Priority measure

In his inaugural speech and subsequently in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) last year, President Aquino mostly described the state of the nation he inherited from his predecessor, with a bit of his to-do list thrown in.

This year, people expect more of the to-do list in his second SONA, even as he inevitably provides more details of the mess he inherited. P-Noy is not seen as a visionary, but this year he should be able to provide a blueprint, or even a glimmer of a blueprint, of what he intends to accomplish in his term.

He should also stop waffling and give priority to legislative measures that he has long endorsed, such as the Reproductive Health (RH) bill.

This bill, like the one on Freedom of Information that Prospero Nograles managed to kill in the final seconds of the eleventh hour in the previous Congress, has already been debated to death.

It’s time to put the RH bill to a vote, before Congress becomes preoccupied with deliberations on the 2012 national budget, which must be passed before yearend. Merely computing how much pork barrel they should allot to themselves would already eat up a lot of lawmakers’ time.

World population will breach seven billion this year, with the Philippines accounting for 94 million according to official estimates, although if we include those whose births are not registered, the actual figure could be closer to 100 million. We’re growing at an average of two million people a year.

We love babies, they’re bundles of joy, but it seems this is not true for all. Some babies get dumped in airplane lavatories; others are set afloat in the Pasig River; still others are abandoned at the doorsteps of orphanages and, yes, churches.

Some babies never become babies; they are flushed down toilets or tossed into garbage heaps or, again, into the Pasig before they reach full growth in their mothers’ wombs. Sometimes the mother dies in the process.

Babies can be bundles of joy – especially if we can feed them, shelter them, keep them healthy and educate them, and in general give them a decent life all the way to adulthood.

The plain and simple fact is we can’t. This is true for millions of Filipinos.

Even the efficient economic and fiscal team of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, herself an efficient economic and fiscal manager, admitted as much when they said the benefits of the country’s economic growth failed to trickle down to the masses.

In her final months in power, GMA allowed the Department of Health to revive a moribund family planning program, kicking it off with the outright distribution of condoms in Manila to coincide with Valentine’s Day 2010. Some of the most vocal supporters of the RH bill in Congress belong to GMA’s party.

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Women with sufficient education and financial means do not need the RH bill. They can afford the services of OB-gynecologists for advice on reproductive health, they can afford any form of contraceptive, and they know all the choices open to them when it comes to RH.

Local government units, on their own, are also free to implement family planning and reproductive health programs for their residents. Thirty-six LGUs currently have such programs in place.

But national legislation will make RH programs universally accessible, with sufficient state funding. The program will no longer depend on the views of local politicians, for whom women’s reproductive rights may be an alien concept. The power base of a number of these politicians is rooted in coddling squatters – in keeping them poor, lacking in education, and multiplying as rapidly as rabbits.

P-Noy doesn’t have to certify the RH bill as “urgent” – a term that binds Congress to act on the proposed legislation with as much dispatch as in a national emergency. Declaring it simply as a “priority” will suffice to put the RH bill to a vote.

We’ve heard all the objections to the bill. Most of these were read on the House floor by boxing champion Manny Pacquiao (whose wife enjoyed the freedom to take the pill) and were duly punctured by RH bill proponents.

The loudest criticism – that contraception is tantamount to abortion – boggles the mind. If no conception takes place, how can life be aborted?

A condom puts a wall between the sperm and ovum; the two never get to meet. Even Pope Benedict XVI has given his reluctant nod to condom use for sex with prostitutes, ostensibly to prevent AIDS/HIV and save lives. So he can acknowledge the reality of sex that’s not for procreation with prostitutes, but not sex that’s not for procreation between spouses or lovers?

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Supporters of the RH bill have presented their main arguments for its passage.

One is health: women who space their childbirths are generally healthier, and so are their children. The highest rates of maternal and infant mortality occur among women with brief breathing space between numerous childbirths. For detailed figures, you can ask the National Statistics Office, the Department of Health and agencies of the United Nations.

A second argument pertains to human rights: reproductive health is a basic right of women. It’s not surprising that the Roman Catholic Church, a bastion of male chauvinism, is unable to comprehend this point.

A third is economic: our country cannot meet the needs of our population.

And a fourth is our international commitments, particularly to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, which specifically include women’s access to reproductive health programs.

This bill has been talked to death. It’s time for P-Noy to ask Congress to put it to a vote.