PERCEPTION OF ILONGGOS TOWARDS RH LAW

IMPLEMENTATION IN ILOILO CITY

A Simple Research Study

Presented to

Ma’am Krischael Genogaling

Ma’am Kristine May Quisay

English Department of HSCI

In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements in Social Studies

(Contemporary Issues) and

English (Literature)

By: Tinsay, Jarrod Ryle

Salomeo, Crisel

Lim, David

MARCH 2019
 Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study

I. Background of the study

In the Philippines, abortion is banned due to whatArticle II, Section 12 of

the 1987 Philippine Constitution states. It states, “The State recognizes the

sanctity of family life and shall protect and strengthen the family as a basic

autonomous social institution. It shall equally protect the life of the mother and

the life of the unborn from conception."

In the Philippines, abortion is banned due to whatArticle II, Section 12 of

the 1987 Philippine Constitution states. It states, “The State recognizes the

sanctity of family life and shall protect and strengthen the family as a basic

autonomous social institution. It shall equally protect the life of the mother and

the life of the unborn from conception."

Due to abortion being illegal, mothers would try to do the process of

abortion themselves, seek guidance and help from people who are practicing folk

medicine, or buy pills and/or medicines that can kill the child during its fetal

stage in the mother’s womb.Much of the population is hospitalized due to unsafe

abortions. According to the Department of Health, 12% of all maternal deaths in

1994 were due to unsafe abortion.President Marcos implemented the “Population

and for people to know many services that can lower the fertility rates.Until it

was revised in December 18, 2012, after decades of what can only be described

as “bitter public controversy and political wrangling” by President Aquino. Due to

this law, President Aquino is banned from entering the church as this law was

considered by the church as “killing a life inside of the mother’s womb” violating

the church’ s beliefs. But it helped Philippines overpopulation problem, asthe

population of Iloilo city decreased from 447,992 in 2017 to 387,681 in 2018.

Until it was revised in December 18, 2012, after decades of what can only

be described as “bitter public controversy and, political wrangling” by President

Aquino. Due to this law, President Aquino is banned from entering the church as

this law was considered by the church as “killing a life inside of the mother’s

womb” violating the church’ s beliefs. But it helped Philippines overpopulation

problem, asthe population of Iloilo city decreased from 447,992 in 2017 to

387,681 in 2018.

II. Statement of the problem

This study aims to determine the perceptions of Ilonggos of RH law in the

Iloilo city. It aims to answer the following questions:

1. Is the effect of RH law beneficial to the Filipinos? Why or why not?

2. How does implementing the RH law affect the lives of the people?
III. Significance of the study

This research benefits the following:

Families– It will benefit this class as it prevents the chance of unplanned child

being raised.

Teenage Girls- it can prevent unwanted pregnancies so that it won’t result to a

chanced death by abortion

Government- it resolves the problem of having overpopulated areas in case of

catastrophe.

Doctors- it won’t burden them to undergo abortion at the risk of having their

medical license revoked.

IV. Definition of terms

In the discussion of the study several terms may imply a variety of

meanings. In order to bring a commonality of ideas and to ensure clarity and

understanding, the following terms are defined.

In this study,RH Law is a law implemented by the government to prevent

unwanted pregnancy by giving contraception and condoms.

Reproductive Health Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10354), informally known

as the Reproductive Health Law or RH Law, is a law in the Philippines, which

guarantees universal access to methods on contraception, fertility control, sexual

education, and maternal care.

In this study, abortion is the killing a fetus inside of a mother’s womb.

According to Medlineplus, an abortion is a medical procedure to end a

pregnancy. It uses medicine or surgery to remove the embryo or fetus and

placenta from the uterus.

In this study, a Population is the number of humans living in a certain

area.

According to Wikipedia, a population is the number of living things that

live together in the same place.

V. Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The coverage of the study is about the implementation of RH Law in Iloilo City. It also

covers the perceptions of a few chosen citizens of Iloilo City about the

implementation of the RH Law and how it affects their day to day lives inside

Iloilo City.

