The RH Bill lobbyists on the stage were former Senator Vicente Paterno, American Dr. Malcolm Potts of Bixby Center of University of California Berkeley, and his wife American Dr. Martha Campbell. While seated at the front table, I am at close range to an old politician who claims he is now a "businessman" and two white Americans who wants to depopulate the brown/black race, who are IGNORANT of the sustained Population Program of Philippines since the creation of Philippine Population Commission in 1970.
The Forum includes an Interfaith Dialogue on Family Planning and the invited participants are from UCCP, Iglesia ni Kristo, CBCP/BBC, the muslim community, indigenous faiths, and religious groups, and Atheists. Perhaps they invited me to represent the Atheist.
In my knee-jerk impression, it appears that the lobbyists of the RH Bill want the government of the Republic of the Philippines to issue a "blank cheque" to DOH for the advertising and procurement of commercially produced artificial contraceptives. They want public to pay for a private good.
Sorry, I don't agree that public buys an idea and product without price tag.
By the way, it is not true that the advertising of family planning method in the Philippines is not allowed as one of the speaker emphasized on the topic about barriers to family planning. You can see condom and birth control pills advertising everywhere in the Philippines -- you can hear it on radio, you can watch it on TV, and you can see it even on bus ads and big billboards along main thoroughfares like EDSA.
I believe that private companies selling contraceptives may continue advertising their products in the Philippines. But sorry, I don't agree that government should pay for the advertising expenses. They should also realize that there are no radio and tv signals in the remote places where most of the poor people live. They might as well also consider FM/AM Radio and TV antenna, transmitter, and repeater tower projects.
I am PRO-CHOICE. The choice of people should be demand-driven, not supplier-driven. The suppliers of commercial/artificial contraceptives can make their products available in pharmacies. But the consumers has to be the ones who will make a choice based on their doctor's recommendation and also their budget. If the suppliers want to advertise their product, no problema, it is liberalized, but I don't agree with the lobby to use public/govt fund for the advertising.
The poor have less resources to spend for diversified entertainment. That is why they spend more time having sex than doing something else. I would also recommend to the producers of artificial contraceptives to produce a drug that is opposite to Viagra. Something like a Sex Appetite Suppressant Pill or Anti-Libido Pill. The pill could be recommended to be taken by the gentleman during days when the lady is hot (fertile) -- I hope the product will not face protest by womens groups who want to protect their rights to sex pleasure.
Please replace the statement "the poor has no access to reproductive health facility" with a more technically correct statement: "the poor cannot afford artificial/commercial family planning method". ACCESS is so different with AFFORD. When you say "no access", it would seem to appear that there is some sort of a restriction or disallowance. By the way, the natural family planning method is a form of reproductive health facility that can be freely accessed by everyone.
RH Bill is good as it says that it intends to target the poorest of the poor. In my opinion, RB Bill lobby energy should be refocused into Municipal Ordinance lobbies, targeting only and specifically the poorst of the poor municipalities.
The RH Bill lobbyists ridiculed the Manila City Ordinance No 003 that bans artificial contraceptives. All I can say is, perhaps they forget that the City of Manila is the location of the Seat of Power, its population is generally classified as "rich and educated", it is a Class-A city, and home to many Universities. The lobbyists should be reminded that the target of their population control drive are the poor.
I would suggest an option to pilot test the RH Program in a poor province first, say Zamboanga del Norte and Maguindanao, an experiment to be funded by the private proponents of the Bill, in this case the multinational companies producing the artificial contraceptives. Bill Gates, the richest man of the world is funding Bixby Center in relation to its advocacy on population control in Africa. If after five years the program will show a guarantee of success in fulfilling its original mission to improve the income distribution of the population in the pilot province, then we can proceed with its application on a nationwide scale, perhaps the Philippine government can contribute some money.
If I were given more time to react during the Forum, I would have suggested as to where they should focus their RH advocacy. In an article titled "Poverty map shows poorest RP provinces", published by Inquirer in April 2008, it says that in terms of poverty incidence, Zamboanga del Norte topped the list with 64.6 percent of families living below the poverty level, according to the latest 2003 government figures. Following Zamboanga del Norte are Maguindanao (60.4 percent), Masbate (55.9 percent), Surigao del Norte (54.5 percent) and Agusan del Sur (52.8 percent).
After looking at the programme of the forum, I figured out that the afternoon session is worth skipping because I believe it is pointless to discuss population control in the various religious perspective. Also, participating any further would be unecessary if they won't answer my question as to how much public investment the Philippine government is facing in the RH Bill.
