Make no mistake, the passing in Congress today of House Bill 4244 also known as the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill is foremost a triumph for long-overdue population control in the Philippines. The country’s enormous population and its continued unabated growth has long been considered the single biggest roadblock to prosperity in this impoverished nation. Indeed, the whole point of the RH Bill is population control. Let’s not lose the plot and be enamored to the euphemisms of melodramatic activists who pitch the idea that this is really all about “reproductive health”. That is, of course, a nice to have. But the real deal here is population control.
Look to the case of Iran where the initiative to implement a national family planning program stayed true to its spirit. After the overthrow of the secular government by Islamists in 1979, Iran’s new spiritual leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini saw a large population and continued procreation to further increase its size as a means to meet his goals of building an “Islamic generation” and breed “soldiers for Islam”. The results were drammatic. By 1988, Iran’s population was 55 million and growing at over 3 percent annually. By then too, Iran’s economy was faltering and overpopulation was starting to be seen as a roadblock to national development. Indeed, it was Khomeini himself who eventually went on to re-open the issue of birth control in 1989. Rather than shroud the program in sugarcoated words, Khomeini kept it real…
Receptive to the nation’s problems, Ayatollah Khomeini reopened dialogue on the subject of birth control. By December 1989, Iran had revived its national family planning program.
Its principal goals encourage women to wait three to four years between pregnancies, discourage childbearing for women younger than 18 or older than 35 ”” and limit family size to three children.
In May 1993, the Iranian government passed a national family planning law that effectively encouraged couples to have fewer children — by restricting maternity leave benefits after three children.
[Photo courtesy Sulekha.com.]
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What is likely to go down as a notable milestone in Philippine history is the astounding failure of the powerful Philippine Roman Catholic Church to thwart the passage of the RH Bill. Unfortunately, the clergy is not about to lose gracefully. It seems the irony in what the country’s men in robes have to say about this recent triumph over the forces of primitivism is lost in vacuous minds as usual…
Antipolo Bishop Gabriel Reyes warned that the government is slowly becoming a dictatorship for meddling in the affairs of the legislative branch, which paved the way for the third-reading approval.
“This is a very sad day. Malacanang pressured our congressmen to vote Yes,” Reyes told reporters in an interview following the 133-79 vote of the House of Representatives that moved the bill a step closer to becoming a law.
…conveniently forgetting how the Church itself cajoled, threatened, and pressured legislators into voting against the Bill. Indeed the Philippine Catholic Church has long enjoyed an iron-fisted rule over the hearts and minds of Filipinos who form a country that remains one of the last bastions of Church king-making power. Filipino Politicians, as they tend to be, have always been reluctant to go up against an institution such as the Church which, along with mass media, enjoys a direct line into the Filipino mind. But the disjoint between what the Church prescribed and what the Catholic community practiced and wanted of their politicians during the fight to get HB 4244 passed in Congress is unprecedented. Politicians found themselves for the first time faced with public opinion on a matter of “morality” that is not necessarily in sync with the morality preached by their Church.
The passing of the RH Bill in Philippine Congress could be a milestone — the beginning of the end of the Roman Catholic Church’s long and inappropriate stranglehold on Philippine politics and governance. Will Filipinos, having already seen how unreasonable their Church had become on a matter so important to their future prosperity, continue to trust the political “recommendations” of their men-in-robes? Or will the Filipino learn the key lesson that comes out of this RH Bill circus — that the Church, while well within its scope-of-work to guide its flock on matters of spirituality, has no business prescribing positions to take on matters that are clearly between Citizen Filipino and the State? That remains to be seen, but things at the moment look promising for our aspirations to become a modern secular society befitting 21st Century human civilisation.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
India does the same thing as Iran, although more subtly, by limiting access to benefits after two children.
While I applaud the RH Bill advocacy for taking the Church down a couple pegs, I’ve yet to hear anyone describe how they intend to measure the impacts of this bill. That’s been my disagreement with it from the outset, and it’s only grown as the bill has progressed. I’m not sure getting the bill passed is any sort of triumph, if it has no clear, quantifiable objectives.
I brought this up to a friend of mine congratulating herself about having supported it, and got the sputtering response, “But it’s not about population control!” Then what it is about? “It’s about giving women choices to manage their own health!” Okay, fine. And the reason we do that is because…? No idea.
Indeed. The plot is lost and perhaps the whole point has been missed so it remains to be seen. We can comfort ourselves with the thought that having a law that at least offers some semblance of family planning guidance is better than none. But then some would argue that a half-arsed solution often does heaps more damage than no solution at all.
