May
28
If I may give a personal observation and opinion regarding the Anti-Condom Ordinance of Ayala Alabang, a barangay under the city of Muntinlupa, I would say that it is short of being a funny stuff. Funny, in the sense that it is obviously hurriedly done considering that even minor issues in connection to it were overlooked. Whoever thought of it in the first place, or even helped in making it an ordinance, looked like didn’t do his homework well enough. It is such a broad issue, as broad as the Reproductive Health Bill itself which even until now is still pending in the Congress and remains to be the subject of debate among lawmakers and the Catholic Church.
The ordinance is a slap to many of the affluent constituents in this posh barangay seeing it as curtailment of their freedom and a violation to their privacy. Furthermore, the issue is really a national in scope that needs the collaboration of the Department of Health (DOH) and the Bureau of Food and Drugs Administration (BFAD). A barangay such as Ayala Alabang is too aggressive, bold and arrogant as to form an ordinance as equally aggressive as Anti-Condom is such a short period of time. They cannot be more authoritative than the World Health Organization (WHO) itself on this matter. Nor to BFAD that cited the safety and efficacy of contraceptive contrary to their defense of the ordinance that it is not. They met their match in the persons of their own affluent, educated and more popular populace. It’s no small wonder why. Even their own local government unit, the Muntinlupa City government want the said ordinance totally scrapped on the ground of it being unconstitutional.
Personally too, I find the ordinance really out of context. The barangay council could have chosen another ordinance that fits to their level. From all I see it, it is such an ambitious effort on their part to touch a subject which has been quite an untouchable a topic in fact for too long a time now. Let’s face it, for the longest time now; the subject remains untouchable until only lately when the subject resurfaced by way of the RHbill because it is as sensitive as can be that causes separation of giants, the state and the church.
As in the case of the issue against the RHbill, the ordinance poses an invasion to the private and personal lives of couples as the issue of family planning which includes the use of condoms and/or other forms of contraceptive is always a matter of choice and thus, the use of it or otherwise should always be entirely on the prerogative of the person involved. The implementation of this ordinance clearly infringes human rights. To suggest pro-contraceptiveness as pro-death and those against it as pro-life is an arrant nonsense. When in fact, pro-contraceptiveness is about quality of life and responsible parenthood. In the first place, what in the world is the difference between say natural method as withdrawal and contraceptive to justify the latter as killing or aborting life. What is the difference of these two methods of preventing the mating of the sperm and egg while in the throes of the most satisfying activity here on earth?
At some point, I choose to give the Barangay Council of Ayala Alabang the benefit of doubt. Perhaps, they see the need and urgency to have this ordinance applied to their own community, who knows. Maybe someone so respectable has to be pleased with this ordinance. Well, just maybe. For all its lapses and obvious unconstitutionality, I laud them for their effort in promoting the sanctity of life if that alone is worth their efforts. Just the same, sans the ordinance, they can be encouraged to continue exalting the benefits of natural Family Planning in various sectors of the barangay to which they belong without infringing to the right of other individual who may hold a different view and choose to access to the other forms of family planning methods which are otherwise authorized by law.
Meanwhile, the saga continues. The Barangay Council of Ayala Alabang does not bend to its critics as it continuously claims that the ordinance is constitutional and even challenged to court those who see it otherwise. As an observer from outside, I can only expect the expected.
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