If the 560,000 abortion rate/year data presented by the RH Bill lobbyists is not bloated, and the alleged 83% Catholic participation in the abortion rate is not superficial, then I believe bringing up a religious debate on morality of artificial family planning method is like arguing the morality of jay-walking with a mass murderer. Both sides are ridiculous. The lobbyists of the RH Bill is free to choose the divided opinion of the religious as their conveniently manageable opposition and weak opponent, but I won't waste my time to bite the bait.
The biggest opponent of the RH Bill are the defenders of public fund like me. In that forum, the lobbyists refused to answer my question on how much public spending, in terms of millions of pesos, does the lobbyists want for the government to spend for advertising and procurement of artificial/commercial birth control pills and gadgets.
Do I agree to the health objectives of RH Bill? YES
Do I agree that government should spend for the advertising and procurement of commercial/artificial family planning devises? NO
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MY IMPRESSION ABOUT BIXBY
The global advocacy group behind the Population Control Program in Philippines is BIXBY.
Bixby is one of the biggest fronts of this Brown/Black Depopulation Program of the Americans that is heavily funded by a white Billionaire named Bill Gates.
Read the Bixby Center program at http://bixby.berkeley.edu/ The pictures alone appears to me that they are only targetting the brown and black. I will only admit that I am wrong with my impression if I will see that Bixby will be spending depopulation program INSIDE AMERICA.
The advocates of RH Bill should stop lying about their position in Abortion. Bixby advocates ABORTION. For purposes of effective advocacy penetration, they are using the term "safe abortion". See http://bixby.berkeley.edu/research/safe-abortion/
I am not arguing to the extreme, as some seem to allege and twist that I am saying that the Americans want to ANNIHILATE the brown and black race. I did not say annihilate. What I am saying is, the Americans want to DEPOPULATE the brown and black race.
The Americans feel fine having browns and blacks around, but they just feel that they have enough of them to share in the consumption of oil. That is why they want to depopulate the earth, and their target are the brown and the blacks.
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MY POSITION
1. I believe that people should be conscious in carefully planning the number of their dependents, with due consideration on the factor called "affordability". But I don't like the term Population Control Program. The word Control is very hostile and inhumane. I want it replaced with something like "Population Moderation Program" or "Population Rationalization Program".
2. Without no allowable margin of error, the Philippines should not target the rich cities in it's Population Moderation Program. We want those who can afford to raise children to bear more children and populate the Philippines in the future. I want sustainable replenishment of the Filipino population with quality in mind. If you are well-off, educated, good values, and endowed with resources, I believe it is your patriotic duty to contribute to the sustainable relacement of population of the Philippines in the future.
3. My message to the Americans, "please do not intrude our sovereignty in Philippines. Especially in your Brown/Black DePopulation Program. If you want depopulation to sustain global consumption, do it to your country first." If you insist on depopulating the brown and black race, we will retaliate. If you don't want a war of survival of race, please stand down.
4. The government should not spend a centavo for artificial contraceptive advertising. Advertising means the demand is yet to be induced. No one will get FREE artificial contraceptives from the government. Primarily because there are available natural methods for FREE. Artificial Contraceptive is a private good. It is not a public good. No public fund should be spent to advertise a private good. No public find should be spent to give-away private goods for free.
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LATEST INTELLIGENCE REPORT
20 Nov 2010
INTEL REPORT: Sir John, the RH Bill Lobbyists want the government to spend 50 Billion Pesos per year for the advertising of Trust Condom/Pills in major TV/Radio. Ang kikita nyan eh MEDIA STATIONS, pambayad utang ni PNoy sa tulong nila sa campaign.
ANSWER: Gago sila! Thank you for the info, please keep me posted and keep up the good work.
Do you know how much is P50B? Right now we have 200,000 public school elementary classroom shortages. P50B is enough to build 200,000 new classroom complete with hotel-quality toilets each classroom, sofa-quality chairs, TV sets, and airconditioning units for EACH classroom.
Ang mga "reasonings" ng RH Bill Proponents ay MOOT AND ACADEMIC. Kung naniniwala ka sa bulatik ng RH Bill, alamin mo muna ang Population Commission, nadyan na yan since 1970. Their website is at http://www.popcom.gov.ph/.
Kaya pala ayaw nilang sabihin ng deretsahan eh yang hinihingi nilang P50B annually for government to pay condom advertising at pamudmud ng mga condom sa buong Pilipinas.
