Dubious

By now, there is no more doubt in the minds of a great number of Filipinos that the present government is being run by public officials who do not want to, or cannot, admit their mistakes. The clearest proof of this arrogant self righteousness is P-Noy himself who has not stop blasting the Supreme Court (SC) for declaring as unconstitutional some of his administration’s acts under the infamous Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

More deplorable here is that he continues his public tirade against the SC even after his government has already filed a motion for reconsideration of its ruling on the DAP. This is clearly against the rule that when a case is under judicial (re)consideration (sub judice) parties thereto are prohibited from publicly commenting on its merits. Obviously P-Noy is trying to get public sympathy and support so as to pressure the SC to change its ruling on the DAP. This is definitely unbecoming especially of a President of a country who should set the example in observing the basic principle of separation of powers among the three co-equal branches of government.

Another dismal and disturbing aspect on the current DAP controversy is the seemingly stubborn refusal of this administration to accept the SC findings that their acts are unconstitutional, simply because they believe that their purpose and intention is for the good and benefit of our country and people. They believe that there is nothing wrong or illegal with their actions for as long as their intentions are good. As P-Noy himself said: “I cannot accept the notion that doing right by our people is wrong.” Apparently this is an appalling aspect of arrogant self-righteousness. This government believes it can do no wrong just because they have right intentions according to their own belief and assessment. Hence they tend to ignore or disregard the SC rulings telling them they are wrong. This is really quite dangerous.

Coming to mind in this regard is another pet project of P-Noy which he believes is for the good of the people because it will supposedly solve our problem of poverty through population control. This is the RH law (RA 10354) finally enacted by Congress after more than ten years because of P-Noy’s active intervention. In fact during the voting, he even sent three cabinet members, Abad, Roxas and Lacierda obviously armed with enough enticements (like the DAP or PDAF) to sway the votes of the members of Congress.

Like the DAP, the SC also found eight provisions of the RH law unconstitutional. The most important aspect of the decision is the upholding of the peoples’ right to life embodied in Section 12 Article II of the Constitution requiring the State to equally protect the life of the mother and of the unborn  from conception. In its ruling the SC categorically resolved the issue of “when life begins.” It flatly rejected the contention of the RH law advocates that contraceptives do not cause abortion because life begins only upon implantation of the fertilized ovum and not upon fertilization of the ovum. Thus the SC also declared as unconstitutional the definition of abortifacients as referring to those which primarily cause abortion. It ruled that all contraceptives which primarily or secondarily cause abortion are abortifacients and therefore prohibited.

Despite this ruling however the Department of Health has been purchasing all sorts of contraceptives worth billions of pesos for nationwide distribution, especially to people who cannot afford to buy them. In fact in a recent news report a DOH undersecretary announced that they are distributing “packets” of contraceptives to teenagers to ensure safe and satisfying sex. Even a DOH Regional Director has been reported as saying that they are already implementing the RH law.

There is likewise no denial up to now on the claim of some doctors from the Visayas during the conference of the “Doctors for Life” last June 25, 2014 that the conditional cash transfers (CCTV) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) are being given to the poor families only if the husbands agree to be vasectomized and the wives agree to be sterilized by ligation while the female children ages 10-14 have to be injected with anti-fertility vaccines. The doctors came to know of these activities by the DOH and DSWD because they were approached for treatment of these children due to open sores all over their bodies caused by the anti fertility vaccines injected into them.

These poor families are forced to undergo those procedures because of the “no vaccines, no sterilization, no cash dole out” policy of these government departments. This policy alone already violates the freedom of choice supposedly afforded to them with respect to the use of contraceptives as repeatedly asserted by P-Noy himself.

Apparently this is the only government that has so far been openly making a mockery of the rule of law in this country. And they justify their actions because of their alleged good intentions that will supposedly benefit and contribute to the peoples’ welfare. Up to now however there is no definite confirmation that their actions have indeed redounded to the good of the people and the country. They are merely pure allegations and remain as such, pure allegations. This is especially true with respect to the RH law as shown above. In fact there are also various reports that the funds generated from the illegal portions of the DAP have been used also as pork barrel and for other dubious purposes.

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