Wednesday, July 16, 2008 Carvajal: House Bill 4110 and the bangkal tree By Orlando P. Carvajal Break Point
THE bangkal trees we saw at Apo Golf and Country Club in Davao have been stripped of all their bark from the ground up to a man’s reach. Our caddies explained that the bark of the bangkal tree is the local folks’ contraceptive or even abortifacient.
Judging from the amount of bark taken, a lot of people are into this, yes artificial, method of birth control.
If the bishops have their way, they’d rather have the poor run to a bangkal tree than avail of the resources the government can provide with the passage of House Bill 4110. In a strangely very emotional, almost irrational, sort of way, Catholic bishops believe passage of House Bill 4110 will erode morality and respect for life.
But is it not a greater immorality for the bishops to fail to exercise compassion on the least of Christ’s brethren, our poor, in the guise of preventing the breakdown of a very narrow sexual morality? Is it not a greater immorality to deprive the least of Christ’s brethren of the right to reproductive health care? Is it not a greater immorality to fail to empathize with the suffering poor because of an infatuation with their delusion of power over the laity?
Freedom of choice is an inalienable God-given right of people. The bishops can only form our consciences so we could make the right choices. It would be immoral for them to impose their view of morality on anybody. The bishops would be gravely immoral to just oppose House Bill 4110 without matching the government’s program with their own, the kind that promotes only natural methods.
The bishops live up in the clouds, away from the madding crowd. They fail to realize (but how can they when they do not have families to feed?) that if House Bill 4110 does not pass, they will have on their consciences the millions of poor deforesting the Philippines of bangkal trees for their contraceptive needs. Worse still, they will have on their consciences the thousands who die at the hands of dirty and creepy abortionists.
I read House Bill 4110 after someone told me it was a remarkably well-crafted bill and indeed it is. I read it again after the bishops threw brimstone and hell-fire at those who support it. And frankly I don’t get it. How can a law that promotes the right of citizens to reproductive health and guarantees freedom of choice be considered anti-life? One of the purposes clearly stated is the “prevention and management of consequences of abortion.” What are the bishops really afraid of that they see an anti-life plot lurking behind the words?
Anyway, my conscience tells me I should err, if I must, on the side of compassion and go for House Bill 4110 and, as an added bonus, save the bangkal tree from extinction.
