Surveys on RH Bill should be stopped — CBCP official

An official of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Wednesday called for a stop to surveys, particularly on the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill.

Fr. Melvin Castro, Executive Secretary of the CBCP– Episcopal Commission on Family and Life (ECFL), said it would be better if the surveys on the measure would be stopped for the meantime so as not to be used by groups that are supporting the bill.

“We are appealing to them (surveying firms) not to be used to mindset legislators that majority of the people are for the bill… so that it will not cause undue influence to our legislators,” he said.

Castro said if the survey companies refused to give in to their request, they would appreciate if they will be consulted the next time a survey is to be conducted.

“If they are objective enough, then we will appreciate it for them to, at least, let us see, beforehand, these questions… we hope they will do that so as to ensure objective questioning of the people,” he said.

On Tuesday, Pulse Asia released its latest survey wherein 69 percent of the 1,200 respondents supports the RH bill including 22 percent “strongly” agreeing.

The survey, which was conducted from October 20 to 29, also showed that only a mere seven percent of the respondents disagreed while another 24 percent were left undecided.

There are six bills concerning reproductive health currently pending before Congress.

The Church official has questioned the manner by which the survey was conducted.

“The question is: did the questions tackle the bill’s provisions? Or was it a general question on whether they support it or not? It would be good to ask if the people they surveyed have already read the bill or not,” he said.

Castro is optimistic that several discussions concerning the bill would make more people aware of the real contents of the controversial measure. PNA