To be understood as to understand

(The bullies in the pulpit - St. James the Great Parish in Ayala Alabang. Photo from funnylovechec.blogspot.com.)

REGULAR readers of this space know I am a keen supporter of the consolidated reproductive-health (RH) bill still pending in Congress. Unfortunately, the House of Representatives again failed to take it up it in the plenary session on Tuesday, ironically the 100th year of International Women’s Day.

The anticipated heated debates on the pending bill has already been foreshadowed by a controversy earlier this month in, of all places, barangay Ayala Alabang. As per news reports, the barangay council, chaired by businessman Alfred Xerez-Burgos Jr., issued an ordinance banning pharmacies within the barangay from selling contraceptives to customers who don’t have a doctor’s prescription. Frequent readers of the BusinessMirror probably know Xerez-Burgos Jr. as the founder and vice chairman of Landco Pacific Co., which built the Punta Fuego properties.

Many of the privileged residents of the barangay have found the ordinance an “invasion of one’s privacy,” as one friend put it on Facebook. Also laughable. Because if one just crosses the Alabang-Zapote Road away from AAV, a resident can already purchase contraceptives from a gasoline station and nearby drug stores. Residents also joked that the security guards at the village entrances would now be inspecting their cars to check if they were smuggling in condoms.

Kidding aside, while the Muntinlupa City Council’s Committee on Health and Sanitation has already shot down the controversial ordinance, the barangay officials and the Catholic clergy that support it are not giving up.

Last Sunday some priests at the St. James Parish Church in AAV “condemned” parishioners who didn’t support the barangay ordinance. According to friends who attended Mass at different times, the priests “abused” the Homily to promote the ordinance, and asked parishioners to sign a petition papers supporting it.

Allegedly in some Masses, there was even a PowerPoint presentation outlining the fine points of the barangay ordinance, pressing the use of the term “abortifacients”. Apparently, the barangay council members equate “contraceptives” as “abortifacients.”

(An abortifacient terminates a pregnancy by ridding a fertilized egg from a woman’s uterus. A contraceptive, on the other, prevents the female’s egg and the male’s sperm from meeting, or prevents a woman from ovulating. There is no “life” created, so there is no abortion. Many Filipinos understand this distinction so unsurprisingly; in a Pulse Asia Survey published in December 2010, 7 out of 10 respondents approved of the RH bill and favored contraceptives.)

After the PowerPoint presentation, some speakers were paraded in to give testimony to the value of being “pro-life.” During one Mass, I am told, a young woman said her mother had been told to abort her baby because there was a chance it would be born with an abnormality. Her mother rejected the doctor’s advice, and that baby turned out to be normal—it was the young lady giving the testimonial. But as one parishioner told me, “I didn’t really see the point of her testimonial, since nobody is calling for legalizing abortion anyway.”

Needless to say, many parishioners were upset that the Mass was used to perpetrate what appears to be an illegal barangay council ordinance. It was bad enough that the ordinance was forced down the throats of AAV residents without even the benefit of actual consultations with them.

One friend protested on his Facebook status: “[I] can’t believe that the Mass was used to promote the barangay ordinance banning the sale of condoms without prescription during the homily, then a petition asking for signatures was distributed to the people. Most didn’t sign and...most seemed irritated. In another Mass, I don’t know if it’s true, but word has it that the priest said that if you did not agree with the ordinance, you are cursed. Unbelievable.”

Apparently, this really happened. According to the blogger Gela, who publishes Lorem Ipsum and goes to the said church: “An hour had already passed, thanks to the long, highfalutin speech of the priest who insisted that if you did not agree with that ordinance, you are ‘cursed’. Yes, those were his words. He was even so defensive at first, saying that he wasn’t twisting the homily to fit a discussion on the ordinance.”

Another churchgoer told me that during the 7:30 pm Mass she attended, “a good number stood up to go to the toilet. And a lot [of parishioners] just left the petition paper on the pews without bothering to pass it on.”

From another resident: “I also didn’t agree for them to use the Mass to push what is now, because of their action, a political issue. I also resented them asking us to sign in the middle of the Mass, what in effect was a CYA [cover your ass] document for them.” It appears the barangay council didn’t conduct any public hearings on the said ordinance, or if they did, there were not many residents who knew about them.

One friend who serves at the church added: “My point is that it shouldn’t have been done in church and during the Mass. If they wanted to discuss it, do it at town hall meetings, wherein all parties can talk and give feedback....For me, I just wanted to serve [in the Mass], but instead, I get condemned for having a different point of view. It was really done in bad taste and bad faith.”

All these reactions show just how distant some Catholic priests have become from their flock. They don’t know their parishioners well, otherwise they wouldn’t have even tried manipulating the homily to suit their purpose, which was, in effect, to oppose the RH bill. (The Catholic clergy only endorses natural family-planning methods, which has already been proven unreliable especially for women whose menstrual periods are irregular.)

It is during times like this that Catholics like me become disappointed with the Church and the religion we love, because its representatives seem far removed from the principles and values espoused by Jesus Christ, which are love, charity and faith. Love your enemies. Be charitable to people who don’t see your way. And have faith in your fellow men, because the Lord understands each one’s choice in life.

I completely understand where the Catholic clergy is coming from. They have a job to do, and I respect their beliefs. I just wish they respected ours. To curse their flock for not supporting their viewpoint, however, is not exactly being Christ-like.

(My column, Something Like Life, is published every Friday in the Life section of the BusinessMirror. This piece was published on March 11, 2011. Photos from various sources on the web.)

Think, before entering Alabang (UPDATED)

This photo was supposedly taken near the last exit towards Ayala Alabang. Hahaha. Winner.

