Coincidence or not, references to the divine and religious that were made during deliberations of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill and last Sunday’s shocker of a Manny Pacquiao knockout defeat are reinforced by today’s date.
In the Mayan calendar, Dec. 12, 2012 or 12/12/12 is the date reckoned as the end of the world.
If that’s true at all, it bodes ill for Catholics celebrating the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of Cebu and the unborn. And the Mayan calendar date would also spell doom for those in Congress wishing to vote for or against the RH bill.
Why the sudden mention of divine judgment and doomsday scenarios? Some Filipino Catholic leaders and their supporters saw special timing in the devastation wrought by typhoon Pablo on Dec. 4, saying this came to pass because of President Benigno Aquino III’s appeal the week before for Congress allies to vote on the RH bill.
Let’s not even get into Aling Dionesia’s rant about her son’s shift to the ranks of born-again Christians as the reason behind his ring loss, an accusation which Catholic Church leaders are wise to refuse to dignify. But if Pacquiao makes a last-minute change of mind and supports the RH bill, that would be a different story.
It’s clear that the Catholic Church is moving heaven and earth to block passage of the RH bill. The endless phone calls, rallies, and forums, including today’s reported plan for bishops and priests to visit Congress to witness the actual voting only underscore the importance placed in today’s Congress session where the RH bill may be voted upon.
Is it a rationale and mature choice of strategy to use the typhoon season or some other natural calamity to make congressmen feel guilty about supporting the RH bill?
Would a pro-RH vote in Congress bill invite another typhoon, earthquake, or other disaster wrought as judgment from God?
Or if Climate Change throws the weather out of wack again, would members of Congress blame whatever calamities come our way on the the Mayan calendar’s prediction for 12/12/12?
Whatever comes to pass today in Congress, we are reminded of another saying, this time from the heathen Romans, who declared that “let justice be done, though the heavens fall.”
The RH bill debate has gone on long enough.
It’s time for the Filipino people’s chosen representatives in Congress to decide, as the President put it, once and for all, to vote on the measure.
Elected leaders will decide the fate of maternal care, population growth, the moral climate of generations of Filipinos, and the rest of the RH bill’s full landscape of socio-political impacts, based on their grasp of issues and their individual conscience.
It’s a decision borne of men, not the weather, superstition or the hand of God.