Rep. Lagman hits bishop’s RH remarks

REP. Edcel Lagman of the First District of Albay on Sunday criticized the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), saying that the history of Christianity is purportedly “engulfed” with terrorism and is not about reproductive health. Lagman, who authored one of the six reproductive health (RH) bills pending in Congress, made the remark after CBCP President and Tandag Bishop Nereo Odchimar equated the RH advocacy to “extra-judicial killings, insurgency and terrorism.”

He described the 66-year-old prelate’s statement as “the height of [their] antediluvian hyperbole,” saying that the “the history of Christianity is so engulfed in terrorism from the persecution of [the] early Christians to the counter-persecution of both heretics and believers to preserve the hegemony of the Roman Catholic Church, particularly during the Inquisition, that any development or proposal which does not complement Church dogma is conveniently labeled terroristic like the RH bills.”

“These acts of church terrorism extended to the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period, which was dominated by the church and are perpetuated today with threats of excommunication against perceived religious dissenters like RH and pro-women advocates,” Lagman said.

The lawmaker tagged as baseless Odchimar’s statement that Filipinos are facing the New Year with “unpeace in the womb” once the RH measure is passed.

“With the approval of [the] RH bill, a woman’s womb can be a ferocious threat to those who are yet to be born,” the bishop said in his Christmas message as posted on the CBCP website.

“The liberation of the womb from distressing and even fatal unremitting pregnancies has been erroneously likened by . . . Odchimar to the womb becoming a ‘ferocious threat’ to unborn children,” Lagman said.

The leader of the minority bloc at the House of Representatives added that no life or fetus is developed in the womb if pregnancy or conception is effectively avoided.

Consequently, Lagman said, there is no “threat to the life of the unborn” because there isn’t any to begin with.

“The free and responsible determination by parents of the number and spacing of their children can never be considered terrorism. The RH bill is far from being terroristic since it is pro-quality of life. It saves lives by greatly reducing the incidence of abortions and decreases maternal and infant mortality even as it welcomes the wanted and properly-timed birth of children,” he explained. –RUBEN D. MANAHAN 4th, Manila Times