Legislating immorality

From CBCP for Life:

Watching a legislated dictatorship of moral corruption

I am deeply disturbed by how our legislators are deciding on the provisions of the RH bill and most Filipinos are oblivious or indifferent to what is happening there. The consequences of the implementation of the RH Bill would be inimical to the moral health of our people. It would be killing our morals “softly” but surely…  but that makes it even more insidious (which I define as “INSIDe [conscience, morality] poisonOUS”!)

The consequences of the bill would not be as blatant as the extrajudicial killings or the Ampatuan massacre, but it would be killing nonetheless — our morals and not to forget, of course, the many lives that would not see the light of day because of the abortifacients in contraceptives. I am reminded of the passage in the bible (Matthew 10:28): Do not be afraid of what could kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, be afraid of the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” The latter applies to the Bill: it would destroy our morality and also literally kill lives in the womb.

It took us 20 years to decide to throw out a dictatorship. They say we Filipinos are long-suffering (matiisin) to a fault. That is something to think about: a virtue is not a virtue when there is a lack of it, but it also ceases to be virtuous when there is an excess.

The RH bill is a form of  dictatorship, a subtle one, but a dictatorship nonetheless. More concretely, it is a legislated dictatorship of moral corruption. Let us not wait and see what would be its effects 20 years from now. We already know its effect: moral corruption.  Pnoy claims that he will stamp out corruption with “daang matuwid” and yet he is promoting moral corruption, which is the root of the other kinds of corruption. 

I have been going to Congress because I do not want to be a mere spectator of events or a free rider — that is, doing nothing and yet I stand to benefit from what the other Pro-lifers would obtain for the good of everyone.

I pray and hope that more people will act on the call to go to Congress!

- Maria Riza Bondal

For those who thought that the RH bill was simply about "responsible parenthood":

From CBCP for Life:

RH proponents believe singles entitled to free contraceptives, reject anti-RH solon’s amendment

MANILA, Dec. 4, 2012—Based on the way legislators voted on proposed individual amendments on House Bill 4244 on Monday, many of the pro-RH solons have no qualms about enabling single men and women to benefit from taxpayer-funded contraceptives that the P3.7 billion measure seeks to provide to the public.

In a line-by-line process of going through the measure which ended at around 10:00 pm, Cebu Representative Pablo Garcia proposed several individual amendments pertaining to the insertion of phrases pertaining to the sanctity of the family and the protection of the life of the mother and unborn from conception.

However, it became clear that “responsible parenthood” was farthest from the minds of those who shot down the proposed amendment which would have included only married couples among the recipients of free birth control supplies and services.

In its current version, the “Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health, and Population and Development Act of 2011” states in the Declaration of Policy (Section 2):

“The State recognizes and guarantees the exercise of the universal basic human right to reproductive health by all persons particularly of parents, couples and women, consistent with their religious convictions, cultural beliefs and the demands of responsible parenthood.”

Pangasinan Representative Kimi Cojuangco and Gabriela Representative Luzviminda Ilagan were among those who voted “no” to the amendment, with the former citing the presence of unmarried couples living together as an indication of the proposed revision’s unsuitability. Ilagan regarded the proposed amendment as “discriminatory” towards unmarried people.

“Now we can see that billions in taxpayers’ money will be used to give condoms and contraceptives to even high school kids. Wow, ang galing na ‘responsible parenthood’ bill ah!” said an observer after the six-hour session ended.

The tackling of amendments will continue today, with the session expected to run for many hours again, due to the enthusiasm with which RH bill proponents have pushed toward passage of the measure.

“It really seems that Pnoy provided much motivation for them to ensure that the bill is passed,” one university student remarked from outside the plenary hall, referring to the meeting between President Benigno Aquino III and his allies in Congress, which took place earlier that day. (CBCP for Life)

Professional Ethics and the RH Bill

Truth Telling in Medicalpract2012

For the record: Ricardo Boncan on the RH bill as the product of male irresponsibility

The RH Bill is for Wimps

Ricardo Boncan

(Originally published on Sept. 1, 2012)

The reason why we have so many men supporting the RH bill is because men have become wimps! That is right, there is now an epidemic of wimpiness in our society and especially among our legislators and alas our priests. This is especially true of men who pass on the responsibility and accountability of the consequences of having sex solely to women by supporting and persuading them to use oral contraceptives. The condom is no different. It’s the same lack of fortitude of the manly will when he says, “I can’t control my urges so I will use a rubber” to disrupt what God has created to be an act of real love. All these, rationalized as being “natural” or a “basic need” or some other psychobabble term but at the end of the day it is still wimpiness.

