published by Ateneo professors endorsing the RH bill.

In the light of the foregoing facts and circumstances, it is now clear that we are better off without this bill; that it is unnecessary. So Congress should vote it down and out, once and for all.

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Erratum: In my column last Friday on “real and unsung heroes”, the family name of Dr. Hilda C. Montano, of West Visayas State University (Iloilo), one of the outstanding teachers in the higher education level, has not been properly written; my apologies to Dr. Montano.

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