Category: Position Paper

By: Hanna Marie Benamira

Legalization of Abortion is one of the controversial issues in the Philippines, because it is still illegal in the Philippines. It is a crime for many Filipinos that’s why it is not legalized by the law. Philippines is a Christian Country that’s one of the reasons, why legalization of abortion should not be implemented.

Every Person has the right to have a life and no force can take that away. Both the constitution and the Bible have said that the right to life is one of the most important rights that we need to preserve and live by. Studies have shown that the likelihood of breast cancer is increased in women who have undergone abortions. Also, Depression is one of the main reasons, why it should be illegal because it can hamper the next pregnancy of the woman.

According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, there’s a prohibition in medicalization to every woman who did an act of abortion and they are not allowed to save the life of a pregnant women or to protect their health. The article said that, abortion was criminalized through the Penal code of 1870 under Spanish Colonial rule and the prohibition of medicalization were incorporated into the Revised Penal Code passed in 1930 under U.S occupation of the Philippines. In 2008, abortion ban was estimated to results in the deaths of at least 1,00 women and complications for 90,000 more.

Physician and Midwives who performed abortion in the Philippines with the consent of a pregnant woman may face up to 6 years in prison under the Revised Penal Code. Also, the women who undergo abortion will be punished by imprisonment for 2 years to 6 years. Because of the lack of knowledge about the safe abortion, women have no choice but to risk their life or just continue the high-risk pregnancy.

All the physicians take oath to preserve life to the best of their capabilities but the question is, how can they agree to the concept of abortion when they are the ones whose responsible for preserving a life? And what about the other cases? How can a woman decide whether she wants to continue her pregnancy or not, when there’s nothing wrong with continuing her pregnancy?

And lastly, one of the reasons why couples opt for it is because they don’t have the strength for bringing up another child. Similar to this, young adults choose to abort because they still have to complete their education. However, abortion facts state that 90% of the same are done under social pressures. In both these cases, they forget that there are a lot of adoption centers who will willingly take their child in.

We have to understand that abortion is just a better word for murder, legalizing it will make this a normal way of life to abort a child, and a lot of couples will be encourage to do an unprotected sex because they have already a solution if a woman get pregnant.

By: Amabelle Mirzi Bautista

Every country has its own practice to be followed. One practice that a country has is having its own constitution. A constitution is the foundation of a country where the rules, policies, principles, etcetera are based. The Philippines is currently has its Unitary Form of Government where the centralized government receive the highest governing power. In this kind of government the centralized one receives money from every region and distributes it unfairly to the other regions. Our president, Rodrigo Duterte, has proposed changing the Philippines constitution into federalism for a fairer system of the country.

Federalism is where the sovereignty is constitutionally divided into states and provinces. The constitution divides the independent regions into local government units. These units will have their own ability to develop region through laws, policies, principles, and etcetera. It also grants more power in the finances, development and laws.

Federalism will also help the country grow stronger. The autonomous regions becoming local government units will be empowered to make their own decisions. For example, federalim will help them have more control to the resources they need. They can use their funds into developing their own region without going to the Malacañang for their agreement of what was planned for the betterment of their region.

Federalism can also help the country grow richer. Federalism helps the country be richer because 80% of the region’s money will remain while the 20% will go to the federal state government. In the 80% of the received or remained money it will be divided into two: 30% for the local state government and 70% will be given to the provinces for its development. In federalism, the budget of the country is distributed in equity unlike in Unitary form that the money received by each region will be given in the central region and will be distributed equally to the other regions by the given approved price of the president.

Federalism also avoids the too much dependence in Metro Manila. As stated earlier, local government units can develop their own region without waiting for the Malacañang’s agreement of the plan. The countries budget will not only focus in metro manila but, the budget will be given in an equity form or in fairer and just form.

Federalism may also be the possible solution in the conflict with Mindanao. According to Duterte, Bangsamoro Basic Law will not help stop the people of Mindanao until they do not get the freedom they want.

The Philippines is an archipelago country which the federalism constitution is more applicable. Federalism can help our country grow stronger, richer, and wiser. Federalism can also sustain each regions’ culture and tradition. Filipinos just need more enlightenment for what they need to know in federalism for them to have knowledge of its advantages in the country and for the people of the country.

By: Patrick John Fronda

We all know that according to Bible that premarital sex is a sin. Yes, it does. God made this for us to prevent the harmfulness that it can cause to many people. Premarital sex is not a sin where you murder, steal, lie, or cheat. But premarital sex is a sin where both parties doing a thing that is not allowed to be done. Premarital is wrong because there is so many consequences that both man and woman can encounter, also these consequences can make devastation in both individual. It’s true that premarital sex depends on what you believe, but still this is a bad idea. Premarital can wreck or destroy marriage before it starts. Some people say that when both persons have sex outside the marriage the both persons can make a strong bond. But not all the time they not ending marrying the person. Most of the time there is a break up, which is much painful when it happened.

