A Letter From the Youth

Added by mon on September 20, 2012

We are concerned high school students AGAINST THE RH BILL. We hope that you will take some time to hear from our
perspective. Please remember that the Philippine constitution recognizes life the instant a child is conceived. Passing the RH Bill
goes against this. It promotes contraception, which completely bypasses conception and therefore stopping life in its tracks.

The RH Bill does not only affect Catholics, but all Filipinos regardless of their religion. Keep in mind that by passing the RH Bill
you might as well be forcing the Filipino people to go against the beliefs they themselves grew up with. Passing the RH Bill will
have negative effects socially, politically, and economically. The government should better analyze the implications of passing
the RH Bill.

Here are various arguments against some of the Section’s in the RH Bill:

Section 20 of the RH Bill states that the government will assist families, couples, and individuals in responsible parenthood. It
implies that the government will help the Philippine citizens achieve their desired family size through responsible parenthood.
This section also promotes having two children as the ideal size of a family. In other words, the Philippine government will aid
Filipino citizens with birth control, contraceptives, and sex education so that the Philippine citizens will have a family based on
their “desired” amount of children.

Countries that limited the family size include Singapore and China. Singapore had the two- children policy under Lee Kwan Yew
while China has had the one-child policy. These two countries are experiencing demographic problems presently. In China, there
are more men than women because of the one -child policy. The effect of this policy over the decades is a change in demographics
wherein there is a shortage of Chinese women who are available to marry Chinese men. An article by Cheryl Wetzstein ( The
Washington Times 2010) discussed the situation:

“When Chinese officials created the country’s one-child-per-couple policy in 1978, they intended to contain the country’s
burgeoning population for the sake of economic growth, national security and environmental preservation.

But Chinese boys now outnumber Chinese girls by the millions, and the impact of the lopsided sex imbalance is starting to spill
beyond China’s borders.

This phenomenon of “missing girls” has turned China into “a giant magnet” for human traffickers, who lure or kidnap women
and sell them — even multiple times — into forced marriages or the commercial sex trade, says Ambassador Mark Lagon, who
oversaw human rights issues at the State Department during the administration of President George W. Bush.”

In Singapore, the reverse triangle of a society with a smaller base if working people supporting a broader base of elderly, is starting
to strain the social system. Their leaders are now giving incentives for families to have more than 3 kids.

There is no child amount policy stated in the Bill, but passing the RH Bill may one day lead to this. The use of contraceptives can
decrease the number of children produced. This can affect our country negatively as seen in the previous examples.

Do not simply accept the implications of other countries and our own that the Philippines is chin deep in poverty and can only
free itself with the passing of the RH bill. Economically speaking, our country is rich in human capital. The government should
focus on investing on this human capital for our economic development rather than limiting the growth of this economic resource.
The government should focus on programs that will develop our human capital and prioritize programs in education, health
services and job creation.
If foreign investors see that the country has a rich supply of well-developed human resources that is priced competitively, then
perhaps the investors will come here to open their businesses. In education, the government is doing well by working towards the
K-12 program. If jobs are created here, then there will be less people applying for jobs abroad as OFWs. At least, the parents can
stay in the country and raise their children. In this way, the Filipino family is strengthened.

Another section we do not agree with is Section 21 on Employer’s Responsibilities. This section ensures that employers respect
the reproductive rights of employees by providing their employees with family planning information and services. The act does
not specify what exactly are these services, but do include artificial contraceptive methods and procedures. According to this act,
employers must fulfill the responsibilities of this act, if not they are subjected to penalty. Anyone who does not comply with the
regulations of this act is subjected to imprisonment for a month to six months, or a fine of P10, 000 to P50, 000, or an imprisonment
and a fine. In some cases, people who do not comply are subjected to deportation or dismissal from work.

The bill defines these facilities, services and supplies that are to be distributed are “medically safe and legal” but artificial
contraceptives and such do not fall under “medically safe.” Contraception is not 100% reliable. If woman were to get pregnant
despite the use of contraception she would most likely turn to an illegal and unsafe source in order to get an abortion thereby
putting herself and the baby in danger.

By the definition of the bill, an employer refers to any natural or juridical person who hires the services of a worker. It is
understood from this definition that because he simply pays for a service, an employer need not provide the additional services,
which include artificial contraceptives. Not only is contraception unreliable, it goes against faiths. The employer, anyone as a
matter of fact, should not be forced to go against his faith. In fact, by forcing the employer to go against his faith, the bill tramples
on the right to religion. Catholics are not the only ones who disagree with this bill; the Muslims disagree as well.

Rather than making employers responsible for providing these services, facilities, and supplies to their employees, the government
should take full responsibility for it. The government should be the one to provide for its people, as the government is for the
people.

Furthermore we do not concur with Section 16 about Mandatory Age- Appropriate Reproductive Health and Sexuality Education
because of a number of reasons. One is that this could cause serious conflict with the many Christian schools (both public and
private) in our country. Would you go so far as to force the principals, deans, and teachers of these schools to go against all that
they believe in in order to fulfill this part of the RH bill. Please also take into consideration that some of these schools are run by
Nuns (Virgin Mary Immaculate School), Members of Opus Dei (PAREF School Inc.), Franciscan Priests (De Lasalle Zobel), and
other religious groups.

Section 16 of the RH bill also states that through this Reproductive Health and Sexuality Education, students will be educated
about the dangers of teen pregnancy, and sexual violence and abuse. The fact that contraceptive devices are at the disposal of
these teens will be the VERY CAUSE of teen pregnancy in our country. Once again, contraception is NOT 100% dependable.
Teens will learn to trust in “safe sex” just because they feel protected with a condom and therefore feel that they have the liberty
to have sex whenever they want. The same goes with sexual abuse. The many cases of assault and rape could RISE as sexual
predators will become more fearless now that contraceptive devices are much more easy to obtain.

Another alternative to promoting the use of contraceptives and family planning is the practice of abstaining. The government
should prioritize teaching the Philippine society how to abstain instead of always giving in to their lustful urges. With the use of
contraceptives, the government is saying that it is okay that people have premarital sex, as long as people practice it “safely”. This
notion is wrong because premarital sex is a sin. Instead of sexual education taught in grade school, the schools should focus on
teaching the kids the value of sex, and the importance of self-control. Sex is a sacred thing, married people are supposed use it to
show their spouse that they love each other. The government should be teaching abstinence. They should remind everyone that
sex is sacred and should be done after marriage. The government should teach our society how to use their intellect, freedom, and
free will properly. Contraception is not the answer, abstinence is.

-Erlyn Espeleta, Andi Fandino, Andee Torres, Monique Kahn, Marie Ilagan, Pilar Matoto

Age: 16-years oldSchool: PAREF Woodrose School