Edcel Lagman on the fate of the RH Bill

Posted on 03. Feb, 2010 by Ryan Tani in Oplan Pepe

Last Friday, Beth Angsioco, Reproductive Health Advocacy Network (RHAN) secretary general, hosted a gathering of RH advocates. One of the reasons for the gathering was the recent withdrawal of support by a number of candidates due to the bullying of the CBCP.

In spite of the CBCP’s political meddling, there are still those who openly support the bill. Beth shared with us a list of pro-RH bill candidates).

Among the guests was one of the strongest advocates of RH, Albay 1st district Representative and author of the RH Bill, Edcel Lagman. Here are some of his thoughts on the fate of the RH bill:

Download Edcel’s short speech.

Ricky Carandang

Posted on 27. Jan, 2010 by Ryan Tani in Oplan Pepe

If you haven’t read Ricky Carandang’s recent post, Thou Shalt Not Vote For… please do. Read through the comments as well and you’ll find that Father Melvin Castro tries to backtrack on what he said, but to little effect. He still finds supporting the Reproductive Health legislation and education more evil than graft and corruption. This “flabbergasted” Ricky, prompting him to write the said post, and even resign from the Church.

What did he mean by this? Is Ricky still a Catholic? What should be done about the Church’s meddling in legislation? I asked these questions and more in a brief interview with Ricky the other day. I’ll be posting the transcript soon, but till then, I’m sure you’ll enjoy listening to the interview itself. Especially if you’re as pissed at the Church’s anti-RH stance as we are.

Download Interview recording

sinisterspark

Posted on 23. Dec, 2009 by sinisterspark in Oplan Pepe

I would never characterize myself as a religious person, but there was a time when I thought religion was an important part of my life. I have found myself a couple of times sobbing by myself in the church chapel and feeling better afterward; I have gotten hope and inspiration from words of a priest. I believed in the transformational power of the religious community in the lives of others. I had faith. I had not ventured to learn about what the Catholic Church has done in the past, but what I had known then, 10 years ago, was that in the most part, the Church was a force of good in the world.

I studied in a Catholic all-girls school that was, by most accounts, a feminist school. We had joined protests against the government. We (students and teachers alike) believed in equality of women to men and would have been the type to fight for it, tooth and nail. We were never the type of women who would cower in a corner. Never in my Catholic education did I expect that this brand of feminist values were against what the Catholic Church really stood for.

I mean, I should have seen the signs. We were made to think that condoms caused infections and pills caused cancer, never mind its effectiveness against pregnancy. Sure, we were shown an actual IUD (which looked like a fishing line or something, BTW). However, my whole sexual education and family planning class can be summed up as follows – ‘any sort of artificial or chemical means of birth control will likely give you cancer/permanent fertility damage/infection/allergic reactions’.

Nevertheless, I just assumed my teachers were somewhat misinformed. They can’t possibly really believe this right?

In the last 10 years I have witnessed the Church vocally protest against things that generally give women freedom, relief, equal rights, and empowerment.

Divorce. What was so wrong with divorce? Firstly, they can prevent Catholics from divorcing all they want, but why prevent the entire country from getting one? I think we are only one of a handful of countries not allowed to divorce, and this is mainly due to the Catholic lobby. A divorce can allow a woman (and a man) freedom from an abusive relationship. A divorce gives separated partners certain rights not available in a legal separation or annulment. Preventing divorce is not going to help families already broken in the first place. It just keeps unhappy families unhappy for the rest of their lives.

In addition, separation and annulment is not kosher with the Church either. When I was getting married in the Guadalupe Church just a few years ago, me and my husband were asked to sign a document promising that we are not to separate or annul our marriage even in case of (1) insanity; (2) infidelity and having children with another partner; (3) homosexuality; (4) physical and verbal abuse; (5) and fraud. Most of these are, by the way, legal grounds for annulment and separation that are allowed by the Family Code. Why should people force themselves to keep married under these circumstances? Why is this right? There is a reason why the law thinks these are reasonable grounds for separation and annulment. Why doesn’t the Church agree to the same?

Artificial means of birth control and choice, period. Why does the Catholic Church feel the need to ‘legislate’ on these matters when even other religious sects are keeping out of it? Why does this group of allegedly celibate people get to say when or how or why women have sex? Why do they choose to express their disapproval through misinformation instead of actual facts? Is it really that hard to say, “condoms are effective, but they are evil” instead of the lies that “condoms are not effective” and “women on the pill get cancer” and “population growth is not a problem”? Why are they using their mighty power to block reproductive health aid that is much needed in the Philippines and in Africa?

I wonder what they think the world would look like if women had the final say regarding baby-making. Women are capable of making a choice consistent with their religious beliefs without the need for an all-powerful institution to block their access to the ‘other’ options. Women can handle truth and facts and make good decisions and choices for themselves, thank you, if they’d only let them.

The role of women in the Church. In most Catholic churches that I have gone to, women were the most dedicated in fund-raising, community building, organizing and just plain worshiping Jesus and God and Mary and the Holy Spirit and all that it represents. It pains me to see that women are still treated as second-class citizens by the organization they so support. Why are these women relegated to these roles of servitude and prayer-power-powwows when they can do much more? Why does the church focus and prioritize merely the uterus of these women to the point that the lives of these women are mere accessories to the baby-making potential they possess? Why do women not have much of a say in the Vatican when setting Church policy on reproductive issues and family?