Suddenly all this has become a “triumph for women”. Say what? This was ORIGINALLY all about the Philippines’ embarrassingly enormous population which continues to grow as new liabilities (as opposed to assets) to the economy are added to the tune of more than 2.2% annually.
I have the sinking feeling that this “triumph for women” reflects another attempt to emulate American social issues that had become very contentious topics during the US presidential election.
NEWSFLASH! Transplanting a US leftist/liberal agenda to the Philippines doesn’t mean we have suddenly become a progressive society.
I agree that the law feels half-baked. It has never been explained how the measures implemented here will correlate to Philippine economic development. Another factor that has been glossed over is the infrastructure thst needs to be implemented to address the specialized needs of children. That seems to me to be a more important than the availability of prophylactics.
Along the way, when the RH Bill was passed, I have this exchange of opinion in Facebook –
Wenzon Gallaza: hehehe we won against the damaso!
Trosp: And for the cost of RH Bill:
“Cayetano admitted during interpellations on Senate Bill 2865 that the Department of Health (DOH) had asked for P13.7 billion to implement the RH bill for the year 2012 alone – an amount bigger than the individual budgets …See More
WG: you say whatever you want,basta ma curve lang ang over population.Everything the government enacts law it means money making business!That’s the reality!But this one with good outcome in the end!
WG: The majority of filipinos supported this measure.
Trosp: Claiming that Philippines is overpopulated or is becoming overpopulated is a flatout BS. Overpopulation is always the most disingenuous excuse for poor governance.
Let’s have some numbers to see where our population against our land area stands:
The land area of Philippines is 298,170 sq km. The NSO projected population up to 2010 is around 94 million (2007 population was 91 million).
If we have a population of 100 million, that will leave everyone 0.003 sq km or 2,982 sq meters of space to play with individually. If we assign 225 sq meters (a length by width of 15 meters by 15 meters per family – a size of half of basketball court) in one family of five (0.000045 sq km/person), that will compute to only 1.51% land area being occupied by us if we have a 100 million population. A 98.49% land area has still to be occupied.
The calculations did not include the areas for infrastructures, factories, and lands for cultivations. I just want to put numbers on whatever we would like to visualize where we are on this population thing.
Japan’s population in 2008 was 127.7 million and their land area is 377,835 sq km (population heavier than Philippines and land area is larger). It leaves them a 0.003 sq km (2,958.8 sq meters) per person to play with and they claim they’re overpopulated.
If I’m going to allocate the same area as I’ve used in our country to Japan which is 0.000045 sq km per person, they are occupying only 1.521% of their land area.
Trosp: And Hitler was supported by majority of Germans! That’s the reality
WG: hay naku napaka flawed ng argument mo !hehehe tingnan m na lang mga mata mo dyan sa manila!over populated!baka hindi mo alam ang meaning ng overpopulated.
Trosp: May mali ba sa data ko. May I see your data? Or just refute my data by your own data
WG: hehehe such flawed point!what the hck are you trying to prove?just admit you lose period!
WG: mali ang data mo oo over na over!distorted fact hehehe.
WG: off tangent and far from reality!
WG: Just open your blind eyes in metro manila ah!
Trosp: Bakit mali ang data ko. I’ve shown you the calculation. Metro Manila is not overpopulated. Have you ever been in Marikina or Pasig?
Trosp: Show any distortion on my facts. Otherwise you just don’t want to engage in an intelligent discussion employing facts and data. Let’s avoid anecdotal information. And BTW, for the reality side, one simple question, where will they get the P14 billion budget annually (for a start) for their RH Bill? Subtract it from education budget? Add additional taxes? Jeez, for all we know, this RH Bill might be just a ploy for a new scam. P14 billion budget for its first year!!!
***Unable to post comment.*** (meaning my last comment was not allowed to be posted anymore.)
I will blame that asshole if this country suffers from having too much taxes.
And of course, he removed his FB post and me anticipating it has captured it.
The speculation that the Philippines is not ‘overcrowded’ just can not be dis-proven by looking at land mass to people ratio’s.Informal settlers(squatters) in Manila would not know what to do if they were transplanted into the wilderness that is a mere 150KMs. north of Manila.Look at the traffic jams in Manila,Cebu or any major Philippine city and you would understand that the problem is not only over-crowding,but severely dilapidated infra-structure,coupled with un-educated poor-people who have nothing better to do than have sex w/out condoms.It is beyond fixing,this poverty stricken county is.The problem is clearly lack of money.The people who have it will not spend it on the betterment of the country and the people who do not have it do not have the balls to do what is necessary to take it.Result? Pass some inane legislation that will serve as another spicket to siphon public funds into the pockets of the corrupt.