The researchers are limited to interviewing less than 5 people inside in

Iloilo City due to time constraints.

City.

Chapter 2: Review of the Related Literature

According to David JhonMad'z (January 24, 2013), “Reproductive Health Law

today is popularly known as the RH LAW, a Philippine law that aims to guarantee

methods and information for universal access on birth control and maternal care.

It allows the usage of different contraception methods to prevent the multiplying

population here in the country. That is why; the priests are not in favors of this

because for them it is against the law of God. However, in my points of view, I

thought at first that this argument is unnecessary for me to know. I thought that

this is not needed and irrelevant for a student like me. But I now concede that I

am really wrong. This law must be known to every person that resides here in

the Philippines. This is about us. This law is something about our health and our

country. For me I guess I’m pro RH law in a sense that it is the only way to help

our country to reduce overcome population and I believe that the irresponsible

parenthood is one of the main reasons why there is poverty. Maybe through

responsible parenthood, we can decrease poverty and that is the mainstream of

this concern. We can build a nation that can provide things for their family. A

nation that can cope with the fast changing approach of the new century and

can never be left out. Because of poverty, we are being pulled down to the
 ground because we can’t go with the flow of life. In addition, this law can serve

as a good purpose for the married couples because this contributes more

knowledge to their minds to have a good family planning scheme.”

According to RITO V. BARING (2012),“The Catholic Church has emphasized that

the rejection of the RH bill is not about a Roman Catholic verdict but a reflection

of the “fundamental ideals and aspirations of the Filipino people” (Sison 2011).

The Church’s position is anchored on her disagreement with the proposal's anti-

life stance and problematic attitudes towards issues that affect religious

expression. Christianity insists that artificial birth control methods are offensive

to life because these tend to suppress the formation of life, particularly in the

womb of the mother. In traditional Catholic positions, devices or means that

directly hinder the development of life is offensive to life—hence, immoral. In

reproductive health language, abortion cases reflect “unmet needs for

contraception” which, if used, could have prevented unwanted pregnancies.

While the RH framework identifies contraception as a necessary solution in the

equation, the Church finds it problematic. It is in this perspective that the

fundamental proposals in the bill are deemed immoral. The Church has gathered

its forces to show its resistance to the proposal. The resistance has reverberated

in many local churches in different parts of the archipelago. The local resistance

offered by the Roman Catholic Church is now shared by the evangelical churches,
 and Islamic believers. These church communities in the country have used every

means possible to disarm the threat provided by this proposal.”

According to Christian Mark (May 20, 2011), “The Reproductive Health Bill and

Population Development Act of 2008 (hereafter RH Bill) is an act providing for a

national policy on reproductive health, responsible parenthood and population

development, and for other purposes. It was primarily authored by Albay First

District Representative Edcel Lagman and is now co-authored by about 130 more

lawmakers. The bill covers the following aspects: "information and access to

natural and modern family planning; maternal, infant and child health and

nutrition; promotion of breast feeding; prevention of abortion and management

of post-abortion complications; adolescent and youth health; prevention and

management of reproductive tract infections, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted

diseases; elimination of violence against women; counseling on sexuality and

sexual and reproductive health; treatment of breast and reproductive tract

cancers; male involvement and participation in reproductive health; prevention

and treatment of infertility; and reproductive health education for the youth."

(House Bill No. 5043 Sections I-III, 2008) More than a year has passed since the

bill's original authorship, but it still remains a controversial issue in the legislative

assembly. Consequently, it has also sparked debates among economists,

sociologists, health experts, religious organizations and ordinary members of the

community. This is why it is only appropriate for me, a concerned student and
Filipino citizen, to offer my assessment. After reading the full text of the bill and

the opposing arguments among different sectors, I am now brought to an

unwavering stand. The RH Bill must be immediately legislated because as clearly

stated in its policies and objectives, it promotes awareness and education,

ensures public health and disease prevention and enables the government to

play its role in the overall welfare of the citizens.”

