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 The Philippines' bishops say no to a family planning bill that everybody else seems to want
There is no subject like sex to prove beyond doubt the extent of the Catholic Church’s influence on politics and governance in the Philippines.
For years, proponents have been attempting to push family planning through the Philippines Congress, to no avail. The country has one of the highest birth rates in Asia, at 24.07 live births per 1,000 population. By one estimate, two babies are born every minute in the Philippines.
Now the proponents are trying again. They have got further than they ever have before, with “An Act Providing For National Policy On Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development and For Other Purposes” – birth control, by any other name.
The brouhaha that has kicked off illustrates the hypocrisy of the separation of Church and State that the Philippines constitution stipulates. Theocracy is alive and well in the only Catholic nation in Asia, debunking the growing myth that the Catholic Church’s power has waned with the death of Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin.
The Philippines is 80 percent Catholic. And, although surveys have shown that there is no Catholic vote, politicians know better. “There may be no solid Catholic vote, but certainly, there is such a thing as Catholic backlash,” said one high-ranking official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
Former senator Juan Flavier had a first-hand experience. Tops in popularity surveys during a 1995 senatorial race, he landed sixth in the final count, the target of the church’s silent campaign. A well-respected health secretary before he joined politics, his no-nonsense promotion of responsible parenthood, safe-sex practices, pills and condoms cost him a political career.
The threat of election backlash has been raised once again in the reproductive health bill and church leaders are not shy in brandishing its supposed clout. Prayer and protest rallies have been held to dramatize objection. A signature drive against the bill is going on and so far 300,000 signatures have been collected.
“Our target is half a million signatures,” says Fr. Melvin Castro, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines Commission on Family and Life.
Castro also says some bishops are conducting one-on-one dialogues with congressmen to try to withdraw support of the bill, which has reached the second reading stage. This means the bill is now being taken up on the floor for interpellation. He refuses to discuss what happens behind those close-door meetings.
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The grim truth of war remains: hearts and minds are lost in the campaign to get the enemy by the balls
Reflecting on an unlikely leader's quiet rise in a troubled country
The birth control pill can result in abortion. Occasionally, the pill will not prevent ovulation, but will prevent implantation of the embryo (if an egg is fertilized) in the uterus. Most Christians, not just Roman Catholics, would view this as murdering an unborn child by preventing the child from accessing the womb.
Condoms - where there is no complication where a fertilized egg could be stopped from implanting in the uterus - could be helpful, though. What condoms do - an ALL condoms do - is stop sperm and egg from meeting. If somehow the condom fails, and fertilization occurs, the resulting child is at no more risk than in fertilization from unprotected sex.
Ultimately, the root cause of the Philippines pathetic economic record as the Sick Man of East Asia cannot be blamed solely on, or even largely on, the high birthrate. You can have rapid economic growth paired with rapid population growth and birthrate. The United States did this.
To find the fault in the Philippines' system, one need look no further than to the inbred de facto aristocracy running the country, including Imee Marcos' family. Their inept, incompetent, selfish, and corrupt stranglehold on the government and their inept, incompetent, selfish, and corrupt handling and running Philippine oligopolies rather than allowing for free enterprise and competing businesses governed by the rule of law is the main cause of what is hampering the Philippines from regaining its status as one of the largest economies in Asia.
These people comprise both the government and the business leadership, and use each to support and continue their rule over the Filipino peasant class - also known as ordinary Filipinos. Government officials favor their own family's or their (bribing) friends' over the best and most efficient company for the particular job. Business leaders in turn finance their family's or their (bribable) friends' campaigns for political office, or even pay voters to vote for their chosen candidate - or even fund murderers to silence their opponents.
The winners: the Sys, the Tans, the Ayalas, the Marcoses, etc.
The losers: the Filipino people and the Philippines.
A message to the Filipino people:
If you want what's best for your country, don't just overthrow your First Estate (the Roman Catholic clergy's opposition to even condoms), but more importantly your Second Estate (your landed gentry aristocracy), for the sake of the Third Estate (you).
[In the French Revolution, the First Estate (the Roman Catholic clergy) sided with the Third Estate (the commoners) against the Second Estate (the royalty and nobility). In the end, the Third Estate (the French people) took ultimate control of their country, and put the First Estate in its place (serving the people), while eliminating the Second Estate altogether. It's long overdue that the Philippines does so as well.]