There is really no difference between Adam saying, “the woman made me eat it” and telling a woman to take the pill so she won’t get pregnant. It’s the same buck-passing wimpiness of men all over again! Before the pill came into being, men either abstained or owned up and took responsibility for their actions, either by working harder to support a bigger family, marrying the woman if they were not yet married or providing support if they couldn’t marry. A man who didn’t own up to his actions or who allowed a woman to take the fall for it, lost everyone’s respect including his own! That sense of this manly self-respect has been lost in this society.

Complications of pregnancy are a reality and no one wants to see a woman or her baby die from childbirth. However, no one, most of all, real men, would also want to see women risk their health by using oral contraceptives.

My dear women, if you think for one minute that contracepting is empowering, think again, what stake does a man have in that deal …the risk of blood clots, the mood swings, loss of libido, cancer risk… what? Women who support the RH Bill are condoning this culture of unmanly wimpiness. Please don’t, please stop, just say no! Now to the men out there, MAN UP and account for your actions responsibly and morally and stop being wimps!

Pastor Dennis Sy versus funding condoms with tax money

Pastor Dennis Sy is the Senior Pastor of Victory Greenhills. He had come out against the RH bill in 2010.

From the Evangelical Christian blog "Act Like A Man":

Here Comes the Condoms
Posted by Dennis on September 20, 2012


According to Philippine Daily Inquirer June 19th issue:

The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday said it would be distributing this year some P500 million worth of contraceptives, including condoms and birth control pills, as part of its renewed effort to reduce the rising maternal mortality rate (MMR) in the country.

The news article then tried to link the need to distribute condoms and contraceptives worth 500 Million on how we as a nation could decrease Maternal Mortality Rate.

In a statement after a press briefing on the issue, Health Secretary Enrique Ona cited the 2011 Family Health Survey that showed that between 2006 and 2011, the MMR jumped from 162 to 221.  This meant the number of Filipino mothers who died in childbirth had risen to 221 in 2011 from 162 in 2009 per 100,000 live births. 

The MMR, said Ona, is an important indicator of the government’s performance in improving the health of its citizens.“We can only say that the entire health system is improving if the maternal mortality rate is also improving,” he said. 

Ona cited the poor delivery of health services to impoverished communities as one of the main causes of maternal deaths which he described as highly preventable.

I am not a doctor but I am not sure if the solution to decrease Maternal Death is the free distribution of Condoms and Contraceptives using tax payer’s money. What we need are teaching seminars and a more long term solution to the problem of mis education or no education. It also means upgrading our public hospitals and clinics.

Does this mean that every year we will be shelling out millions of pesos to give away free condoms and pills to couples who want to have sex. I cannot connect how hard earned taxpayer’s money is used to fund the sex life of my fellow Filipinos. Also how sure are we that the distribution of contraceptives are targeting married people only? If the Department of Health goes full blast does that also mean that single men and women can avail of free contraceptives paid for by Filipinos who have a hard time making ends meet. If this happens among the single men and women in our nation, not only are we mis educating them on sex but giving them more license to engage in premarital sex.

Are we really going to pay for that???

On the eve of voting: the prophecy of Paul VI

From Manila Bulletin:

CASSANDRA PROPHECY
By FR. ROLANDO V. DE LA ROSA, O.P.
August 4, 2012, 8:21pm 

FORTY-FOUR years ago, Pope Paul VI prophesied the horrible effects of contraception to marriage, family, the individual, and society. It was a Cassandra prophecy: Fated to be right, but never heeded. 

In his encyclical Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI warned that a contraceptive mentality would lead to the prevalence of divorce, unmitigated premarital sex, the lowering of moral standards among the youth, the phenomenal increase in the number of children born out of wedlock, and rapid decrease of population in countries advocating contraception. He also prophesied that the pervasive use of contraception would diminish our innate sense of responsibility and commitment. Finally, he predicted that contraception would lead to the legalization of abortion. 

Marwil Llasos on why the RH bill is anti-women -- a short and sweet little note

The following note from Atty. Marwil Llasos is currently being shared across Facebook.

The RH Bill is anti-women. Kanino ginagamit ang condom? Sa babae. Sino ang linalagyan ng IUD? Ang babae. Sino ang nila-ligate? Ang babae. Sino ang iniineksiyonan? Ang babae. Sino ang NAGPAPAKASASA sa sarap? Ang LALAKI. Bow.