Homosexuality. I find it disturbing that the Church finds it so easy to condemn a group of fellow human beings just for being who they are. It is unkind and discriminatory to its core. If the Church can hide behind scripture on this, they should also condemn the rest of the human race because somehow, somewhere in that same scripture they have condemned those people as well.

I have mostly questions, because the Catholics I know and love would not stand for the values that these policies represent. There is no logical reason in this day and age for these policies to exist. I see the Church now as merely an oppressive organization of men in robes that through its bureaucracy has betrayed what it was supposed to stand for. If there is a God that stood for love and community and kindness, He did not intend to have his organization of worshipers to act like this. To have a set of beliefs arbitrarily imposed on a group of willing believers in a way that is illogical, misleading, and propagates inequality and poverty is already so wrong as it is; to impose it on a country that needs so much to think for itself and achieve economic growth and political and social maturity is something I could not stand for.

God may very well be a force of good in the world, but the Catholic Church is a destructive force that needs to be stopped.

John Paraiso

Posted on 08. Dec, 2009 by John Paraiso in Oplan Pepe

It was just fortunate for me to be invited by a friend to attend a razzmatazz sponsored by Pro-Life Philippines in St. Peter’s Parish in Fairview, Quezon City three years ago. I went there hoping to be enlightened about the issues on abortion; instead what I saw was an exciting and complex play intended to confuse (dazzle) the public.

I was surprised that the whole shebang was not even a dialogue but propaganda, run by the Roman Catholic church to ban the artificial birth control method and family planning. AY NAKU PO! Not again! There were even some foreign guests (I think from Canada) who talked about Philippine poverty, saying it must not be blamed on population growth. Now here we have aliens from another land who in a mere instant knew what was best for Filipino society. MY PAPAYA!

Fortunately I got some distributed literature which showed what this was all about. The article seemed to be a letter intended to be given to the Philippine Congress, urging our respective Congressmen not to support some bills regarding:

• The Reproductive Health Bill
• Anti-Discrimination Act
• Integrated Population Management and Development Bill
• Divorce Bill
• Patients Rights Bill
• Anti-Terrorism Bill (?)
• Philippine Mining Act

And even the issue on Charter Change. Wait a minute there… I thought this is about the life of a child. Why are we dancing the cha-cha in here?

Now since this is a “Pro-Life” issue, I will just tackle the issue concerning Pro-Life. I’ll leave the issue of Anti-Terrorism and the Philippine Mining Act in a more “political” atmosphere.

According to this article, they claim that the cause of poverty is not overpopulation and the solution is not the use of contraceptives. Guess again? Well for your information, over-population is one of the causes of poverty and these entertainers are just keeping their eyes closed on the issue. Well some may use China as an example to justify over-population but let us examine the claim: We know that China is a very large country by territory compared to the itsy-bitsy group of islands called the Philippines.

So what’s the problem? Even with a billion in population, China can still manage their resources and their per capita income, compared to the Philippines. But why go to China if we can talk about reality in our own backyard?

Now the clamors in the issue about the Reproductive Health Bill are not even realistic. Maybe if we’re still living in the time of President Marcos, there is an issue. But today President Arroyo seems too hesitant to enforce the bill. Takot kasi si Ma’am sa simbahan eh.

The church still insists that the use of artificial contraceptives is immoral. Well think about this — there are thousands of sperm cells that leave a male body during coitus. Of the thousands, only one is needed to fertilized the egg cell. Now do you consider it murder, what happened to the unused sperm? It just doesn’t make sense. Here the Roman Catholics are into the sacredness of the sperm cell yet they don’t care about the child. A little common sense can shed some light on this matter. Just observe families around you and you’ll notice that most families that are a little well off have only 2 to 3 children, yet most families that live in depressed areas have a factory of kids. Most family whose parents have some college education insist on having few children with an interval of birth between 3 to 5 years, whereas family who only have an educational attainment of grade school have children as much as a dozen whose birth intervals can be compared to a stairway – every year mayroong birthday – WOAH!

And what happened with these children? Well maybe the staffs from Pro-Life Philippines should have a tour of Recto to Luneta at 1 to 4 AM and count the number of children sleeping in the streets, or sniffing rubber cement for dinner or breakfast. Now, I’m just thinking, these Catholic priests and their cahoots (like Pro-Life Philippines) preach to their adherents that it is a blessing to have many children, but where are they when these children , without the proper guidance of their parents, are now living in the streets, doing petty jobs just to survive or even worse, end up criminals? What is more moral, to save your so-called sacred sperm or to spare a life on misery because of tradition, superstition and ignorance?

