Church survey bodes well for RH bills

HOUSE Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Thursday said that a survey, even if one conducted by the Catholic Church, would reveal that majority of Filipinos will favor the passage of reproductive health (RH) bills while a well-known prelate accused proponents of the measures of lying for claiming that the bills do not allow abortion.

A day after the first public hearing on the six unconsolidated RH bills conducted by the House Committee on Population and Family Relations, Belmonte noted that “this [survey] will more or less confirm the results of earlier surveys [showing that Filipinos favor the passage of the RH bills]. There will be [the] same results, maybe better.”

Five of these bills are House Bills 96 (filed by Rep. Edcel Lagman of the First District of Albay), 101 (filed by Rep. Janette Garin of the First District of Iloilo), 513 (filed by Rep. Kaka Bag-ao of Akbayan party-list), 1160 (filed by Rep. Rodolfo Biazon of Muntinlupa City, Metro Manila) and 3387 (filed by Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan of Gabriela party-list). These propose a national policy on reproductive health, responsible parenthood and population development.

The sixth—House Bill 1520, filed by Rep. Augusto Syjuco of the Second District of Iloilo—advocates the right of people to information on reproductive health-care services.

The Speaker also noted that there is nothing wrong with the church conducting its own survey on what the Filipinos think about the RH bills.

“Nobody is preventing the church from conducting its own survey. It could even be better because it could explain how [the Church] really defines abortifacients. It’s legitimate for them to conduct the survey,” Belmonte said.

He would not say, however, if the Vatican’s recent stance on allowing condoms as a tool to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS infection will boost the bill’s passage.

“It will not delay it, but it remains to be seen if it will actually speed it up . . . ” he pointed out.

Separately, retired Bishop Teodoro Bacani said also on Wednesday that medical textbooks and pharmacy references have identified oral contraceptives, hormonal injectables and IUDs as abortifacients.

“They said [that] the bills are against abortion and yet the government is required to provide abortifacient techniques,” Bacani added.

According to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines News, large-scale public funding for artificial contraceptives is assured in the proposed measures.

Almost all the bills classify contraceptives, including intrauterine devices and injectables, as essential medicines. If approved, billions of pesos in public funds will be used for their purchase.

Bacani clarified that the Catholic hierarchy is not againstthe reproductive health bills per se, but only their inclusion of artificial contraceptives and abortifacients. –Llanesca T. Panti and Jomar Canlas, Reporters, ManilaTimes.net