Just plain wrong

Yesterday, President Noynoy Aquino called the first meeting for the year of his full Cabinet, the third such gathering since he took office. This was apparently such an important event that the media had to be advised about it.

Apparently, there still are situations when Aquino cannot prevent bringing together all the members of his official family, much as he wants to meet only “clusters” of them. According to reports, Aquino wanted to discuss 32 priority measures that his administration intends to propose to Congress —none, of course, having to do with revising the 1987 Constitution.

Malacanang’s raft-load of proposed laws cannot help but remind us of Aquino’s stated desire not to revise that “flawed document,” as he describes the charter. But if the Palace wants to push the passage of 32 laws in this year alone, why can’t it support moves to convene a Constitutional Commission, so that all the required changes can be made at the same time?

Besides, why is precious executive time (and the rare Cabinet meeting) being wasted on proposing laws to Congress? The crafting of laws is Congress’ job, after all; the task of Noynoy’s entire bureaucracy is to see to it that all the laws made by the legislature are implemented, not to act like some super-congressman with a ton of proposed laws for congressional approval.

(Malacañang has much more clout than any lawmaker or any group of them because its requests to give priority to bills it has certified as urgent are backed up by its power to disburse Congress’ pork barrel. But that shouldn’t mean that the Executive should usurp the primary function of Congress, simply because it can.)

And so we are glad that Aquino has finally decided to meet his full Cabinet, even if he is doing so for the wrong reason of doing work that is really given to Congress. We can only hope that, when he sees his entire Cabinet gathered together, he will realize the importance of meeting his top officials on a regular basis to set policy and ensure implementation – the jobs all of them were hired to do.

We’d really like to see more focus on setting the policy and implementation agenda, instead of setting a legislative agenda, after all. But at least Aquino seems convinced – against his will, apparently – that he will have to meet his entire Cabinet from time to time.

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It’s going to be difficult to convince people to oppose the controversial Reproductive Heal bill in Congress if the leaders of the pro-life movement persist in using arguments that defy logic and fail to meet the minimum requirements of credible research. This was definitely the case during a recent forum on the RH issue held at the Ateneo de Manila University.

According to a report by Marguerite de Leon in the Filipino Freethinkers Web site, the Faces of the RH Bill forum last Monday night drew incredulous reactions from an audience composed mainly of medical professionals and students due to the “unfounded, grossly presumptuous, and just plain deceitful” arguments of the anti-RH speakers.

In particular, De Leon railed against the presentation made by Dr. Ligaya Acosta of Human Life International, who argued that the contraception is part of a “global anti-life/depopulation agenda.” Acosta’s main basis for this is the oft-cited National Security Study Memorandum 200 crafted by US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1974 and adopted as official policy by President Gerald Ford a year later.

This once-classified policy document called for the promotion by the US of contraception in 13 of the world’s least developed countries that have the highest rates of population growth, including the Philippines. NSSM 200 said it was against US security interests to allow these countries to continue having high population growth rates and called on Washington to “influence national leaders” and to “improve world-wide support for population-related efforts… through increased emphasis on mass media and other population education and motivation programs by the UN, USIA and USAID.”

So far, so good. Many Filipinos, after all, still remember US-backed population control programs first instituted during the Marcos years.

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However, Acosta quickly descended into making unfounded statements to support her anti-RH position, according to De Leon. RH, she insisted, was a mere “marketing term for abortion.”

Acosta said that if the RH bill does not require spousal or parental consent before the use and acquisition of RH methods, then that means that the bill encourages abortion, “since the only act which a person would rather not let her spouse or parents know about is abortion.” Huh?

Also, she said, if the bill prohibits religion and family from meddling with one’s right to RH methods, then what will become of morality and the Filipino family? Apparently, Acosta is convinced that a person’s morality is entirely based on the use (or non-use) of contraception methods, to the exclusion of everything else.

Acosta also continued to peddle the unsubstantiated beliefs that contraceptives cause horrible side effects, such as making a woman act unlike herself, cancer, fatal blood clots and loss of bone density. Furthermore, she insisted, chemicals from contraceptives leak into the environment, creating “intersex animals.” And one way contraceptives work is by shutting down the pituitary glands, “in effect shutting down a person’s communication center.”

Acosta’s arguments also included claims that condoms have holes in them that are large enough for sperm and HIV to pass through, De Leon wrote. She was also able to somehow include in her presentation that masturbation is wrong and that contraception will further decrease the English literacy levels of the youth since they will only be reading materials on sex and reproductive health, which they should not have access to.

Former Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, a noted RH supporter, reacted to Dr. Acosta’s statements by pointing out that the opposition to the RH bill often ignores the number of pregnancy-related deaths in the country. And that, contrary to the position of the anti-RH lobby that the debate is a human-rights issue, “the RH Bill is a human rights legislation as it addresses every person’s right to health.”

Baraquel said that the bill does not promote abortion, and that in fact the countries that have adopted RH programs have a seen a dramatic drop in the number of abortions performed. She urged the people against the RH bill “to stop lying and start talking about the bill as a health issue and not an issue of religion.”

The issue of contraception will continue to loom large in the national consciousness in the coming days, as the people of either side of this debate continue to trade arguments in order to win over public support. But it would help Filipinos decide for themselves if they should use contraceptives or not if advocates do not seek to confuse the public with statements that are blatantly untrue.

It will not help the anti-RH side to divide the people even further by making false scientific claims on the issue of contraception, or by insisting that abortion and RH are one and the same. That’s just plain wrong. –Jojo Robles, Manila Standard Today