Magna Carta for Women worries pro-lifers

[sharkey360]

---

The recently-signed law is causing a stir in the community

Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal joins calls with Iloilo Archbishop Angel Lagdameo and Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales in questioning the recently approved Magna Carta of Women.

This, after members of Pro-life Philippines, nationwide, got alarmed with the recent approval of the Magna Carta of Women even if such promotes women’s rights against discrimination because it “could pave the way for the passage of the Reproductive Health Bill and the potential crafting of an abortion law.”

Marita Wasan of Pro-Life Philippines has asked the Catholic Bishops of the Philippines and parents to be vigilant on the ill effects of Republic Act 9710 to the younger generation, especially on the law’s provisions that promote pro-choice mentality like what the disputed Reproductive Health Bill allegedly advocates.

“Although there are good provisions in the law, there remain some provisions that promote anti-life and pro-choice mentality. This is why pro-lifers have more work to do and we really rely on the help of the bishops to warn the Catholic faithful to be vigilant on how this law would be implemented,” she said.

Wasan particularly referred to the retention of the provision that classified contraceptives, which are scientifically abortifacient in nature, as “ethical drugs,” or those medicines or apparatus that can be bought only with a prescription.

“Let us stand by our faith and morals. We should interpret the words ‘ethical’ and ‘population management’ based on our moral values and not let the technicalities of the law dictate our conscience,” Wasan added.

However, Dr. Rene Joseph Bullecer, a pro-life advocate, is optimistic enough that there is nothing to worry with the approval of the Magna Carta of Women.

This after 98 percent of the provisions is said to be already “sanitized”.

Also, he lauded Cebu City North District Rep. Raul del Mar and Senator Juan Ponce Enrile who he said have been very instrumental in the rechecking of the said magna carta.

[cebu-future]

Dapat gani maghimo og law ang government nga 2 kids maximum ra per couple specially katong gamay ra income.

[eax]

Dapat gani maghimo og law ang government nga 2 kids maximum ra per couple specially katong gamay ra income.

Mao gyud. Mag-based gyud sa income.

Mao ni ang kapa-it sa ato kay mag-apil2 man gud ang simbahan sa politics.

[cute_6423]

Dapat gani maghimo og law ang government nga 2 kids maximum ra per couple specially katong gamay ra income.

i'm not really in favor of this 2 kids max..
and i'm not also in favor of abortion..
for me, abortion is paglikay sa responsibility...
except for real therapeutic abortion..

[jebz]

Dapat gani maghimo og law ang government nga 2 kids maximum ra per couple specially katong gamay ra income.

What's this? it's like China's one-child policy.

[giddyboy]

Cebuana leaders laud Magna Carta but Catholic church leaves warning
Saturday, August 15, 2009

CEBUANO women leaders commend the passage of the Magna Carta for Women, but a Catholic church official warns that the law might have some provisions that run contrary to Christian teachings.

President Gloria Arroyo signed the Magna Carta into law last Friday after it was left pending in the Lower House for 10 years.

Cebu City Councilor Lea Japson, chairperson of the committee on women and children, expressed joy that women finally have their rights put into law.

The Magna Carta of Women recognizes women’s rights as human rights.

Japson, who was in Malacañang for the signing, said Rep. Raul del Mar (Cebu City, North) was instrumental in the Magna Carta’s passage.

She said the bill, drafted by women’s NGOs like Filipina Women and Lihok Filipina, was already erased from the Congress agenda.

Gabriella-Cebu’s Kaira Alburo called the passage a “historical move... [that] highlights the issue of Filipino women.”

But she said legislation alone is not a holistic approach in freeing women.

“We do not see this legislation nga mao gyud ang maka-liberate sa women sa tanang restraints. But we see this as a positive development,” she said.

But Msgr. Esteban Binghay, episcopal vicar of the Cebu Archdiocese, reminded women that their primary role is at home.

Children

“Ang bana mao’y mangita; asawa mo-care sa children (It’s the husband who goes out to work; the woman takes care of the children),” he said.

But he said that with today’s economic crisis, the Church understands that wives have to work, too, and it is important for them to be given equal employment opportunities as the Magna Carta provides.

“Parents have to give quality time to children,” he said.

He said there could be some anti-life provisions in the law just like the Reproductive Health Bill, as was pointed out by Archbishops Angel Lagdameo (Iloilo), Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales (Manila), and Ricardo Cardinal Vidal (Cebu).

Japson told Sun.Star Cebu that her committee is holding an information and education campaign on women’s economic, political and social rights.

Japson said the Magna Carta will be the guideline that establishments will use in hiring women workers.

The Magna Carta, though, still awaits implementing rules and regulations.

Alburo said the new law should benefit women at the grassroots level, who are the ones least informed about women’s rights.

“Kasagarang maka-benefit middle ang upper class (Most of those who benefit from the law are the middle and the upper class),” she said.

