A youth manifesto against RH Bill

For our special presentation on Straight from the Sky, our guest came straight from the National Capital Region (NCR) from the youth sector in order to express their advocacy and stop that falsehood that the youth today are so liberal… they are also supportive of the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill. These youth from the NCR even came up with a manifesto against the RH Bill, emphasizing that the RH Bill would not be good for the youth in the future. They are very concerned because… after all it was Dr. Jose Rizal our National Hero who quipped, “The Youth is the Future of the Motherland.”

With us tonight is Ms. Eileen Esteban of Youth Pinoy, Kiboy Tabada of UP for Life, and Peter Pardo, Youth Coordinator for NCR. It is really heart warming to hear the youth whose morals are grounded on the Catholic Faith. Shame on those who claim that they are Catholic… yet they no longer obey the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Many of them belong to youth organizations in Cebu, allied with leftist groups. So watch this very interesting show on Skycable’s channel 15 at 8:00 p.m. and replay on MYTV at 9:00 p.m. tonight.

***A couple of months ago, we chastised a student group here in Cebu that came out a one-page ad in a national newspaper saying that the youth organizations support the RH bill. My question is… where did these youth groups get the money to pay for that expensive advertisement? Certainly students could ill-afford this, which is my proof that the lobby money to push for the RH Bill has already reached these youths. But the other youth groups from the National Capital Region (NCR) are fighting back and came up with their manifesto… so allow me to reprint this… manifesto from the Youth. This Youth Manifesto is entitled “Our voice, Our

vote!” signed last May 7, 2012. Here it is; “The youth are the foremost victims of the Reproductive Health Bills pending on both house of Congress. It is our generation that will face the reality of the many risks so intimately involved in this measure. It is our welfare that is on the line. It is our voice that we seek to be heard today.

We are for responsible parenthood and we, too, desire to see every Filipino family free from the burdens of poverty. However, spending for a measure to fiddle with demographics is a gross misallocation of scarce resources. Addressing needs for quality education and opportunities for employment hits poverty at its core. Massive government spending for contraception and mandatory sex education in all schools enlivens the risk of aggravating the decline of our demographics, of eroding our values, and of reshaping our society after the designs of foreign intervention. There is no warrant against this. This is a gamble of our future.

We are for reproductive health and we, too, intend to shield mothers and their children from the risks of complications at childbirth. However, pregnancy is not the disease that can find a cure in contraception. Massive government spending for products with known health detriments is tantamount to a government serving our people harm. Improving access to pre-and post-natal care, of which the RH Bills speak so scarcely about, addresses maternal mortality directly.

The RH Bills, instead advocate reproductive health by heavily promoting mismoderated use of artificial contraception, neglecting the impracticability and impossibility of “informed choice” in the poorest, most populated hospitals and health centers. This ultimately risks the rise in the number of victims of contraceptive failure, the development of a contraceptive mentality, the erudition of family values, and the eventual demand for abortion. There is no warrant against this. This is a gamble of our future.

We are for population management and development and we, too, dream of progress. However a genuine progress can never be achieved until our government invests genuinely in our people. Our population is an asset. Government must treat it as an asset. Rural development, entrepreneurship, improved standards of education, expansion of opportunities for employment, intensified thrusts for scientific research and development, cultivation of our arts and culture— these constitute genuine investments in our people. This is the way to secure our future.

While the RH Bill posits itself as a comprehensive attempt to relieve our people of a particular ill, it is this very claim of comprehensiveness that blinds it from its cons. We cannot gamble our future. We cannot afford to legislate what constitutes harm to our people. The Youth, in defense of our welfare, can and will invest our support in legislators who know how to genuinely invest in us. In solidarity, we declare our opposition to the RH Bill. This is our Voice. This is our Vote.” This is truly the voice of the unpaid Youth against the RH Bill.

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