RH bill proponent twits bishops on prison threat

MANILA, Philippines—Nobody ends up in the slammer for opposing the reproductive health (RH) bill.

House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman Sunday twitted Catholic Church leaders for claiming that bishops, priests and laity would risk jail time if only to stop the controversial measure.

“Bishops and lay leaders see phantom jailers when there are none,” he said in a retort to the pronouncement of officials of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said the reproductive health bill was not a priority among senators, except for those pushing for this controversial piece of legislation.

Sotto said that other priority bills, specifically the budget, required the Senate’s immediate attention compared to the RH bill which, he added, would be mired in long-winded and contentious debate.

But Sen. Pia Cayetano said that she believed a majority of senators consider the reproductive health bill as equally important as the 2011 budget.

“That is his opinion. I am not aware that the majority has been consulted. But if you ask them, I know they want to take this up. Even the public, based on the surveys, believe this is important,” Cayetano said.

Dogma as antidote

Lagman, a staunch advocate of the RH bill, said nobody would be jailed for opposing the bill in “good faith” and “promoting Catholic dogma as an antidote to contraceptives and modern family planning.”

After all, “instructive debates and constructive criticisms are material to legislation,” he said in a statement.

CBCP president and Surigao Bishop Nereo Odchimar vowed a much tougher Church campaign against approval of the bill overwhelmingly backed by administration and opposition leaders in the House.

Win or lose, the Church would preach the Gospel and its position on the measure, he said.

CBCP lawyer Jo Imbong, quoting the sentiments of participants in the 17th Asia-Pacific Congress on Faith, Life and Family in Makati, said priests, clergy and lay persons were willing to go to jail if the bill were enacted.

President Aquino’s declaration of support for couples seeking to limit the number of their children through contraceptives has revived the debate on the RH bill, and Congress’ conflict with the Church on the issue.

Ceasefire and dialogue

The Church has blocked the approval of the legislation in past Congresses, but its chances of passage have increased, with Mr. Aquino, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and the Liberal Party backing it.

The bishops have agreed to a ceasefire and engaged Mr. Aquino in a dialogue.

Lagman said the bill’s central agenda was “freedom of informed choice” and that “there will neither be reward nor compulsion for being an acceptor of family planning.”

“Option is the rule on whether or not couples and women would adopt a particular family planning method of their choice,” he said.

Lagman, author of one of several RH bills in the House, said it was unfortunate that the CBCP had objected to a “collective dialogue” with lawmakers supporting the bill, and chosen to hold one-on-one talks between a bishop and a legislator “apparently to maintain ascendancy or influence over individual members of Congress on a selective basis.”

Foundation funds?

Claims that foreign foundations were bankrolling a worldwide campaign to back the RH bill were “completely baseless and malicious,” Lagman said.

House Bill No. 96 and its precursors since the 11th Congress, and all the current RH bills in the 15th Congress, “were visualized, crafted and prepared solely by legislators and local private sector affiliates with neither intervention nor funding from international organizations,” he said.

“The RH bill is a purely Philippine initiative in recognition of the critical need to promote reproductive health anchored on protection of human rights, enhancement of maternal and infant health, and attaining sustainable human development,” he said.

Cayetano said she was keeping an “open mind” on the inclusion of the highly disputed provision on contraceptives which she said might be dropped, on justifiable grounds, just to ensure the passage of the RH bill.

Sotto said the inclusion of artificial birth control measures would inevitably ground the RH bill debate to a halt which was why the Senate was better off pouring its resources on more pressing bills like the 2011 budget. TJ Burgonio and Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. –Philippine Daily Inquirer