Likhaan and the Struggle for Reproductive Rights in the Philippines

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Given the bill’s popular support, the high level of support in the Philippines Congress and the support of the current President Aquino, Likhaan had hoped it would have passed by now. However, opposition has been vociferous. There have been claims of promoting “immorality, promiscuity and bestiality” or that it would result in Filipinos becoming an “endangered species.” The President has been threatened with ex-communication. Walden Bello, a congressional representative of Akbayan (Citizen’s Action Party) stated that: "One wishes that one could characterize the debate as a laudable exercise in democracy." It has become, instead, an exercise on how to use parliamentary procedures to derail democracy. The same questions have been repeatedly raised by the anti-RH interpellators, and it has become increasingly clear that, not having the votes to prevent the passage of the bill in the House, they have resorted to the equivalent of a filibuster to delay the bill from coming to a vote on the floor.

The RH Bill is likely to pass sooner or later. But as the women in the communities of Manila where Likhaan works have often stated, “even if it doesn’t we will continue to fight.

RH Bill adopted! Read the recent and exiting news published in December 2012 in The Guardian.

Canada

Dr. Sylvia Estrada-Claudio speaking in Canada several years ago said that, “we have a saying back home, when the over-developed North sneezes, we get pneumonia.” She went on to describe what “pneumonia” looked like with respect to the privatization of healthcare. As advocates in the Philippines sit on the cusp of a major victory with respect to reproductive rights and health, it begs the question of whether or not we’re catching a cold here in Canada.

Rita Morbia is the Executive Director of Inter Pares, a social justice organization based in Ottawa.