Noynoy's RH Bill. Couples for Christ & Frank's Parable of the Talents

MANILA - "The problem with the Poor is that there are too many of them." That goes well with the statement, "For God so loved the Poor that He made so many of them." Both are extremely poor excuses for thinking coming from Homo sapiens, Latinized name that means a "wise man" or "knowing man" (Wikipedia). The first is poor logic; the second is funny - at the expense of the Poor.

Whatever happened to the Heavenly Promise of Noynoy Aquino to solve the problem of the Earthly Poor in the Philippines by getting rid of the Corrupt in our Government? As a presidential candidate, his winning slogan was, "Kung Walang Korap, Walang Mahirap." No corrupt, no poor. As a copywriter, I understand the power of a slogan to capture the mood of a target audience; in this case, Noynoy won a presidential election I didn't think he would win. Well, a copywriter could be wrong.

So, following up this winner, after almost 9 months into office, from 30 June 2010, I have yet to read of a grand design to fight corruption. If as other Filipinos say corruption is massive, that calls for a massive campaign - and that calls for a massive program. I don't see even a missive from Noynoy; all I see is a missing program.

To be Frank, I didn't vote for Noynoy Aquino. To be sure, I voted for the first time in 28 years, and I voted for Gilberto "Gibo" Teodoro, the one who did not have a slogan but who saw the future and said (Facebook):

This is a CAMPAIGN that does not stop with our candidate, nor does it end on Election Day. It is a deeper movement, a paradigm shift that calls for the raising of awareness of every Filipino, the enlightenment of our entire race, so that we may pull ourselves out of a culture (steeped) in negativity and divisiveness, and enjoy the benefits of higher consciousness. (You can review what I wrote on 06 May 2010, "Gibo at 4th place. In the 1st place, mass appeal," Flipinos, Flips! blogspot.com.)

What happened? My candidate lost and we're still lost in the Shadowy Ages of Philippine History. I don't see enlightenment forthcoming in the political universe of this country yet. I´m 70 but I'm not giving up!

I understand that Noynoy Aquino is now pursuing a different approach in getting rid of poverty in his country, which is my own – Population Control of the Poor. And I understand that certain groups of Roman Catholics are advocating the same in the form of their support for the Reproductive Health Bill.

I just found out today that the support list for the RH Bill includes Couples for Christ, one of my favorite Catholic orgs. It only means I have not been paying much attention to the politics of Reproductive Health. I knew that the proposed law was advocating Responsible Parenthood, but I didn't think it was winning the war. It was based on the Malthusian theory of population always increasing beyond food supply, where Robert Thomas Malthus did not consider technology advance as well as access to that food supply. Malthus' Mathematics was good, but his Economics was bad.

I have had very high regards for Gawad Kalinga. In modern times and in the Philippines, my beloved country, this is the face that launched a thousand ships. Gawad Kalinga is a movement to inspire, instruct and institutionalize the building of communities by the people themselves, with a little help from donors, volunteers and local governments. It was a first in the world, an innovation in community building, and it was by Filipinos.

Gawad Kalinga was another reason I was proud to be a Filipino.

If you didn't know, it was Couples for Christ led by Tony Meloto who came up with the grand idea of Gawad Kalinga. In October 2009, I edited a doctoral dissertation on GK by Father John Damian Mukese. I have been editing theses since 1975, and I know this was at heart a good one, so I was happy to be of editorial help. In his study, Fr Damian found that the GK shelter program in Los Baños Ville was mainly focused on 3 unique practices in community organizing: sweat equity, values formation, and volunteerism. There was no mention whatsoever of "responsible parenthood" or similar phrases either as a unique practice or as part of values formation.

I don't know why the thesis didn't mention it. As I have just found out, in 2007, GK was in favor of Responsible Parenthood. This is how I found out:

For my contribution to a book of memoirs, I have been reading forward hundreds of emails from 2007 and there was this Forward on the subject of "Making the World Better" - I was upset when I read this 1-paragraph sentence:

We are happy and indeed proud to know and meet the medical professionals in Chicago last 22 September - Gawad Kalusugan is now ready and embarking on a 7-Point Program to help GK communities mediate the health problems from tuberculosis to responsible parenting to health insurance and dental care ... notice how it also is an integrated approach to healthy communities as integral to GK.

As a Roman Catholic, I was disturbed by the pronouncement that Gawad Kalusugan, integrated into Gawad Kalinga, had a 7-Point Program to help GK communities "mediate the health problems from tuberculosis to responsible parenting..."

So, Gawad Kalinga considered "responsible parenting" as a health problem! First of all, it is obvious that responsible parenting is not a health problem. Was this merely careless construction of a complex sentence, an error in syntax? It was an error in syntax; it was also an error in judgment. Going to the RH Bill, even granting overpopulation, I know that overpopulation is not a medical illness either!

