YOUR FAITH AND YOUR VOTE – CHOOSING YOU CANDIDATES FOR 2010

The symposium circled around the Reproductive Health Bill and Population Development Act of 2008.
The opening remarks speaker has criticized it immediately at the start of the program. Politicians are
turning to the RH Bill to solve the problems of poverty according to her. She added that this is a wrong
line-of-thinking because the true cause of poverty is corruption in the country that’s why it should be
solved first.

The Filipino Christian Church considered the bill immoral. According to Ms. Rosa Linda Valenzona, it is
anti-life as it tries to legalize and make contraceptives available throughout the country which prevents
pregnancy and promotes promiscuity. In addition to this, those politicians who authored and support this
kind of bill are anti-procreation and anti-family therefore should not be elected back to office.

ON THE BRIGHTER SIDE

The reproductive health bill promotes information and access to family planning methods. Couples or
individuals will decide freely and responsibly about the number and spacing of their children. They will be
provided with information to carry out their decisions and access to a full range of safe, legal and effective
family planning methods, techniques and devices.

Even the Unicef asserts that “family planning could bring more benefits to more people at less cost than
any other single technology now available to the human race.” It will be a rational choice to undergo
family planning then.

This will strengthen the family as a basic unit of the society as it optimizes the care for children who will
have more opportunities to be educated, healthy and productive. If every unit is strong and progressive, it
will be easy to fight poverty.

THE FILIPINO CHRISTIAN CULTURE

In the study of social science, every culture has its own set of behavior, attitude and moral standards.
There can be some offenses against it but a culture will keep up to correct whatever is trying to change it.
In this country, we are dominated by the Christian culture (85% are Christians). We can therefore expect
that the church will act if ever there is something that goes against their moral standards.

The church has been actively rejecting the implementation of House Bill 5043. The Catholic Bishops
Conference of the Philippines has been conducting discussions all over the country to inform people
about their stand in this issue. This became a serious threat to some politicians. There are some who
drew back from supporting the passing of this bill. It looks like a foul play in the part of the church but it is
a good thing though as we can sort out the politicians who can really stand up for what they feel is right
from those who just get scared from popularity decline.

INTERNATIONAL VIEWPOINT
Aside from this fact, there are some Christians who still consider contraception as a good thing. When
Pope John XXIII created the Papal Commission on Birth Control to study questions on population and
family planning, the 69 to 10 votes changed the church's teachings about contraception and concluded
that the regulation of conception appears necessary for many couples who wish to achieve a responsible,
open and reasonable parenthood in today’s circumstances. A lot of Catholic theologians even asserted
that Catholic spouses could responsibly decide in some circumstances to use artificial contraception.

PURPOSE NOT WELL SERVED?

Ms. Valenzona has made it a point that the use of condom doesn’t prevent pregnancy but instead it
increases the chance to acquire STD and promote promiscuity. It would not be reasonable to say this
because it will not be serving its purpose. Granting that it is true, why hasn’t it alarmed firms concerned
with condoms or quality control and consumer protection?

The prevention of pregnancy and STD’s depends entirely with the proper use of condoms. As to how
people learn it, that is the role of sex education and family planning.

VOTING FOR THE LESS EVIL

As what a woman commented during the forum, “Since politicians all look or are made to look evil to me, I
might as well vote for the least evil one.” Everyone laughed after this statement – some because of the
sense of humor in it, some because of the ignorance it contains.

A vote is an affirmation that your candidate is a representative of you. You should choose the one with the
same principles and the same cause as you. You should elect someone whom you feel can represent
your thoughts and the Filipino mass to employ it in the higher office.

We should vote for genuine representation.

CARL CHRISTOPHER S. CRUZ JR

B.S. BA (Marketing) 2008-29892
University of the Philippines Visayas