Now on another issue, according to Pro-Life Philippines you mustn’t teach sex education to a 10-year old child. Hahaha! Now there is this speaker that says sex is God-given and will just go on naturally. Maybe if you’re still living in 18th century Europe, this is applicable. Before you talk, you have to consider the kind of environment you are living in. Just walk along the streets of Santa Cruz to Divisoria and you’ll be surprised how pornographic DVDs and VCDs are being sold in the streets like fishballs. AHA! And their packages are just lying there for the children to see. Pictures of a 12-year old child without any underpants being molested by a full-grown, pot bellied jerk old enough to be her daddy. Now what is more disgusting is to see this colored VCD label being held by a 7-year old grade school pupil from a nearby elementary school. Or how about this: a porno magazine that can rival Larry Flynn’s Hustler Magazine disguised as tabloids littering the streets of Manila. They’re only worth 15 pesos and can be bought by the average Filipino student. And let us not forget how pornography is now very easily downloaded from the internet and those novelties, double-meaning songs and some rap music being played by the radio, like this song about a lady’s rump. Last but not the least, TV shows and movies that suggestively displays men “beating their meat.”

So by not teaching your child about sex education, a craftier teacher is just waiting outside the gates of your house.

A recent study conducted by the Asian Development Bank, found the main cause of poverty in the Philippines to be:

• Weak macro-economics management
• High unemployment
• High population growth
• Weak agricultural production
• High corruption and weak governance
• Insurgency and violence
• Physical disability

Notice that high population growth is included in the list. A friend of mine once said, “Do you notice that most countries with a high Roman Catholic influence seem never to progress?” I sometimes wonder if population issue is one of the causes.

According to government statistics, three Filipinos are born every minute. That’s 160 Filipinos born every hour; 4,320 every day; 129,600 every month or 1,522,800 new Filipino to feed. Without proper care and guidance, more than half of these new Filipinos will be like animals in the streets of our major cities. Another new batch of “blessed is the poor and the meek and the sinners, etc. etc. etc.”

Until today, the Roman Catholic stand is that the world is not overpopulated and that overpopulation is not the cause of poverty. But what do they know? Naturally, these “men of God” have always relied on fantasy. But reality is very hard to swallow. Just go to Quapo in Manila and see the number of street children that littered the pavement near the church gates. Children without clothes, whose bellies are bloated with parasites, beggars for money. These street children soon become teenagers, without the proper guidance of poor parents, becoming hold-uppers and pick-pockets on Quiapo’s busy intersections. Is this what the Roman Church mean by fixing the poverty problem? As the famed Filipino author, F. Sionil Jose said in an article in Business World in 1997:

The country’s massive problems, basically created by Marcos and an irresponsible elite would faze any miracle worker. First, there is the tremendous population growth – three percent annually, the highest in Asia; almost all the economic gains are eaten up by it. Fueling it is the Catholic Church insisting on doctrinal purity, opposing birth control programs.

Pro-Life Philippines are now telling the audience that the solution is more jobs and to produce more food for the masses. Wait a minute? More food? Or is it more mouths to feed? Which is which? Just make a simple stroll in the streets of Manila and you can see children digging for leftovers in the garbage dumps, a site never heard off 20 years ago. Today the streets of South Harbor in Manila is littered with families living in the streets. Ano ba kayo? Nagbubulagbulagan ba kayo?

The equation is quite simple. Our planet is in a balance. Too many mouths to feed means an over use of natural resources. There is no magic here! For our resources to replenish, it will need time. But our population is too fast for our resources to catch up. Soon population will outrun the resources. It’s that simple. Just take a good look on experiments concerning the rabbit population problem in the United State and Australia. If the resources dwindle, nature will take its course. The situation is uglier compared to the artificial birth control method, when disease due to malnutrition would take its course to control the population.

If this continues, instead of eternal salvation, the Roman Church will be responsible for the eternal starvation of the Filipino.

[Photo by Jonathan McIntosh]

Hieronymus

Posted on 19. Nov, 2009 by Hieronymus in Oplan Pepe

Losing My Religion

I began questioning my religion in high school. And lost it in college. I remained an agnostic for 20 years after that, and later, in my readings, on diverse subjects (the sciences, history, biographies, literature, philosophy), I happened by a book by a famous biblical scholar (JD Crossan). It was as if I had discovered the man behind the Jesus myth, and it was quite inspiring-almost like meeting Jesus again, but for the first time. This inspired me to try and see how lived (versus believed) Christianity might be. And so after 20 years of agnosticism, I re-joined a church (the Anglican/Episcopal Church).

The beauty of its liturgical style, and the intelligence of the way they approached their faith swept me along for about 3 years. While I participated in the services and dabbled in bible study, I never for once believed in the divinity of Jesus, though I thought I would open up my mind (and heart) to the possibility of God. Of course, I did not have in mind a concept of God as a person, but as an ultimate reality. So when I prayed with them, it was for me a symbolic act of attempting to connect with the “All-ness” of reality (whatever that might mean), rather than communication with a divine being or person. Plus the beauty of their liturgy helped me as almost a form of practical (or ritual) meditation.

That didn’t last long, because sooner or later it became difficult to go on fraternizing with people who felt “one-with-you” in spirit, when I couldn’t very well return the favor- I was not a “Christian” in their sense, but only in my own private, and thoroughly off-synch sort of way– which really wasn’t Christian at all.

I found that, at the end of the day, belonging to a church meant sharing a FAITH–believing in something was the point of it all. So while I thought that the revolutionary program and spirit of Jesus was what was significant, they felt that believing incredible claims about him was the whole point of church membership and fellowship. But I didn’t come to that glaring realization on my own. It took an honest conversation with my wife, who was an emerging atheist, to snap me out of church and back to reality!

