RH BILL

     When the RH Bill was first introduced and later debated upon on the floor in congress I was a 100% believer on the rationale and merits of the bill since it is perceived to be the logical answer to our exploding population which is believed to be exponentially increasing year after year. Attendant to this problem is the continuing impoverishment and the unabated decline on the cultural, social and moral values of our people which, inevitably, will be handed down to the next generation. And so, inspite of the the vehement resistance of the leaders of the catholic church, groups and individuals against the passage of the bill, survey showed that there was a popular public support snowballing among our people. It is widely believed that despite the resolute stand of the catholic church against the bill it is only a matter of time before the bill is passed into law by the lower and upper chamber of the house. Why, with no less than the president of our country declaring openly his support for this RH Bill, the signs of the inevitable approval are already written on the wall.

      But given all the written and unwritten debates on the pros and cons of the issue and a careful and profound analysis of each and every piece of argument that were presented before, I somehow have felt reservations on favoring the passage of the bill mainly because of some glaring fallacies that were presented by those advocating this highly contentious issue. I am not referring to the biblical and religious premises being questioned by pro RH Bill but on the secular position where they are standing on which involved among other things the government mishandling of our population problem since the very start. It's my belief that to curb our population growth, not only do we need to introduce or activate the artificial method of birth control, or educate them on the importance of having a manageable number of children for sustainable existence, but likewise for the government to provide a no nonsense demographic solutions which until now are absent in the major policy declarations of the present administration. Concentration of population growth tends to buildup more and more to the urban areas whereas there are still plenty of vast spaces in the countryside ready for habitation if only these areas are developed and can offer better opportunities like livelihood, education and better future to the people and their children.