Aquino deflects contraceptive heat to local govt units

PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III on Friday moved to appease Catholic bishops by saying he might leave birth control education to local government units and religious groups.

The government would “invite all churches predominant in various localities in the formulation of the education component of the family planning issue,” Mr. Aquino said in a mobile phone text message.

“They would be part of the actual seminars.”

Earlier this week, the President said his administration might provide “assistance to those who are without means if they want to employ a particular method” of birth control, angering Catholic bishops who are against any form of artificial contraception.

The President said it was the government’s duty to educate citizens.

The head of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, meanwhile, denied threatening to excommunicate Mr. Aquino over his support of birth control.

Bishop Nereo Odchimar said on the CBCP Web site that the group had not considered excommunication, a religious punishment that deprives a Church member of certain sacraments, such as Communion.

“I deny the news report aired in [a] TV network [Thursday] evening that I threatened President Aquino with excommunication in the interview with Radio Veritas [Thursday] morning,” Odchimar said in a statement.

“While the prevailing sentiment of a number of bishops was that of dismay and frustration over the reported stance of the President regarding artificial contraceptives, imposition of the canonical sanction has not been contemplated by the CBCP,”

In an interview on Radyo Veritas Thursday, Odchimar said excommunication for Mr. Aquino “can be a possibility,” but not “a proximate possibility.”

“I stated that the initial approach of this issue is to be in the spirit of dialogue and not of confrontation. Threat of excommunication at this… time can hardly be considered to be in line with dialogue,” Odchimar said.

He said he supported lay groups opposing the reproductive health bill pending in Congress.

“When asked whether the bishops will participate in mass action, I replied that we would be considering our options … when we have to cross the bridge,” he said.

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago urged Odchimar in a letter not to excommunicate President Aquino, herself and the other sponsors of the reproductive health bill. Santiago, who wrote the Senate version of the bill, said the legislation clearly prohibited abortion and continued to view it as a crime.

Santiago said the 1966 Papal Commission for the Study of Population, the Family and Birth issued by Pope Paul VI, was met with worldwide criticism because it adopted the minority report instead of the majority report.

She said the opponents of the reproductive health bill had two main arguments: that opposition to birth control was a constant teaching of the Church, and that reproductive health violated natural law.

But Santiago said the majority report found the following:

• Church teaching has an evolutionary character, thus allowing a more mature comprehension

• Natural law theory is obsolete. Church documents give to the couple the authority to intervene in the biological processes to achieve the purposes of matrimony in actual life

• The conjugal act is not an isolated reality, but should be viewed in the larger context of human love, family life, and education.

Santiago, who is on extended sick leave for hypothyroidism, told the bishops that if her medical condition improved, she would defend her bill in the Senate plenary debates. –Manila Standard Today