Bishop tells Noynoy: Drop RH bill for Church support

Will Liberal Party standard bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino bow to the Catholic bishops’ pressure on him to toe the Church line against the Reproductive Health bill which the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philppines (CBCP) claims to be anti-life and anti-family and withdraw his sponsorship of the bill in exchange for the Catholic bishops’ support for his presidency?

Cotabato Bishop Jose Bagaforo said they might support the candidacy of Aquino if he agrees to withdraw his support to the anti-life and anti-family bill pending now in Congress.

“I think he has to withdraw his support to the Reproductive Health bill because if he does that, it is possible that the prelates might support him,” Bagaforo said.

A day earlier, Cebu Archbisphop Cardinal Rosales, announced that he will be withdrawing support from the candidacy of Aquino, whom he said was a co-author of the RH bill in the Senate unless he withdraws his support for the bill.

The Bishops Legislator Caucus of the Philippines (BLCP) also echoed the same call made by Bagaforo to Noynoy.

“Those of us who are looking at him as a likely choice (for president) will ask him to please withdraw authorship of and support for the Senate consolidated Reproductive Health Bill 3122 filed on March 4,2009,” Fenny Tatad, BLCP’s executive director said.

Aside from withdrawing his support to the Reproductive Health Bill, the BLCP also wants Aquino to declare an unequivocal and principled support for the dignity of human life and the family, consistent with the teaching of the Catholic Church and the Constitution.

BLCP said the senator should also denounce any attempt by any foreign or local group to pressure Congress into enacting any RH law or anything similar, now or in the future.

An official of the Catholic BishopsConference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Family and Life (CBCP-ECFL) expressed apprehensions that Aquino is a co-author of the controversial RH bill.

The CBCP strongly denounced the passage of the RH bill and even warned of campaigning against the pro-RH bill lawmakers in the coming May 2010 elections.

There is however, no such solid Catholic vote, but this move to actively campaign for, or against candidates contradicts the earlier claims of the CBCP that it will not engage in politics.

Meanwhile, there is strong suspicion from poll analysts of a breach in the sampling protocol of the Social Weather Stations survey favoring Noynoy Aquino

Political Science Professor Alfred Sureta Jr., executive director of the newly-organized Strat Polls, yesterday joined Ed M. Malay of The Center in claiming there could have been a breach in the sampling protocol as the key sampling method of stratification apparently was not observed in the recent survey which was allegedly conducted by the SWS showing Aquino ahead of the field of presidentiables with a rating of 50 percent.

Sureta also stressed that he is not questioning the integrity of the SWS that conducted the survey but he maintained that the survey could have suffered from high favorable bias for Aquino as the areas surveyed are mostly in Region III.

He also said that from what he knows the SWS does not use a field force of its own but sub-contracts the field operation to another party and if there has been any breach in the methodological approach to the field operations, the possible lapse(s) could be traced back down to that level.

Sureta pointed out that it is statistically improbable for Sen. Manny Villar to have lost 15 percent to 20 percent “overnight” or from the short period of time when Aquino first made known his intention to seek the presidency. It will be recalled that Aquino announced he will running for President on Sept. 8 while the alleged SWS survey was conducted from Sept. 5 to 6 or two to three days before Aquino made public his intention.

In explaining what he meant by breach in the sampling protocol, Sureta said that it is the general rule in poll surveys to adopt the multi-stage area probability sampling or MSAPS to generate a fair and more accurate result and that such surveys must not be concentrated in just one area of territory.  –Marie A. Surbano, Daily Tribune