Filipino
politicians have given their country a Christmas present of major significance
this year. Its giving may well have involved some arm twisting by President
Aquino which media spin indicates worked because a significant number of the
Philippine’s elected representatives consider the dollar to be mightier than
the Cross.
Spin aside, after some 13
years of inaction the Reproduction Health Bill has been passed by both the Senate and the Congress. In essence it encourages the
dispensation of free contraceptives to the poor and fact based sex education in
the schools.
It is this
later element that has the Catholic Church knickers in a knot. It has brought
the Philippine Chapter of the Rome based institution kicking and screaming into
the 21st Century. Filipino children will now be given knowledge
about all the means of contraception available not just the convoluted method favored by the Pope and his Vatican advisers. And if overseas studies are
anything to go by there will be a reduction in the number of that horrific contraception
method of last resort, the abortion.
Filipinos are now entrusted and assisted to manage the
number and the spacing of the children they beget. For individuals, especially those
on the lower economic runs of society, they can now escape the one step forward, two steps backwards shuffle an unplanned bundle of joy enforces. For the country the
specter of rampant over population has been mitigated. For the world the pressure
on Global Warming that each new body entails has been reduced.
For this Aussie, who now makes his home in these islands,
the most encouraging aspect has been to see the political system make a far
reaching decision for Filipinos by Filipinos. And this in the face of the
intense pressure brought to bear by foreign entities. For make no mistake about
it, with only three Cardinals, the Philippine’s influence at the Vatican is
minimal.
Whether it was the pork barrel or the well-being of their constituents
that the President used to motivate his colleagues to support this legislation
it is destined to become a Christmas present that keeps on giving.