Category: women

media, priests & abortion

media is plural for mediocre, rene saguisag says in his manila times column on the same day that mark robert b. baldo in a letter to the inquirer editor decries the failure of media to level-up the public debate on the RH bill.

A cursory look on the articles printed in this broadsheet shows this to be a recurring theme: luminaries using the infidelities of some Catholic priests in Europe to discredit the Church; some citing the political affiliations of some bishops; and others, presenting flawed accounts of Church history. This is a mistake because no longer do we hear mention of arguments by both parties.

… Media inevitably shape the public debate. I am not talking here about whether the bill should be passed or not, or whether the media should frame it in such a way that it would be passed or not. I am simply talking about how to frame the debate in such a way that it would stimulate productive discussion rather than a stirring drama about a declining institution in Philippine society.

indeed, na-sidetrack, nagpa-sidetrack, na lang ang media sa rizal vs. damaso drama ni carlos celdran.   easier naman talaga to go with the flow, kahit paatras, than to move on, against the tide, to the more difficult formidable challenging task of helping along the RH discourse toward a clear resolution.

in Some issues about the RH bills fr. joaquin bernas writes:

When does human life begin? We probably are all agreed that man must not destroy human life. Our Constitution protects life “from conception.” There is some indication in the deliberations of the 1987 Constitution Commission that this means “from fertilization.” But there are contrary views. Who will decide which view is correct?

granted, for the sake of no-argument, that the philippine constitution means “from fertilization” and that congress will so concur, what then?   logically, it should mean the end of all debate because as with the natural family planning method (no sex during ovulation), with artificial contraceptives no fertilization happens, which means no life is destroyed, so condoms, pills, and IUDs should be okay-all-right.

and yet and yet and yet, priests and other rabid pro-lifers continue to insist that birth control pills (that prevent ovulation so no egg is produced for sperm to fertilize) are abortifacients.   nakakaloka.   how canyou even begin an intelligent discussion???   for the longest time i couldn’t figure it out.   why the lying.   why the dishonesty.   why the misinformation.   until suddenly it dawned on me, after reading this, still from fr. bernas:

The determination about the beginning of human life will also be relevant to the debate on abortion. Clearly abortion is prohibited and penalized by law. But when does abortion take place? At what stage of the reproductive process will interruption be considered an offense against life? At fertilization or only after implantation? Are there birth control devices or pills which are abortifacient? If so, in what way? There is debate about the abortifacient effect of some birth control means. Who is to settle this debate—Congress? The Courts? Science? the Church? The ralliers? I understand that the various pharmaceutical and medical literature on this are conflictive.

the questions tell me that fr. bernas knows more than he’s telling, much like a parent who has a hard time talking to a teen child about sex because the openness and the info could be misconstrued as license to have sex.   in this case the information, which is most likely new to many many filipino women, rich and poor, young and old, could be misconstrued as license to interrupt the reproductive process by preventing the implantation of a fertilized egg, which apparently he equates with abortion.   i totally disagree.

just to make sure i have it right, i emailed my balikbayan brother dr. godofredo “butch” stuart, now based in tiaong, quezon, who is my first resource on contraception.   his response:

REPRO 101

Fertilization occurs when sperm-meets-ovum, 200 to 500 million sperms in the ejaculate, discharged into the vaginal vault, embarking on journey up the vagina, up the cervix. Only less than a thousand survive the swim and make it to the fallopian tube, into the “last lap” of their swim. These sperms have fertilizing capabilities that last only for 72 hours, sometimes 96 hours.

And once a month, normally, one mature egg is released from the ovary, fertilizable only for 24 hours. Into the fallopian tube it begins the journey, where it is met by one of the surviving sperma. So fertilization occurs, resulting in a zygote.

The germinal stage (0 to 2 weeks) begins when the zygote journeys down the fallopian tube to the uterus, reaching the uterus in 4 to 5 days, floating freely in the uterine cavity for several more days, finally adhering to the uterine wall about the 8th day after fertilization. By the 12th the egg is firmly implanted. And by the end of the second week the uterine wall has completely surrounded the newly developing organism.