Probably Photoshopped, but brilliant nonetheless. Got this off the Facebook wall of blogger Carlos Celdran. Hope he doesn't mind me sharing this.

People are still talking about that controversial ordinance of Brgy. Ayala Alabang. There's much ridiculing of course, with the Professional Heckler even announcing that Pope Benedict XVI had just declared the posh village as a "Little Vatican of Asia."

Interestingly enough, most traditional media outlets haven't touched the controversy, except for mentioning the ordinance. As far as I know, none of the dictatorial barangay officials have been interviewed. Well, let's give them the benefit of the daw, perhaps my media colleagues have just been too preoccupied with the People Power 25th anniversary activities to investigate this.

Meantime, I'd like to share this piece from Rina Jimenez-David, who has dubbed this development in Brgy. Ayala Alabang as "reproductive coercion."

JUST DAYS after writing about “reproductive coercion” in the United States, here comes news about a development in our very own country, in the posh confines of Ayala Alabang Village, in which “reproductive coercion” is being carried out not just by a single male or a group of males, but by the barangay council itself.

“Reproductive coercion” refers to the use of violence or coercion by men on their female partners or wives to “sabotage” the women’s efforts to prevent pregnancy or to force them to become pregnant—against their will. (Click Rina Jimenez David for the rest.)

(UPDATE) It appears it's not the Opus Dei members who are just behind this controversial ordinance in Brgy. Ayala Alabang. It is also Couples for Christ, another group against the RH bill pending in Congress. I just read a story from the Manila Standard Today which quotes lawyer Luis Sison, spokesman of the Ayala Alabang Village Association, challenging those who protest the ordinance to bring their case to court.

Said Sison, who is former president of the Phil. Nat'l Construction Corp : “Everyone is free to file a case in court, by all means. It would be better so we will all face each other and argue in court.” Read the rest here. I personally know him and his wife Triccie Cepeda Sison, and know them to be members of Couples of Christ.

With all due respect to Sison and his wife, who I hold in the highest regard after being on the same side of some environmental issues years ago, I don't know how a barangay council can just force an ordinance down the throats of its residents without even bothering to consult them. For a Coryista like Sison who has fought against the dictatorship, I find their barangay council's actions very Marcosian. Tsk tsk.

Fortunately, the Muntinlupa City officials have wisely overruled Brgy. Ayala Alabang's ordinance. Their letter to womb patrol chief/head taliban Alfred Xerez-Burgos Jr. as follows (via ANC):

Muntinlupa City Council overrules Ayala Alabang ordinance on condoms

Bravo! Long live freedom of choice!

Welcome to the Dark Ages!

I ALMOST tagged this under "creative writing" and "humor", but there's nothing funny about this ordinance banning the sale of artificial contraceptives without a medical prescription. But the brilliant officials of Barangay Ayala Alabang think they have rights over the reproductive health of its residents.

(Alfred Xerez-Burgos Jr., holy anointed womb patrol chief/head taliban of Brgy. Ayala Alabang. He is vice chairman of realty firm Landco Pacific, whose chairman is Manuel V. Pangilinan. Hmmm...I wonder what MVP thinks of this ordinance on condoms? Photo from Gibbs Cadiz)

And of course, now there are jokes circulating about the inordinately high number of Opus Dei members living in this posh subdivision who are behind this ridiculous ordinance. As you may know, the local Opus Dei chapter is vehemently opposed to Reproductive Health bill currently filed in Congress. I can't confirm the exact number of Opus Dei members living in Ayala Alabang, but I would like to stress that I do respect their religious beliefs, even though they are sounding more and more like the taliban. (As one pundit noted, pretty soon, only Latin Masses will be said in the area's churches, and women required to wear white long sleeves dresses below their knees, and veils over their faces. See? Taliban!) I just wish they respected the beliefs of others.

No one has any right to rule over women's wombs, or the sexual conduct of other people. What happens in the bedroom is the sole business of the people who own it. Whether or not they want to use contraceptive methods - artificial or otherwise – for whatever purpose, be it to prevent the transmission of STDs, or contraception, it is no one's business except their own. No lowly barangay officials should be able to regulate the use or sale of these contraceptive methods, especially since the products' sale are unregulated by the national government.

If the barangay officials are actually serious in protecting life, perhaps what they should address is the apparent rampant sale/drug use in the area (remember the Alabang Boys?) and sale of liquor to minors. Just walk around the restaurants or bars in the vicinity and you will see teenagers below 18 years old, guzzling down beers and other alcoholic beverages.

The ordinance also prohibits teachers, health workers and RH advocates from conducting activities in the barangay to educate the children on sexual reproduction and other similar issues (De La Salle brothers are you hearing this?), and bans the advertisement of contraceptives (sorry there, Robin Padilla). Wow, welcome to the Dark Ages talaga!

Anyway, I am hoping the smarter residents of this village sue their barangay officials for their sheer audacity in trying to impose this ridiculous illegal ordinance No. 01-2011. (Oh, Mr. Xerez-Burgos is on Facebook. Friend him pls, and bring him back to the 21st Century.)

Brgy. Ayala Alabang's Ordinance No. 01 (Series of 2011) banning sale of contraceptives

Btw, if you are a resident of Ayala Alabang, know that your barangay encompasses Alabang Town Center and that area where PureGold grocery is. Other than those areas, you may freely purchase your contraceptives in the pharmacies located in South Supermarket, Festival Mall, and along the Alabang-Zapote Rd. without a doctor's prescription.

And on this 25th anniversary of the People Power revolution, my only wish is for Ayala Alabang residents to free themselves from their taliban dictatorship! Condoms and birth control pills for all, damnit!