[Position Paper of Rep. Rene M. Velarde, author of House Bill 4643 (Philippines)]

The Buhay Part-List* in the 13th Congress takes with grave concern the statement from the Center for Reproductive Rights posted in the web on March 8, 2007 entitled, “Banning Contraception in the Philippines”.

Let us go over them point by point in order to take a brighter view of the situation from its entirely moral, social and human perspective

In this online article, allusion is made that HB 4643 of Rep. Rene M. Velarde of Buhay Party-List is an “alarming proposal” claiming, as it did, that the bill’s characterization of commonly used contraceptives as “abortive” drugs or devices has no scientific and legal basis.

First, there are enough scientific and legal basis to characterize commonly used contraceptives as in fact, “abortive” drugs and devices.  The Constitution firmly supports the legal infrastructure upon which this proposed bill would have been based.  And this is not a mere sandcastle that would crumble down soon as the first wave reaches the beach.  It reads in the bill’s exploratory note, a standard part of any proposed bill filed.

The moral landscape is the least to have to be affected by trends or changes in the realm of scientific advancement.  And no amount of rather pseudo-moral claims from the scientific community could alter the moral landscape in so far as the Philippines, as a predominantly Catholic country,  is concerned.

Again, the Center views as a “reprehensible proposal” from a human rights perspective, HB 4643 in that it seeks to impose penalties for the production, selling and distribution of so-called abortifacients.  It said that in its definition of “abortive” drugs and devices, the Velarde bill includes contraceptives, emergency contraception, injectables, and IUDs which the Center believes are commonly used forms of contraception.

We in Buhay Party-List stand by the belief and conviction that the unborn babe in the womb of the mother or all unborn babies and mothers in the world should be protected.  The self-serving claim or motherhood statement that women’s reproductive and sexual rights have been violated in the process is precisely what this Buhay Party-List’s bill seeks to protect.  Fact is, it breathes into this anti-death bill called HB 4643.

The Center for Reproductive Rights cries wolf right from the start.    The Philippine government is cast on the defensive with the Center’s claiming, as it does, that international treaties have been taken for granted by the Buhay Party-List’s strong and normative pro-life position.  In fact, the Center thinks that this sets dangerous precedent in the current context of growing fundamentalism against women’s reproductive and sexual rights.

We argue that since Buhay Party-List believes and promotes pro-life advocacy, it is only proper and logical for it to go against abortion.  Buhay Party-List has not more sparingly espoused promotion and protection of the unborn which necessarily likewise promotes and protects the welfare of women.  If this promotion or protection of women is deemed as violative of women’s basic human rights, it only means that some groups are out to alter the traditional moral landscape in the Philippines toward a globalized moral order.  This cannot pass muster.

It is a well-established norm that in the Philippines, the Congress is the sole branch of government reposed with lawmaking functions.  The Center for Reproductive Rights or any of its in-country or resident front organizations has always been invited to openly participate in the entire legislative process of bills to which it holds some stakes.  We do not believe that Congress has ever closed the doors for this open public discussion of societal issues of this nature.  Why then this forum shopping?

In fact, not few bills in the 13th Congress that are counter-intuitive or  anti-thetical to bills espoused by Buhay Party-List and other well-meaning Members of Philippine Congress have been filed but did not pass the moral litmus test.  And this is on account of the vigilance demonstrated by pro-life advocacy groups, not the least the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

But just what is the Center really against when it comes to HB 4643?

We can only suspect of a grand scheme of things in the global scene.

But no one ought to say that there have been violations of reproductive and sexual rights of women in the Philippines on account of our HB 4643 also known as the “Anti-Abortive Drugs or Devices Act”.

It is not true that this bill discriminates against women.  Rather, the bill protects them – from life to life and not from life to death.  It upholds that abortion is a form of killing and this has no place in civilization.

The bill does not amount to arbitrary restrictions on modern methods of contraception.  Rather modern methods of contraception amount to arbitrary restrictions on the scope and spirit of HB 4643.  The Center for Reproductive Rights aims to block the bill’s passage into law but several quarters in the Philippines still subscribe to a supreme moral authority.  And the Church plays a critical role to trim down the excesses of possibly too much modernization.

Truly, the prospective passage of HB 4643 through a more renewed and invigorated efforts from an expanding community of pro-life advocacy groups shall mean the imminent demise of a drug manufacturing business.  And we have reason to suspect that some NGOs are being showered with huge amounts of financial support that make lobbying by big-time lobbyists an equally profitable business raised to industry levels.

Buhay Party-List stands, fair and square with HB 4643 no matter the attacks.

Buhay Party-List is supported by the Church, the Constitution, the Community – here and throughout the globe.

We cannot relax our brand of morality in favor of token modernization.

We cannot relax our guard against every attempt to usher us to a culture of death, culture of choice, culture of promiscuity.

We cannot allow the production of abortion pills at 10,000 pieces per minute because the more pills produced, the more unborn babies will die and more women confronted with the risk of maternal deaths.

Buhay Party-List, on a larger scale, is against divorce, euthanasia, abortion, two-children policy and homosexuality as these are all woven from the same thread that promotes a culture of death, a culture of choice, a culture of promiscuity violative of our moral beliefs, violative of our Constitution, and violative of our pertinent laws.

We do not subscribe to divorce.  Rather we are pro-marriage and pro-family.

We do not subscribe to euthanasia.  Rather we are pro-sick, pro-aged, pro-elderly, pro-hope than adherents of fatalism and despair.

We do not subscribe to abortion.   Rather we are pro-life, pro-unborn babies and their mothers.

We do not subscribe to two-child policy.  Rather we believe that the State cannot interfere in the solemn affairs of marriage and family life.  We know that countries that have advocated for such policy now suffered the unseen consequences of having to recruit or invite human capital from offshore.

We do not subscribe to homosexuality.  Rather we are for procreation.  We believe that as love begets love so must life begets life.  Husband and wives as men and women marry for the purpose of bringing into the world the human being.

As Fr. Fausto Gomez has aptly said, “the human embryo is one of us.”  Thus, we at Buhay Party-List perceive the beginning of erosion of moral values every attempt to justify what we know in Congress as “death” bills.  We are determined to slow down the process of moral decay with our staunch advocacy – pro-life, pro-family, pro-marriage, pro-the unprotected (unborn, sick, disabled, aged, elderly and those who cannot protect themselves alone).

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*Source:  Office of Rep. Rene M. Velarde