CBCP official in favor of holding plebiscite on RH Bill

MANILA, Philippines – A plebiscite on the Reproductive Health (RH) bill would reveal the number of Filipinos who support the Catholic Church’s position against the passage of the legislation, an official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said yesterday.

“We are confident that it is not only us (Church officials) who are not in favor of the passage of the RH bill,” said CBCP-National Secretariat for Social Action Justice and Peace (Nassa) chairman Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, referring to the possible holding of a plebiscite on the contentious proposal.

The Catholic Church has been strongly opposing the proposed law, fearing that it would promote the use of contraceptives and abortifacent drugs.

Pabillo said that before there would be a plebiscite, the public must be well informed on the pros and cons of the bill.

“First and foremost, there should be a good information campaign to the public. But that is a very tall dream that is difficult to do. The government would have to prepare for this, spend for this (plebiscite),” he said.

Pabillo was responding to Rep. Jose Ma. Zubiri’s statement last week that Congress could resort to a plebiscite if it fails to pass the measure. Zubiri is a co-author of the RH bill in Congress.

“Let the people decide. Let us give the decision to the people if they really want the RH bill or not,” he said.

Zubiri said the plebiscite may be held in the next elections to determine if the people support the use of contraceptives for population management.

He reiterated that the bill, “An Act Providing for a National Policy on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population and Development,” does not promote abortion as the Catholic Church claims.

A House divided

Meanwhile, Paraaque Rep. Roilo Golez, who is opposed to the RH bill, revealed yesterday that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is an advocate of “legal abortion.” Golez made the revelation in reaction to the statement of Minority Leader Edcel Lagman, principal author of the RH bill, that the recent remark of Clinton’s husband, former US President Bill Clinton, on the huge population of the Philippines was “nonsense.”

The former American president was quoted as saying during a recent visit here that such a huge population was “a positive.” Golez said Lagman would rather have Filipinos listen to Clinton’s wife, Hillary. “The cat is out of the bag, that RH in the end could lead to pro legal abortion. It must be stressed that Hillary Clinton’s RH position is pro-abortion,” he said.

He quoted the US secretary of state as declaring last March 29 in Ottawa, Canada: “You cannot have maternal health without reproductive health, and reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortions.”

Lagman has repeatedly denied that his RH bill would advocate or sanction abortion. Over the weekend, Lagman said Bill Clinton’s “passing statement may be typical of patronizing platitudes heaped by Americans on third world countries.”

He said Clinton’s wife is an “ardent advocate of family planning and reproductive health.”

He quoted Secretary Clinton as telling a US congressional hearing in April 2009: “I have been in Asian countries where the denial of family planning consigns women to lives of oppression and hardship. We happen to think that family planning is an important part of women’s health.”

Lagman also quoted another statement made by Mrs. Clinton a year ago, while being interviewed in Malacañang, stating that she “thinks empowering women to be able to make choices are in the best interests of the children they already have… and (having) access to family planning is not only a positive for the woman and her family, but for the larger society.”

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has vowed to subject the RH bill to exhaustive plenary debates, and eventually to a vote, the result of which he could not predict. – Jess Diaz, Evelyn Macairan (The Philippine Star)