The Year 2012 is now almost out the door. Was it an undiluted “Annus Horribilis” or “Year of Horrors”? Queen Elizabeth II dusted off that phrase in a 1992 address. Fire had gutted parts of Windsor Palace, and family scandals were capped by the Prince of Wales separating from Princess Diana.
Women’s rights have been in the forefront of international concern over the last few weeks.
Today is Holy Innocents’ Day or Childemas, commemorating a bloody event that supposedly occurred shortly after Christ’s birth, Herod ordering the killing of all male children below the age of two, in an attempt to kill Jesus as well. Historians say this massacre probably never happened, but Dec. 28 has taken on new meanings [...]
Today I am very happy and thankful that finally we have the reproductive health bill around. I am a pediatrician, I am Catholic, I practice my religion and I am happy being a Catholic except that I don’t follow the pronouncements of the bishops and priests to the letter. I have my own personal convictions [...]
I HAVE issues with both the pros and antis on reproductive health, who have been in fierce debates until recently when the pros in the House of Representatives and the Senate prevailed and married their respective versions now littered with the term “non-abortifacient.” But my issues aren’t anything that cannot be addressed by whichever side [...]
The debates on the reproductive health bill have died down, and now there is toe-in-the-water talk about divorce. Some friends have asked me what role clerics should have in matters involving controversial legislation. Let me be more general, however, and ask instead about clerical involvement in public affairs.
The Roman Catholic Church suffered its most crushing defeat in its collision with the Philippine state in 13 years when Congress decisively voted on Monday to pass the Malacañang-certified reproductive health bill providing government funding for contraceptives and sex education in schools.
It is Christmas time no doubt. The traffic is Metro Manila reflects the almost manic style of shopping that Filipinos can indulge in at this time of the year. Frankly, I would be very much into it if only other matters have been competing for, and winning, my attention. Shopping during Christmas, or for Christmas, is not really about what I buy, it is what I experience. Nor far but inside the maddening crowd, I get to sense what kind of Christmas it is. There are years when shopping is slow until the very last week. One knows then that there is not much money available then. Some start really early, signs of prosperity of the times.
The day after the passage on third and final reading in both the House and the Senate of the reproductive health bill, journalists grilling President Aquino at a media gathering had his “reproductive future” in mind.
One of the most contentious provisions in the approved reproductive health bill has been that of sexuality education, with earlier versions proposing its inclusion in grade school, but which, through negotiations, ended up limited to high school. But even this postponement of sexuality education to high school has met opposition, on the argument that it should be done at home, and that discussing sexual matters in school will lead to promiscuity.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, “Manong Johnny” to all those presuming to cover and follow the political scene, has railed against the inclusion of a reference to “safe and satisfying sex” in the RH bill. (As I write this, both the House of Representatives and the Senate have yet to pass the measure, but banning some last-minute “act of God” and desperate recourse from our bishops, that event is expected to come to pass.)
When the presiding officer, Rep. Lorenzo Tanada III, arrived at my name and asked for my vote during the historic House of Representatives’ vote on the Reproductive Health Bill last Wednesday night, December 12, I replied in the affirmative and walked towards the rostrum to explain my vote.