So I left the church again. This time I was able to admit to myself that I was an atheist, and shed the label of agnostic.

[Image by Hans Musil]

Anna Gan

Posted on 16. Nov, 2009 by Pepe in Oplan Pepe

Anna Gan — Cafeteria Christian

I was baptized a Catholic, received my first Communion as a Catholic and even went through Confirmation as one -not because my parents were fervent believers, but because it was a requirement for the school they wanted to enroll me in. While I value and treasure the education given to me (and have a belief in a Supreme Being) , I do question why the Church has chosen to repress others of different faiths and chosen to push its own self serving agenda through the ages.

In an age where women have been acknowledged as equals and have become pastors to their community, the Catholic church still only admits men into the priesthood. Women who wish to serve God become nuns. That is sexism hiding behind a “holy” cloak, and if the Church bewails the shortage of men who want to become priests, they shouldn’t be surprised.

After many were persecuted and some made martyrs during the Roman era, Catholics went on to torture others in the Inquisition, trying to weed out witches and those who did not subscribe to their faith (a practice which predated the Jewish Holocaust). They persecuted fellow Christians (Protestants) during the time of Mary Tudor -and the conflict strangely continues in Ireland (a country with pagan roots before the arrival of Christianity). The Church also tried taking the Holy City (as if the Israelites and Palestinians needed more trouble) during the Crusades. How does one reconcile being part of that faith, when we’ve been told “thou shall not kill” and “thou shall not covet” -then turn a blind eye as people invent loopholes to justify their actions in the name of God?

Then you wonder about the donations you make when they pass that bag or basket during Mass. Does it help feed or clothe the poor? Educate novices on the path to serving God? Or feed the great coffers of the Vatican, whose treasures rival any kingdom’s? This Church whose influence and power has grown through the millennia, and strangely does not protect its churchgoers, but instead protects the false servants — those who have families on the side, the ones who rob from the coffers, or even the ones who molest their own church followers.

And now, when we are being told to avoid mass consumerism, to become less materialistic and more spiritual -the Church still says birth control is bad? Worse, it meddles with the affairs of a nation that also has people of other faiths that have lived here for centuries -and deems “bad” a law allowing better access to reproductive health materials. Uncontrolled population growth, especially among the poor who have the least access to information/resources has led to crimes, mendicancy, malnourished/illiterate children and malnourished/illiterate women dying from pregnancy/childbirth complications.

As blind as the Church is, its own members do fall from grace, and without birth control, may resort to the extreme measure of abortion -a form of murder. Or if they go through with the pregnancy, abandon the child (there have been cases of newborns left in the worst situations: trashbins, restrooms, places where no straight-thinking mother should leave a defenseless child) and in some cases repeat the cycle of pregnancy and abandonment. A morbid joke says that if men could become pregnant, abortion wouldn’t just be legalized but actually become a sacrament –ironic, when you consider that those in power are men. It’s actually amazing that castration/sterilization didn’t become a prerequisite for the priesthood, perhaps to acknowledge that one may be a servant of God, but still a whole human being.

In a country that also has other faiths, which has decreed in its revised Constitution the separation of church and state, politicians still allow themselves to be bullied by the clergy -thanks to 300 years of Spanish rule (mostly by the cassocked set). To preserve the sanctity of a family or the appearance of one, our convoluted laws do not allow divorce but offer as an alternative separation or annulment -probably one of the last dinosaur-minded nations to do so. With the recent party-list status of LGBT group Ang Ladlad denied by the Comelec for “immoral grounds,” one realizes that separation may have been declared on paper, but has yet to take effect in reality. Take note that for years, the Comelec has held office in Intramuros, also the homebase of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

The hypocrisy of being Catholic revealed itself when I enrolled for one year for college in a convent school. There, young ladies could smoke (in a designated area), could whisper about the boys they were going to meet (and the things they were going to do) – and students mysteriously vanished mid-semester for, ahem, health reasons. But other students who were not Catholics were prevented from practicing their faith. Despite being fellow Christians, they could not openly pray, and were told not to evangelize or proclaim within school grounds. There, a student with extremely short hair had to report to the dean of discipline and was given a choice between wearing dangling earrings and red lipstick -or not attend school at all (interestingly enough, there was a faculty member or lecturer who seemed to have trans-sexual leanings and was allowed to wear what s/he pleased as long as it was “decent”). The same student who was the target of ethnic ridicule, for some strange reason, by a religion teacher who declared that she looked like a drug addict (one supposes that prior to her becoming a respected member of the faculty, this educator had first-hand experience in the appearance and demeanor of substance abusers). Despite having above-decent grades, I chose to remove myself from this environment -for I had no wish to be molded by the half-informed or hypocritical set that proclaimed themselves enlightened.

Religion isn’t really an opiate of the masses, it’s the people who abuse it and make it a tool for propaganda who make it so.

Anna, part of a new generation of freethinkers, banding together to fight for a secular Philippines.

Anna, isa sa mga bagong Pepe na nagsalita na sapagka’t pagod na sya maging pipi.

[Anna, one of the new Pepe's who has finally spoken up because she's tired of being silenced].

