In the past few days till today, as the rains pour mercilessly, the question in many people’s minds is: where’s our President? Various officials have appeared on TV and radio to explain the calamity and efforts being made to help people in various places; but P-Noy’s televised appearance this noon was isolated---at a time when his people desperately need to see him with them.

Because of President Aquino's scarce public appearance in our diluvian crisis, comparison is being made to GMA in the mid-morning of Ondoy’s deluge of Sept. 26, 2009. Clad in raincoat and boots and with only one security in tow, she couldn't wait for her officials at the Palace. Instead, GMA caught the LRT to Cubao, where Defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro was waiting with an Army truck to bring her through heavily flooded EDSA, to the National Disaster and Control Center in Camp Aguinaldo. By 2 am. the following  day GMA was still in Marikina with her officials, inspecting the floods and relief efforts, sans a decent dinner.  

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But you might correctly argue that GMA was president and that’s her job. But take a look at former Sen. Dick Gordon, chair of the Philippine National Red Cross. Last night he hosted his annual birthday bash in McKinley Hill in the midst of the heavy downpour, where an incredible number of friends that included Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Chief Justice Renato Corona (yes, they were under the same roof) showed up. But by dawn today Dick was up and about coordinating relief and rescue operations and the PNRC’s amphibian boats were out. NO NOYNOYING FOR DICK.

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Where has P-Noy been? No one really knows, except that yesterday noon, (Monday), he was hosting a luncheon for members of the House of Representatives in a last-minute effort to consolidate votes for his RH bill. P-Noy was invisible in the disaster relief effort but he was definitely hands-on in the RH battle.

P-Noy’s efforts paid off: his appeal to House members succeeded in pushing the voting on termination of the RH debates to YESTERDAY AFTERNOON---ONE DAY IN ADVANCE---so that the period of amendments (Second Reading) could commence. So persuasive was he that he convinced even ranking minority leaders to agree to this advance vote, that was said to have been the idea, in the first place, of a very anti-RH and  Pro-Life solon, Paranaque Rep. Roilo Golez (!). Another staunch anti-RH solon, Batangas Rep. Hermilando Mandanas, tried  bravely to oppose this idea and batted openly for the original Tuesday schedule, but he failed to elicit support. 

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So why the strategy to advance the vote by a day? It's hard to fathom Golez's mind, but I imagine that the Palace strategists must have heard that the bishops had scheduled to meet last night with the anti-RH solons. Hence, pre-emption became the name of the game. The advance schedule caught anti-RH groups FLAT-FOOTED, judging from the fact that their whole-page ads in newspapers appeared ONLY TODAY.

Once the Palace order was given, legislators all scrambled into their cars for the House and within two hours the AYES drowned out the NAYES. The latter vote included that of a feeble-looking GMA, who showed up in flaming anti-RH red in her neck brace and dextrose to have her negative vote counted.

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When news filtered about the instant voting order, radio commentators went to town with nasty insinuations:  e.g., was there a pay-off? Threats of pork to be withheld? Zambales Rep. Mitos Magsaysay tried to plead with colleagues to vote as scheduled today, arguing that moving it would only heighten the image of the House as a complete rubber-stamp of the President. But the majority did not care to listen.  

Worse, Deputy Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella allowed majority decision for  a viva voce vote, instead of the nominal voting (where each solon would explain his vote for history) that an issue as serious as this demands. Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco tried---but failed---to argue for nominal voting. Insiders rationalized that the solons preferred to hide behind a collective vote as they feared both P-Noy’s and the bishops’ wrath.

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Some legislators privately spoke of the tremendous pressures on them to attend that luncheon and vote for the RH bill. As a solon recalled, over the days there were calls from the House leaders’ offices, but over the weekend, after the bishops’ rally, these came from high up in the Palace, which was evidently rattled by the bishops’ scathing speeches. A number of administration allies were clearly caught in the squeeze and chose not to show up at the lunch.

Will Monday’s rush-vote presage another, this time on the fate of the bill itself, at the end of this month?  Anti-RH folks have to move and storm the heavens. 

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 As if on cue, last Monday the UN Population Fund made headlines as it plugged for the RH bill---arguing that failure to pass a population control policy would jeopardize Ph's gains. Yet, just two days earlier, two prominent US economists visiting recently, in connection with the setting up of an economic think-tank by Sen. Edgardo Angara, opined that Ph may be on the verge of an economic take-off---the next tiger economy in Asia. 

They cited among the right mix of factors, “human capital.” When economists speak of “human capital” in the Ph context, they usually mean our strong and young labor force---now the envy of many developed economies plagued by “greying” or aging populations. The question is, where do we get this young labor force that's now contributing $20 billion yearly to our economy, if we curtail our population via contraceptives that will be scattered all over the country, as the legislators want to do.

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No less than BSP Deputy Gov. Diwata Gunigundo stressed the same phenomenon recently---that our young labor force is our major asset. UN agencies, in dangling mouth-watering aid funds, want us Filipinos to feel miserable about our “burgeoning” population, when the studied opinions of distinguished economists here and abroad, including our own Dr. Bernie Villegas, is that population is a major asset of our economy (would the SM empire have grown if not for this factor?). As Villegas puts it, “passing the RH bill would literally be killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.”

The prestigious Wall Street Journal of July 26, 2012 put it quite succinctly: “The Philippines doesn’t have too many people. It has too few pro-growth policies.”

But our Pro-RH legislators are so fixated on carrying out P-Noy's order (he just got pikon with the bishops, including Archbishop Soc Villegas, who was so close to his mother but now is the No. 1 defender of Life and against RH) that they close their eyes to this positive factor of a young and well-trained labor force.  Instead para silang mga robot lang---pag-inutusan ni P-Noy, sunod again. How very sad.

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