Church leaders soften stand on RH bill

Church leaders have softened their position with respect to the information drive the government is planning to launch as part of its measures to promote President Aquino’s policy on responsible parenthood that would include both natural and artificial family planning methods, Malacañang implied yesterday.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the information campaign was among the three essential aspects that the government and representatives of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) have managed to agree on in their dialog yesterday with regard to their longstanding disputes on the issue of improving the public’s reproductive health.

While the CBCP maintained its reservations on the use of artificial contraceptives, Lacierda explained that their concerns will still be considered once the government starts publishing reading materials toward the realization of its plan.

The CBCP suggested that information on the potential health hazards on the use of artificial contraception apart from its benefits be included in those materials which were easily accepted by the government, Lacierda implied.

“We made it plain to the Church that the position of the President is to provide all methods of family planning. So whatever your concerns are, this is not the time to prevent the dissemination of information. So what we told them, let’s move forward; let’s find common ground — what are the things that we can agree on,” Lacierda told reporters.

“And so, we agreed that we will provide — since the government is bent on providing information to all — suggest to us or tell us what are your concerns with respect to some of the contraceptives and that’s where the information drive should contain: What are the health benefits or the health risks if one uses a certain kind of contraceptive — that’s where the agreement went on,” he added.

Aside from the information drive aspect, Lacierda said they also managed to agree on using national and religious views as an instrument to enforce on one’s conscience the ideals of either sector with respect to family planning.

“Primarily, we are a Catholic country and so, is the government’s position going to force an individual to violate his or her own conscience? We said ‘no,’ we’re not going to do that. All we are saying is we’re providing all the information for the individual to make a choice and, again, it’s up to the person’s conscience or person’s decision to choose or prefer one method over another. So there is no compulsion on the part of the government to impose one’s views on a particular individual,” Lacierda explained.

Lacierda further mentioned that the CBCP representatives also agreed on their suggestion to just let the Reproductive Health (RH) bill which is currently pending at the House of Representatives be discussed among members of the legislative branch.

“The dialog is held in order to get important stakeholder views on executive policies. However, what moves the legislature will have are independent of the executive branch, therefore, deciding whether solution is legislative or not is not solely the President’s discussion,” he explained.

Present during the meeting yesterday on the government’s side were Lacierda, Presidential Management Staff Chief Julia Abad, Health Secretary Enrique Ona and Social Welfare and Development Assistant Secretary Vilma Cabrera.

The Church sector, meanwhile, were represented by Pampanga Archbishop Paciano Aniceto, CBCP secretary-general Msgr. Juanito Figura, lawyers Dindo Graciano and Jo Aurea Imbong, plus some other medical experts that they brought with them.

Lacierda claimed that yesterday’s discussion is a positive step toward reaching a general consensus between the government and the Church on the issue of the RH bill. He added that they have their next meeting scheduled around January next year. –Aytch S. de la Cruz, Daily Tribune