The RH-bill will be yet another failure in a long line of failures by a purposely inept and corrupt government that believes that putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound will stop the bleeding,and be good for publicity for the next fraudulent elections.
Agree that the ratio of population to land mass is over-simplifying the issue. It doesn’t consider other factors or their effects.
The fact is that the enormous inequality between the upper two percent of society and the rest of the Philippines produces urban centers with unrestricted growth. The phenomenon is becoming more and more common in nations like Brazil, India and even China where massive internal migrations occur from rural areas to the cities. The singular cause of which is the lack of economic opportunity in the countryside (There’s a portal that tracks the state of the world’s rural poor produced by the UN IFAD — http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/) brought on by the twin plagues of persistent misgovernance and persistent (civil) war. Infrastructure and utilities in these overcrowded “mega-cities” struggle to keep up with ever larger concentrations of people in an increasingly limited space. Just look outside your window and it becomes obvious that the social and environmental impact of packing more and more people into relatively small spaces are becoming intolerable for the poorest members of our society.
The obvious solution is to properly strengthen and develop our rural areas. By giving villages the opportunity to thrive the rural poor will no longer have the need to move to the cities to take factory jobs or work as servants. Eventually, the higher income raises their standard of living. Historically, mothers with a progressive, high income lifestyle have fewer children. That, ultimately, is the most effective way to reduce overcrowding.
@Freddie
Is Pasig and Marikina overpopulated?
With your “The speculation that the Philippines is not ‘overcrowded’ just can not be dis-proven by looking at land mass to people ratio’s.”
So prove to me that Philippines is overpopulated. What is your yardstick aside from traffic jams and dilapidated buildings you have mentioned for a country to be overpopulated?
Aren’t them caused by poor governance?
I would again mention Pasig and Marikina. Them being part of Metro Manila.
Hi again Trosp 😉
I agree that by your criteria, the Philippines is NOT overpopulated.
But you must admit that there isn’t really a universal agreement on the issue of overpopulation. Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 book “The Population Bomb” was probably the first publication to genuinely bring heightened media attention to the issue. It spawned our modern sense of alarm over ecological and social disasters. And while his predictions have since been discredited, his thesis that an overly large human population directly impacts the environment is sound. The negative consequences of human encroachment on the ecology are evident in our changing climate.
I submit that a serious consideration of the effects of (over)population shouldn’t be limited to space per person (i.e. total number of people per square kilometer). It should include additional criteria such as the impact of human actions and the capacity of the environment that humans inhabit to support them.
These criteria cannot (at this point) be absolute. Population statistics vis-Ã -vis ecological research data gathered by various international organizations are too contradictory. The methods for collecting the information vary as well. But even provisional criteria will serve us well even if it is partly speculative. Especially when we all experience signs that the earth’s capacity to support life is being severely weakened.
This is the position of the The Ten Million Club Foundation in the Netherlands, whose founders seek to bring awareness to overpopulation as a common denominator to a number of social issues.
http://www.overpopulationawareness.org/china/en/about-us/the-foundation.html
Among the criteria that the foundation use for (over)population are:
1. Well-being and Standard of Living
2. Minimum Population Size
3. Maximum Population Size
4. Optimum Population Size
5. Essential Criteria
6. Energy
7. Water
8. Available farmland
9. Estimates about Food
10. Biodiversity and Optimum Distribution Density
11. Ecologically Productive Land
12. Transportation of Food
13. Special criteria (things that are not categorically indispensable to human life but which make life much more enjoyable)
15. Freedom
16. Mobility
17. Recreation
18. Sustainability
http://www.overpopulationawareness.org/japan/en/articles/4800-criteria.html
THE PHILIPPINES IS NOT OVER-CROWDED? JUST TAKE THE WOOL FROM OVER YOUR EYES AS IT IS BLINDING YOU.
WHETHER IT IS FROM POOR-GOVERNANCE,DILAPIDATED INFRA-STRUCTUE,A POPULATION THAT BALLONED 25% IN TEN YRS. OR ANYONE OF A NUMBER OF CONTRIBUTING FACTORS,THE COUNTRY IS DROWNING IN ALL THINGS HUMAN.
