When the RH Law is Just a Symptom of a Bigger Problem

This was in the news about a month ago:

MANILA, February 13, 2014 – In an ambush interview after the Tapatan sa Aristocrat Media Forum held every Monday at the historic Aristocrat Restaurant. Dr. Ruben Siapno, M.D. assistant regional director for the NCR of the Department of Health said that the department ‘will still provide family planning services’ even if the Supreme Court will declare the RH Law unconstitutional.

Siapno admitted that even without the RH Law, certain provisions of the RH law can still be implemented especially the need for Maternal Health services such as family planning pills and devices.

He however quickly revealed when asked of the difference of having and RH law and without it as, “funding.”

Siapno added, “We currently have limitations. We can only provide for the maternal needs of women but with the RH Law we can prepare even the children. It is important that children be ready in case and be aware what to do.”

Early last year, the Commission on Audit (COA) in its 2011 annual audit report of the DOH uncovered over P500 million in fund irregularities from medicine procurement, hospital, medical, various goods and services.

During the debates of the RH bill senator Pia Cayetano sponsor of the bill admitted during interpellations on Senate Bill 2865 that the Department of Health (DOH) had asked for P13.7 billion to implement the RH bill for the year 2012 alone – an amount bigger than the individual budgets of the departments of energy, finance, foreign affairs, justice, labor, science, tourism, and trade. – veritas846.ph

Siapno admitted that even without the RH Law, certain provisions of the RH law can still be implemented
especially the need for Maternal Health services such as family planning pills and devices.

The logical reaction here would be to say that RH is moot. The government is going to go with it anyway, so why enforce a law that is divisive? The RH camp has gone so brazen anyway to show commercials on condoms, pills, and injectibles even as RH is in the limbo of the Supreme Court. They’re going to implement RH services with or without the RH law, therefore there is no need for it, and no need to use taxpayers’ money for contraception.

However, it would not be correct for us to assume that this means the Supreme Court will rule in our favor next month, nor is it right for us to disregard RH and its effects. One of the first things Michael Voris of churchmilitant.tv told us when he arrived here last month for a series of talks was a very sobering statistic: according to the group Univision.com, who made a survey on Catholics around the world, 68% of Filipino Catholics disagree with the Church on Her teachings about contraception.

That’s close to 3/4 of Catholics here in our country! What has happened?

What do you mean "Bahala na si Batman?"

We were having dinner one night with a doctor active in the pro-life advocacy, and she told us about her experience in giving a pro-life talk to an all-girls school. She was floored by the questions they asked her in the open forum. Questions such as: “Is it bad for us to have sex? and “are you stopping us from having sex?”

Naturally, she asked the religion teacher why the girls seem to not comprehend basic notions of chastity and modesty. The simple reply was: “we don’t teach doctrines and catechism any more. Everything is “experiential “ (where they apparently share stories and experiences in class without the catechism or the scriptures guiding these children).

Our doctor adds: “one of the girls got pregnant and she didn’t know who the father was. Apparently the kids experimented on sex one night during a very sexual game in a slumber party they attended. The girls were blindfolded and they had to guess who among the guys had sex with them.”

Shocking as it may sound, these activities seem like everyday stuff to many of our younger generation. We have to understand now that there is a bigger problem that lies ahead of us even if RH does not pass in the Supreme Court.

Even without the RH law, we now have a society whose foundations have been disintegrating beneath us; lives have been cheapened, exploited and destroyed; our families are broken, our schools are no longer teaching the authentic teaching of the Church; our children are having sex and using contraception at an earlier age, and marriage between one man and one woman is in danger because of the threat of same-sex marriage.

The RH law is just the final nail in the coffin.

There are lots of reasons why these problems are upon us. It all boils down to the failure of teaching the faith.

We have a lot of work to do in order to reverse this trend. We have to spread the Gospel of Life one person, one family, one group, one parish, one school, and one institution at a time. There really is no other way than to strengthen our foundations, and there is no other choice but to raise our children along the path to holiness.

We have to do something now. Not next month, not next week, not later. Now. Starting with our own homes and our own families.