Pro-Life Philippines on the "deluge of misinformation" from the pro-RH side

From the website of Pro-Life Philippines:

Top 5 Pro-RH Fallacies

Repeat a lie often enough, according to Joseph Goebbels, and it becomes a truth. Ironically, during these times, this rings true very often, especially because there has been a deluge of misinformation that has been circulated by RH backers. Here are the top 5 most outrageous fallacies that have made the rounds in forums and in debates.

1. False: The country needs to slow down its population growth rate/lower fertility rate/lessen the number of people because too many people cause poverty.

Truth: The country’s growth rate have been going down since the 60s and according to the NSO, our growth rate is at a measly 1.94%. This is without the benefit of an rh bill. On the other hand, according to the country’s premier economist, Dr. Bernardo Villegas, 200 billion pesos are lost annually due to tax evasion, and another 200 billion lost due to graft and corruption. Given these numbers, should we lessen the number of people, or curb corruption?

Truth: The Malthusian way of thinking – that too many people in a country causes poverty – has been long debunked by people like Simon Kuznets, who was a Nobel Prize winner for Economics. There has never been a clear connection between economic growth and population growth. However, in an article from the Asean Economic Bulletin entitled “The Relationship Between Population and Economic Growth in Asian Economies,” written by Wong Hock Tsen and Fumitaka Furuoka, “For China, Singapore, and the Philippines, population is found to Granger cause (or directly cause) economic growth and not vice versa. “ Similarly, reports coming from HSBC says: ““The Philippines looks set for a multi-decade run of strong growth,” and BSP Governor Amando Tetangco mentions that “the Philippine economy will get additional boost from its citizens by 2015 as it enters the demographic “sweet spot” or average age of Filipinos 22.2 years.” He cited a recent United Nations study which showed that the Philippines is the last major economy in Asia that will benefit from a period wherein bulk of the population is of working age and has the capacity to spend.

2. False: Contraceptives are safe.

Truth: In a test conducted by scientists simulating the sexual act, as much as 29 out of 89 condoms leaked. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1411838)

The IARC and the WHO have declared that combined oral contraceptives are group 1 carcinogens – meaning that they are known to cause cancer to humans, and that they, along with other materials like cigarettes and asbestos, are the most cancer-causing. Most pro-RH proponents are quick to either deny or downplay this fact. One common excuse is that even Paracetamol is cancerous (but are not taken off the shelves of pharmacies). That is just a very ignorant way of downplaying the risk. The fact remains: combined oral contraceptives cause cancer, like breast cancer. Besides, you do not take Paracetamol 21 days straight like you do with OCPs.

3. False: There are 11 mothers dying daily because the RH bill hasn’t passed yet.

Truth: Turns out that their rallying cry of 11 mothers dying daily is outdated information. According to this article from filipinosforlife.com:

“The issue at hand is the pro-RH lobby’s emotional and exclusive use of “11 maternal deaths a day” to scare lawmakers into spending billions of pesos in taxpayers’ money for its contraception and sterilization agenda.

The pro-RH statistic is clearly outdated as attested by not one, not two, but three sets of data. If RHAN-Likhaan-DSWP cared to look elsewhere, they would have found that we had also cited the September 2010 report of the World Health Organization (WHO), Unicef, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the World Bank, which estimated annual maternal deaths in the Philippines at 2,100 in 2008. That is equivalent to 5.75 deaths a day, a completely different level than “11 a day.” This was clearly down from the 2000 level of 4,100, or 11.2 a day, which was published in a report seven years ago by the same international agencies.

We are astounded that the pro-RH lobby had to go to great lengths to justify the excessive and exclusive use of “11 a day.” We wonder why the figure is now attributed to government statistical agencies, when before, credit was given to the UNFPA and other international bodies. Did the lobbyists misrepresent old data as current? There is a word for that: disingenuous.

That is the plain, ugly truth: the RH camp lied, and continues to lie, about their own data. If they can be dishonest with this and appeal to emotions by using bloated numbers, I believe they are capable of more dishonesty. Like the next one.

4. False: The Church is against the RH Bill; ergo the Church is against women’s health.

Truth: You might have heard this before. And a whole lot of other baseless accusations like “the Church is the enemy of progress,” or “the Church is against science.”  I do not know how that applies as an educated comment, because historians would attribute things like the scientific method and the university system to the Catholic Church. Why is the Church against the RH bill? Precisely because it wants to safeguard women. The prophecies of Pope Paul VI about what would happen if the Church’s teaching on contraception were ignored come to mind:

- Infidelity and moral decline

The Pope first noted that the widespread use of contraception would “lead to conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality.” That there has been a widespread decline in morality, especially sexual morality, in the last 25 years, is very difficult to deny. The increase in the number of divorces, abortion, our-of-wedlock pregnancies, and venereal diseases should convince any skeptic that sexual morality is not the strong suit of our age.