This is the basic arithmetic on sperm and ovum life spans, and how the implantation happens many days later after fertilization. And how morning-after contraception works in the schemata of the germinal stage and implantation.

check out his website stuartxchange.com where he has a page on emergency post-coital contraception.   between fertilization of the egg and its implantation in the uterus, there’s a 7-day window during which contraceptive pills taken in certain doses effectively prevents implantation, which is how the morning-after pill (banned here) works.

the question is, when a woman resorts to emergency contraception, is that abortion?   i don’t think so.   while it is true that a fertilized egg has life, still it’s NOT A VIABLE LIFE, not until implantation.

DOC BUTCH :  Yes, non-viable until implantation.  Alive, yes, as in in-vitro fertilization, alive in the laboratory milieu, but still needing the uterine implantation to enter a sustaining nutritional environment.

which brings me back to fr. bernas’s questions: when does abortion take place?   answer: certainly not when a woman resorts to emergency contraception “the morning after” sex, because a fertilized egg (if at all there is one) is not yet a viable life-form.   and no, BIRTH CONTROL PILLS ARE NOT ABORTIFACIENTS:  once a fertilized egg has implanted onto the uterine wall, no amount of these pills can dislodge or remove it from the uterine wall.   (only real abortifacients can dislodge, abort, a zygote, but that’s for another blog.)

of course pro-lifers would disagree with me till kingdom come.   but try googling it and you will find that there are as many arguments for fertilization, as there are for implantation, as the beginning of human life.   so fr. bernas asks: who is to settle the debate re the alleged “abortifacient effect of some birth control means” — congress? the courts? science? the church? the ralliers?   answer: NONE OF THE ABOVE.   i say THE WOMAN DECIDES, not the priests or the opus deists.

DOC BUTCH : From opposing ends, it will never be answered or agreed upon. Yes, in the end, it should be the woman’s right, sole and inalienable, unburdened by archaic church edicts and impotent male political will. Too, a daunting responsibility for “educators” with the burdensome task of educating the womenfolk. And how to make the information available and comprehensible to the masa, who still resort to coat-hangers, grapevine pharmaceuticals, and dangerous herbal concoctions.

indeed.   widespread underground procedures kill about 1,000 women each year in this predominantly roman catholic country.

An estimated 560,000 women in the Philippines in 2008 sought abortion involving crude and painful methods such as intense abdominal massages by traditional midwives or inserting catheters into the uterus, said a report by the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights.

which brings me back to the media, which have the power and the means not only to shape the debate but to make available the information and educate the womenfolk, thereby “to change the status quo of high rates of infant mortality, maternal deaths, and abortions. It is a moral imperative that such dehumanizing conditions should not be allowed to continue.”

DOC BUTCH :    Media seems to kowtow to the powers that be.  It seems like institutional fear.  No cojones to challenge the church on such matters.  Or perhaps everyone of note in media went to the same church-sponsored Sex Education 101.  Masyadong malakas ang simbahan.

but is it just fear of excommunication and hellfire,  or is it also a lack of critical thinking,  and not caring enough about the issues that matter?   media is plural for mediocre?   yes, all of the above.

careless women

had a real good laugh over dzmm teleradyo‘s latest version of “woe is me, shame and scandal in the family” : “o diyos ko, kay laking kahihiyan nito” *LOL* referring of course to the hayden kho – katrina halili sex videos that have made a nationwide joke, a laughingstock no less, of vicki belo’s hunk hayden kho to the tune of “careless whisper.”

even the alta-siyudad is enjoying the show and laughing out loud.

All of Social Manila [ as well as Non-Social Manila ] these days are in giggles, squeals, and shrieks of perverse delight on their laptops and PCs… In a series of three downloaded videos from cyberspace, but specially in the longest one, Doctor Stud, on-and-off-and-on-again boyfriend of Doctor Sexy, delightfullymanifests his astonishing sexual prowess in a variety of positions with three different women.

