[Philippines] I Support The RH Bill

One of the major controversies that has rocked the local media scene is the pending Reproductive Health Bill(s) pending in both Congress and the Senate. As a country that is normally touted as a predominantly Catholic one, the Philippines is an odd mix of modernist Western thinking and values interlaced with rigid Catholic or Christian doctrine. The two sides tend to come into conflict with one another more often than not and this issue is a clear example of that.


Smokey Mountain II by Simon Oosterman via Flickr.

Admittedly, I no longer identify myself as being Catholic. Instead I choose to state that I'm agnostic at best - I believe in the existence of a superior power (or powers) but I don't think that a human-defined religious organization can clearly speak for said power. In this light, I do not represent the statistical majority of the population of the Philippines. But as an individual, a Filipino citizen and a free-thinker in my own right, I thought it best to make a firm stand on this issue.

[Philippines] President Noynoy Aquino's Communication Issues

I was initially thinking about commenting on the just-passed FCC Rules regarding Net Neutrality, but I haven't found a copy of the actual decision at this point. It feels a tad too early to jump on this particular issue, although clearly net neutrality advocates are up in arms about the lack of substance in the official rules voted on by the FCC.

Instead, it seemed like a more timely notion to talk about our current President Nonoy "PNoy" Aquino and his many "successful" media gaffes in the past few months.



chardinet_noynoy by The POC News / thepocnews via Flickr.

Oh yes, ever since he was sworn in as the 15th President of the Philippines, he's had a mix of good and bad moments in the eyes of the media - something that brings odd memories of his sister, Kris Aquino. You'd think that a family that has lived in the public eye for most of their lives such as the Aquinos would be better equipped to handle this sort of thing, but clearly this is not the case. And this especially applies to PNoy.

[Philippines] Population Policy Problems

Image via WikipediaFor the most part, the limited division between Church and State in the Philippines has always been more of a suggestion than an actual rule - much like our traffic laws, as a friend of my once quipped. While many will contest whether or not it's accurate to say that we are a predominantly Catholic country, what is highly evident that at least our government does seem to be very friendly to the Church and often lets major religious groups in the country clearly influence if not outright dictate national policy.

This has never been clearer than cases when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself is caught pandering to the likes of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) beyond just religious concerns in the public view. To have the Chief Executive herself allowing the Church's views to somehow curry more favor tells us how much their political favor is more important than the actual needs of the country from her trained economists' perspective. I think I can forgive most issues that aren't truly of consequence, but for something as sensitive as population control, I don't think I can forgive that.

As a third world country (and yes, that's what we are), very high population growth rates, especially considering the significant percentage of these gains to fall with families well below the poverty line, are definitely more bane than boon for the country's progress. All this does is increase the demand for all basic commodities without the needed growth in supporting industries to address the increasing demand. Thus in this setup, the poor get poorer as they try to support larger and larger families well beyond their means, thus further plunging them into the depths of poverty.

And all this being done to avoid issues that the CBCP and Catholics in general stereotypically frown against - artificial contraceptives and abortion. For the most part, I can't fault the Church for their views and opinions. As a religious organization following certain precepts and beliefs, they're well within their rights to be for or against certain things like these issues. However, it's not the government's place to take these views and use them as basis for national policy or whether or not laws should be crafted in support of such religious opinions. Former President Fidel V. Ramos has slammed President GMA's population policies at a recent forum for World Population Day given she has clearly taken in the Church's stand as her own.

As a way to side-step the issue, the President has pretty much copped out of making an Executive decision on this issue by passing the decision down to the level of the Local Government Units, claiming that there isn't a strong enough clamor for a change in national policy.

What is foul though is the Church going as far as trying to determine which politicians they deem to be "anti-life" in their perspective because of their support of legislation supporting artificial contraceptives and abortion practices in order to deem them unfit to receive communion. Now that's an unfair use of their religious influence to try and drive government action and national policy by playing the religion card in this manner.

As a nation, we seem to be very far away from coming to an actual solution in this matter. I doubt that our religious leaders are going to mature anytime soon and they will continue to be a driving political force in the country for years to come. At the same time, I doubt that we'll see significant changes from our political leaders either. While it can be argued whether or not they are truly concerned for their eternal salvation in making their decisions, it's more likely that they're perceived by their constituents in light of these issues and continued support of Church views is their way of ensuring their political futures.

And people wonder why I don't support organized religion anymore?

[Philippines] Of Typhoons and Billboards

The few times the Philippines, my country, makes it to international news headlines, it normally has to involves natural disasters or political instability. What can a guy do, right? It is a third world country after all in Southeast Asia so storms and typhoons are inevitable along with political strife, coup attempts and pocket revolutions. All that and beauty pageants to boot!

Well, Typhoon Milenyo (international name: Xangsane) has put the Philippines on the world news map, in a manner of speaking, with a reported death toll ranging from 16-28 depending on what report you end up reading. Yes, this country can't even generate a consistent death toll report. Each government department seems to have its own opinion on just how many people are dead, missing or whatever.

Most of the northern island of Luzon remains to be in darkness as a number of power lines remain down - something that makes me hope that this will urge the government to push for underground power lines in the future.



Typhoons like Milenyo always revive discussions about the nature of billboards within the metropolis. Often times they are reported as a hazard to motorists for a variety of reasons such as distracting drivers or getting blown over during typhoons. This is far from the first time this has been considered.

To be fair to the government, the MMDA has previously attempted to get these billboards removed to little avail, meeting resistance from local advertising groups and even the Supreme Court to no avail. Personally, I feel very strongly against the large hazards and hope that this recent storm and the many affected by blown-over billboards might get people to realize the risks we face with them dominating the city skyline and in turn take action.

Then again, money talks more than large scale disasters too, as loathe as we are to admit it at times, and I doubt anything significant will change in time for the next major tropical depression that is bound to hit the country.

Note: Kudos to INQ7.net for using Google as its search engine. It made writing this article a lot easier on the research side.