Teodoro, Aquino firm despite bishops’ threat

ADVOCATES of the reproductive health bill yesterday urged Catholic bishops to stop blackmailing presidential aspirants and lawmakers into withdrawing their support for family planning.

At a news conference in Quezon City yesterday, groups supporting the bill said the bishops had warned two presidential aspirants—Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro—that they should rethink their support for family planning or lose the votes of the Catholic faithful.

During a break at Senate budget hearings, Teodoro urged the Catholic Church to respect the state’s right to pursue a program to control population growth.

Teodoro, the likely administration candidate for president next year, said that while the state might promote artificial family planning methods that the Church opposed, it was up to couples to decide what method to use.

“That is a matter for an individual’s conscience and soul. That is not a matter of government enforcement,” Teodoro said.

“I believe in freedom of informed choice by a person as to what he or she wants to do with his or her own body.”

Like Aquino, his cousin and Liberal Party candidate, Teodoro said he would not back down on population control, adding it was the government’s duty to educate couples on family planning.

“It should not be the policy of the state to adopt the view of any particular religion,” Teodoro said. “The state should be non-religious and non-sectarian.”

Senator Rodolfo Biazon, principal author of the Senate version of the bill, said the government could now allow itself to be dictated upon by the Church.

Biazon, who is running for re-election, said he too would not back down on the RH bill.

“If I lose because of that, I lose,” he said. “I cannot abandon my advocacy of a population policy.”

At the Quezon City news conference, pro-family planning groups said that 93 percent of people who supported the RH bill were Catholics.

“Senator Noynoy Aquino has nothing to fear. The SWS [Social Weather Stations] survey shows that 93 percent of those surveyed who are in favor of the reproductive health bill are Catholics,’’ said Benjamin de Leon, president of the Forum for Family Planning.

“This survey means being Catholic has no effect on people or couples’ decision in matters related to their health.”

“We are saddened that the Catholic bishops use their ecclesiastical powers to scare politicians,” De Leon said, referring to a warning from Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal that Catholics might drop Aquino because of his support for the family planning bill.

Aquino supports the passage of the pending House Bill 5043, which seeks a national policy on reproductive health and population development, and is also an author of the Senate counterpart, Senate Bill 3122.

HB 5043, principally authored by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, is scheduled for a vote by the plenary next week.

At the same news conference, Bishop Leo Alconga of the International Bible Society questioned the position of Catholic Church leaders on reproductive health.

“If the Catholic bishops are really pro-life, they should stop using their ecclesiastical powers to blackmail, intimidate and scare the presidential candidates like Senator Aquino and lawmakers into withdrawing their support for RH bill,” Alconga said.

“Why should they deny mothers their access to reproductive health services? The reproductive health bill is a matter of life and death.”

He also criticized efforts to delay the passage of the bill, saying that lawmakers who did this were preventing the legislative process from taking its normal course.

“The time to act on it is now,” he said, adding that 14 years of debate should be more than enough for the Church and anti-RH legislators to understand the issue.

Reproductive health does not promote abortion but rather prevents it, he said.

“Anti-RH [advocates] claim that vasectomy and tubal ligation are both abortifacient, but the truth is that these are safe and legal methods of family planning,’’ De Leon said.

“If they succeed in blocking the passage of this measure, they should be held accountable for the deaths of 11 mothers who die every day due to pregnancy and pregnancy-related complications.’’

Catholic bishops should stop distorting the truth on the reproductive health bill, he said.

Ramon San Pascual, executive director of the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation, urged the Catholic Bishops to allow Congress to do its work and put the bill to a vote.

“Members of Congress have made up their mind and position on this issue, and all we ask is to put this bill to a vote,” San Pascual said.

“Congress should now approve HB 5043 and SB 3122 because the people demand family planning and reproductive health education and services,’’ San Pascual said.

“Various surveys conducted since 1991 and until 2009 reveal that 87 percent of Filipinos say that family planning is important, while 74 percent believe that the government should provide a budget for family planning education and services.”

Both groups acknowledged the House leadership for its “courage and forthrightness” in performing their legislative duties despite threats from the bishops and the delaying tactics of lawmakers who opposed the measure.

The Forum is a non-stock, non-profit and non-governmental organization composed of experts, well-known personalities and supporters of population management, health and family welfare.

Its members include former President Fidel Ramos, former Prime Minister Cesar Virata, SGV founder Washington Sycip, the president of the Lopez Group, Oscar Lopez, and population expert Mercedes Concepcion. –Christine F. Herrera and Fel V. Maragay, Manila Standard Today