As the RH bill passed the second reading, it seems that after fourteen or so tortured years, this bill has finally come that much closer to becoming the law of the land. While the media focuses on the delicious outrage of the Catholic church and other religious groups, it does a disservice to the public who ought to know more about the garbage that Congress habitually dishes out. There's more to this issue than religion yet, the issue of whether or not "this" or "that" is a "sin" is what people get all caught up in.
I will now explain my views on why the RH bill is a load of cow dung, a waste of everyone's time and I won't even use religion to criticize it.
Quick! Tell me what's the purpose of the RH bill. Never mind because I know what you're probably going to say. The RH bill's purpose is to control population right? Well, that's wrong because there's absolutely nothing in the bill that calls for the control of the population. Go read it, I'll wait.
What the bill does basically, is give people access to reproductive health information and a wider access to contraceptives (now classified as essential medicines in hospitals). It does not make any guidelines about how many children a family should have nor does it penalize families who have "too many" children.
Check out section sixteen as a wonderful example of the dubious effectiveness and weak sissy language of the bill. The bill only "assists" families to "achieve" their desired family size in the context of "responsible parenthood" (i.e. not having more than you can handle) and recommends two children, yet, it's neither mandatory nor compulsory. In other words, it's just advice. If regular people barely follow the rules of the road and traffic signs, I'm not sure what effect mere suggestions would.
Even if they made implementing rules about what the ideal family size is and for what type of family, the RH bill specifically prohibits mandating the number of children a couple can have. They can have as many children as they want still, the only difference being that some bureaucrat would be there to tell them beforehand that going for eleven when you make about five thousand pesos a year just might be a bad idea. Families totally listen to strangers about how to run their lives right?
That's what this all amounts to; a glorified information drive. The idea behind the bill is that if you make access to information and contraceptives easier for the common idiot then maybe, just maybe, he would stop thinking with his dick and be more smart about whose field he plows and how many seeds he sows now that he's been taught to plan ahead for once in his life. This is all wishful thinking and I find it hard to believe that people who think that this is going to control our population can be that optimistic. This is all theory. There is no guaranty that mere access to information and contraceptives will significantly change population growth absent any direct coercion from the state. Could I be wrong? Of course. But my point is that we're passing a bill on mere hope and prayer that it might have some kind of effect because the bill itself has no teeth.
If the intent of the bill was to curb population growth then this is probably the lamest, weakest way to go about it.
2. The RH Bill is a Burdensome Entitlement
Now that I've said that population control doesn't seem to be the point of the bill, what is the point then? The bill mentions in its guiding principles that we have the "freedom of informed choice". Sure. It further mentions that, "the freedom of informed choice is fundamental to the exercise of any right". Well, I guess that's true. But then the bill mentions that the "freedom to informed choice must be guaranteed by the state like the right itself". Uh oh.
You know, the word "right" is thrown about too much these days. Just because you call something a right doesn't mean you can make all sorts of demands on the state. For example, I have a right to free speech. Does that mean that the government should give me free access to a laptop with wi-fi so I can express myself online? How about free space on a newspaper? How about this: the right to assemble. If I have the right to assemble, can I demand the government give me free placards and megaphones? Can I ask a whole road be shut down or any road in the City I want, to be shut down for that matter? There are limits and what we are entitled by way of right must be within the bounds of law or more importantly, within the bounds of reason.
Apparently reproductive health is a "right" now. I have no problem with that. People are free to buy condoms, pills or exercise any manner of natural or artificial birth control they want. The problem I have however, is that it seems that's just not enough for some people. It's now the state's job to give everyone free access to information whenever they want, to promote contraceptives as essential medicines in hospitals, "promote" (i.e license for politicians to set up free programs and handouts) reproductive health to the poor/marginalized/unfortunate/indigent/underprivileged sectors of society. Furthermore, it makes health services mandatory for private employers to provide for FREE (more on this later). Did you know that? This all costs money. Taxpayers' money. Other people's money.
Since when is a person's sexual life the concern of another?
I'm thinking of running for the Senate. Here's my pitch:
"My fellow countrymen! I believe that every Filipino, regardless of age, gender or creed, has the freedom to informed choice and the God-given right to good oral hygiene! Therefore, if elected as your humble representative, I would propose sweeping legislation to ensure that every Filipino has free access to information on proper oral hygiene and toothbrushing techniques!
Our children, who are the future of our great nation, shall be taught to floss in all grade levels! I will ensure that every local government unit, from the biggest city to the smallest mountain barangay, shall have adequate supplies of free toothpaste and free brushes! It shall be mandatory for all employers to provide free dental care without question! I shall encourage both private and public dentists to render teeth cleaning and tooth filling services for free or at an uncompetitive and paltry cost! But please remember, I will not actually force anyone to brush their teeth but merely encourage them to. Ultimately, it is you, my boss, my master, the people, who have all the power! Vote for me, and every smile is this great land shall be as white as the pearls from the bountiful ocean! God bless! Free!"
There, I just described how to get elected and the RH bill.
3. The RH Bill Burdens Employers
I don't expect society at large to be sympathetic to Capitalism but I think there's something wrong when the state forces private employers to subsidize the sex lives of their employees. Unlike the baby-glove treatment families get, where they're merely encouraged to exercise common sense, our lawmakers save the penalties on those oh-so-evil employers.
It's truly disturbing that our lawmakers don't see the kind of effect this will have on society. All this will do is ramp up the costs of hiring employees which will lead to less incentive to hire. People hire people to work for money, not to get free condoms. Please leave the employment contracts to the employers and employees. Let them sort it out without the state butting in. Sure, keep minimum labor standards if you must, but for God's sake, don't put "reproductive health services" there as a baseline all because the government can't handle doing it itself. Do they think businesses are some kind of charity?
They always do this. They always view employers as a vehicle to handout welfare programs. When our lawmakers aren't abusing Labor Laws, they're putting the onus on our long-struggling LGUs who depend on the national government for money to fund programs that the same national government thrust upon them!
I'm Done for Now
So that's it. I am against the RH bill because it's a weak law that lacks any forceful measure that guarantees a significant change in population levels (if that was the whole point, who knows?). It's doubtful it will achieve anything significant or anything at all, really. It's yet another wasteful entitlement program to unnecessarily burden LGUs and employers and will probably be a juicy target for corruption and abuse. It's just another opportunity for politicians to play Santa Claus with other people's money.
I really don't understand why people bitch about the corruption and inefficiency of the government and yet, continue to give it more power and responsibilities. Thankfully, it is still just a bill. Maybe those jackasses can still fix it so it won't be so bad because they did soooo well with the Cybercrime Law right? Ugh...
Maybe the world should end.
No comments:
Post a Comment