Rona Co

Posted on 13. Nov, 2009 by Pepe in Oplan Pepe

Rona Co, 30, journalist, former Catholic:

I don’t consider myself a Catholic. Though I was raised by a conservative Catholic family and studied in a Catholic school, I’ve long decided that I don’t want to be one anymore.

I’ve always had so many questions about the religion which I felt was shoved down my throat while growing up. The first seeds of doubt came when one of my grade school teachers – a Dominican nun – told us a story about how the Virgin Mary stopped “God the Father” from literally axing the earth. She said, “God was so mad at everyone for being sinful that He decided to just end the world. But the Virgin Mary intervened, she said, and asked God to give us another chance.”

She told us that story to illustrate how powerful the Virgin Mary is and how we better stay as loyal and obedient minions of the Church. I was scared shit for several days after hearing that. But then again, I thought, “There’s no way she could have known about that story even if it were true.” Though her story does not reflect the entire teachings of the Catholic Church, that’s when the questions started pouring in.

In high school, I once thought that our barangay leaders in Tondo should help organize seminars on family planning because there were (and there still are) so many young teens getting pregnant, and parents without decent-paying jobs having more kids. But it was also during that time that many Catholic schools – including mine – actively mobilized their students to join protest actions against the UN Cairo conference in 1994. We were bombarded by posters and placards with photos of aborted babies, saying that abortion is what being pro-choice is about. I remember debating with myself on that issue, because even at that time I knew that family planning, population management, and caring for one’s reproductive health do not equate to abortion.

College was a breath of fresh air because things were openly discussed despite my university’s Christian leanings (DLSU). I began to seriously ask questions and formulate my own thoughts on issues such as the use of contraceptives, family planning, the absence of divorce in the Philippines, the correlation of our country’s economic development and overpopulation, the lack of respect of our society for same-sex relationships, and many other things.

After college, I decided that I don’t want to belong in a group that continually tries to hamper the growth of our country by blackmailing politicians for supporting causes/bills I support. And when I had my son in 2008, I refused to have him baptized in Catholic rites, despite my family’s protests. I told them that I want my son to grow up free from an oppressive belief system. Besides, I don’t want him added to the Catholic statistics in this country and be used as a convenient excuse not to pass the RH Bill.

I can no longer be an accessory to the Church’s crime of depriving the people – women especially – their much-needed reproductive health services. A new generation of Pinoys are growing up in my community in Tondo and the same things that happened to their parents – early pregnancy, not being able to finish school due to lack of resources, etc. – are happening to them as well. We cannot remain blinded by this cycle of poverty and ignorance because it’s something that we can prevent.

Lastly, I cannot stand by a religion that does not respect the rights, beliefs, and choices of human beings. Soon, our lawmakers have got to look at the possibility of passing laws on divorce and same-sex marriage without fear of getting blackmailed or – que horror – losing in the elections. And it will only happen if we – former Catholics, Catholics who support these causes, members of other religions, atheists, whatever – stand up for our beliefs and speak out.

We’ve got to be the balls for our lawmakers. And we’ve got to tell the Catholic Church that enough is enough.

Rona, part of a new generation of freethinkers, banding together to fight for a secular Philippines.

Rona, isa sa mga bagong Pepe na nagsalita na sapagka’t pagod na sya maging pipi.

[Rona, one of the new Pepe’s who has finally spoken up because she’s tired of being silenced].

Cat and Marie

Posted on 10. Nov, 2009 by Pepe in Oplan Pepe

I began to write on my views of the Catholic Church and my own experiences with religion, when it hit me that I had in my possession a story much more powerful. That of a lady named Marie, a spunky woman I am proud to call my maternal grandmother.

Marie was an undeniable charmer — a looker with great legs, almond eyes, and for many years, an 18-inch-waist. She was well known for her high cheekbones, smoky voice and her ability to say and act what she felt, whether you liked it or not. A trait, many say, she inherited from her equally strong-willed father. Being an only child, Marie was the sparkle of her dad’s world and as much as he tried to instill his views on her, even from a young age his bright progeny spoke her own mind and knew exactly what she stood for.

Her disappointment in the Catholic Church stemmed from an incident done to her beloved father while she was just a child. Growing up in Baguio in the 1950’s, her parents were living in a mining camp while she was an “interna” at various Catholic schools. Due to her frail health and upon the family doctor’s recommendation, my great-grandfather enrolled her in the Episcopalian school Brent, because it had better food and medical care.

My great-grandfather was a practicing Catholic, so his decision to put his only child in the American missionary run school was one of necessity rather than desire. Sadly, the Belgian Bishop of Baguio didn’t feel the same way and announced in front of the whole congregation during a Sunday mass at the Baguio Cathedral that my proud and religious Lolo and his wife were to be denied the Sacraments for placing their child in an institution that would soil her mind with false doctrines.

For many years, my great grandfather, hurt and proud, shunned the Catholic faith. He only began going to Mass again, albeit grudgingly, when he had to “set an example” for his grandchildren.

Some time before Marie got married, the same bishop attempted to warmly hug her in front of her extremely religious soon-to-be mother in law and fiancé. Remembering the pain this robed man caused her father, she pushed him and his rosary far away from her chest, gave him an icy look, and to the shock of her soon-to-be in-laws, walked the other way.

