Church shuns ‘RH’ but promotes ‘RE’ to youths

While it is against “RH” – the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, the Catholic Church is for “RE” – Renewable Energy.

In a news release posted on its website, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines said (CBCP) said it supports the government’s move to tap renewable energy (RE).

CBCP Episcopal Commission on Youth (ECY) executive secretary Fr. Conegundo Garganta said the youths can play a big role as the country shifts to more environment-friendly and renewable sources of energy.

Garganta said the youths, who comprise 60 percent of the Philippine population, are the biggest consumers of energy but many are not aware of RE.

At a recent roundtable discussion on RE in Manila, Garganta said, “The youth are the catalysts of change in our society. Catalysts of change because when they respond seriously to challenges that confronts them, the youth easily rise up [to the occasion].”

“By rising up, they set a new tone, a new quality of how life is lived and change becomes a reality, change happens,” he said.

Renewable energy

RE is energy tapped from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are “renewable” or are naturally replenished.

In June, Department of Energy (DOE) Undersecretary Jay Layug said 40 to 80 RE contracts were set to be awarded by the DOE within that month, mostly mini-hydro power plant projects.

According to DOE’s list of RE contracts, there are 124 hydropower projects have been awarded by the government, 99 of which are in pre-development stages while eight are already in the development phase.

A total of 17 hydropower projects are already operating in the country.

Mistakes of previous generations

Meanwhile, in the same CBCP news release, the World Youth Alliance group’s Emily Dy said young people can learn from the mistakes of previous generations and start practicing better habits and a better lifestyle.

“We do not have the same expertise as the people here in this table have so we will leave a lot of the major development work with them, and we’ll take the lead from them but the youth as I said, we are the ones who will take over the industry, take over the government when it’s our turn, when we age,” Dy was quoted as saying.

Dy said young people can start by doing simple tasks such as turning off the lights when leaving the room, reminding parents to buy energy-efficient appliances, and so on.

Research and development

Also in the CBCP news release, Kiboy Tabada, a member of the UP Campus Ministry, said much research and development are needed to develop RE in the country.

“Research and development, dapat ang government should invest in it so that yun youth ngayon, they would learn how to find sources of energy in our country na hindi na tayo magrerely sa market, especially outside of the country,” Tabada was quoted as saying.

Pro-RE, not RH

While the Catholic Church supports the government’s RE program, it is against the RH bill pending in Congress.

The RH bill promotes both artificial and natural family planning methods. The Catholic Church accepts only natural family planning means. – VVP, GMA News