It took more than a decade of vicious debate before the Congress passed a law in 2012 to help provide poor women with reproductive health care and contraception. One of its most vociferous opponents was Senator Tito Sotto, whose popular TV variety show features scantily clad dancers. “Reproductive health in the context of a true Filipina does not pertain to safe and satisfying sex,†Mr. Sotto said, as he tried to strike a provision from the bill. “When a true Filipina speaks of reproductive health, she means family, marriage, responsible parenthood, nurturing and rearing her children.â€
Such domineering hypocrisy, paired with the political pull of Christian groups, also explains why the Philippines is the last country, aside from the Vatican, where divorce is prohibited. Many wives remain stuck with husbands who hold power and purse strings.
Our penal code even treats with particular leniency murders committed by “any legally married person who, having surprised his spouse in the act of committing sexual intercourse with another person,†kills those involved. The male possessive pronoun is telling, especially since the law also protects parents who kill “daughters under 18 years of age, and their seducer.â€
The rights of homosexuals also remain controlled by macho politicians. Senator Manny Pacquiao, most famous for his boxing, has declared that “if we approve male on male, female on female, then man is worse than animal.†Other leaders readily disparage gay people to suit their agendas. Teddy Locsin Jr., the Philippines’ new ambassador to the United Nations, once derided those seeking to refurbish Manila’s decrepit airport as “homeless gays†bemoaning the lack of “kneepads in restrooms.â€
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