Yearend expectations

Reaching the last day of another year always evokes a feeling of gratefulness as we look back and count our blessings during the past 365 days. Indeed at no other time of the year than during the Christmas season do we rejoice and become more thankful mainly and solely because God has sent His only begotten Son to be amongst us and lead us in our journey to eternal life.

While our journey in this world is really full of “ups and downs” counting our blessings somehow enables us to always maintain a rosy outlook and to be ever hopeful that the “best is yet to come”; that even as we pass through a dark tunnel, there is “always light at the end of that tunnel”.

Undoubtedly, this year is one of those times when we have been led to this “tunnel” experience because after more than fourteen years of trying to avoid it, no less than the man at the helm, our President himself has brought it upon us by pressuring our lawmakers with all the “resources” at his command to pass a bill (the RH or Responsible Parenthood bill) undeniably promoting the culture of death. More appalling and excruciating here is the public perception that our own President is advancing the cause of foreign governments and foreign interest groups which originally drafted the bill aimed at controlling the population growth in less developed countries like the Philippines by the use of artificial birth control methods like contraception and sterilization.

Indeed this foreign imprint cannot be denied or erased even as the bill has been “watered down” with so many amendments including its title that our President himself has changed to “Responsible Parenthood” bill. But despite the changes in some of the wordings, it still institutionalizes and guarantees access to contraception including methods inducing abortion advocated by foreign lobbyists especially the manufacturers and distributors of these contraceptive products, methods and services. It also makes available throughout the country, fertility control and sex education. It still requires health care workers to participate in the promotion of birth control and chemical abortion by referring patients to others who provide such services. It still has the coercive provision penalizing anyone who refuses to comply with the measure due to religious or moral convictions.

Of course, the President and his cohorts in Congress may sincerely believe that the intent of the bill even if foreign dictated is good for our country and people and that there is nothing wrong with the means to achieve that end particularly reproductive health of women through contraception and compulsory sex education. If this is really the case, the President should not have surreptitiously signed the bill into law. If he is convinced that there is nothing wrong with the bill, he should have been courageous enough to sign it openly as he has done with other bills passed by Congress. His actuations here once more cast doubt on his integrity and honesty. They even cause those who voted for him in the 2010 election, like me, to have second thoughts on the correctness and wisdom of our choice.

Nothing good however will come out if we dwell in the past and languish on the possible mistake we committed in the choice of our leader especially during this time of the year. Let us give every side to this controversy the benefit of the doubt and assume that they are acting in good faith.

Let us keep in mind that there are always two sides to any controversy. Either side will always contend that it is the correct one and the other side is the wrong one like what is now happening with respect to this RH bill. The controversy really calls for a resolution as to which side is right and which side is wrong, which side is true and which side is false. And this is an issue which cannot be authoritatively determined and resolved by the President and his cohorts in Congress through numerical superiority.  They cannot tell us that their side is the right side. In fact, even assuming that 80% of the Filipinos supposedly favor the RH bill, it does not mean that all its provisions are true and correct. What is right or wrong, what is true or false is never determined in a popularity contest.

And so as the year comes to an end, let us maintain that rosy outlook and see that it is really for the country’s good that after more than 14 years of bickering and wrangling, the bill has finally become a law (RA 10354) even if the process in its enactment is tainted with irregularities and dirty partisan politics. It is good that the bill has finally become a law because now the issues of what is right and wrong about it will be conclusively and authoritatively settled. In a democracy like ours, the Judiciary or the third branch of government, particularly the Supreme Court (SC) is vested with the power to determine “whether or not there has been a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of government (Article VII Section 1, Constitution). In exercising this power of judicial review, the SC is not asserting its supremacy over the other departments but only upholding the supremacy of the Constitution by finding out whether or not RA 10354 is in conformity with it.

Let us just hope that this time PNoy will exercise statesmanship by not meddling and influencing the SC as he did to Congress; and/or that the SC Justices will not succumb to such meddling. Otherwise the disunity in our country will become more debilitating and ruinous.

Happy New Year to All!

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