I DO NOT CARE ENOUGH TO ARGUE THE POINT TOO MUCH BUT TRY GOING FROM NAIA TO INTRAMUROS ON A WEEKDAY MORNING IF YOU NEED TO BE A LI’L MORE PERSUADED.
FREDDY,
You just described the conditions in Metro Manila. Arguably an urban center that is comparable to mega-cities like Mumbai. Its a sweeping generalization that doesn’t correctly depict the whole of the archipelago. YOU have to take the blinders from YOUR eyes. The Philippines doesn’t only consist of a handful of cities west of Rizal.
Right(Oh please), and Cebu and Ormoc and CDO and Tagbilaran and Baguio and Bohol and Gen San and Iligan and Surigao city and every other ‘city’ in the ENTIRE country.Show me one place that is not over-crowded and has a population of over 100,000 people.Oh? you can’t? I knew you could not. You know as well as I do that the countries population is exploding faster than the already crumbled infra-structure can be fixed/demolished-rebuilt and even small places like Malabalay and Gingoog and Puerto Princessa and even Mambajoa on Camiguin Island(the paradise being ruined by the never ending rush to over-crowd/build) are over crowded due to pathetic attempts made at city-planning 30 yrs. ago that did not take into account that the population was going to explode.Deny it all day long and I will not care,but there are scarcely any places left(unless you want to live in the jungle by yourself) that are not un-bearably congested.I described just about every ‘city’ in the country when I stated ‘try going from NAIA to Intramuros”,all you needed to do to realize it was transpose two locations on opposing sides of any ‘city’ in the country.I travel this country constantly(do you?) and I know what I am seeing/stating.
Maybe you should travel a li’l more and take a good look around,the country is swamped with people and pregnant woman,not to mention stray dogs!
Freddy, show us some facts. Huwag puro daldal.
How much are the land areas of those places you mentioned?
According to you –
“Show me one place that is not over-crowded and has a population of over 100,000 people.Oh? you can’t? I knew you could not.”
He he he, for you, anything that has a population of 100,000 is overcrowded.
For Cebu, 2010 population was 4,170,000. How can you say that it is over populated when its land area is 4,932.79 km2.
For simplification, that means every person will be allocated 2 and a half the size of basketball court area and you call that overcrowded?
If we’re going to allocate half the size of basketball court for a family of three, they will be occupying 6.3% of Cebu’s land area while the remaining 93.7% will be left for infrastructures, factories, etc.
Just visualize for comparison its population’s density of 845/sq km and Singapore’s density of 7,301/sq km.
Is Singapore overcrowded for you?
You don’t even have the criteria of what can be considered as over-populated.
Puro ka lang kwento. Wala namang ‘wenta.
Pakitaan mo kami ng data. Kahit kapiranggit na kwentahan lagyan mo.
But then, the way I see it, commenter like you is what I call fact-challenged. Facts confused you.
And Freddy, for Cebu to reach the 7,301/sq km population density of Singapore from their present 845/sq/km at our national population growth of 1.7% – AROUND 125 YEARS from 2010.
Look TROSP,if you can not see what is right in front of your eyes,I can not make u see it.Walk thru any one of the dilapidated cities in the country and you will have your facts.
NOW HEAR THIS:the Philippines is not over-crowded!!!Because Trosp says it isn’t, OK?
Freddie,
Your problem is you can’t show any data or facts to support your claim. Basta maipilit mo lang.
Puro ka kwento. You don’t even know the definition of over population.
Pinakitaan na kita ng kwenta ng population density as comapared to other places, hindi mo pa rin maintindihan.
I rest my case.
From the moment I heard about the RH bill I started reading about it as much as possible. I myself am not part of any target group of the RH bill. I know what is available in my own country for both men and women and I also do like to think how any contraceptive hits the market in my country.
What I dont know with the passing of this RH bill, is what will change for the Philippine women. Will every contraceptive product known in the West become available in the Philippines as well?
When the contraceptive pill was invented and marketed here in the 1960s, it was the start of the sexual revolution. Women became the boss over their own womb. Women (and men) could have had sex without worrying of any possible pregnancy. So women got and became (sexually) liberated.
Personally I am an advocate of the RH bill, although I wonder if it really was and is necessary. All that needed to be done was changing/altering the mind sets of Philippine women and men. It baffles me how mature grown up people can still fuck like rabbits, get pregnant as a result but cant afford (in many aspects) to raise such (big) families.