Premarital sex is a very big mistake. Why? As we can see now a days that many teenagers have their own life even they’re young, the reason is because of the premarital sex. It’s a mistake when both persons done this kind of thing and accidentally make a new birth of life. At young age it’s a huge mistake. Because it can affect their studies that they need in their future, it can also affect their behavior, they’re lives, they’re personality, and they’re family. Many people and many teenagers can’t earn money by their selves yet. So, what if the other person give birth then who’s going to feed the child, who’s going to sacrifice to give him/her a better future. There is thousand and thousand of people that lives in poor a country just like the Philippines. So, if premarital sex is going to be legalized many people can be addict in doing this and many people will think that it’s because its legal everything will be fine.

Premarital sex can be a start of many diseases or infection to human body. Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are infections or diseases that are passed on during unprotected sex with an infected partner. The age at first sex is an important risk factor for the acquisition of HIV.  Individuals who start their sexual activity at a young age are more likely to report higher rates of STIs. Premarital sex is one of the causes of STIs. Many people at young age starting to have sex already but most of the people is not aware of what they can have in this kind of thing. We can say that sex have benefits too, like it can lose weight, tone muscles, and it can produce hormones that can give both people excitement or happiness. But there are still things that people must keep in mind and that is sex can also produce different kinds of infections to human body. And what if that infection already spread to the whole body, it can be cause of different kinds of diseases like cancer, and we all know some cancers has no cure yet.

People who have done sex at young age can have a bad reputation to many or to his/her surroundings.  The word is out.You have had sex.  You quickly get labeled “easy,” “loose,” or “a sure bet.” We all know that these words can affect an individual personality, it can affect on how he/she thinks about anything. Most of people who experienced strong words coming to other people have anxiety This anxiety can lead to depression and what if this depression ate him or her, there’s a big possibility that these people can be suicidal. For the people who experiencing this can loss trust to other people like family, friends, and sometimes their love ones. She or he always have insecurities to his/herself.

Premarital sex can also affect the country. If premarital is going to be legalized it’s possible that the country can be over populated. Because many people will think that “because it’s legal everything will be fine.” If that thing happens many people will under go in this kind of thing and do it over and over again. That is bad because most of the people who does this kind of thing end in breaking up. If that happens this thing can be happen again and again. There’s also a possibility that the country can be poor because the government can’t handle the population anymore. I’m against of legalizing premarital sex, because of the consequences that many people can’t see when they under go in this kind of thing.

References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3634578/

http://healthywa.wa.gov.au/Articles/A_E/About-sexually-transmitted-infections-STIs

https://www.theporch.live/blogs/why-premarital-sex-is-a-bad-idea/

By: Jan Margaux Encallado

Abortion is when the fetus is getting terminated or expulsed. Abortion is a way of killing a fetus inside the womb. There are two types of Abortion: Medical Abortion and Surgical Abortion. The Medical Abortion is more of a natural process of aborting the pregnancy. It uses abortion pills that will lead to miscarriage and it is done without a surgery. The other type of abortion is the Surgical Abortion. The Surgical Abortion it involves a minor surgery to remove the fetus. In doing the surgical abortion they cut and vacuum the fetus out of the womb.

A baby inside their mother’s womb doesn’t deserve death because they are innocent and doesn’t even know a thing in this world. Many people had a debate about this issue and there are people that are in favor and some are not. I am also not in favor of abortion because it is a sin and also an act of murder. I have done my research before about abortion and it is really depressing that a lot of people can kill an innocent child. And sadly many people doesn’t consider a fetus as a living creature they describe it as a “cell”. These are the list why I don’t want abortion to be legal.

Abortion is an issue here in the Philippines; many people want to legalize abortion because of the case of early pregnancy and unintended pregnancy. A lot of teenagers in this generation are experiencing early pregnancy because of their curiosity for sex and because of that curiosity they will eventually try it until they make a mistake because of their lack of knowledge. This unintended pregnancy will lead them to unsafe abortion and depression.  And because of their lack of knowledge when it comes to this kind of stuffs they might think of killing that child that is in their womb or killing their selves. Abortion can also have a bad effect on the mother’s side. She can have damage to her cervix, scarring of the uterine lining, damage to the organs and it can kill her.

Abortion is also not being legalized here in the Philippines it is because we are a catholic country. Abortion is an act of murder that is a sin the bible. It is stated in the bible verse, Exodus 20:13 the sixth commandment that “Thou shall not kill”. In the Catholic Church, murder is the worst sin a person could ever commit in this world. A precious life of a baby shouldn’t be taken away by its mother because it was God who gave life to the baby its mother is just an instrument that is used to develop the baby. Also, taking a child’s life is not right it is like taking away his/her chance to see the beautiful world that God has created and you will never experience the most genuine love that you can receive from your child.

It is sad that many countries today have legalized abortion even though they know it is wrong. They see it as a solution to poverty. They do it to avoid financial problem and responsibilities. It is also sad that they don’t give significance to a life of a child. A child that is a gift from above that we must cherish and love. Those are my top reasons why I don’t want abortion to be legalized here in the Philippines.