John Michael P.

Guiao
ECE – 501

The Rizal Law and the Present Context

The debates during the readings of the Rizal Law could be compared as to
those of the Reproductive Health Law in the present times. In both cases, the
Catholic Church has opposed the passing of the aforementioned laws as they
believe that it “violates the Catholic’s right to conscience and religion.” The
parallelism of the subject does not end there. According to Akbayan Representative
Kaka Bag-ao, a supporter of RH Law, “Rizal’s legacy of advancing the importance of
education, knowledge and progress is very much alive today. In fact, they are the
same values being promoted by the proposed RH bill.” He insists that this law can
help provide much needed information to the Filipinos for their improvement,
much like how Laurel and Recto advocated for the Rizal Law as they believed that
it would reestablish and reignite the patriotism of the Filipino people.

Much like the Rizal Law, the Reproductive Health Law was passed after much
debate and scrutiny. There have also been discussions on the effectivity of these
laws. For the Rizal Law, the most common question would be if we have really
known Rizal after taking the course and has it truly revived our patriotism. The
question for the Reproductive Health Law would be if it has truly helped to provide
information and services to improve the status of the public regarding their
reproductive health.