Inevitably, it comes to mind that if the remarkable sexual prowess displayed is what Doctor Sexy is enjoying in her relationship with Doctor Stud, and it must be, then many hotblooded women and even more hotblooded gay men have justifiable reasons to be envious of her.

… Exhibitionism Galore. And an Orgy of Voyeurism for Everyone Else.

… Enjoy the Show. It’s quite something, really. Until today I thought only Caucasians could perform phenomenally like that. Doctor Stud certainly has a great future in the pornographic movies industry.

on the other hand, my gay friend iskho lopez is unimpressed.   lifted this status from facebook:

The controversial sex videos between a so-called celebrity doctor and his female partners … were familiar and nothing extraordinary. It revealed the sexual appetite of the said performers, particularly the doctor who demonstrated his prowess in “eating” and predilection for using his fingers in the process.

pahabol pa ni iskho, “the routine is rather gay…”

of course i had to see for myself kung sila nga ba ‘yon and not some look-alikes, and also to have a sense of what kind of porn we’re so scandalized about.   soft porn?   hard porn?   here’s the diff:

“Hard porn shows penetration; in soft porn, there is no penetration. We never see the dick because the dick is soft. Hence, soft porn.”

ay, kinda hard porn nga, but an amateur hidden-angle set-up, maya’t maya out-of-frame, and the video quality is terrible.    if we didn’t know kho and halili, thanks to media that celebrate them, these badly done videos would not sell.   the only reason these particular ones are selling is because we know, and know OF, vicky belo’s hunk of a boytoy and of the belo model who is also fhm‘s 2-time covergirl and a gma7 talent, who once denied being a couple behind belo’s back, and here they are engaging in illicit sex that they’re video-recording, and badly, to boot, how spectacularly perverse.

but, really, perverse only in the sense of being pasaway or sutil, not in the sense of abnormal or aberrant sexual behavior.    hayden isn’t a sicko, he’s just a spoiled handsome brat, parlaying his good looks for the good life and hot sex, but he went too far, i mean, you know, a digital diary of his sexcapades with celebrities, omg, what was he thinking?    hindi niya na-anticipate na puwedeng manakaw ang laptop niya, o makopya ang hard disk?    he should have been more careful.   but then i suppose he wasn’t thinking, except with his dick.   or it could even have been hubris.   things were going so well, luck and love were on his side, maybe he thought it would never end, ahahaha.   nothing never ends.

as for the alleged victim, i don’t buy jo-ann maglipon‘s take of halili as an abused woman who just happened to fall in love with the wrong man, or that halili is much like our sisters and nieces and cousins and daughters.

Katrina was a pretty, 21-year-old who was earning her keep in 2007, when she fell in love with Hayden, then a handsome, 27-year-old doctor of medicine. Except for the fact that the doctor was publicly known to be the boyfriend of Vicki Belo, a doctor much wealthier and far older than he, there was nothing especially scary about him. And except for the fact that Katrina was already FHM’s sexiest woman in the world the year before, and would be voted so again that year, there was nothing especially different about her.

She was just a young, liberated working girl, full of life, with the world before her-much like our sisters and nieces and cousins and daughters. And like many of these girls, at some point Katrina fell in love, and gave her all to her man.

She was also not an insensitive girl. In my interview with her early this year, for YES! Magazine, she acknowledged that Vicki Belo was an issue in her relationship with Hayden. This is how she handled it: She played the suffering wife. Her manand Vicki could go out in the open and enjoy their partnership; she would stay in the condo and wait for when he could find time for her. She never imposed on his schedule; she waited, even if oftentimes she cried while doing so. By denying herself the pleasures of having long conversations with him, of eating out in restaurants with him,of attending showbiz events with him as escort, she believed she was already paying for her sins to Vicki.

By her reckoning, she was behaving as decently as any woman in love could. A woman, by the way, who had been told by her man that she was his other partner “in a parallel life.”

Since then, she has admitted on national television: “Ang tanga-tanga ko. Pero na-in love ako. Pasensiya na po…”

Indeed, how was she to know this doctor would have a fetish for videos? How was she to know there would be a sick environment around the good-looking fellow-of a world seemingly measured by luxury goods and travel, with friends he has wronged and who hated him, of a whole value system neither educated nor decent?