- Lost Respect for Women

The Pope realized that the Church’s teaching on contraception is designed to protect the good of conjugal love. When spouses violate this good, they do not act in accord with their innate dignity and thus they endanger their own happiness. Treating their bodies as mechanical instruments to be manipulated for their own purposes, they risk treating each other as objects of pleasure.

- Abuse of Power

Paul VI also observed that the widespread acceptance of contraception would place a “dangerous weapon… in the hands of those public authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies.” The history of the family-planning programs in the Third World is a sobering testimony to this reality. Moreover, few people are willing to recognize the growing evidence that many parts of the world face not overpopulation, but underpopulation. It will take years to reverse the “anti-child” mentality now entrenched in many societies.

- Unlimited Dominion

Pope Paul’s final warning was that contraception would lead man to think that he had unlimited dominion over his own body. Sterilization is now the most widely used form of contraception in the U.S.; individuals are so convinced of their rights to control their own bodies that they do not hesitate to alter even their own physical make-up.

5. False: The RH Bill will uplift the lives of the poor.

Truth: The only way to uplift the lives of the poor is through education. People may ask, why not do both – give contraceptives and educate? Because in a world where governments are asking their citizens to bear more children because of the effects of demographic winter, we cannot afford to follow their example.

Truth: We have yet to see someone who became rich because he wore condoms. The poor who use the contraceptives given to them remain poor; the educated child, however, has a real fighting chance to uplift himself and his family from poverty.

The Philippines: an HIV mystery (or, Why the Philippines must control the spread of condoms)

Can the Philippines keep AIDS at bay if it embraces condom culture?

The advance of AIDS in the Philippines has been "low and slow", but birth control ideology could unleash a full-blown epidemic.

by Oliver M. Tuazon and Angelo S. Porciuncula

(March 5, 2012)

While the Philippine Senate is busy with the impeachment trial of the Chief Justice of the Philippine Judiciary, the House of Representatives has resumed its interpellations on the controversial Reproductive Health Bill (HB 4244). President Benigno Aquino III is a known supporter of the bill, which has caused worry in some quarters that he will ask his allies in the lower house to fast-track its passage as he did with the impeachment of the Chief Justice. The Speaker of the House is a member of the Philippine Legislative Council for Population and Development, one of the most active groups lobbying for its passage.

The RH bill is entitled “An Act Providing for a Comprehensive Policy on Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population Development and for Other Purposes.” However, let’s be clear that the Philippines is not a desert when it comes to birth control devices and services. In recent months, as condom ads flooded the streets and consciousness of Philippine society, it has become clear to everyone that the marketing and use of contraceptives in the Philippines is already legal and that the RH debate is actually about the use of government funds to promote and supply condoms, pills, injections, IUDs, sterilization procedures and so on to all and sundry.

This would, above all, complete a cultural revolution that began in 1967 when former President Marcos signed up to an international agreement on population control, a concept that the West has successfully imposed on many other developing nations. In conjunction with other social changes such as urbanisation, indigenous sexual and family culture has been undermined in these countries and new health threats have arisen, which lends doubt as to its genuine concern for “(reproductive) health”.

This is nowhere more evident than in the HIV/AIDS epidemic that has swept sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia while condom has been king. It is on this phenomenon that we now wish to concentrate as it demonstrates a compelling practical reason for rejecting the cultural package that the RH bill represents. The following is part of a longer paper that includes a wider review of the scientific evidence about condoms and AIDS.

Says a lot.

WET AND HORNY FOR THE RH BILL! That was the code name for a pa-cute protest action held for the RH Bill by a bunch of Student Councils in front of the Ateneo De Manila University sometime in November of this year. 

Promoters of the RH Bill are forever telling us that the RH Bill is not about promoting sexual promiscuity. That it is not about encouraging the young to act on their incipient lusts. That it is not about importing into this country the culture of mindless sexual hedonism that has ravaged the moral fiber of the much of what was Western Christendom. Oh, no, it's not about these!

AND YET, they just HAD to call this action, this single-mindedly and intentionally pro-RH action, WET AND HORNY FOR THE RH BILL. 

Really.