Since the Magna Carta provides for the increase of the number of women in third-level positions in government to achieve a 50-50 gender balance, Alburo sees it as an opportunity for women to gain access to institutions, of which they have long been denied.

SOURCE: Sun.Star Daily Cebu 8/16/09

MY REACTION: GOOD NEWS FOR THE PEOPLE!!! BAD NEWS FOR THE CRITICS! The Magna Carta for Women is a matter of national policy and not of faith.

and I don't quite totally agree to Msgr. Esteban Binghay's statement that said, "Ang bana mao’y mangita; asawa mo-care sa children. But with today’s economic crisis, the Church understands that wives have to work, too, and it is important for them to be given equal employment opportunities as the Magna Carta provides."

well, it is not only due to the global economic crisis that the wife has to work too. The emphasis here should be more on "equal rights and equal employment opportunities". but as always, parents still have to give quality time to children, even if both parents are working. ilaha nanang diskarte.

Not so long ago, we have been taught that the father should be the one that works while the mother stays at home. Before, it is often thought ridiculous that the father stays at home while the mother is the one working. But in this new borderless age, women discrimination is not anymore encouraged and instead "equal rights" is much preferred. It is now an acceptable norm that both the husband and wife ang magkayod while the antedeluvian thinking that the wife should stay at home is not anymore considered productive. Unless lang cguro kung usa ka dosena ang ilang anak ky wala nag family planning tungod lage sa baliko nga tinuhoan nga "go forth and multiply" ug mas lalaki kno ka kung mas daghan anak. what if they don't have enough savings and the husband suddenly loses his job?

I am reminded of a Pinoy journalist who went out of her way to observe poor families in Manila slum areas. Many of the wives are the ones doing hard work, making money from labada, tending to their children, doing kitchen chores, etc..while their husbands are only there tending to their "pang tari roosters", drinking w/ their buddies, gambling on hantak and tong its, etc. they believe that earning money outside their homes gives them justification to do nothing at home...

[sharkey360]

But Msgr. Esteban Binghay, episcopal vicar of the Cebu Archdiocese, reminded women that their primary role is at home.

How arrogant and narrow. I'm sure lots of women will prove Binghay wrong.

[eax]

How arrogant and narrow. I'm sure lots of women will prove Binghay wrong.

Mao gyud.

Sometimes ang Catholic Church is discriminating women.

[miyay]

^many have proven him wrong. more women in the workplace than ever

[mannyamador]

The roots of violence against women and children
http://www.prolife.org.ph/news/index...-and-children/

BASED on findings, the incidence of child abuse has increased dramatically for the last 20 years. This vicious phenomenon is attributed to the contraceptive mentality, the seed of which were sown in media and the school curricula around three decades ago. Most men and women who grew in that milieu imbibed the anti-life or anti-natal spirit. They are mothers who refuse to bear children, who use contraception, who abort and neglect their children. These are fathers who abuse their own children, who abandon their families, who regard women as commodities, who regard children as property.

Dr. Philip Ney, A Canadian child-psychiatrist, claims that abortion and contraception remove the guilt for killing innocent lives. No less than Judge Noonan of the American Jury considers the rise in the incidence of child abuse as one of the adverse consequences of the Roe v. Wade Decision that legalized abortion in the USA. In that country, there is widespread child abuse and wife battering despite the strong feminist movement. Incidentally, abusing their children is part of the Post Abortion Syndrome of women who had had abortion.

George Gilder, a sociologist, provides a similar explanation. He says that violence against women and children flows from the collective consciousness of men who are retaliating from society’s rejection of their maleness – their capacity to sire off springs (as in contraception), and their giving up their role as a provider and protector of the weak and defenseless (as in abortion). They then retaliate by performing “male” acts to prove their superiority, for instance, sexual abuse and brutality to those whom they perceive as weak.

Another factor contributing to violence is pornography. Two generations of Filipinos already have been exposed to such material through cinema, television, tabloids and magazines, comedy bars, internet, videos, and lately, the mobile phones. Finally, the values-free type of *** education (reproductive rights, “safe ***”) promoted by the population/birth control advocates targeting 8-12 years olds seriously disturb the latency period in the psycho-sexual development of our children. During this stage, sexual energy should be directed for the development of compassionate feelings are destroyed during the latency period are frequently devoid of this emotion. Without compassion, the youth plunge in surges of violent behavior. Thus pornography develops potential criminals.

Society is like a parabola where values form a fixed locus extend like lines reaching every point. When from the central point emanates philosophies that shape people’s values and culture towards annihilation of life, there follows a separation of the human experience from the Divine. Let us not be surprised if our society is prone to exploitation and brutality. As Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta has said. “The greatest destroyer of peace in the world today is abortion. If we allow a mother to destroy her unborn child, what is there to stop you and me from killing each other.”