Tag Archives: Reproductive Health (RH) Bill

Community issues

The Varsitarian, RH Bill and the rest of Thomasians

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Let me clear something up…

Whatever that editorial in The Varsitarian says, it doesn’t necessarily represent the rest of us Thomasians who are pro-RH Bill!

Just recently, The Varsitarian, University of Santo Tomas‘s official student paper, printed an editorial calling out professors of Ateneo de Manila University and De La Salle University who professed their support for the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) Bill. They called those professors cowards in not so many words.

Of course, an ‘uprising’ from those supporting the professors and those from the said rival universities spread around the internet! Who wouldn’t be pissed with what the editorial said? I won’t go into details anymore. You can easily read the editorial yourself so you can form an opinion about it.

The point of this entry is this: people who got pissed with the editorial have been calling out Thomasians for it. Not all but some have come out and insulted us. I may not be a student of the said university for more than a decade now but I am an alumnus and I am mighty proud of my alma mater! So you can’t blame me for being mad about those calling out even to us who didn’t even know who wrote that darn editorial! It’s like calling everyone stupid in the Philippines just because one or a handful of its officials have done something dumb. There’s even one tweet I read wherein a guy said “kaya nasasaksak eh!” (no wonder [the student] got stabbed!) That UST student who got stabbed in the FEU campus is already a victim, making fun of what happened to her because of the editorial is making her a victim twice over which is really mean of that guy!

Let me just say this once and for all. Not all Thomasians are pro-RH Bill! I am pretty sure not everyone in The Varsitarian is pro-RH Bill and is happy with the editorial. I am not happy with that editorial and I am pro RH Bill! So stop calling out the whole Thomasian community for that editorial. We are not ONE in that stand!

Community issues

Reproductive Health (RH) Bill

I heard about a priest who asked people attending the mass to go out if they support the Reproductive Health (RH) bill. Some attendees got up and went out of the church. Obviously, they support the RH bill. I would like to think that some of those who walked out were disgusted with the priest for mixing religion and politics!

I support the RH Bill! 100%! It’s about time the government address the ballooning population and do something concrete to stop it. Religion says that the Lord told the people of the olden days to “go forth and multiply”. But that’s when there’s more green than people inhabiting the earth! Now that we are in danger of turning the planet into one big sardine can, it’s but normal to start stopping the population boom.

Also, the thing about the RH Bill is that it will help minors from poor families into becoming child laborers. It will minimize the number of children suffering from poverty and needless pain and abuse.

Let’s take for example this teenager that we’re helping. He is 15 and the eldest in a brood of nine. Yes, nine kids! They live in a space not even fit for a single person to live in. But since the kid’s parents can’t afford a bigger space to rent out, they make do with what they have. The kids barely eat. The parents can’t afford to send all kids to school. The eldest has to do odd jobs for him to earn and contribute to the family income. The younger kids also do odd jobs to earn school money. Imagine this scenario. The parents couldn’t afford a big family but because there’s no family planning involved, they managed to produce nine kids. Eleven mouths to feed daily is way too much for a newspaper deliveryman and a stay at home mom.

There are more families like that in the Philippines. The Reproductive Health Bill is really needed. NOW more than ever! If not, more and more kids will suffer and the country will have to find a way to accommodate a growing population like this.