Pinay lobbies in US against RP bill

April 23, 2008  --  Got something to say?
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familyplanning.jpgBy Rodney J. Jaleco
WASHINGTON D.C. – Eileen Macapanas-Cosby has been talking to lawmakers here, telling them about a little-known bill pending in the Philippine Congress that, she asserts, will pave the way for coercive population control in the Philippines. “Very few Filipino-Americans or even Americans related to Filipinos, who have friends that are Filipinos understand what is about to happen to the country,” Cosby said. She was referring to House Bill 17, otherwise known as the Reproductive Health Bill principally authored by Bicol Congressman Edcel Lagman.

“It’s in the House but they say it’s moving into a debate next month,” she added. Cosby is executive director of the Filipino Family Fund based in the District. The group is working with Manila-based organizations like Pro-Life Philippines, Gawad Kalinga, and Couples for Christ, among others, to mount a vigorous campaign against HB 17.

Taking the fight to the US was necessary, she argues, because the bill has reportedly won supporters from International Planned Parenthood affiliates. The US government is also a major donor for family planning programs in the Philippines.

“What this bill will do is a great violation of human rights and religious freedom,” Cosby said.
“If you do not participate in the reproductive health care agenda that’s being proposed for an ideal family size you can be imprisoned for six months. This is horrendous,” Cosby stressed.

“We are talking to leaders on Capitol Hill about this, to educate them about what’s going on,” she tells Balitang America.

They’ve also launched a signature campaign through their website, FilipinoFamilyFund.org to draw wider support against the bill.

Rep. Lagman set the premise for the bill in the explanatory note – it said the 2003 National Demographic and Health Survey revealed the “desired fertility rate of Filipino women is 2.5 children”; 61 percent of married Filipinos do not want additional children; the 2002 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Survey showed 50.6 percent of the youth want to have only two children.

But he adds, “this bill is not a population control measure with the sole objective of limiting population growth”.

“This measure,” he stressed, “is not coerciveThe so-called ‘two child policy’ is voluntary, not compulsory; suggestive not coercive; and absolutely not punitive.”

But Cosby cites several provisions in the proposed law to buttress her arguments. Section 11, for instance, states “The State shall assist couples/parents and individuals to achieve their desired family sizeand encourage them to having the number of children at an affordable and manageable level of two children per family.”

Bill opponents also criticize Section 7 that sets mandatory “age-appropriate” sex education for all students from Grade 5 all the way to senior year of high school.

Cosby also pointed to the controversial Sections 15 and 16 which lists “prohibited acts” and sets penalties ranging from one to six months imprisonment and or a P20,000 fine for violators.

However, the bill also sets new safeguards to protect women’s health. Section 15, for instance, makes it criminally liable for employers to force female job applicants to submit to sterilization; or for any healthcare professional to refuse patients based on gender, marital status, personal circumstances and nature of work, among others. Section 12 stipulates that “Women shall not be discriminated against in the matter of hiring, regularization of employment status or selection for retrenchment.”

But Cosby and other pro-life activists see the women’s protection clauses as a smokescreen. “We don’t want what happened in China with its one-child policy, to happen in the Philippines. We have the chance to stop them now, but we have to raise the alarms,” she averred.

“We have to raise important questions to the government in the Philippines as well as to the government here in the United States,” Cosby added.

The US government provided about $24 million in 2007 to help finance Philippine health and family planning programs. Cosby said American NGOs, who are convinced that population control is key to eradicating poverty, are also funneling huge amounts to the country. She explained that the private-sector initiative often set numerical targets to their funding, raising the pressure for implementers to take short cuts to meet their targets.

She’s trying to convince lawmakers here to re-channel US aid to promote only natural planning methods, especially in the remote regions of the Philippines where, Cosby alleges, they’ve received reports of forced sterilization of women.

“In the barrios, the provinces, a lot of women have been challenged with pressure to submit to artificial contraception and sterilization – things that are not part of Filipino values,” she explained.
“We’ve worked with doctors in the Philippines who found coercive practices so we asked the US government to investigate, and they did the investigation.

In eight localities, they found in two provinces there were forced sterilizations,” she said.

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