Diba target ng mga RH Bill eh mga POOR? Downgrade muna nila ang lobby ng RH Bill into Municipal Ordinances, doon sila makipag-usap sa top 20 poorest municipalities. Yung pondo, eh racist depopulation program yan ng America, eh dapat kay Bill Gates sila humingi.
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CONDOM IS NOT A DEMAND-DRIVEN PUBLIC GOOD
Why advertise if they say they already have a demand by the poor people? Why advertise if you want to make it available for free?
If they want to make it free, they should be able to tell HOW MANY is their target beneficiaries, WHERE are these target beneficiaries, HOW do they intend to get a list of individual voluntary demands, and HOW MUCH would they want to government to partly spend per person who wants it? These are questions they cannot answer.
If you want Cervix Cancer Vaccine for the poor, I am willing to give. Just give me a list of beneficiaries first, duly certified by their respective doctors. And the government should not pay the whole amount because we are talking about a private good here. The beneficiaries should at least pay for a portion of it.
Now, what is this thing I call "Demand-Driven" if DOH wants to give contraceptives to the poor people. Ang gusto ko, para abuse-proof, dapat merong Prescription ang Doctor sa Patient. Dadalhin ng Patient ang prescription sa DOH. Then mag-iissue ng Voucher ang DOH in favor of the accredited Pharmacy. Dadalhin ng Patient ang Prescription and Voucher sa pharmacy and she gets the thing for free or discounted price. Ganito ang sinasabi ko na DEMAND-DRIVEN. Hindi pwede na ang DOH ay bibili ng bulto-bulto.
Pero, as a politician who represent the interest of the masses, I would like to make it clear ha na dapat may "pag-kukusa". Dapat ang Patient ang kakatok sa pinto ng gobyerno para humingi ng tulong kung paano mapigilan ang pag-dami ng kanilang anak. Pag kumatok ang patient, at ma-determine ng gobyerno na wala siyang financial means, dapat ang gobyerno ay pwede mag-issue ng voucher na i-honor ng Pharmacy.
Hindi ako pumapayag na ang gobyerno ang kakatok sa bahay ng mga mahihirap para kumbinsihin sila na gumamit ng artificial contraceptives. Hindi rin ako pumapayag na ang gobyerno ay gagamit ng tri-media to convince the population to use artificial contraceptives.
Advertising should be left alone to the private firms who market those artificial contraceptives.
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CONDOM PEDDLERS
In the debate on the RH Bill, you will notice that the Pro-Condom mentions the word condom a hundred times more than the Anti-Condom. Clearly, you can see Condom Product Consultants, Condom Marketing Specialists, Condom Promodizers representing the RF Bill proponents.
Condom is AVAILABLE in pharmacies in the Philippines fo over 50 years already. It is available, it can be bought without prescription by anyone without age limit.
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THE PROSTITUTES
Prostitution is illegal in the Philippines. Most prostitution areas are controlled by highly organized crime groups. This sector is not poor.
When I heard someone argued that prostitutes should be given access to condom, the stupidity of the argument just silenced me. I don't think the prostitutes cannot afford condoms. I don't think the government should buy condoms in bulk and give it for free to prostitutes.
Someone says that the prostitutes wants to buy but they just refuse to buy, they want it for free. Ohhhh I can afford to buy mineral water but I refuse to buy. Does it mean government should subsidize mineral water? The argument is the same.
Look, if the prostitute don't buy condom, it is already a negative-one-point on the demand of condom. If the sex happened, it becomes a negative-two-points because you also have to consider that the customer of the prostitute did not buy condom.
If they don't buy it, it means they personally feel that they don't need it. If RH Bill proponents insist they buy it, the proponents are like an externally insisting genious of unsolicited idea. If people get AIDS becuase they felt they don't need to buy condoms, well, personally, as an economist, I have less compassion for them and I believe public fund should not be spent for them. Public fund on health will be used for those who don't want to do stupid things that might get them into illness.
The poor knows what they need to survive and they are asking for something else. Condom and other artificial contraceptives is not in the list of what they ask for.
If your target is the poor to have access to artificial contraceptives, the prostitutes should be out of the group to benefit from Condom Discounts because they are not poor.
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ON THE ISSUE OF VASECTOMY AND LIGATION
The capability of our men and women to bring forth children is an issue of national security. Pag magka-giyera, maraming mamamatay, kailangan natin ng replacement ng population. Isang reason eto kaya ayaw ko ng government funded surgery to permanently vasectomize/ligate our people.
