Get your free condoms!

When you're a kid, it's normal to be curious about your body. There are sensitive parts that mommy and daddy told you not to touch, and to always cover up. When we're kids, we ask why? 


I do believe that it is important for our country to pass the Reproductive Health Bill. It's not because I'm being ignorant of God's natural plans for us and for the future people of this country. But it is important that we get ourselves informed about this issue, and not be against it just because we are trying to be good Christians of faith.

As a young girl of nineteen years of age in this time and day, I am exposed to various stimuli and factors from the modern world. Not everyone was brought up the way I was and I cannot say that I haven't been influenced. It might have been lack of decency in choosing who to surround myself with, but high school days were the toughest. Those were the times that I have been most curious about my body, of this I am not ashamed to tell. And while I was going through this phase, I'm sure most of my friends were, too. It's just that it was never really comfortable to talk about.

When I look back on those years, I just wish there was someone to educate me. I remember having one sex education session in the auditorium back when I was in grade 5 or 6 but that was that. I mean come on, people! You cannot just expect teenagers to watch porn and learn about sex first-hand. Personally, I think the learning should be gradual- increasing sexual knowledge and awareness as the years go by as opposed to ignoring the fact that Mara Clara days are long gone and that we are now living in the 21st century.

Second case in point: I think that the less fortunate Filipino women have to be educated so that they may know that they DO have a choice. They have a choice to be a master of themselves or baby-making machines. We all know that back in the day, women were not allowed to do anything but to serve their husbands, whether it be in the kitchen or in bed. But as the years have gone by, we are also aware that women have already made a name for their gender and that should be respected. Sure, there are still those people who think that men are better than women, but there will always be a never-ending debate regarding who is smarter, better, stronger. Truth of the matter is, men and women are both individuals who have equal rights and therefore should never be pushed into doing something he / she would dislike.

Family planning plays a major issue in this RH bill. We are an archipelago of seven thousand islands and our country is currently housing approximately 91, 983, 000 and is also expecting to increase that number in a few years' time. Can you imagine that? There is absolutely a lot of obvious reasons why there is need to control the population in this country. First of all, there's the issue of poverty. We have so much debt in our hands and we're not even trying to do anything about it. There are people who are already existing and yet they wish they weren't. Families of nine to a dozen don't even have food to eat and these people tell us that we do not need family planning. Are you seriously out of your mind? I think that the government TOGETHER with the church should do everything they can to save the Filipino people from existing problems, not further bury them with these issues. 


The church, insisting that the use of contraceptives is another way of abortion, hasn't gotten their facts right. Definition check: abortion means a deliberate termination of human pregnancy. The use of contraceptives will prevent unwanted pregnancies and therefore, there will not be any form of termination. Am I not correct? 


Do not get me wrong, I am not for the idea of abortion and I don't know if I ever will be but I DO think that one of the main reasons why the RH bill should be approved is so that women may be educated enough to prevent unwanted pregnancies and will therefore lead to fewer, if not zero, cases of abortion. I mean, think about it well and do not make your judgement based on your Christian faith. We are forgetting that while most people in this country may be Christians, there exists a relevant percentage of people who have different beliefs and we should take them into account as well. 


They say that we do not need to approve the RH bill and instead, this issue is solely relied on the responsibility of the people. I get that: people should not have sex if they do not want babies. Easy and simple. But then, we are forgetting that we have already established that the Filipino people are irresponsible human beings! Take for example, the famous concept of the Filipino time. Try to go out and cruise the streets of Edsa and Commonwealth and you'll see how reckless Filipino drivers are. If these people cannot even be taught discipline, you think these same people would be responsible? I know we're thinking the same thing, I don't think so. 


Some would also say that approving the RH bill would be disapproval of life. I cannot forget a quarter-page ad I saw in the newspaper a couple of months ago about the RH bill promoting life. Even if the RH bill takes over the whole newspaper, I do not think it is a promotion of life. Instead of paying for that ad, why did you not use the money to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to shelter the homeless? I mean if you guys are all about Christianity anyway, what is the explanation for spending thousands of money for a quarter-page newspaper ad and not on something to help the needy with? I do not see the logic, and I am almost quite sure that neither do you.


