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Opponents of the Reproductive Health Bill, now being debated in Congress, have said that the bill violates “Filipino culture.” Their argument proceeds thus: The Catholic Church opposes all forms of contraception save for natural family planning, and the majority of Filipinos are Catholic. Therefore, any legislation which would allot public funds to make all forms of contraception available to Filipinos is anti-Catholic, and thus anti-Filipino.
The trouble with this line of thinking is that it assumes that all Catholic Filipinos follow the teachings of priests and bishops, and share their beliefs. This just ain't so. The latest public opinion survey conducted by the poll group Social Weather Stations (SWS) proves this. The findings show that 71 percent of respondents are in favor of the pending RH bill, while 76 percent support the bill's provision requiring public schools to teach family planning education.
In the same survey, 68 percent said they would 'back a law requiring the government to distribute contraceptives,” while 54 percent said they did not believe family planning education “would promote promiscuity.”
While gratifying to supporters of the RH bill, the SWS findings actually only reinforce the findings of similar surveys conducted over two decades. This in fact constitutes a strong, consistent message that Filipinos, of whatever class, believe in the importance of planning one's family, support government funding for a family planning program, and even the teaching of sex education in public schools.
This is the same message that men and women have been sending to policymakers and legislators year after year, a message that has been ignored, if not contravened. That's why the bill has been filed to “insulate” the family planning program from politics and the personal beliefs of whoever is in power and whom he or she is listening to.
In response, Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz of Lingayen has been quoted as saying that “morals, right or wrong, are not subject to numerical approval.” An official affiliated with the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), interviewed on TV, even questioned the SWS findings. “Who were interviewed? And what do these people know?” the cleric asked.
Apparently, the CBCP representative isn't acquainted with the SWS methodology, or the principles of representative sampling. Or perhaps he just wants to believe what he wants to believe.
Now that the SWS survey has debunked the equation of Catholic=Filipino, at least where opinions about family planning and reproductive health are concerned, Archbishop Cruz asserts the “superiority” of morals over public opinion. But whose “morals” should lawmakers follow? The “morals” of a few celibate men in robes and their followers, or the “morals” that guide millions of Filipino men and women in making decisions about their sexuality, their health, and their family life? - Rina Jimenez David, Inquirer