Matagal nang legal ang vasectomy sa Pilipinas. Pero hindi ako pumapayag na gobyerno ang dapat gumastos ng advertising and surgery nyan, mas lalo na pag walang DOH certification na indigent ang tao.
W.we will make a solid stand that public fund should not be spent on private consumption. Artificial contraceptives, specially intrusive surgeries like vasectomy and ligation, is clearly a private good.
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POPULATION DISTRIBUTION
When it comes to injecting policies to correct the lumping population at the centers and encourage movement of population back to the peripheries, the greatest tool you have is an increased rural infrastructure projects. NCR is the home of the high-quality Filipinos who can "afford" to raise children -- it should not be targetted by population control.
For the informal settlers in Metro Manila proliferates because of (1) improperly calculated low minimum wages they can't daily afford home-to-work fares, (2) irrational pro-poor compassion of some groups specially the church, (3) lack of LGU Political Will, and (4) failure of the Real Estate service sector (my sector) in providing property management services to vacant lots.
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PEOPLE ARE EMBARASSED TO BUY CONDOM
People are embarassed to buy condom because it is shameful. The embarassment is not on the religious sense.
The embarassment is when your fellow customers in the pharmacy will look at your butt and face if they hear you are buying condom at the counter. The mind of the fellow-customers are: "ohhh I wanna see tha face of this guy or girl who is gonna have hot sex today".
Sex is a very interesting and curious thing for everyone. You can't help to be curious when a pretty lady comes to the pharmacy counter and buys a condom.
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KEEP THE CHURCH AWAY FROM THE DEBATE
My advise on the debate is simple. Keep the church away from the debate. There is a constitutionally guaranteed freedom of religious dogma and practice. Their doctrines don't easily change for centuries. So, please stop on hitting and awakening the church on the condom debate because once it becomes a constitutional violation issue, the RH Bill and all it's good components will completely go down the drain. Remember in Philippines, the churches are so influential, they were even able to convince the government to exempt their lands and business operation from taxes.
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THE RH BILL LOBBYISTS
Pero malakas ang lobby nyang Bill na yan. Pag dugtong-dugtongin ko ang chain of lobby nyan ha, etong mga eto ang mga players nyan:
Bill Gates
Millenium Fund
Bixby Center
Black-Ops Racial Depopulation
Artificial Contraceptive Producers
Philippine Importers of Artificial Contraceptives
Philippine Media interest on Advertising
But I like Renato Manalili comment below on the condom dumping motives.
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This blog is dedicated to my FB friends who celebrate their birthdays today
Caloie Petalcorin, Geoldino Cruz, Jocelyn ChumLyn Petalcorin, Karen Mae Donaire, Martina Francesca David Calata, Michaella Gail Petalcorin, Neil Escarda, Pia Guillen, Rosario Potoy
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ADDENDUM
You know, I have debated on this RH Bill for a very long time already. I have entered many discussion threads and groups. What strikes me most is the participation of one lady who said she is a provider in Community Helath Care Center in a heavily populated area, she was a strong advocate of RH Bill. But when I told her, I am going to donate P1M in your Center, but you have to tell me the order of priorities of the ITEMS you need. Surprisingly, artificial contraceptive is not on her list, and I reminded her about it and she insisted that she will not put it in the priority list.
I support educating people about artificial contraceptives, I support the continuity of liberalized access to artificial contraceptives. But if you ask me in the end of your salestalk if I am willing to allow Public Fund to be spent on a non-demand-driven and a non-priority private good, I would say NO. Let the users pay for it, or let Bixby pay for it, but never the government.
Sabi ko nga ang Population Commission nandyan na yan since 1970. Meron nang Family Planning Advocacy Program since 1970, at walang tigil yan sila sa kaka-lagay ng posters sa buong bansa about different kinds of artificial contraceptives. We are still funding PopCom at present. So, useless talaga yang RH Bill. Ang hidden motive lang ng RH Bill ay para ma-justify ng national government (DOH) to buy bulk contraceptives from Bixby (US Lobbyist) to the tune of P50Billion within the next 5 years. Commission ang motibo ng RH Bill.
There will be no RH Bill implementation in ARMM territory because they don't want it, it is against their religion. If you insist, then put your action where your mouth is, be brave, be at the front line to do that RH Bill thingin the ARMM so you will know what lessons you have to learn the hard way. And don't call the Muslims "radical" if they will not accept your unsolicited advice on how to improve their lives, you are just bitter.
The MNLF also have Christian members, in fact MNLF have more Christians than Muslims. In our territory, which is the entire MinSuPala (Mindanao Sulu Palawan) if the Christians will say that they don't want artificial contraceptives, then the Philippine Government have to respect it, or else it could become a cause of armed conflict between the Govt and the MNLF.
