MANILA, Philippines - Reproductive Health (RH) bill advocates in the academe challenged anti-RH leaders to a “well-conducted debate” with initial ground rules laid down by the pro-RH side.
University of the Philippines (UP) Center for Women Studies director Sylvia Estrada-Claudio said Monday in a meeting with the press that the proposed debate is for anti-RH lawmakers and academics to clarify their “fallacies and intellectual dishonesty” before the public.
“Let them come here and show us. Send their academics and let the people see how stupid their data is … Spew (out) all this nonsense,” Claudio said, claiming that the scientific line for RH “has been over for decades.”
The debate with the anti-RH group can cover “talking points” covering medical, ethical, legal and economic aspects of the proposed measure, Claudio added.
The women studies expert also said that RH proponents have not yet set a specific date for the debate and will be willing to negotiate on the rules and format with their opponents, whom she described as “crackpots” and “wacky.”
Pro-RH UP economist Ernesto Pernia who champions the bill for its population control aspect also challenged economists from the opposition especially his “friend” University of Asia and the Pacific professor Bernardo Villegas to the verbal duel.
“Clearly we (in the pro-RH group) are the winners. Any rational-thinking person would say that the RH bill is the rational thing to do,” Pernia said, adding that their opponents should face them “or shut up.”
Villegas’ writings, pushing for a huge population base to boost the economy’s labor force, oppose that of Pernia whose campaign is to have government-supported family planning and contraceptive programs for a “robust economy.”
Saying that the long-drawn-out campaign for the measure is evidence not “of a strong church but a weak state,” lawyer Elizabeth Aguiling-Pangalangan of the UP College of Law expressed that she is ready to face other legal experts who oppose the RH measure.
“None of our existing statutes will be violated by the RH bill,” she said.
Besides Claudio, Pernia and Pangalangan, the pro-RH camp’s debate team members will include former health secretaries Esperanza Cabral and Alberto Romualdez, former UP Manila Chancellor Marita Reyes, UP Asian Center Dean Carolyn Sobritchea, gender and sexuality expert Soledad Dalisay from UP, UP lawyer Florin Hilbay and De La Salle University College of Liberal Arts Dean Antonio Contreras.
Although largely disagreeing on the contents of the proposed law, both camps admitted in previous reports that the main social problem they want to address is the country’s poverty, only that they differ in posing solutions to it.
Anti-RH advocates called 'crackpots,' dared to debate
Pro-RH bill academicians (from left) Sylvia Claudio, Margarita Holmes (hidden), Elizabeth Pangalangan, Carolyn Sobritchea, Ernesto Pernia and Nathalie Verceles challenge anti-RH lawmakers and academics to an open debate. "Face us or shut up," they said.