Pananaghoy: RH as HR: Words That Had Me Sold

Friday, September 16, 2011

RH as HR: Words That Had Me Sold

September 15 at the UP Malcolm hall, at around 10 am, a forum commenced which had senators Miriam Defensor Santiago and Pia Cayetano, warriors for the much debated Reproductive Health bill, talking about it's benefits and tribulations as they push for its passing at the senate to young pre-law and law students from different universities.

The line for registration never ceased to have people signing in and it was quite interesting to see students obviously excited to listen to a discussion that is talk about not only by law makers but also of the common people.

Anyway, I'll just be posting quotes from the speakers that drove the point for me during the entire morning, both from Senator Miriam and Pia.

First to speak was Senator Pia Cayetano. He are the words that I thought made an impact.

"We are blind, stupid, ignorant, if we refuse to acknowledge this fact (11 maternal deaths a day due to complications of child birth or pregnancy) or acknowledge it but refuse to do anything about it"

"23% of 15-27 year olds are sexually active"

"We should be able to distinguish between myth and facts (of child-bearing and childbirth)"

"RH is understanding your body and developing a wholesome and healthy view of your body"

She gave quite a moving speech, arguing (yes in front of a Pro-RH crowd) the features and positive outcomes of passing the bill. She also gave due respect to her colleague (and self-admitted idol) Senator Miriam. Her exact words were "Senator Miriam is my idol because she's the only one who could talk about sex in the senate floor".

Then it was Senator Miriam's speech. She also talked about her experiences during her early years as a student and as a public servant. The best of all her recollections were her encounters (of the creature kind) in senate especially with her current feat of trying to mentor for the passing of the bill. Here are the things that I took down from her compelling address.

"Someone will always profit through government services delivered in a capitalist economy."

"Kapag may nagtanong tungkol sa reproductive health niya, sasagot ka lang naman. Anong masama doon?"

"The church is not the Pope, the bishops and the priests... it is the congregation of catholics."

"Over the pope as the expression of the binding claim of ecclesiastical authority there still stands one's own conscience, which must be obeyed before all else, if necessary even against the requirement of ecclesiastical authority," which she quoted from Pope Benedict the XVI.

Truth be told, she said so much more that would have won over the opinion of the logical anti-RH people (if there are any) but she was either inserting jokes or had a serious tone that I forgot that I was there to blog about the event.

Also there were some of the big names of the Pro-RH campaign such as Heart Evangelista, Jim Paredes and Carlos Celdran to name a few.

I got the chance to ask Ms. Evangelista a couple of questions and here is the video of that interview.