One thing Marie firmly believed throughout her life was the right for women to lead their lives anyway they pleased. A phrase I often heard her say to the girls in our family while growing up was, “Don’t ever be a doormat.” She believed women had just as much entitlement as men to feel empowered, to make decisions that would lead them to reach their own dreams and live their personal passions. Being a prodigious reader, I clearly remember her insisting when I was 13 that I read the Jean M. Auel classic, The Clan of the Cave Bear, because she felt the book’s heroine, Ayla, was a far better example of a woman who we could proudly call the mother of the human race. Unlike, in her own half-joking words, “that ninny Eve.”

Throughout most of her life, Marie was a strong advocate of contraception as a choice and viewed it as a way for women to lead lives away from the trapdoor of deprivation in a third world country. While doing charity work with the women of Davao for over almost 20 years, she and her mother were actively involved in a foundation that offered birth control pills, ligations, or vasectomies to any family with three or more children. The local church tried its hardest to fight her private cause. They pleaded, argued, and gave her their cold shoulder. But there was nothing they could say or do that would make her change her mind. She felt that all women deserved this alternative and there was no way in hell the church was going to rob them of it. Through the years, countless women thanked my grandmother for her help. Because of her refusal to bend to the church’s rules, their families were happy, their children well fed and educated, and their lives thriving and nourished.

I will never forget a conversation I had with her at the age of 17 over an afternoon merienda. I had come straight from school to see her while she was visiting from Cebu. As the humid Makati air danced around us, we caught up with each other’s recent lives. “So your mom tells me you have a boyfriend now,” she said rather matter-of-factly. “Yes, I do.” I replied while piercing my cubed pieces of sweet Cebu mango with a fork. She nodded, took a puff from her slim cigarette, exhaled, and said in the same no-nonsense voice, “Are you on the pill?” This was in a nutshell my grandmother, practical and no bullshit. Growing up, I always knew the women of my family were far from the naïve matrons of bygone years who thought that their little fragile flowers would remain virgins till their wedding day. My cousins and I were taught early on to be healthy, responsible, and be with partners who valued and loved us. And because of this upbringing, we have never felt guilt or shame from love. A message I have every intention of passing on to my own children.

Marie left us on April of 2008. Though her spirit wanted to keep fighting, a destructive cancer finally weakened her body till we all accepted it was time to say goodbye. I know beyond a doubt that if she were still with us she would be fully behind the passing of the RH Bill. She may not have been a practicing Catholic, but she certainly had her own version of faith, an ideology stronger than that of a religious institution designed by men. Belief in a God who doesn’t want to see women trapped in a life of hardship and poverty, a life where hearts are chronically plagued with pain and worry as to how to provide for their families.

The Philippine Catholic Church keeps claiming that the RH Bill is a destructive force in the celebration of life. To this I ask, how? Through the Bill, women will be able to follow their dreams, couples can raise families when they can afford to have them, and children will have a better chance to grow up with food on their tables and books to read from school. Isn’t living a quality life the best way to celebrate it? A life where there is enough for everyone, thus becoming a bigger number than the sum of its parts so that it churns love like butter till it’s uncontainable and spread onto the community surrounding it. That is one of the bigger lessons Marie taught me and one that I wanted to share with all you. That a life worth living is one where you can design your path, believe and speak what you know in your heart to be true, not what a religious sect says to be fact, and live your days on earth with quality and fulfillment. If we can all learn a little from her on this, then I think she would be pleased.

Hector

Posted on 25. Oct, 2009 by Pepe in Oplan Pepe

My wife and I are using contraceptives and it is a mutual decision not to have children. For now.

Does the use of contraceptives condemn us to the fires of hell? I don’t know.

Does this make us immoral? NO.

Does this make us un-Catholic? Yes, if a word like that exists.

On not having kids, it’s easy for people to judge and make conclusions. I would always get reactions like “It’s just a phase.” to “Wait until you get your own kid.” and I would just nod, smile, and be polite in telling them that we’re still enjoying our time together.

On the use of contraceptives, the truth is:
1. It’s because we enjoy and value our own sense of freedom. I see pictures in Facebook of friends with their kids. I salute them. Parents have an honorable and difficult task in raising their children to become productive citizens. It’s a sacred thing BUT there are those people who equate having kids and raising them well as THE ultimate goal in life. My wife and I don’t share that view.

I believe that all of us have a different calling. Being a parent is just one of them. There are more.

2. We have practical reasons. Times are harder and I don’t see myself as a parent but more of an uncle. I love my nephew and niece. They are my “children” and I am one with my brother and sister-in-law in making sure that they would do something good for humanity. I can play with them but when they start throwing tantrums, I can easily get their parents to take over. Anytime, I can say NO to them without feeling a tinge of guilt.

But I made a promise that I will be their drinking buddy when they reach 12.

3. We’re 90 million and counting. I leave the others to excel in populating my Philippines. Not adding more Pinoys on my part is by choice. If I do have kids, I want them to go to the best schools, receive basic services from a government that serves THEIR interest, and I want them to know and love their country.

Subalit sa kalagayan ng ating bansa ngayon, hindi ko nakikita ang mga magiging anak o mga kaapo-apuhan ko na mabuhay sa ganitong sitwasyon.

