Aquino seeks dialogue with Catholic bishops

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino is seeking a dialogue with Catholic bishops and other religious leaders on the Reproductive Health (RH) bill even as he stands firm on his position that Filipino couples must be free to choose the way to manage their families but must exercise responsible parenthood.

“The state has an obligation to educate all of its citizens as to their choices. The state was not empowered by any law to dictate upon any couple how they should plan their family,” Mr. Aquino told reporters in an ambush interview at the President Corazon C. Aquino High School in Baseco, Tondo where he distributed Philippine Health Insurance cards to residents.

Many Catholic bishops have criticized the decision of the government to distribute contraceptives and educate couples both on artificial and natural birth control methods.

Some Muslim religious leaders have also voiced opposition to a state-sanctioned family planning program stipulated in the RH bill. The issue came to a head when some influential bishops even threatened to call for civil disobedience to compel the President to soften his stand.

Mr. Aquino said that while he has not yet closely examined the new RH bill, “my stand has not changed” since the campaign.

But he said his and the bishops’ opposing views on family planning might only have been blown out of proportion. He disclosed he had met with a few bishops for a dialogue and would set another one with as many of them as possible.

“This issue is really inflammatory. But I suppose that if we are really looking for order and a so-called consensus by having the respective positions clarified, why shouldn’t we achieve that?” he said.

Mr. Aquino said that when he was still a lawmaker and also during the campaign, he had batted for changes in some of the provisions of the RH bill. He also stressed he was against abortion.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said that while Mr. Aquino’s stand on the issue had angered some prelates, it had not given up on dialogue as a means to resolve the issue.

Mr. Aquino said the details of the proposed dialogue with the bishops were still being worked out.

Bill’s prospect bright

Despite the Catholic Church’s stand, House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman said he expects the RH bill to finally breeze through both chambers of Congress, considering the strong support it enjoys from Mr. Aquino and the House leadership.

“The support of President Aquino and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. ensures the early passage of the RH bill,” Lagman told reporters during the weekly Kapihan sa Sulo Hotel forum in Quezon City.

Lagman is the principal author of the re-filed version of House Bill 96 also known as the “Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2010.”

The House minority leader said Mr. Aquino’s firm stand on the RH bill would be one of the issues that they would consider in assessing his first 100 days in office.

“It (RH bill support) will mitigate the initial setback of the Aquino administration,” he said.

Lagman also appealed to the Catholic Church to focus on saving souls and leave the task of saving the lives of women and children in the country to the government.

He said that when the first version of the RH bill was filed in the 11th Congress in 1999, the population of the Philippines was only 75 million. The Philippines is now the 12th most populous country in the world with a population of 94.3 million. He said that in a decade, the country’s annual population growth has averaged two million.

“It must be underscored, however, that reproductive health goes beyond a demographic target because it is principally about the right to health and sustainable human development,” Lagman said.

He said the bill’s beneficiaries are the poorest of the poor, particularly women.

“The heart of the bill is freedom of informed choice. Neither the state nor the Church has the authority to compel the people or the faithful what family planning method to adopt. The choice belongs to parents, couples, particularly to women who have the inherent right over the their bodies,” Lagman said.

Condoms or incentives

Instead of giving condoms and contraceptives to married couples, why not give them incentives to plan small families?

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone made the suggestion yesterday to “reframe” the acrimonious debate on reproductive health and population control.

He said instead of enacting a law on population management and angering the Catholic Church, Congress could give incentives to parents with no more than four children.

“These could be in the form of an income tax discount or free education in a state college or university for some or all of the children,” he said.

“We could come up with a menu of other offers that could encourage couples to have small families. Anchoring an acceptable or middle-ground policy on population control based on incentives may not entirely please the bishops, but it is a good starting point, a fresh approach,” he said.

Earlier, Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles said there is no need for a law on reproductive health to control the country’s population.

“Why do we have to legislate population management when in fact, even without it, our people have always been free to do what they think is best for their family? I think it’s best that we just leave it that way and let our people choose what they want,” he said.

“It’s not illegal to use condom so why waste time and people’s money just to make a law that encourages the use of condom? It doesn’t make sense,” he said.

He said such a law, if enacted, would only enrich manufacturers of condom and other contraceptives.

Nograles lamented that the reproductive health issue has unnecessarily involved not only Congress but the entire nation as well.

He called discussions in the House of Representatives on the RH bill a waste of time.

He said Belmonte himself, even if he is for reproductive health, is not sure about the result of any vote on the RH bill.

“He promised to have it discussed extensively and voted on, but that he would leave the matter to everyone’s conscience,” he added.

He warned RH bill proponents not to underestimate the power and influence of the Catholic Church in lobbying against the measure.

He noted that even though the majority of House members supported the bill in the last Congress, many of them wilted under pressure from Church leaders and Church-based organizations.

Nograles’ father, former Speaker Prospero Nograles, had tried but inexplicably failed to have the RH bill debated in the plenary.

In September last year, he even wrote a confidential memo to House leaders setting a timetable for plenary discussions and voting.

In the final debate, only three speakers on each side would be allowed, and then the voting. Nograles’ plan did not materialize.

Miriam’s appeal

Meanwhile, Sen. Miriam Santiago has appealed to CBCP president Bishop Nereo Odchimar to “discard excommunication as a response to reproductive health bills pending in Congress.”

“If I were to be excommunicated, I would be expelled from the Church, more particularly from the Eucharist. I would thus be placed in the same category as those guilty of so-called serious sins, such as apostasy, murder, heresy, and adultery,” Santiago said in a letter to Odchimar dated Oct.1.

Earlier, Odchimar was quoted in news reports as having threatened Mr. Aquino with excommunication for his “pro-choice” stand. The CBCP later clarified that it has never issued such a threat.

“I plead that I am not guilty of mortal sin, defined in our Church as a fundamental rejection of God, and the reorientation of one’s whole life away from all that is good and just. On the contrary, I am a strong advocate of social justice, particularly the anticorruption crusade,” Santiago said.

“May I respectfully submit that the penalty of excommunication for pro-RH (reproductive health) legislators, who are merely exercising the preferential option for the poor under liberation theology, would be too extreme and disproportionate. It will raise constitutional issues about church-state relationship,” she added.

She also said that she is “humbly but morally convinced that the arguments for contraception are superior.” – With Perseus Echeminada and Jess Diaz –Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star)