In this chapter, the methods of how the researchers do the survey will be

discuss. The researcher will only pick 3 respondents using the Quota Sampling

Technique. The respondents must be within these following: within the range of

between 13 to 16 years old, must be an Ilonggo, and an HSCI student. The

researchers will hand survey question form to these 3 respondents. The following

respondents are (1) Grade 10 student, (1) Grade 11 student, (1) 1st year College.

The following question in the survey is the same on the Statement of the Problem

(Chapter 1).

1) Do you agree with the RH Bill right now or are you against it?

2) What do you want to change about the RH Bill?

3) Should sex education be taught at school?

Q1: Do you agree with the RH Bill right now or are you against it?

R1: Yes, I do agree, because for me, as individual and as a common person, the

RH Bill is a law wherein it can be a way that helps our city and our country to

prevent an even larger population. It also guarantees universal access to

methods of contraception, fertility control and sexual education as well as the

mental care of every Filipinos.

R2: I do agree with the RH bill. This allows the people to limit themselves. Our

country right now is over populated and has the highest rate when it comes to

unemployment. How come some parents keep on giving birth to children when

they are not able to sustain their needs. Parents who cannot even serve food

unto the table yet still keeps on giving birth to children. The RH bill helps us limit

these people for a better improvement of our country.

R3: I am pushing it since nowadays, so much diseases concerning our

reproductive system are rampant in the society.

R1: I think, there's no need to change about RH Bill in the Philippines, because it

depends on how people understand it, how it can help to boost and lower the

over population in our country which is now the reason why there is inflation.

And we need to think critically the positive impacts of RH Bill in the Philippines;

we should not only focus on the negative way, but rather in the positive way.

R2: I do not have any opinion regarding on changing anything about it. RH bill has

a purpose and one purpose only and that is not improve and decrease the

population rate of our country.

R3: Things that I would want to change about the RH bill would be its

implementation and coverage. A more strengthened policies and plans of action

should be made concrete.

Q3: Should sex education be taught at school?

R1: For me, as a student and an advocate, I beg to disagree with that thing,

because it pushes the students curiosity about sex, and when curiosity strikes,

students will engage automatically with sex intercourse and that us a big no for

me. Because, I believe that, it all starts with us, we have the right to stop our

lust and curiosity about sex, we are handling ourselves, we have to empower

ourselves that sex is temptation to us students. We don’t need teachers to teach

learn to educate yourself and always think the negative impacts of sex because

If you want a good life, don’t ruin your reputation and dignity as a woman or

man.

R2: Yes, I do agree with this. This opens up the mind of the young adults

especially to those we are interested in pre-marital sex. It will help them learn

what will happen and what change would happen if they do this sort of things.

R3: 3. Yes it should. It would enable students and the youth to be more open to

these sensitive issues given the time and other external they are in. Therefore,

this would lessen stigmas on certain diseases like HIV/AIDS and would lessen the

spread of STDs and other sexually transmitted viruses.

Chapter 5: Summary, Findings, Conclusions, and

Recommendations

All in all we have learned that research is important because we can learn more
about a certain topic with the opinions, insight and other input of other people and that
we can also pass on our research to other people who might need it in the future.

In our study we have concluded that most people agree to the RH Law due to the
overpopulation and spread of different sexually transmitted diseases here in the
Philippines. But even though people agree about the RH Law they don’t agree with all
of the aspects of the RH Law especially on the topic of the implementation of sexual
education in school in the Philippines.

We recommend that we should have been given more time and tools for the
research to further enhance the accuracy of our conclusions. That is all.
 REFERENCES

http://www.asean-endocrinejournal.org/index.php/JAFES/article/view/48/471

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_the_Philippines

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsible_Parenthood_and_Reproductive_Health_Act_o
f_2012#Content

https://medlineplus.gov › Health Topics

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population

https://www.studymode.com/essays/The-Reproductive-Health-Law-1379949.html

http://pro-rh-bill.blogspot.com/