Hindi pa handa ang Pilipinas na kumalinga sa mga Pinoy o Pinay na magmumula sa aming mag-asawa. Napakarami na natin.

PERO ayoko ring magsalita ng tapos sapagkat tao lang ako. Kung sakaling maisipan namin na magkaroon ng pamilya at medyo delikado na para sa asawa ko baka mag-ampon na lang kami. There are a lot of unwanted babies and if we can help in raising one well, it is our contribution to society and to our country.

Now to answer the questions:
1. How do you feel now about your religion? Compare this to how you felt about it as you were growing up and vs. what you were taught.

I don’t go to church anymore and I don’t know if there is a heaven or hell but I do believe in karma. I believe in a God that wants us to do good for humanity. I believe in this moving force that drives people to achieve what they want out of life. I don’t believe in a vengeful or jealous God who’s out to punish us or make us feel guilty for being human.

I now live under five rules: Be your own best friend. Live your passion. Do good to your kapwa. Don’t steal. Don’t kill.

Now that I don’t subscribe to the beliefs of the Catholic Church and no longer live under its rules, I have decided to stop hearing mass.

But there are things that I just can’t let go of. I consider myself a cultural Christian (if there is such a label then I’m happy to be one). I love Christmas, the gifts, long vacations especially during the Holy Week, old Filipino churches especially the Morong and Dauis churches, and I love singing “Lead me Lord” in videoke and listening to the chorale.

I don’t speak for everybody so I’m just guessing that some of us had a point in our lives when we wanted to lead holy lives by becoming priests or nuns. I was an altar boy when I was little. In my days in elementary and high school, I got high grades in Religion. There was also a time that I was a Bible Quiz champion having been raised in a Catholic middle-class family and watching Flying House and Superbook. At that age, I was also looking at a stack of porn that I accidentally unearthed but that’s another story.

I still pray but no longer to a God inside those magnificent structures but to a God that is everywhere; a God who is not trapped in dogma and used by selfish men to get rich or elected or both.

2. What brought about your new view of the church or its priests? Did you feel any guilt over your decision?

I’m more particular on the Church or any religious group’s involvement in Philippine politics and Rizal’s views on the friars as the roadblock to progress. I’m troubled over the fact that the Iglesia ni Cristo is using block voting and condemning people who want to think for themselves. I’m also troubled by Brother Mike Velarde and his (untaxed) millions of pesos and his millions of followers who have voting rights as well.

I’m also troubled by elected officials like former Mayor Lito Atienza (yes, MayniLA during his term) who have obstructed reproductive health programs in his city that could help the poor.

Oh, I’m also bothered that there are plenty of Caucasians in heaven while there are only two Filipinos there considering that we’re the largest Christian nation in Asia. There sure are racists in the Vatican

I don’t feel guilty about my views because priests are human and as human beings, there are some who enjoy wielding power and influence over people. It’s easy to enslave people with ideas than with physical force.

3. What do you think about the Church’s meddling in state issues such as the Reproductive Health Bill and the Magna Carta of Women?

The ironic thing about the Church is that they’re thinking that they’re helping or saving society by opposing and even muddling the RH Bill issue. They’re making sure that the only choice that WE have are the ones that THEY present. They claim to have the answers to almost everything.

The Church is for progress and happiness and you get all these in heaven. They say it with absolute CERTAINTY.

Women are on the receiving end of a bad deal when it comes to the Catholic Church. They cannot be ordained as priests and cannot decide on what is good for their body. Make no mistake, I am against abortion but I want women to have access to contraceptives. Those are two different things.

Women have to be subservient to men as written in the Scriptures and this is even enunciated in wedding vows.

My wife made it a point to take out that part in our wedding.

4. Anything else you might want to add about your insights on church, religion and the meddling modern day Padre Damasos in our midst?

One of the reasons that Rizal got shot was because of his progressive ideas and his attacks on the friars for confining his fellow Filipinos in superstition and ignorance. The two novels showed that friars can be damn wrong (He was vicious in the Noli) and these leaving these men of the cloth no longer untouchable.

Rizal believes in God and in man’s conscience in determining what is right and wrong and especially on education to free his people from suffering and ignorance.

Education is the key to be truly free. The Reproductive Health Bill is one of the ways to get to that point. We need to have choices available to us now and we need to make them without guilt or fear.

Oras na para gamitin ang utak dahil bigay ito ng Maykapal. Sobra na tayo sa puso katulad ng paboritong kong sports commentator na si Chino Trinidad tuwing nagco-cover ng laban ni Pacquiao

Maraming salamat sa pagbasa.

HECTOR
-30-

Ian Baltazar

Posted on 24. Oct, 2009 by Ian Figueroa Baltazar in Oplan Pepe

I was told I was “baptized” as an Aglipayan in my birthplace in Antique (my mother’s province), and was again “baptized” in a Roman Catholic ritual when my father moved us back to his hometown in La Union. My mother converted and became a devout Catholic and was an active officer in our local parish council. Though my father refuses to go to church, he never misses a Sunday weekly mass broadcasted on t.v. and often prays alone in private.

Long afflicted with polio since I was two years old, I never recovered the use of my two legs while my left arm was partly paralyzed. I went through school in a wheelchair with an aide to assist me.