Radicalism is when you press your idea in the throat of people who does not want it for some reason. In some places, you are tolerated when you are disrespectful, but in Bangsamoro Land you will be exterminated if you disrespect people's religion.
Therefore, when we talk about the possibility of Phil Govt full subsidy of condoms, you can only play with that in Visayas and Luzon. Never in Bangsamoro Land.
I have no problem with Healthcare, whether reproductive or anything else. But any individual person must be respected when decisions have to be made on his own body. Any family or group of persons must also be respected if they don't want it on the basis of their religion. If the individual person don't want it, then anyone who force it into him/her will be called an aggressor and will surely be dealth with accordingly.
As I said, my proposal is to use a voucher system. If the indigent individual, after consulting with his doctor, decides to get an artificial contraceptive, then the doctor can give him a complimentary ticket (like a prescription) so the patient can voluntarily get it from the pharmacy at full subsidy or discount.
And we go again in circles, Govt will not subsidize a private good. So, the question now is who will subsidize it?
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Question: Sir John, bakit hindi sinusuportahan ang RH Bill? ANSWER: Maraming dahilan, click the link below para mabasa mo lahat. Yang Bill na yan mali at panloloko din ang title nyan. Dapat nyan ay "Reproductive Control Bill" yan, at hindi dapat Reproductive Health (RH) kasi RH intends to help those with reproductive problems like those mga baug, impotent, nahihirapan manganak.
Panloloko din pag tinatawag na Pro-Choice yang RH Bill. Hindi yan Pro-Choice. Kung Pro-Choice yan, ehh hindi yan ipipilit isaksak sa lalamunan ng mga taong bayan. Hindi demand-driven yang Reproductive Control Program na yan, hindi yan high priority na hinihingi ng taong bayan. Ang number one priority ngayon ay Potable Water, marami pa walang access sa potable water.
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QUESTION: Sir John, what is the official position of MNLF on RH Bill? ANSWER: The MNLF is composed of Muslims, Christians, and Tribal Lumads; and they say condom is not in their priority necessity list and they don't like Govt to spend in non-demand-driven programs. MNLF listens more to the democracy than to the technocrats, and therefore RH Bill cannot be implemented in Bangsamoro Land.
"I want many children to help me work on my farm and to look after me when I grow old because I know govt will not care for me, my wife, and my land when I grow old. If gov't wants me to change my mind, he must offer something else in exchange, not just free condoms." (A Poor Old Farmer, Davao Oriental)
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QUESTION: Sir John, what can you comment about the Government threaten the church with sedition if the church will not support the RH Bill? ANSWER: Well, just let the government issue an executive order on that. Perhaps the government forgets that the citizens have right to speak to influence law-making but it is unethical for govt to intimidate the citizen to support the passage of any law.
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For me, the RH Bill debate is not about pro-life and anti-life. It is about rational allocation of public resources. If you have 50 Billion Pesos, would you spend it in purchasing condoms to give for free to the population or spend it in building 250,000 classrooms to fulfill the backlog? If you like RH Bill, the govt will buy 2.5B packs of condoms and give 125 packs to each of the 20 million Filipinos active in sexual intercourse. Pagka-tanggap mo ng 125 packs, maybe in a span of 5 years, nawala na yung 50 billion ng gobyerno, na sana pinagawa ng elementary schools classroom. Sa US bibili ng mga condoms. In short, everytime mu-iyot (makipag-sex) ka, kikita ang US ng Piso kada round. Dole out lang ang kaya himuon. Ing-ana gyud mahitabo kung ang tapulan ug bugok mag-lingkod.
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RH BILL Question: Sir John, bakit mo nasabi na panloloko yang RH Bill? ANSWER: Para yang pumunta ka sa dentista para magpa-ayos ng ngipin para umudlad ang itsura mo; pero laking gulat mo na pinipilit ka ng dentista na ipa-bunot na lang ang lahat mong ngipin para wala ka nang problema sa ngipin. For me, all person is born naked, but not necessarily poor. Poor people have more reasons to work hard for their children.
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RH BILL Question: Sir John, if you have 10 seconds to speak to PNoy about RH Bill, what would you say? ANSWER: PNoy, spend your govt money wisely. Bigyan mo ng magandang education ang mga bata ngayon para matatalino ang workforce population ko pagdating ng panahon ko. Wag gamitin ang pera pang education para i-depopulate ang bansa.
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