It is she who has been violated here. It is Katrina who has been abused-not once, or twice, but thrice! First, when her lover took videos of their most sexual moments without her knowledge and consent. Second, when some heartless bastards uploaded the videos on the Net. And third, when an unthinking, unfeeling public viewed the videos and enjoyed themselves.

so, it was all right for halili to make patol belo’s kho, she was in love kasi?   so, she can’t be faulted for agreeing to the videotape, she had no idea naman that he was a sicko or that he had enemies who would steal and upload the tapes?   oh pleasssse.   what kind of messages do that send to our sisters and nieces and cousins and daughters?   for all our sakes i would like to think that our girls are made of sterner and smarter stuff.

what’s true is that our girls may be exposed to the same temptations as halili and this is a good way as any to learn a few lessons in love and porn.   love triangles are hell, girls, and halili could have said no to kho, or at the very least said no to video.    so ingat sa mga hayden camera, girls, better praning than sorry.   unless you wanna be a pornstar.   walang sisihan.

by the way, it’s stupid and unrealistic to ask and expect the public to desist from  watching  the sex videos out of pity and/or sympathy for halili and the other women.   that’s like asking us common humans to deny our sexual nature and our sexual curiosity, and it aint gonna happen.   not when the buzz is, tapes of hayden kho with the sexy commedienne and the beauteous boss are coming soon.   does the production quality improve kaya?   abangan ;))

screwed by manangs

read ricky carandang’s screwed and manuel buencamino’s “manangs” acquit a rapist.   my sentiments exactly.   what a huge setback for the women’s fight against sexist politics.   biglang we’re back to the dark ages when women were seen as sex objects incapable of saying no except when playing hard-to-get for extra favors.   biglang we’re back to the old biases and stereotypes, among them that girls who don’t behave with strict decorum, who dress to look ‘n feel good, who drink alcohol, dance dirty, flirt mightily in public, who just wanna have fun, are asking for rape.   wtf.   where are these women justices coming from?  opus dei?   catholic women’s league?  what books are they reading?   mills & boon?   barbara cartland?

read too rina jimenez-david who calls them “maiden aunts” and patricia evangelista who calls them “virtuous ladies”.   which set me wondering, teka, baka naman mga old maid nga ang “learned ladies” na ito of the court of appeals, and so maybe they don’t know any better about men and sex and rape, and quite possibly they’ve never been drunk in their lives?   so i googled them all, only to find that all three are wives and mothers, and maybe grandmothers, wow, good luck na lang sa karma.

both justice monina arevalo zenarosa and justice myrna dimaranan vidal were born in 1939.   zenarosa took up law in ust and feu, vidal in feu.  both are turning 70 and retiring this year.    hmm, formative years right smack during the japanese occupation and the liberation.   general douglas macarthur must be one of their icons.

justice remedios salazar fernando is a different story.   born in 1953, studied law in ateneo, so far she has been quite popular with post-EDSA administrations and has been having quite a rising career.

She was named Chairman of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board in July 1987 where she concurrently held directorship posts at the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA)and the Office of Transport Cooperatives. In the latter part of 1991, she held the position of Officer-in-Charge/Assistant Secretary of the Land Transportation Office in a concurrent capacity.

In 1992, she was appointed Commissioner of the COMELEC. On May 21, 1999, she was appointed Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals, being one of the youngest to have been appointed to the position. She received several awards from both private and public sectors, such as Ten Outstanding Young Men given by the Jerry Roxas Foundation, Most Outstanding Capampangan, Woman of Distinction Award by the Soroptimist International, etc. When she retired from the COMELEC, she received an Award for Outstanding Service from the Senate of the Philippines.

i bet she has a moist eye on the supreme court.   i suppose this subic rape case decision is in aid of that?   how sad, specially for a baby boomer whose generation birthed the women’s movement for equal rights.

