More complex than Church vs state

I hope the reproductive health bill will not be reduced into a simplistic political debate about Church vs. State. Neither is it an issue that pits President Noynoy against the bishops of the Catholic Church in the Philippines. It is far more complex. There are only a few I would mention in this column. But we should take up its wider implications because it will advance the political maturity of Filipinos.

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When the debate is about choice it becomes an issue of rich vs. poor. The rich, most of them practicing Catholics do not bother thinking. They can afford to buy pills or condoms. The range is available and choice is possible.

But this is not so with the poor. They need help to be able to choose artificial birth control because they cannot afford it. Rhythm, the natural method advocated by the Church is free but is it accurate, let alone be good with calculating dates?

On this President Noynoy’s position scores a point. He puts the government behind helping the poor choose artificial birth control by making it available to them. If I remember right, making artificial birth control generally available used to be funded by the USAID program for the poor but no longer. The Philippine government if it wanted to continue the program would have had to fund it. That I think is the rationale for pushing for the reproductive health bill so it can be continued through funding by the Philippine government.

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It may be ironic that President Noynoy should now go against the legacy of his mother, former President Cory Aquino who took the side of the church in the debate during her time and adamantly refused to countenance artificial birth control at all. The best thing one can say on this is well, even if he is the son he is young and belongs to a new generation.

It becomes an issue of the old against the new, as well as between dogma against flexibility. The Philippine Catholic Church’s position on artificial birth control is archaic and it has been defeated in almost every Catholic country – ie Spain, Portugal, Italy and even conservative Ireland.

Indeed, it is always a sense of wonder why Catholic Philippines can’t be more like other Catholic countries that are able to move into the modern age and still be devoted to essential Catholicism. They distinguish between what ought to be dogmatic and what should not be. I think there ought to be more flexibility about birth control. Certainly excommunication does not help the Catholic Church in dealing with a modern problem. I’ve heard the arguments of those who favor birth control but none more potent than personal questions: “Where will you be if your parents controlled your birth?” And for parents: “If you are for birth control, which of your children would you select as the one who should not have been born?” The problem is that most well-off Roman Catholics disregard the church’s prohibitions and do this with a clear conscience.

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I am not entirely sold on birth control programs on the initiative of rich and developed countries on poor and underdeveloped countries. It smacks of arrogance and domination especially when it is tied up to foreign aid. Not so when birth control programs are initiated by the countries themselves. It is tied up with economic programs.

A good example is China and Singapore, both economic powerhouses that at one time or another used birth control as one of the weapons of nation building. Their policy of birth control is subject to review. They are not hampered by religious dogma whose nature is it cannot be changed. They are now looking at reviewing the birth control rule having achieved its objective. The lesson here is flexibility, an attitude that the Philippines can also adopt.

China’s one-child family policy was not easy and it brought documented personal tragedies. The policy was introduced in 1979 as a short-term measure to encourage voluntary acceptance of smaller families. With its success they are looking into relaxing the policy although it remains guarded that “fertility aspirations are such that a baby boom will not result.”

The same is true with Singapore. It also discouraged the number of children couples could have at a precarious period of its economy. But the lack of indigenous labor may reverse the trend. It now encourages Singaporeans not only to get married but also to have more children by giving incentives. What these examples show is flexibility as opposed to religious dogmatism. Moreover, it is tied up with the economic sufficiency of the country in the control of the nationals themselves. The controversy in the Philippines today has another dimension that of richer, superior countries deciding how many people a poor developing country should have.

It is not unknown that the Philippines because of its burgeoning population is among the top exporters of labor. The question arises if birth control that is being revived at present has to do with economic downturn. The other side of the coin for birth control in a poor developing country like the Philippines is to limit the influx of its nationals as migrant labor in rich countries.

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I was invited and attended Octoberde which I think was a launch to announce that Green Team Pilipinas is back in business. I met some of my FB friends in a packed room at Metrowalk in Ortigas Avenue. There were also volunteers from the Gilbert Teodoro Campaign. I would watch this committed activist, computer savvy of young students and professionals. Even as they were there to listen to two bands, one of them led by Francis Manglapus, sing and dance, the enthusiasm was palpable. As they said, it is not only for elections that we get together. One of them told me this is the revival of their activism and the beginning of a more cohesive and focused organization. There were also guests from Charter change advocacy as well as legal and computer experts who are not giving up the investigation on just what went on in the first automated election of the Philippines last May 10. 

The post election summit to be held on Tuesday, October 5 at 8:30 onwards at the Club Filipino was also announced. The organizers are not politicians who lost but computer experts and concerned citizens who are appalled by government stonewalling of an issue at the very heart of democracy.