A few months ago there was a story printed in the SunStar newspaper about a 43 year old man and his 38 year old wife. They already had 3 kids. But as a result of their making love, she became pregnant of a 4-plet. Now the man and wife are dealing with a family of 7 (!!!!) kids. The man earns a wage of PHP 1500 per month. I wonder was this intended or was it because of lack of knowledge? This story happened in the town of Argao, Cebu. When I read the story, it made me puke and vomit. I feel very sorry for those 7 kids and for the wife.
Will the RH bill/law eventually prevent such things from happening in the future or …..?
“It baffles me how mature grown up people can still fuck like rabbits”
Maturity is rare in this country. Just look at the top officials of the gov’t
@K3,
“… Just look at the top officials of the gov’t”
Mabe not very politically correct to say but at least they (top officials of the gov) can afford to have big families with all the responsibilities that come with it.
True that though, there’s even the former senator who apparently has 80 (and maybe a still growing number) kids.
The issues of personal maturity and sense of responsibility still remain, though.
Maybe the church has failed to instill such a sense on to the people, maybe it’s the education system, or maybe just the brain-cell-killing media.
The RH Bill may be the most humane way of preventing more poverty short of forced ligations and vasectomy, though still way below revoking the 60-40 ownership policy of the country.
Attempting to give more jobs by revoking the 60-40 policy would still be the best form of population control.
@K3
“Maybe the church has failed to instill such a sense on to the people, maybe it’s the education system, or maybe just the brain-cell-killing media.”
What about the parents?
I am 49 years, my Philipine partner is 36. She wants to have a kid. In my neck of the woods (the Netherlands) 36 is already a dangerous age. A woman of 35 and up is prone of getting a child with abnormalities (Down-syndrome) or prone to getting multiples. And even when my partner will have a complete 100% healthy kid, and when I am 70 she/he is 20. Not the ideal picture to have a kid at such an age. Me blind, deaf and in a wheelchair. That may sound like a joke to you but my body will not get any younger.
If my partner keeps on insisting the wish for a child, I will take her to my GP (general practioner) and let her be thoroughly examined. I just wonder if they would do the same in the Philippines considering my partner’s age and the possible dangers. I dont trust the Phili health care that much.
In my society both parents raise and bring up kids equally and together. Its not considered to be the sole responsibility of the wife. No dutch woman would accept that the man will not participate in the raising of the kid. We made it together and we both share the equal responsibility of raising it.
And let me add another issue here. If I would have 80 kids (god forbid) then how can I spend equal and quality time to each of those 80 kids? A day only has 24 hours.
Please explain me why a man with only 2 brain cells (that is me) will always consider all circumstances when making such a big and important decision about procreation, while an entire nation (the Philippines) keep on fucking like rabbits and dont think about it at all? Do I need an RH bill while I just use my 2 brain cells? I dont think so.
“That remains to be seen, but things at the moment look promising for our aspirations to become a modern secular society befitting 21st century human civilisation.”
What’s next after the RH bill? This was maybe fight/war/struggle number 1 with the RC church. What if a divorce bill needs to be passed; what if an abortion bill needs to be passed; what if an euthanasia bill needs to be passed?
At present the Philippines is the only country in the world that has no legal divorce law. What is the general definition of “a modern secular society befitting 21st century human civilisation.”?
For me it means that each individual has a wide range of options to choose from.
As far as I know, I cant enroll my kid on a secular school (a non-religious school) in the Philippines, I cant have a legal divorce (only anullment).
There is a long way to go Benign0 to get there.
“At present the Philippines is the only country in the world that has no legal divorce law.”
Are you sure?
If my memory serves me well then Malta or Cyprus with the Philippines were the last 2 countries. Malta (or Cyprus) changed their laws pretty recently. So now the Philippines is the only one.
Mr. Aquino never learn from history. President Marcos respected and “feared” the Church as many Political leaders did and still do. The Catholic Church will teach him a good lesson. Let’s wait and see… He should have learned from his mother. The passage of the RH bill goes against his “Daang Matuwid”. The fact is that the RH BILL was passed courtesy of the Pork-Barrel “BRIBE” to the lawmakers. I strongly fear this opens for more opportunities for corruption. Check who will supply the CONDOMS and CONTRACEPTIVES worth 3 billion per year. Is the company not owned by a relative of someone close to Aquino or one of the lawmakers? How will the contraceptives be distributed at the Barangay level? I know for a fact that government “free medicines” are being sold in remote barangays. The argument that the Philippines is over-populated is a Lie. Factual data and recent survey reports have disputed this.
the population is exploding,factual data supports that is true.whether it is overcrowded or not is an opinion,not a fact.
