The hidden agenda of the RH Bill

The issue of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill has been discussed in this corner many times already. If I write about it again I would sound like a broken record. However, it seems that the 16th Congress is hell-bent on having this bill approved and chances are, we just might see some kind of collusion or cooperation with the political allies belonging to the Arroyo administration and those belonging to the Aquino administration. So you can place your bets that the RH bill would be approved, which I’d say is extremely high.

Let me reiterate my views that there really is no need for Congress to pass a law on the RH bill simply because, anyone today can go to a store, even a sari-sari store to buy a condom and use it as he pleases, even if it is against Catholic doctrines. So again we ask, why is Congress hard-pressed in pushing for this bill? Well, the answer is simply, most laws that pass through Congress have monies attached to it. Since the RH bill needs funding from the government, this is one way that our Congressmen can get their hands into the nation’s coffers. Legally of course!

Clearly the issue here is not really about our freedom of choice because we already have this freedom. I mean, since when did the Catholic faithful obey the tenets of the church? How many parents used condoms in order to space their children? Those parents know that they were committing sin when they did that, but then, they have the blessing of having the sacrament of reconciliation. When they confess this to the priest, all is forgiven. So, is freedom of choice the issue here? There are hidden agenda in their pursuit of having an RH bill for the Philippines.

It’s no secret that in order for the Philippines to secure US foreign aid, we have to submit to the US Foreign Assistance law that requires recipient nations to accept a population reduction program. This is why right after getting the US $434 million Millennium Development Fund grant, Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III while he was still in the US, enthusiastically announced that he was supporting a population control plan. Hence we are now in the midst of this controversy about the RH Bill. So let’s cut the bull and accept that this is nothing but a population reduction program.

This brings us once more to the question whether or not the Philippines is overpopulated. Many so-called economists insist that our poverty is due to our overpopulation. But is it really? Today, the best economies experiencing a phenomenal economic growth are China and India, whose populations are over 2 billion. The strongest economy, the United States is having economic difficulties and as we recently reported, they now have 32 million people below the poverty line.

Last year I was in Taipei, Taiwan whose population density is even larger than Mainland China. Yet Taiwan’s per capita income is many times higher than China. The same thing is true to South Korea or Japan. So clearly, a large population is not an economic handicap. If at all, what is happening in the Philippines is a grave unequal distribution of wealth. The rich get richer, while the powerful politicians have a stranglehold control on the Philippine government. Thanks to corruption, many of them dip their dirty fingers into our nation’s coffers under the guise of calling it Pork Barrel.

Thanks to the serious lack of jobs in our country, our poor people have to seek jobs in foreign countries. Why can’t we have more jobs here at home? Well again, the blame goes to our politicians who quarrel amongst themselves trying to upstage one another. But at the end of the day, they do not deliver what their constituents need - jobs, jobs and more jobs. It is for this reason why for so many decades, the ordinary Filipino’s dream is to get first and foremost a US visa. If they can’t get that, they find a job somewhere in the Middle East, Europe or Australia.

Did it ever occur to you that what the Aquino administration is proposing is to cull the population of the poor people who belong to the ranks of the Overseas Foreign Workers (OFW)? If you didn’t know, OFW remittances in the year 2009 reached a record US$ 16.4 billion, which is equivalent to 10 percent of the gross domestic product of our country. This is why when the United States and Europe were experiencing financial troubles, the Philippine economy did very well, thanks to the contribution of our OFWs.

So having the RH bill means that we are going to reduce the ranks of our OFWs. This is akin to killing the goose that lays the golden eggs! So should we reduce the Philippine population through artificial contraception and abortifacient drugs? I think doing so would certainly bring our nation God’s divine wrath! As we wrote yesterday, we are now in the midst of a spiritual warfare. So your freedom of choice is clearly laid out. Are you for good or evil? This is a question Catholics should ask themselves today.