It’s about time!

Now that Sin Tax reforms have been agreed, the RH bill is next. On the floor for 14 years — the gabfest should stop now, and the show of hands, if not the show of courage, should be demonstrated.

According to sources, the House of Representatives will finally vote on the RH bill on Wednesday, Dec. 12, from 4 p.m. onwards.

In their December 5 meeting, both pro-RH and anti-RH agreed to finally put the bill to a vote on second reading. They would have ended the period of amendments right then, as it was obvious that the anti-RH proponents were just using delaying tactics. But the bloc requested that they be allowed to introduce amendments to “save face” as there were CBCP hierarchies in the gallery.

At the amendment sessions from Dec 3 to 5, Archbishop Arguelles, Bishops Gabriel Reyes, Antonio Tobias and other senior Catholic hierarchy vaunted their intimidating presence. About one thousand anti-RH supporters, garbed in flaming red, joined the Catholic Rank. They filled up two galleries on the right side of the session hall. On the other side, the RH supporters were also there to encourage their champions.

It has been hinted that the freshly-ordained Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle will lend more muscle to the Church intervention. The past sessions showed more pro-RH representatives rejecting the amendments proposed by their anti-RH counterparts. Perhaps the antics to delay and obstruct were beginning to grate on everyone’s nerves.

In Mahar Mangahas’ recent column, he published the SWS findings of an NCR survey of 600 adolescents aged 15-19, who would be eligible to vote by 2013-2016. [Fieldwork — Oct 26-28, 2012; with error margin +-4 percent]

The same questionnaire was used in Cebu and Parañaque cities (2009), Manila and nationwide (2008). The respondents were adults, aged 18 and up, or persons of reproductive age, with no upper age limit. Teens echoed earlier findings with some exceptions:

• Population growth. Sixty-seven percent see population growth as a problem in their city; 79 percent call it a national problem; 81 percent say it worsens poverty; 71 percent say it slows down economic growth; and 72 percent say it worsens environmental degradation.

• Eighty-eight percent want their city to have a policy on RH and family planning; 83 percent say there should be a law; 56 percent say that the Church interferes in the affairs of government on the issues of RH and family planning.

• Eighty-seven percent want the government to provide free supplies or services to the poor who wish to use any family planning method; 84 percent say the spacing of births by three or more years is good for the health of mothers and their children.

• More than four-fifths would like both schools and parents to provide better education and information about health, sexuality and family planning to the youth and want young, pregnant unmarried women, to still get parental support and continue their schooling.

• HIV-AIDS. Eighty-seven percent would like parents to be educated on RH and HIV-AIDS; 74 percent would like them to talk to their young children about this.

• Many have biases against HIV-positive persons — 35 percent would not want them as neighbors; and 50 percent think they have no right to privacy regarding their conditions.

• Violence against women (VAW). Fifty-three percent say VAW is declining in their community. 92 percent strongly insist that VAW cases should be reported to the police or proper authorities; 93 percent say the city should have a center or office to attend to these cases.

• The abortion issue. Forty-three percent say that using condoms, IUDs and pills is considered abortion (a deviation from the earlier surveys, where majority said these devices are not abortion).

• Another 43 percent of adolescents say there should be a law requiring government to distribute those devices to people who want to avail of them. (In earlier surveys, the 60-70 percent of adults favored such a law).

• Eighty-three percent call for government to teach family planning to the youth; 56 percent deny that it leads the youth to sexual promiscuity.

• The RH bill. Seventy-eight percent of adolescents are aware of the RH bill; 64 percent are in favor of it; 69 percent call its passage important.

• Of adolescents registered to vote: 28 percent say their senatorial votes will be for RH supporters and 6 percent say their votes will be for those opposed; 29 percent say their congressional vote will be for an RH bill supporter and 7 percent say it will be for one opposed. For the rest, the RH bill is irrelevant to their vote.

• Hunger in the family. 29 percent said that their families had experienced hunger at least once in the past three months.

• The prevalence of hunger was 23 percent for families of 1-4 members; 24 percent for families of 5-6; 36 percent among families of 7-8; and 45 percent among families with 9 or more members.

Mangahas noted, “The strong vulnerability of large families to hunger can be seen in very many surveys. Poor people know it very well. They don’t deliberately intend to have so many children. They just lack the economic means to attain what they desire.”

Some of these findings are consistent with what had been reported earlier.

• SWS January 2010: 38% will vote for candidates who favor the RH bill; only 6% will vote for those who oppose it.

• Sixty percent of adolescents say that their mayor supports the RH bill and only 11 percent say he/she opposes it; 57 percent say that their vice mayor supports it and only 12 percent say that he/she opposes it.

• Fifty-five percent say that their congressional representative supports it and only 13 percent say that he/she opposes it. The rest don’t know the stand of their officials.

The CBCP is unequivocal on their threat that pro-RH candidates will lose the Catholic vote. But there has been no single shred of evidence that such a vote-bloc ever existed. In fact, when they threatened former Senator Flavier of the same fate for the same reason in 2001, he came in at Top 2.

Lying is a venial sin. Pride, however, is a cardinal one.

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