Other views on HB4110

Although I am definitely for the passage of HB4110 – I stated why in my column last Thursday – in fairness to the bill’s critics, I am publishing the e-mail message of Meg Francisco of the Alliance for the Family Foundation Philippines, Inc. (ALFI).

"Dear Ms. Torrevillas,

"We cannot disregard the fact that the character of the Bill is anti-life and anti-family. We expect the number of teen-age abortions to be ‘success measures’ of this Bill. In all international conferences, the term ‘reproductive’ in reference to health or rights, no longer means what any dictionary states, ‘bearing offspring’‚ but the impeding of the natural reproductive process of conception and birth, including artificial contraception and legalized abortion. Thus, the reference to so-called women’s reproductive rights must be understood as deceptive and misleading, since ‘reproductive health’ would be expected to mean the safe completion of the process of bearing offspring.

"Furthermore, the bill does refer to abortion in several sections; of course, the proponents of this bill would never say ‘teen-age abortion is one of the pillars of our reproductive health care program‚ because they know it would infuriate Filipinos. But take a look at these sections of the Bill which show that this Bill will lead to legalization of abortion among other evils that will damage the Filipino family:

Section 5a. Elements of Reprodutive Health‚ 3) Prevention and Management of Abortion and its Complications. Comment: ‘Management of abortion‚ is a euphemism for accessibility and availability of abortions.

Section 5c. Functions. 2) Review national and local laws and policies . . . . Particularly, review of laws and policies shall include the following areas . . . c. abortion, Reproductive rights of adolescents.

"5.d. 2)Broad Reproductive Health Care . . . b. Prevention and management of consequences of abortion.

"5.d. 5) Adolescents. The removal of all legal and regulatory barriers to reproductive health care for adolescents . . . include information and services addressing reproductive health . . . sexuality and responsible use of contraceptives; b). Also, there must be : . . . ii) services geared specifically towards the special reproductive health needs of adolescents . .. .

"Sec. 7. Any restriction on dissemination of information . . . including requirements for third-party authorizations in . . . other voluntary sexual and reproductive health procedure(s) is considered discrimination of the exercise of one’s sexual and reproductive rights and is thus punishable by imprisonment . . . and/or a fine . . .

"Even the Explanatory Note refers to abortion: ‘Other legal barriers to Reproductive Health are laws that prohibit abortion . . . Thus, the Philippine government is also obligated to remove legal barriers . . ."

"During the public hearing on August 27, 2002, the proponents of the Bill backed off from the clamor against abortion and said that what they received was a previous draft of the Explanatory Note, even if the Committee on Health was sending out only one draft since December through last week. Why? Was it because they realized they would have to couch the language in even more deceptive terms? "

– Sincerely yours, Margarita Francisco, Alliance for the Family.

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In 1995, a group of individuals organized themselves into a non-profit, non-stock entity called Organic Producers Trade Association or OPTA for short. They had, like several generations of food product growers and consumers who had been living on chemically produced agriculture products, realized that they had to be discriminating in their food choices.

Because of the groundswell of support for organic food, OPTA is inviting all similar-minded consumers to attend and patronize the organic producers‚ offerings through exhibit booths on the fourth floor of Robinson Mall, Ortigas, from Sept. 12-15. Moreover, they are offering seminars in organic farming and natural healing.

Highlight of the event is a fashion show featuring indigenous fibers by prominent designers Patis Tesoro and Dita Sandico-Ong. An organic dinner will be served after the show. Tickets are available at the OPTA office or call up 371-2347/372-8624.

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Tanon College in San Carlos City celebrates its golden jubilee tomorrow, September 1, at the city’s auditorium. The celebration, though, started Friday, with intramural games in the morning, and a concert by the famous Kabayao Family Quintet in the evening. Today, there will be inter-private school games and a literary musical competition at the Tanon quadrangle.

Tomorrow, the grand alumni homecoming will feature the granting of awards to "distinctive alumni," and a silver jubilarians‚ program and ballroom dancing. Tomorrow, there will be a grand parade led by the Silliman Band and a mass dance contest.

The celebration continues, with championship inter-school games and invitational games, a Student-PTA night on Tuesday. On Wednesday, there will be a thanksgiving and memorial service, a faculty breakfast, a pass-in-review in honor of school and city officials, and a Ms. Tanon Golden Jubilee Beauty Pageant to be held at the city auditorium.

Tanon College was founded by the late "Tio" Nonoy Antonio, a well-loved no- nonsense town mayor and a World War II hero. My congratulations and best wishes to the scions of the college who are all in San Carlos now for the celebration: Atty. Belinda Menchaca, Cynthia Sanchez, Dr. Eugene Antonio, Francis Yoakim, Gibet Bascara, Irene Alonso and German Antonio.