Challenging the birth control mentality

Teaching Purity 

Changing World 

By DR. BERNARDO M. VILLEGAS 

May 17, 2012 


MANILA, Philippines — The birth control mentality deeply encrusted in the controversial RH Bill is increasingly out of synch with numerous pronouncements of international economists, business strategists, and foreign investors who are heaping praises on the Philippines for having a large, young, and growing population. The alarming voices from population control advocates, who used to categorically state that the Philippine population has already breached the 100-million mark, have been at least temporarily silenced by the revelation that the 2010 Census of Population and Housing by the National Statistics Office (NSO) placed the 2010 population at only 92.34 million, with the growth rate slowing down to an annual average of 1.9% during the 2000-2010 period from 2.34% in 1990-2000. Neomalthusians should be relieved that the Philippine population will not double in the next 30 years and will plateau at about 145 to 150 million some time before the middle of the present century. Given the high probability that Philippine GDP can grow at an average of 7% to 9% during the next 20 years, a population of some 150 million, mostly young Filipinos and Filipinas, will be a great advantage in a global village of predominantly aging countries in the developed world, including our Northeast Asian neighbors such as Japan, South Korea, and China. At 150 million people by mid-century the Philippines will have the population density of resource-poor but highly developed South Korea today.

Where did the money come from? And more on population control.

From Valeriano "Bobit" Avila's column on May 21, 2012, titled Will NEDA now push for the RH bill?

There is no doubt that just like the Senate Impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, PNoy has literally used all the instrumentalities of the Philippine government in order to pin down CJ Corona… even with lies and innuendoes. I can only second-guess that the same thing is happening in his pushing for the RH bill.

A case in point is the report by newly-appointed Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan (last week, he took over from NEDA Sec. Cayetano Paderanga who quit due to health reasons) who got his marching orders from the President to fast track the Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects, which after almost two years as President has failed to take off. But his other Presidential order is to support the RH bill. Come now…will NEDA and the Regional Development Council Region 7 be pushing for the RH bill?

For sure, Sec. Balisacan is getting international help in promoting the RH bill, when the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reported that their Philippine Office raised US28.5 Million in one year and that this money will be used to promote reproductive and maternal health, one of the country’s Millennium Development Goals.

My question is… where did that US$28.5 Million come from? Are they the foreign lobby money for the RH bill that has been used to pay for expensive one-page advertisements by leftist students organizations purportedly supporting the RH bill? Let’s see if the Aquino regime will show some kind of transparency and tell the Filipino people where the money to support the RH bill came from.

As the nation’s top economist, Sec. Balisacan ought to listen to Singapore’s Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew who, as we already wrote that last May 7, came up with an article entitled “Warning Bell for Developed Countries: Declining Birth Rates” that came out in Forbes Magazine.

Lee Kuan Yew said, “There will be a shift in power unless birth rates increase in the developed world.” The old world thinking that fewer people mean a better economy is already passé’. Sec. Balisacan should be advised that his economic policies should look further after the Aquino government where they boasted that the economy would be much better. But then if we cut down our population, then please don’t expect a rosy future ahead for our country, thanks to PNoy’s RH bill that he will pass very soon.

"It is amazing how the playbook of pro-abortion progressives remains the same wherever they go."

From Catholic News Agency:

A bill to nowhere 

By Brian Caulfield 

May 14, 2012

Recently I spent two weeks in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and I am happy to report that the faith of the people is still strong in that majority Catholic country. Yet there are rumblings against the faith on the horizon. In the United States, we have the HHS mandate threatening religious liberty. In the Philippines, they are fighting the RH (Reproductive Health) Bill. 

The same strategies that have played out over the years in our country are being implemented in the Philippines, with the backing of international agencies that seek to limit population, ostensibly to enhance economic growth and social progress. The late Cardinal O’Connor of New York, the great pro-life leader, used to say that before human life and morals can be attacked there must first be an attack on language. You must get people to think in different terms before leading them to act in different ways. In the United States, the old Birth Control League became Planned Parenthood, pro-abortion became “pro-choice,” unborn babies became “fetuses” or “products of conception,” and so on. 

In the Philippines, a bill designed to limit family size, push contraceptives and abortifacients, and expose fourth graders to sexual education is cast in terms of women’s “health.” Who can be against health for women, especially young mothers? As is true with every assault against decency and morals, the Catholic Church is cast as the main enemy of “science” and “progress.” It is amazing how the playbook of pro-abortion progressives remains the same wherever they go. Attack the Church as backward and oppressive, hold up anti-life technology as the source of Western prosperity, and infiltrate the media and the schools. The strategy which has brought Europe to the brink of demographic disaster, and threatens the future of a somewhat healthier United States, has had some success in the Philippines. It is “cool” there to be Western and secular, to be single and childless, and almost every national celebrity is for the RH Bill, even though their public statements indicate that they have not read much of the actual text. Lea Salonga, the Filipina who has starred on Broadway in “Miss Saigon” and “Les Miserables,” and voiced some popular Disney cartoons, used to be my favorite female performer until I read that she volunteered to be an ambassador for the RH Bill. The only prominent name that has spoken against the bill is world champion boxer Manny Pacquiao, who is also an elected representative. The media loves to cover his victorious matches and extol him as a national hero, but when it comes to the RH Bill, they treat him as a know-nothing boxer.

