RH bill twitches at bicam hearing

And we thought the pro-RH bill proponents have won the battle after the Senate and House of Representatives approved on third and final reading the reproductive health measure Monday. Just minutes after the approval of the two bills, the main author of the bill in the Senate and chair of the Senate committee on health and demography Sen. Pia Cayetano promptly presented the composition of the Senate panel for the bicameral conference committee which would reconcile the conflicting versions of the bill. But the first meeting of the committee, set for Tuesday afternoon, did not push through on account of the opposition of the Senate bill’s strongest opponents — Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Majority Floor Leader Vicente Sotto III.

Senator Sotto questioned Cayetano’s violation of rules of the Senate, i.e., that it is the Senate president who should designate the members of the Senate panel in the bicam, and that no clean copy of the Senate’s approved bill had been submitted to the House.

Senator Cayetano, who impressively defended the bill she authored before her colleagues Monday, said the rule may be there, but the practice has always been that the committee chair is given the privilege of appointing the committee members, and in the matter of a clean copy of the bill, the rule had not been invoked, so why is it being raised now? I agree with many observers that the opposition of the two male Roman Catholic senators is being done to delay the process of discussing and reconciling the versions of the bill. 

This delaying tactic elicited the comment of an eminent lawyer, Alfredo Tadiar: “The bill is not even passed yet.” The development in Congress last Monday had Catholic prelates brandishing swords against the reproductive health bill. Tadiar said, “I feel sad that the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines vows to continue the fight against reproductive health even if it divides the nation. There is no acceptance of majority will. I sense the danger of sectarian dominance of governments — national and local.”

This brings to mind Tadiar’s position paper against Barangay Ordinance No. 01 Series of 2011 of Barangay Tortugas, Balanga City, where he defines “sectarian” to mean being “devote to, peculiar to, pertaining to or promotive of, the interest of a sect. In a broader sense, (it is) used to describe the activities of the followers of one faith as related to those of adherents of another.” It also means, wrote Tadiar, of it being a “Roman Catholic doctrine that life begins at conception and that all artificial contraceptives are immoral. It is the total prohibition against artificial contraceptives and deprivation of choice in family planning methods, that is at the core of the challenge ordinance.

“A sectarian state is what the Philippines definitely was during the 400 years that it was a colony of Spain — a sectarian colony effectively governed by the Roman Catholic Church, “ wrote Tadiar. “The absolute control of political processes and even of the social life of the people, are what characterize a sectarian state. An example that easily comes to mind is that of the fundamentalist Taliban in Afghanistan. Despite its overthrow, the Taliban continues to wage war against the Western powers to sustain its hard line view that subjugates women. Iraq and Iran are other examples to be wary about.”

 Tadiar cited the danger of turning sectarian. He said, “Democracy and the Rule of Law cannot thrive in a sectarian state. It is well to recall our colonial history when an independent Governor General, Fernando Bustamante y Bustillo, who dared to have an archbishop arrested in his effort to make them accountable, was himself assassinated in a 1717 friar-led revolt.”

He mentioned the Inquisition associated with Tomas de Torquemada as Inquisitor General who was responsible for burning at the stake about 2,000 persons in Spain between 1480 and 1530 who were claimed to be heretics for being Jews or Muslims or for acting on religious views contrary to Catholicism. Torquemada has become a byword for fanaticism in the service of the Catholic religion.  

“By taking its announced war against the RH Bill pending in Congress that is now polarizing the country into believers and non-believers of Roman Catholic moral doctrines to the media — print and TV ‑ the clear impression cannot be escaped that the Roman Catholic Church has mobilized its followers not only at the national level but now also at the Barangay levels to pass the questioned ordinance against contraceptives.

 “I see what is happening as an attempt by a sector of the Catholic Church to instrumentalize the power of the state to impose Catholic belief on all others. This is something which gives the Catholic religion a bad name. It is reminiscent of the Inquisition. If that distinct impression proves correct, the ineluctable conclusion follows that the Roman Catholic Church is exerting utmost efforts to turn local government units, starting with the barangays, into sectarian ones, as lamentably they were and had been during the Spanish colonial era.

As under the Spanish colonial era, the Philippines will have retrogressed and turned back the hands of time to be governed by the medieval laws of that sectarian era, Tadiar said. “It is important to always bear in mind that it was against that sectarian rule that the Philippines mounted the first revolution in Asia against a colonial power.”

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Senators Enrile and Sotto, having lost their struggle to have the Senate bill killed, are dead set on creating barriers to having a law that benefits women. Let’s wait and see how the bicameral committee hurdles this dilemma.

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A PHILCONSA party held at the Manila Golf Club showed the generous spirit of the association’s officers and members. In just a few minutes, at the invitation of chairman/ CEO Manuel Lazaro, a donation of P322,000 was raised for the victims of super-typhoon Pablo through the Philippine Red Cross. The party was hosted by Rep. Martin Romualdez, PHILCONSA president.  Among the illustrious members of the organization are former Chief Justice Reynato Puno, president emeritus, former Ambassador Alfonso Yuchengco, chairman emeritus, Ambassador James Dee, governor and vice-president for finance, and Nelia Gonzalez, governor and treasurer.

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Nothing bests roasted turkey for your noche buena, or New Year’s celebration, if it comes from the kitchen of Prime Quizon. If the turkey is tender and delicious, it’s because it comes from Prime and husband Gil’s model turkey farm in Antipolo. The fowl is raised organically, without chemical feeds and bad stuff. You can order the roasted turkey, or buy it frozen, along with other products like organic chicken, eggs and rice, plus bottled adobo flakes and sisig. For orders, call Gracie at 703 2759, or walk over to Unit 6 B, Ash Creek Center, Ortigas Ave., cor. Madison, Greenhills. The store also sells Zonito’s famous bread with sprinklings of malunggay and malunggay juice and healthy snacks like shing-a-ling and banana and cassava chips, and guyabano tea from Domini’s Kitchen.

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