Amid CBCP threats, Cebu votes 78% for RH Bill

Even as the Archbishop of Cebu, Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, along with the Catholic bishops, has threatened to withdraw electoral support from presidential contenders and congressional candidates who support the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey taken from July 2 to 5, with a respondent base of 1,200 shows that there is high public support for the legislative measure.

The SWS July 2009 Cebu Survey on Health, found that 78 percent of men and women of reproductive age (15 to 54 years old for men and 15 to 49 years old for women) in Districts 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of Cebu Province and District 2 of Cebu City were in favor of the RH Bill.

The survey also showed half of the Cebuanos surveyed in July disagreed that the use of IUDs (52 percent) condoms (51 percent) and pills (50 percent) can be considered as abortion.

SWS in its media release said “the strong support of Cebuanos for the Reproductive Health Bill is similar to opinions of men and women of reproductive age in a December 2008 survey in Manila City, a February 2009 survey in Parañaque City, and a May 2009 survey in Bohol Province.

Other findings from the July 2009 survey show that Cebuanos agree that 15 to 24 years old students should be given adolescent health education in school (87 percent) and be given family planning information and services (84 percent). The bishops are also against these two issues.

It found that 73 percent of Cebuanos surveyed in July agreed “There should be a law that requires government to distribute condoms, IUDs and pills to people who want to avail of them,” and 85 percent agreed “There should be a law that requires government to teach family planning to the youth.”

On the proposed RH Bill, 45 percent of Cebuanos surveyed in July said they were previously aware of it, while 54 percent said they learned about it from the survey.

The survey was commissioned by the Forum for Family Planning and Development for open publication. It used face-to-face interviews of random samples of

100 persons of reproductive age from Districts 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of Cebu Province and District 2 of Cebu City, for a total sample size of 600 (an error margin of +-4 percent overall, and +-10 percent at the district/city level). The data were weighted according to Census projections of persons of reproductive age per district for 2009.

Earlier, a Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines committee announced that the bishops and priests will campaign against candidates who support the RH bill, later amending the announcement to saying that they will be lobbying their congressmen to withdraw support from the bill.

Outgoing CBCP president and Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo on Friday declared that the bishops’ body will remain non-partisan in the coming May 2010 elections.

Lagdameo said this in reaction to the proposal of an executive of the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life (ECFL), the committee in-charge of the CBCP’s family affairs, that they plan to practice the “bloc voting” in order to dislodge the lawmakers who will not withdraw their support on the Reproductive Health Bill.

“The Catholic Church will remain non-partisan in the matter of politics, but in the case of the RH bill, there is the moral issue involved and the church leaders must fight against this without any compromise,”Lagdameo said over Church-run Radio Veritas.

Fr. Melvin Castro, executive secretary of the CBCP-ECFL, together with other church leaders, has been been openly calling on all presidential aspirants to give up their support to the RH bill, specifically directing their call on Sen. Noynoy Aquino and Department of National Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro.

According to Castro, the pro-life coalition is set to put-up a database, wherein the public will have an opportunity to see the complete list on politicians supporting or opposing the said bill in a bid to guide them in their choosing of their candidates.

Lagdameo said the CBCP cannot go into bloc voting, but stressed that each bishop can individually talk to politicians and convince them to withdraw their support from the bill.

“We may be talking to the lawmakers and asking them to withdraw their support on the RH bill, but this does not mean that the bishops will be supporting their candidacies in exchange for their dropping support of the RH bill,” stressed the Jaro, Iloilo prelate. –Marie Surbano, Daily Tribune