It was during high school (I studied in a Catholic school) when I started asking questions about the flaws in the dogma of the Catholic Church. I was disgusted at how our religion class teacher had forced us to attend mass every Sunday and gave us demerits whenever we failed to. All students were required to make a personal weekly Sunday mass attendance card to be checked on Mondays by our religion class teacher and dreaded the moment when one was asked to stand and explain the reason why one failed to attend the mass. It was hellish and medieval – a rehash of the Inquisition. I found it absurd as one was miserably mocked and drowned with guilt from the theological chastising by the teacher. Later, I realized how this method of exacting blind obedience and faith could lead to losing one’s self-esteem and self-respect when some students eventually decided to lie about going to mass. They feared more the humiliation they would face from our Catholic Taliban teacher than from the punishment they would face in hell.

In the Catholic school where I attended, it has this tradition of herding students en masse to attend the sacrament of confession in the church where the parish priest would be waiting for every student inside the confessional booth. This ritual lasted the whole day depending on the quantity and severity of the “sins” the students confessed. It was really farcical since some students had to invent sins just to have something to confess of or else risked being castigated and bullied by the trigger-happy priest who loved to shoot his gun at the ceiling of his bedroom in the parish “convento” whenever he got drunk.

Among the doctrines of the Catholic Church I found ludicrous was its fanatical devotion to the “Virgin Mary” – Jesus’ mother. We were systematically indoctrinated on this dogma, taught to pray the rosary several times a day (novenas) and celebrated the whole month of October as the Month of the Holy Rosary. The Church spends and lavishes so much time, resource and attention on the “Virgin Mary” making Catholics unwittingly unaware that they’re already worshipping her at par with God! Also, on October of each year, we were asked by the parish priest and our school to donate, solicit and raise money for Catholic missionaries – they call this Mission Month. They issued and distributed specially printed and marked envelopes to every student and gave us quotas or amounts to raise for donation. Students who were able to raise and surpass their quotas were given special privileges like bonus grades, quiz exemptions and school breaks. It was turned into a mad competition where it went as far as sponsoring cookouts where every class of students contributed money for capital, took turns cooking and selling food or snacks within the school to raise “mission money.” Interestingly, even the capital was also later given away for donation. Some students skipped meals in school to save their allowance for their “mission contributions” thinking and believing it was their little way of sacrificing and offering something to God and the “Virgin Mary.” Of course, others do it for their self-serving obsession to win the competition. Others stole or lied from their parents to obtain money. The not-so-well-off students felt guilty they couldn’t give much and often marginalized by rich and zealous students who constantly showed off with their huge donations.

I have read the bible at an earlier age but was puzzled in our high school religion class or catechism when our teacher introduced us to the Old Testament then decided not to go far beyond Leviticus. She skipped chapters, cherry-picking verses while bombarding us a plethora of undecipherable Catholic doctrines. Later on, she gave more importance to the New Testament focusing on the gospels. My inquisitive mind wandered and started to ask questions secretly out of fear of being mocked and rejected by my classmates and teacher. Reading the bible left me disturbing thoughts. I was shocked to read a God so malevolent, sadistic, vengeful, misogynistic, genocidal and egomaniac. Honestly, for a time I used to justify my own vindictive and violent temperament arguing God had his own violent episodes too.

When I read Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo in our Filipino Literature class, my rational mind was awakened. I started to doubt. Then I craved for more references and books on the history of the Church and other religions. I also sought the books Rizal and his fellow freethinkers read and wrote during their time. I was obsessed dissecting the Noli even read it several times to draw off every secular and anti-cleric ideas Rizal had written about. I read his other essays then managed to get my hands on the writings and ideas of Del Pilar, Lopez-Jaena, etc. I got interested with Voltaire, Diderot, d’Holbach, Hume, Thomas Paine, Mark Twain, George Eliot and Robert Green Ingersoll… I became agnostic.

At the age of 17, I entered politics and convinced my parents to allow me to run for public office which they had very strong objections to due to my condition. In the end, I got my way and was first elected in the Sangguniang Kabataan or youth council. A few years later, I got elected for nine straight years as municipal councilor. During this time I never stopped seeking answers to my questions. I was angry and upset at the cycle of collusion between Catholic clerics and politicians in the forming of public policies on both local and top levels of our government. Secularism in our constitution is only a watermark that our government continues to ignore. The Filipino people are flanked on both sides by a pair of hungry wolves ready to tear them apart – on one side is the ever-arrogant, backward, sexually-repressive, hypocritical and profiteering Catholic Church while on the other is a government that formulates vague and deceptive policies to hide its plunderous, corrupt and inept condition.

In a country so steeped in religion and superstition, coming out in the open and declaring one’s self an atheist is not only suicidal but foolhardiness. Sometime ago, when I decided to finally discard the yoke of religion and took the path to atheism and secular humanism, it was sweet and victorious. I took it as an ultimate expression of freedom over ignorance and fear about our natural world and the universe as commonly espoused in the prejudices and superstitions of religion. It may sound utopian but I dream the day when all people become rational beings and understand and tolerate one another then someday there will be a world free from religion, bigotry, racism and conflict.

I enjoin all Filipino freethinkers to come out and renew the intellectual movement as we spread the light of reason among our people long groping in the dark. This is a challenge for us who live in a country and a world dominated by theists.