The good news is that the RH Bill has been blocked in both the Philippine House and Senate year after year, due to the efforts of some brave legislators who are not afraid to buck the celebrity tide and withstand media ridicule. The Philippine bishops are also very vocal and clear in their opposition, and a large number of faithful Catholics take heed, including young people who are using modern means of communication and social media to spread the word that the mainstream media will not let get out. 

I was in the Philippines (where my wife was born and grew up) for the Knights of Columbus National Convention, which was attended by Supreme Knight Carl Anderson. He said that defeat of the RH Bill must be a high priority for Filipino Knights because the Philippines is a great country, with a great people and a great culture of life that is worth preserving. Let’s pray that the culture of death embodied in the RH Bill will continue to fail when faced with the faith, hope and charity – and values – of the Filipino people. 

Brian Caulfield is editor of the website Fathers for Good, an initiative by the Knights of Columbus that features regular articles, videos and other multimedia on the subject of Christian fatherhood. A father of two young boys, Brian writes on the spiritual truths found in daily life and the issues men face while striving to live out their vocation.

Youth Manifesto for Life and versus the RH Bill: "In solidarity, we declare our opposition to the RH Bill. This is our voice. This is our vote."

For the background to this Manifesto, see the following CBCP for Life article: Youth alliance rejects RH bill, declares support for pro-life solons. 

Our Voice Our Vote Youth Manifesto

UP Student Catholic Action versus the RH Bill

UP Student Catholic Action Stand on RH Bill 

A call for Truth, Freedom, Justice and Love 

As both houses of the Philippine Congress convene for the resumption of sessions, our (75 years of) undaunted vigilance as (the University of the Philippines Student Catholic Action) calls us to proclaim and defend the values attacked by the Reproductive Health Bill in its various facets. 

WE CALL FOR TRUTH. Let the fiction of Reproductive Health needs be exposed for the fabrication that it is. Let there be an end to the safe sex myth that covers up the harms caused by contraceptives, ranging from carcinogenic to abortifacient effects. Let the underlying fear-mongering due to the population explosion hoax be stopped. Let the scientific, medical, economic, demographic, and constitutional facts – that life begins at conception, that our population size is an asset, that our state enshrines protection of the unborn, that not people but corruption and improper government priorities are the main causes of our economic problems – bring finality once and for all to the verbal engineering used to decorate the redundant population control deception. 

WE CALL FOR FREEDOM. Let the liberty that is enshrined in the constitution and which is fundamental in every human being be respected and protected. Let parents have, by virtue of their being proper guardians, the primary and decisive role in the formation of their children, free from unwanted intrusion of sex agendas integrated in school formation by the state. Let couples be not constrained from receiving marriage licenses shall they not comply with reception of contraceptive instruction that may be against their personal beliefs. Let homes decide and not be meddled with in determining their ideal family size. Let schools, especially the religious ones, be not compelled to teach mandatory contraceptive ‘education’ to students. Let medical practitioners, in line with their conscience and promises declared in the Hippocratic Oath, be not coerced into performing or prescribing contraceptive procedures which may result to medical complications of patients. Let employers be not burdened, even if unwilfully, with entitling their employees with contraceptive services. Let the state, rather than penalizing with imprisonments and fines and crippling the rights of its citizens be guided by the principle of Subsidiarity, and not usurp powers and judgments rightfully delegated to parents, students, couples, families, schools, employers, and healthcare practitioners. 

WE CALL FOR JUSTICE. Let human rights be guaranteed for all people, especially the most small, the helpless, and the very young – for that a human being is the size of a pinprick does not take away his or her humanity, and never would be a justification for the injustice of abortifacient murder of most innocent lives. Let distributive justice guide the proper appropriation of resources where such is most needed – education, agricultural reform, employment generation, health – and not for the mere satisfaction of lust through contraceptives which are after all widely available. 