by the way, if you’re one of those who don’t feel competent to judge for themselves whether what smith did to nicole was rape or not because transcripts of the trial have not been released, so you’re willing to give the three  justices the benefit of the doubt, they must know what they’re talking about, you’re taking their word for it, smith is innocent, well you might want to make tambay sa subicrapecase website’s summary of  court proceedings.   it was rape.

noli, loren, manny & the RH bill

congress reconvening today.   sana matuloy ang promised testimony of scam & escape artist jocjoc bolante sa senado.  lalo pa, lalo na, sana matuloy ang long-delayed showdown on the reproductive health bill sa konggreso.

kung magkasabay, which one kaya will ANC air: bolante or RH?   sana pareho, one on ANC, the other on channel 2.  and if, by chance or circumstance, isa lang ang puwede i-cover, then let it be RH, parang awa niyo na.   i want to see, we need to see, the world needs to see, which congressmen and congresswomen dare defy the wishes of 7 of 10 filipinos who want, need, deserve, a reproductive health law like the rest of the civilized world.

dr. quasi romualdez, once doh secretary, counts heads in his malaya column:

In the House of Representatives, 114 members have signed up as sponsors of HB 5043 which mandates a government-supported reproductive health program that includes making available to the poor all the possible legal methods of family planning.

Given these numbers, opponents of the measure will likely resort to dilatory tactics that substitute parliamentary tricks for rational discussion.

Working in favor of these tactics is the fact that there are a number of legislative issues that will be competing for congressional attention during the six weeks that remain before the Christmas break.

Among these are agrarian reform extension and the impeachment complaint filed recently. Proponents of HB 5043 are confident however that when it comes to a vote, the RH bill will finally pass.

If the House approves the measure, the situation in the Senate appears to be similar in the sense that the minority members who oppose RH legislation will use all sorts of parliamentary tricks.

By their past statements and recent actuations, advocates of the bill count 14 senators: Angara, Biazon, Pia Cayetano, Enrile, Escudero, Estrada, Gordon, Honasan, Lacson, Madrigal, Pangilinan, Revilla, Santiago, and Zubiri.

Senators Aquino, Arroyo, Alan Cayetano, Legarda, Roxas, and Trillanes are listed as undecided. It is noteworthy that of these six senators, two (Legarda and Roxas) are among those invariably included in surveys for presidentiables, indicating the possibility that Church power may be a consideration in some senators’ decision. The neutral position of Senator Arroyo is noteworthy only becausehe is the only one among the six identified with the administration.

Listed as opposed to reproductive health legislation are Senators Lapid, Pimentel, and Villar. Senator Lapid’s position is clear – he opposes the measure because he perceives Malacañang to be against it. Senator Pimentel’s opposition to any population management or family planning proposals has been consistent for many years – he has always supported the position of the Roman Catholic Church on this issue.

Senate President Villar’s position that is somewhat of a mystery.

As a presidentiable who seems to be sympathetic to the plight of the poor Filipino majority, Senator Villar, more than the other aspirants for higher office, might have been expected to support what is clearly pro-poor legislation. After all, the proposed law is designed to help those who cannot now afford them to use the family planning methods of their choice in order to fulfill their responsible parenthood obligations.

Here again, the factor of Church power in national politics may again be a decisive influence. There are unconfirmed reports that the Senate President has promised a Catholic bishop that he would block reproductive health proposals. Advocates hope that this is just a rumor and that Mr. Villar, just like his political rivals, will in the end decide on the basis the people’s interest rather than political expediency.”

how dismaying that loren legarda, no. 2 presidentiable in the latest SWS survey, is undecided.  and manny villar, no. 3, is unequivocally committedly anti-RH pala.  alam kaya ito ng 7 out of 10 pinoys who want an RH law?   iboto kaya nilang pangulo sa 2010 ang isang indecisive, ehe, undecided?   iboto kaya nilang pangulo sa 2010 ang isang anti-RH/anti-women?  eh si no.1 presidentiable noli de castro kaya — malamang whatever gloria wants, noli wants, ‘no?

suddenly i’m not sure the RH bill is coming to a vote soon.  maybe not until there’s a public outcry for an end to the debates and other delaying tactics.   i hope i’m wrong.