Brave heart

President GMA entered the most difficult battleground of her presidency by taking on the Roman Catholic Church and its doctrines on population control. She has a formidable foe but so did leaders of other Catholic countries i.e. Spain, France, Italy and Ireland. She has a brave heart. In this battle she needs the country’s support, at least, those who are reasonable. The others, she does not need now that she is no longer seeking the ‘religious’ vote. Finally, she is not performing to the ‘stands’ but to what is needed by the nation. Those who understand the conflict between church and state should stand up and support her otherwise, we have no business complaining about bad governance.

I hope she is serious when she says she will not back down from her population control program "even if it means losing church support." By staying the course she will take on not just ‘birth control’ but the restraining hand of an archaic force that has kept this country backward for generations. For this, Filipinos can only be grateful. She will be opening vistas and paths that have been closed to us for so long and have made us intellectual and yes, ‘religious’ slaves.

She enters the league of heroic leaders who have had to defy the reactionary church. Once upon a time, it hounded and executed Galileo and Copernicus who dared say the world is round. Closer to home, so were Rizal and Bonifacio. Will the masa understand the implications of the authority claimed by the Church? That is where the battle will be fought – for the heart and minds of millions of Filipinos who have long been enslaved by superstition masking as religion.

"Ligtas Buntis" is for the poor – those who do not have access to money or the means to understand sex and birth control. It is an open secret that the better off, in general, do not need advice on contraceptions. Middle and upper class Filipinos can afford and practice artificial birth control but that does not stop them from going to mass or receiving communion. That is why the poor have large families – five to six children on average, and the better off, practicing artificial birth control about two to three children at the most. The hypocrisy of the church’s teachings on birth control is blatant and deplorable. It is anti-poor when the choice of birth control, artificial or natural, is closed to those who cannot afford it.

The debate may be the catalyst we need to take us out of the feudal stranglehold of the church and its affiliated cults who trade off the votes of their followers for political favors with impunity. So long as the church’s teachings hold the state in check through its bloc votes, we will never progress. Once the masses see the wisdom of ‘Ligtas Buntis’ and how they are subdued by the church, they will not be cowed by the threat of the fires of hell.

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SEN. RALPH RECTO AND VAT. Sen. Ralph Recto might have been unaware but his speech sent to this column thru Internet there was a dead give-away. After he had said – "in VAT, the DoF wants P71.24 billion. The House says P71.21 billion. We counter with P81.8 billion"- came the give away words: "(RGR to adlib.)". Of course. Sen. Recto has a good staff and speech writer. To him (or to his staff) VAT is a popular stand that might land him the presidency. Coaching senators is not anything new or extraordinary but the adlib phrase reinforces my suspicion about his motives. I am turned off by such phrases as: "the applause to our courage may not come now, but belatedly, as it reverberates from across the ages, coming from a grateful generation whose leaders, passing by our portraits on the way to this session hall would say: Once upon a time, never had the fate of so many depended on so few". That is overkill. Ho, hum. Given that unlike his brilliant grandfather, Claro M. Recto, he does not write his own speeches, such phrases ring hollow. Adlib, RGR, indeed.

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THE EXAMPLE OF INDIA. Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. will report to the Senate the speech of Prof. Arshi Khan of the Center of Federal Studies, Hamdard University, New Delhi in the Brussels forum. Few are aware that the Muslim population of India is the second largest in the world, second only to Indonesia. This could be problematic as it was with armed clashes last year, but as Khan told the participants federal and federated policies of affirmative action in favor of the minorities have quieted much of the unrest. Pimentel reported that Khan emphasized that if India has fairly good relations with its minorities, it is due largely to the policies adopted by the federal government that respect the cultural and religious differences among the people.

"The Indian experience may be instructive and useful to us because we also have a sizeable Muslim minority in Mindanao. And there is no way that the recurrent Moro rebellions there will be dissipated by resorting to the use of force that has been the way governments – Spanish, American and our own – have responded to those armed challenges," Pimentel added.

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HERE COME THE FRENCH. I was on the edge of my seat when Foreign Trade Minister M. Francois Loos responded to the citation read by Rep. Iggy Arroyo during a dinner tendered by Speaker JDV for the group. Loos commended JDV for his untiring efforts on the dialogue between religions (France has a very large Muslim population) but he explained that although he had his own beliefs (religion) he was concerned about the separation of church and state. France, like the Philippines is predominantly Catholic. JDV himself said that close relations with France was anchored on the historical fact of the influence of French ideas and culture of the Enlightenment. Our national heroes drew their inspiration from the French revolution in the colonial struggle.

Reliable sources tell me that the visit was successful and very positive. French investments in the Philippines can and will be improved from its $1.46 billion since the ’90s. The French business community in Manila came in force. Members of parliament M. Jean-Louis Bernard of Loiret and M. Marc le Fur of Cotes d’ Amour were part of the group. In the group were top officials from Lafarge, Alcatel, Bayerishche Hup Und Vereinsbank, BNP Paribas, Lazard Freres and Calyon among others.

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