WE CALL FOR LOVE. Let us look at the Filipino as a person of potential and not as a population problem. Let us see every offspring as a blessing to be nurtured and not exterminated. Let us reclaim the sexual faculty for its beautiful nature of procreation and union, and not of mere recreation, that is perverted by the contraceptive culture of the misnomer ‘safe’ or ‘protective’ intercourse. As members of UPSCA, we irrevocably stand for the ultimate foundation of Human Rights – that is the Truth that men are created in the image and likeness of the Almighty. We pray that this dignity be upheld and be not compromised for the sake of purporting economic development. May Love propel us to the realization that through safeguarding Life and Freedom, we practice the virtue of Justice to ourselves and to our fellowmen. Urged on by the beacons of Truth, Freedom, Justice, and Love, we call for the immediate disposal of the Reproductive Health Bills and the prioritization of the pro-life bills HB 19 of Rep. Roilo Golez titled “An Act Providing for the Safety and Protection of the Unborn Child” , SB 2497 of Sen. Juan Ponce-Enrile titled “Protection of the Unborn Child Act”, and HB 3667 of Rep. Amado Bagatsing titled “New Anti-Abortion Act of 2010”. Let us not compromise Life and Human Dignity with undaunted liberalism, unsound freethinking, and unbridled modernization. 

NO TO RH BILL! 

EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL HUMAN BEINGS! 

UP STUDENT CATHOLIC ACTION- Diliman

Student Catholic Action of the Philippines versus the RH Bill

SCAP+Position+on+RH+Bill

The Filipino youth is not an army of pro-RH robots

From CBCP News and CBCP for Life:


Youth continue to debunk claims of being pro-RH bill 
May 1, 2012

Another member of the youth sector has brushed off the claims of the Student Council Alliance of the Philippines (SCAP) that the youth will fiercely campaign against lawmakers who oppose the reproductive health bill currently pending in Congress. 

Aaron Ricardo de Veloso, who recently graduated with a degree in Political Science from the University of the Philippines-Diliman, declared that the claim of SCAP’s representatives is presumptuous. 

SCAP has earlier asserted in a press statement that the youth will fiercely campaign against anti-RH lawmakers in next year’s mid-term elections, but leaders of several student and youth organizations denied the assertion. 

Singles for Christ statement versus the RH Bill

From the website of SFC Global:

We Say `Yes` to Our Future Families, `No` to the RH Bill 

April 26, 2012

Dear fellow Filipinos: 

With the Congress` upcoming opening session, CFC Singles for Christ urgently renews its stand against the RH Bill and its commitment to life. 

The forces that are pushing to have the RH Bill passed into law are blind to the impact of similar bills in other countries. While appealing to a sense of “progressiveness” and modernity, the bill directly attacks values central to the Filipino family and specifically, to womanhood. 

We propose to our fellowmen and to our legislators: 

1.) Champion family planning methods that strengthen Filipino marriages. Contraception destroys the bond of love and trust between couples. Aside from this seemingly intangible effect, research shows that contraceptives cause cancer, irregular bleeding, and depression, among others. At heightened risk to women, the RH Bill ishardly “empowering women” nor is it really looking after “maternal health.” As future mothers and fathers, Singles for Christ, we believe natural family planning methods show true respect and honor, not just for the human body, but for the human person. 

2.) Uphold the right to life of the most powerless person, the unborn. Singles for Christ believes that total human liberation should not be limited to human persons who are able to articulate their own aspirations, but extends to the tiniest human being, whom the RH Bill proposes we should all be “empowered” to annihilate at will. 

3.) Use government funding for poverty alleviation not for contraception. As a community dedicated to working with the poor, we believe that state funding should be given to more pressing national concerns like poverty and corruption and NOT to institutionalize contraceptives as “essential medicines”, as if pregnancy were a disease. 

We may not be parents at present, but we have a huge stake in the future state of the Filipino family. It is for our yet to be born children that we oppose the RH Bill. Again, CFC Singles for Christ reiterates that it has been and will always be on the side of life, and decidedly against the RH Bill. We humbly enjoin our legislators to uphold the interests of their unborn constituents and work so that the best choices are given to the Filipino people. 

Michael Ariola 

International Coordinator 

CFC Singles for Christ

International head of Knights of Columbus calls for greater resistance versus the RH bill

Update (May 17, 2012):

The following is a video of Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson's speech versus the RH Bill:




From CBCP News:

RH bill defeat top priority for Knights of Columbus — Supreme Knight 

MANILA, April 29, 2012

The defeat of the reproductive health bill is the number one issue for the Knights of Columbus, according to KC Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson. 

The religious organization’s efforts in defeating the bill must be top priority, Anderson told a group of Council chaplains on the first day of the KC’s 9th National Convention at The Manila Hotel, April 27.

 “We’re not just competing with wealthy organizations and drug companies. We’re also competing against spiritual powers, so we have to use spiritual weapons. We have to be smart, and we have to fight back smartly. So we’re going to tell the convention tonight, the number one issue for the Knights of Columbus: defeat RH bill,” he stressed. 

 Pointing out that even the United States is wrestling with the grave consequences of contraception becoming a cultural norm and “reproductive health” being legislated, Anderson explained why things such as contraception, abortion and sterilization finding their way into a government mandate must be rejected.