I am a firm believer in God, but I am pro-RH bill. Yes, giving away condoms might seem shallow and funny but did you not know that ONLY condoms give us a hundred percent protection from sexually transmitted diseases? 


Being pro-RH bill does not mean allowing and promoting pre-martial intercourse and it certainly doesn't mean that sex is free and could be taken advantage of. All I'm saying is that I would rather educate kids' minds at an early age (they're going to be polluted soon enough anyway!) than see thousands of homeless children and elderly people who have no clothes, no slippers and no food. I would rather that people use condoms for the prevention of STDs- which by the way, could lead to death. I would rather go for family planning than to see specials on the television featuring families of twelve kids eating only a meal a day. I would rather that we be open minded about this matter and think not only for ourselves and for our faith, but for the majority of the people in this country. 

Corruption kills

For a few days now, Angelo Reyes' successful suicide attempt has glazed the papers. Many have said that it was an act of courage and bravery that killed him, and shooting himself through the chest at his mother's grave was his way of saying mama, I didn't do it. 

This morning, just as I finished reading the paper, I felt the urge to write. One article had said that it was corruption that killed Reyes. As a teen who is ignorant to current events in local and foreign land, I am not one to tell. But I'm not stupid enough to believe that a (former?) government official has done no corruption and has killed himself just because.

In our country, they say, no government official is not corrupt. From the lowest government positions to the highest, everyone takes the public's money and puts it in their own pockets, one way or another. Everyday, there is corruption in the simplest ways: may it be taking P200 for a parking ticket or P500 for beating the red light, only for policemen to fill their tummies with coffee and bread. Also for instance, my first real contact with the Philippine government was when I got my non-professional license a month ago, and that resulted to me having only P20 to commute going home. 

Those simple things might be okay for us people who have money to spare. But what about those who don't? For the more fortunate, we don't even feel corruption if not for the traffic caused by uneven roads or public work that don't even need to be done. The victims here are really the less fortunate. It breaks my heart to see children on the street everyday, begging people for money. How about one or two of those old people who become insane and all things dirty? Taong grasa, in Filipino terms. Why not instead of putting money into our own pockets, create a government piggy bank where everyone is required to chip in at least P5,000 a day? Then we could use the money to resolve poverty, health and education problems. Not too much to ask, I assume. The government has more money than they could handle. My father for instance, pays around P40,000 income tax monthly -- and that's just from one person. Imagine P40,000 from 5 people, that's already P200,000. More than enough to cover a day's worth of health problems. And that's just from 5 people who earn just above average.

In Reyes' case, he corrupted money from the Philippine military. These people have trained to serve the people, to protect us, to kick ass. Imagine, these people are ready to die every time they go out on the field and yet they die from plane crashes because there wasn't enough money for maintenance. How can you say there isn't no corruption when Reyes' wife would travel more than ten times abroad in a month, let alone a year? How can you say it's pocket money when Reyes alone received P50,000,000 from his retirement (if I'm not mistaken)? 

This is exactly the reason why people go to other countries to survive. There is no life in the Philippines. Yes, our country is full of wonderful islands and beaches and the happiest people on earth. In Australia though, you get free health care. The government pays you when you bear a child, maternal leave is a year, paternal leave is a month. Their government works for the people's welfare and wellbeing. They promote life in that way, not through a quarter-page newspaper ad that says No to the RH bill. Who doesn't want a country like that? If only our government worked that way, I wouldn't mind shelling out a lot of money for taxes. 

Going back to the case in point, personally, I think these people who are in the government don't possess heart or soul. That's why Reyes shot himself in the heart -- because he couldn't take to kill his intellect. He opted to shot what he didn't have in the first place. What I read about his honor was all bullshit. Yes, he was a family man -- he loved his family and his mother. But as a government official, your family is your countrymen. You should take them to heart.