@Freddy
I have shown my date. So, show your factual data and I’ll unpack it for our analysis. Cite the link.
Wow, so I’m gonna be taxed for thy neighbor’s rubber and pills. Nice. Nothing against it though at least I’m helping out, maybe that’s what they call social responsibility or is it obligation now? Well either way, it’s in effect now.
Anyway, I can buy it myself without the need for a free handout. This could be good news for the freeloaders who fuck like rabbits all day and are still jobless but can procure alcoholic beverages, cigarettes and drugs who instead of being productive..they choose to be reproductive.
Maybe they should also start creating a bill for helping out the jobless and the under-employed people. Maybe a bill for improved education for the kids? Or something that is helpful to the economy? Or I guess maybe not.
This country has plenty of issues, some of it are issues way before I was born but until now still quite unresolved. And a few euphoric events of the past and even in the present can turn people amnesiac of the situation or maybe just in plain denial of it.
If they can rush through the RH bill, they can at least rush the other bills that were put in the back-burner for like a long time now.
So much for priorities. I did hear about the FOI bill though. I wonder about that.
But hey, let’s be positive. If the Philippines will become progressive and be less impoverished years after the RH bill was passed then it might not be so bad after all. I guess that was a good start but that remains to be seen.
Then again, if it is still the same “overpopulated” cesspool as they say, then maybe it didn’t really help out at all. Instead we might hear about the next person in the hot-seat of the newest edition of “The Blame Game”.
What this country needs is “Hiyain-ang-mga-tamad-na-walang-alam-kundi-tumambay-sa-kanto-at-maghanap-ng-madedelihinsiyahan-para-pang-inom o pang-sugal” bill!
Sadly the problem with this one is “Kinukunsinte pa ang mga kabalbalan kaya ayun nakadisgrasya na naman”
Oh well, cold weather cometh..mating season doneth :))
It’s like a Shakespeare Play. “To be, or not To be. This is the question”. To multiply like
Rabbits, or not to multiply like Rabbits. This is the question”. I have no quarrel with the Church. However, I believe in the Jesus Christ statement: “Render unto Caesar, things that are of Caesar’s. And unto your God. Things of your God’s.” The line of Politics and Religion is clear. State and the Church….
@ Hyden Toro
Now that the RH Bill will be signed into law and finally enter the history books of the Philipine Congress, there are two things the Philippine Congress still needs to consider:
1) Stop the teaching and study of literature where William Shakespeare is mentioned as the author because Shakespeare as we know it was an illiterate man. The real person behind the identity of Shakespeare was Sir Francis Bacon, the “illegitimate son” of Queen Elizabeth 1st whom she banished to France to cover the royal family shame.
2)Ban the study of “evolution” because science have now proven that Darwins theory on evolution was wrong.
In fairness to the president, I love how rants against the media (especially Noli de Castro) though his concerns are quite flawed from the business perspective.
If you want to quote Jesus related to the failing of the RC church remember what he said was the most important commandment (paraphrased); “Love God and love your neighbor as you do yourself.” The majority of people I interact with do not practice this. Loving God means becoming a better person. Loving your neighbor means realizing that your actions have an impact on others. I just don’t see that here on a regular basis.
While the nation is busy getting drank and caught up in celebrating the holiday season, the panot and his friends in congress quietly tip toed the passing of the RH Bill. When every thing is said and done, every one will wake up in the new year feeling they’ve been hit by a Marquez knock out punch. LOL…Feliz Navidad!!!
Before commenting for or against the RH Bill, please take the time to actually read the law that has been passed and then make up your mind on who won and who lost. It expressly said that is is not for population control, no targets or benchmarks were set. The whole bill is about making available to the politicians and bureaucrats, more than P12 B next year to spend and make commissions from.
Because Philippines main Export commodity are OFW (modern day form of slavery), RH Bill will never be implemented to maintain a continuous supply of cheap/quality labor and organ donor to the world.
Government always Export our Best People (OFW w/c are hard-working, productive, high skilled & intellectual) which result to “Brain Drain”. And forever relied on their dollar remittances (>$20billion) to fuel our economy. Those left behind (lazy & AMPAW) who are tasked or voted to lead our nation and others are appointed to vital positions in the government.
“Government don’t want a population capable of critical thinking. They want obedient workers, people smart enough to run machines and dumb enough to passively accept their situation”. – George Carlin