The proposed extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law seeks to provide more time for land re-distribution which has been delayed and derailed for more than 20 years. At the same time, progressive legislators also hope to correct the defects and loopholes which have allowed landlords great leeway in evading the intent of agrarian reform. Observers point out that time is running out on the poor farmers who are still landless because the country as a whole is running out of arable land at the same time as its forest and other natural resources are being over-exploited.

For the same reasons, it has become a matter of urgency for the poor, especially the women and children, to have the Reproductive Health Bill approved. Studies after studies have shown that it is the poor who suffer from a lack of a government policy that provides adequate information and quality services on reproductive health. With five or six children per family, the benefits of agrarian reform are diluted and lost within one generation. How much smaller can a piece of land get and still be productive when divided within such large families?

Despite formidable opposition, both measures have continued to make substantial progress in the congressional mill and are now in the period of interpellation in both the House and the Senate. Landlords, comprising a large delegation in the congress, have vigorously opposed extension of land reform legislation for obvious vested interests. In both chambers as well, "religionists" under threat of "damnation" (or electoral reprisals) by the powerful conservative minority among Catholics are fighting a desperate delaying battle.

Obsession with Cha-Cha in the House combine with a fixation on presidential ambitions in the Senate to amplify the obstacles to legislation for the poor. In the House of Representatives, congressmen, engaged in hopeless and pointless efforts to amend the Constitution for their own benefit, have considerably delayed passage of perhaps the only two pro-poor proposals before them. In the Senate, posturing by so-called "presidentiables" has prevented thoughtful discussions on both measures as well.

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Advocates of a rights-based reproductive health policy that considers not only population issues but even more importantly gender equity and children’s welfare have reason to be afraid that opponents of the Reproductive Health Bill will use unethical and underhanded tactics to delay its passage.

A case in point is the fate of the Women’s Rights Bill whose progress was derailed even after the bi-cameral committee had agreed on the final reconciled version of the bill. The undemocratic, unprecedented and totally illegal manipulation of the congressional process is clearly indicative of the desperation of medieval "religionists" and the lengths they would go to sabotage any measure to provide the poor with information and services they need and deserve.

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Abortion, the termination of pregnancy before the period of viability of the embryo or fetus, is one of the major contentious issues in the reproductive health debate. Oppositors hold that some if not all scientific family planning methods may act as "abortifacients," that is, they cause abortion or termination of the life of the "unborn child" whose life begins as a fertilized ovum. This is despite the overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary.

A number of studies have demonstrated the presence of a fertilized ovum in menstrual blood from sexually active, fertile women who did not use any contraceptive method – including some who were using the so-called "natural" method. Fertilized ova have never been demonstrated in the menstrual blood of sexually active women who properly use scientific methods of fertility reduction.

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There are a number of official survey results that the present administration has been very slow to make public. Examples are the Philippine National Health Accounts of 2006, the National Tuberculosis Survey of 2008, and the National Demographic and Health Survey of 2008. These surveys are conducted under government auspices using government resources. The people have a right to have timely access to the results of these studies.

Because of this administration’s reputation for confounding the truth, this reticence in revealing information leads some people to suspect that they have something to hide. The fact is that, although some data show a deterioration of the health situation in some respects, many indicators reveal improvements in some areas – particularly in terms of public health performance such as immunization and tuberculosis control.

Unfortunately, the main result of failure to share information in a timely manner on the health status of the Filipino people is the curtailment of free and open debates on the appropriate interventions needed to improve health. In the end, the ones who truly suffer are the unhealthy poor majority.