If I were a woman of (still) childbearing age, and if I had the means or the choice (or inclination), I would give birth in Finland. Or in any of the other Nordic countries, which all ranked at the top of the list of “mother-friendly” locales as compiled by the international NGO Save the Children.
While many Filipino Church leaders are now on the campaign trail to openly and blatantly discredit candidates whom they consider “antilife” and anti-Catholic because these candidates went against the official Church stand on the Reproductive Health Law and supported it, I don’t see a groundswell that would spell the ultimate doom of these pro-RH candidates in the May 13 polls. Meaning, candidates will rise or fall not on RH issues.
Of the senatorial candidates who landed in the “Top 16” of the latest Pulse Asia survey, only five are identifiably “pro-RH,” advocacy groups have warned.
The passage of the controversial Reproductive Health Law was an epic struggle; wouldn’t it be tragic if, for lack of the necessary funds, or because of complacency among its varied coalition of supporters, the landmark legislative victory turned out to be merely Pyrrhic?
It might strike many, particularly supporters of the freedom of information bill, as mere “consuelo de bobo” (cold comfort) to say that the fate of this piece of legislation is but par for the course of many other bills making their way to enactment into law.
A Jesuit friend I esteem cried foul recently over Karen Boncocan’s characterization of a major homily given by the new Cardinal Archbishop of Manila, Luis Antonio “Chito” Tagle. (The homily, on the occasion of the Feast of Jesus the Nazarene, was read, or rather extemporized, on Jan. 9, but I read my friend’s e-mail to me only the other day.)
A few years ago, a young Muslim woman was staying in Manila scouting for work abroad as a nurse. She had surmounted all the hurdles to get her degree and pass her board exam on the first take. Her father had recently died, her mother had suffered a stroke, and their business had plunged into bankruptcy. Her success was already a godsend, but she still had to find a job.
Bishop Ramon Arguelles unburdened himself of some pretty burdensome thoughts last week. He waxed combative. “(Government) used everything—money, pressure, cheating— to pass the RH Law. And now they’re pleading for reconciliation? I don’t think so.”
The main roots of the moral controversy on abortion (the murder of God’s children) and contraception (obstruction of God’s will) among Catholics and other Christians, is when exactly such a sacred life creation process begins and ends, with a human person created in God’s image and likeness, together with an immortal soul infused by God deliberately in order to create a singularly unique person even before birth.
The sin tax bill, the reproductive health bill, the “enforced disappearances” bill—as far as substantive, high-impact legislation goes, 2012 will go down as a banner year for Congress and the administration of President Aquino. It’s quite an annus mirabilis, too, for a country long starved for laws and regulations that have the potential to truly change the game. Too many Congresses have come and gone with not one meaningful piece of work to remember them by. But now, practically in one blow, the Philippines has been presented with three new laws that advance the cause of progressive politics and, not incidentally, kindle the hope that this time, the country may indeed be on its way to a more modern, enlightened era of governance and civic order.
A remarkable year 2012 was. In his time, President Fidel Ramos brought about some dramatic changes in the business environment—changes that to this day we are still benefiting from. He deregulated the key sectors—sectors that are now vibrant and competitive: telecom (there would be few cell phones today if PLDT had retained its monopoly), power (we’d still be having blackouts), oil and banking.
We view the failure of our legislators to enact a reproductive health (RH) law last March 8 as a missed opportunity. An RH law would have been one of the best gifts mothers could have gotten on International Women’s Day. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in New York: “[H]undreds of thousands of women die [...]