That GK affair was in 2007. I don't know what happened, but in September 2008, Couples for Christ came out in the Philippine Daily Inquirer with a print ad that shouted:

Ask your congressman to kill
HOUSE BILL 5043
before it kills the Filipino Family.

We enjoin all Filipino families to prevent this bill from becoming a law. Write to your congressmen. Ask them to help the poor instead, by partnering with Gawad Kalinga. Let us all join hands in building a nation that honors God.

Amen!

On 03 March 2011, "The Truth About The RH Bill: An Academic Forum" was held at UP Diliman (Truthsayer, 04 March 2011, filipinosforlife.com). Lawyer Jose Sison said it was a "useless bill" and "wasteful" of resources. Economist & Sociologist Pamela "Mimi" Fabe said people are the main resource of the Philippines, so why do you want to limit their number? Doctor Liza Manalo exposed the medical myths contained in the consolidated House Bill 4244, among other things, that it is really about promotion of safe sex and use of contraceptives, classifying family planning supplies as essential medicine, promoting reproductive health at the expense of life-threatening health problems. The RH Bill is not an exercise in futility, not fertility.

About Couples for Christ, necessarily, let me note here that there are now 2 separate orgs, one known simply as Couples for Christ (CFC) and the other Couples for Christ Foundation for Family and Life (CFC FFL). Joe Tale is Chair of CFC, Frank Padilla of CFC FFL.

The CFC came out with an ad published in the Philippine Star 12 February 2011 that said:

We choose life. We stand solidly with the Catholic bishops and Filipinos of other faiths in "Choosing life, rejecting the RH Bill." We join the prayers of many: That our leaders indeed take the straight path for our country.

On 15 March 2011, Couples for Christ Foundation for Family and Life came out with the CFC FFL's position regarding the RH Bill (Frank Padilla, wordpress.com). The Position Paper argued that the RH Bill is "inherently unconstitutional," has "infirmed provisions," and is "self-contradictory" in many instances. It also argued that it will destroy the Filipino family.

Frank Hilario believes Frank Padilla.

To go on, on my own:

Reduce poverty level by reducing number of poor. This is the logic of many scientists in my country, including those in my alma mater, the University of the Philippines. Parable to the rescue! This is mathematical logic: Given a Dividend, if the Divisor is higher, the Quotient is lower. And vice versa. So, here is

Frank's Parable of the Talents 2011:

It came to pass that there was the family of Adam, and Adam earned only 800 talents (Dividend) and he divided among his 8 children (Divisor), so each had only 100 talents (Quotient). In another town, there was the family of Barabas, and Barabas earned also 800 talents and he divided among his children, who were only 2, so each had 400 talents, 4 times richer than each of those 8 children in Adam's family.

Master, what is the moral of the story?

You see, the number of children makes a family either rich or poor. Go forth and do not multiply!

The Math is obvious, the Economics is spurious. Did you notice that the families had the same limited income? Not the Mathematical Dividend, but why is the Economic Dividend (Income) of the Poor limited? If as Noynoy Aquino says corruption is the cause, by all means, let him decimate the population of the Corrupt in Government, not decimate the population of the Poor! If not, Noynoy Aquino and his cohorts should study history. When he was President more than 60 years ago, Ramon Magsaysay had it right when he said, "Those who have less in life should have more in law."

Still, the Economic Dividend of the Poor does not depend only on Government. It depends also on how Society treats the Poor. Do the Poor enjoy access to resources? Do they receive value added as their produce leaves them and passes through the marketing highway and as it reaches the consumers wherever they are?

And still, the Economic Dividend of the Poor does not depend only on Government and Society but more on themselves, on their own Entrepreneurship. So, if you want to increase the Economic Dividend of the Poor, initiate them into Entrepreneurship and help them until they can stand on their own.

We don't need massive capital to do this; all we need is a massive movement of advocates for the development of the Poor. This is the idea behind micro-credit, Muhammad Yunus' Grameen idea, a Nobel Prize-winning formula. We don't have to reinvent the wheel - we just have to attach it to our own vehicle. Gawad Kalinga is a good example of a movement for the poor.

And yes, "Education for All" is one of the major reasons why there is the massive Brain Drain called the Overseas Filipino Workers, because of the lack of jobs in this country, not to mention the low pay. Each year, Education for All churns out 1,000,000 job seekers while our country churns out only 100,000 jobs. Our educators must be re-educated on the necessity and value of Entrepreneurship. Education creates job seekers; Entrepreneurship creates jobs, not job seekers. I would recommend High School Entrepreneurship, starting at Junior High, culminating in a viable project that the Senior can continue after graduation.

In any case, I subscribe to Education for All those who subscribe to the RH Bill!