I went to church with mama at 7 am and for the fourth straight week, the priest talked about the church’s objection on the Reproductive Health Bill.

People are sexual creatures – that’s a fact and the population will continue to grow if we don’t control: control sex or control population growth.

Control sex:
People do not have discipline and the will to control – this is what the church sees and what they think should be addressed. I don’t know how to react on this but the church has a point. The church believes that there are morally accepted ways to address population problem and this is what they want people to understand. Well what the church wants is to make people behave in God’s will and this bill is just another reason to sin (= SEX?)

The church also wants the government to prioritize medicines connected to general health. We may not know when kids would catch a fever or flu and health centers do not even have Paracetamol to give the people. Accidents can happen anytime but how many barangays are ready for disasters? And the budget, how many millions of pesos will be allotted for reproductive health and how much is for the medicine for the poor?

Control population growth:
The government’s side is to control overpopulation in the country by allowing those people who cannot afford to buy contraceptives to have and use them and apply family planning. Since families who are below the poverty line are the ones who have more family members, this bill will help them avoid having more children thus reduce poverty.

Both sides have their points but maybe it’s not balanced. I want to question why there is no budget allotted for the poor who needs free medication and too much for contraceptives. Then I don’t want to be a hippocrate and say let’s just control that urge and settle for abstinence because I’m not in that situation yet and I will never know until I have my own family. But if there’s no other way to do this, are we just gonna watch the population grow exponentially?

I remember El Filibusterismo – the concept implied by the bapor ng tabo in the first chapter of the novel (Sa Ibabaw ng Kubyerta). The ship symbolizes the country and what makes it move symbolizes the government and the church. During the Spanish era, the government is just a front deciding body because the church actually dictates what the government should do for the country.

The dipper-shaped ship has two mechanisms of movement. The motor of the ship is supposed to be the one to dictate how the ship will cruise. However, the shape of the ship does not allow it to sail fast and properly. It is round at the bottom, thus it can move with no specific direction. So the sagwans dictate where the ship will go. The motor is useless because there is the sagwan that does all the work and takes the ship where the sagwans take it.

The motor of the ship is the government – just a front, useless without the sagwan which is the church – the sector that dictates what is acceptable and not.

The opinion of the church is really important to us Filipinos. I think this is similar to what’s happening now. Decisions are still made with the influence of the church. After so many years, what we have back then is the same scenario we have now..

Well I can’t see anything wrong with the church influencing people’s morality. I just wish there would be balance and if the bill gets approved, I wish it could really address the population problem in the country.