Birth control bill is dead with Aquino about-face

THE reproductive health bill appeared dead after Senator Benigno Aquino III, the last presidential candidate favoring it, on Friday withdrew his support of the measure, and apparently following pressure from the powerful Catholic Church.

Aquino, the Liberal Party’s standard bearer and the consistent leader in the election surveys, turned around at Friday’s presidential forum and now claims he was not one of the bill’s principal authors.

And like the other presidential hopefuls, Aquino would now leave it to parents to plan the number of children they want and to educate them on the issue.

Some of Aquino’s party mates are among the RH Bill’s principal authors, and they include Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros, an LP senatorial candidate, and fellow LP senatorial candidates Rozanno Rufino Biazon and Teofisto Guingona III, the congressmen representing Muntinlupa City and Bukidnon, respectively.

Indeed, most of the Liberal Party’s members, led by Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III in the House, are co-authors of the bill and are pushing for its immediate passage. Aquino’s party mate, Senator Rodolfo Biazon, is the principal author of the RH Bill’s counterpart in the Senate.

After the Catholic bishops publicly warned Aquino not to support the bill or the Catholic Church would withdraw its support of his candidacy, Tañada and Hontiveros assured the public that Aquino “will never falter on his pro-RH position.”

Now the bishops will have to choose which presidential candidate to support as they all have withdrawn their support of the RH bill, which they oppose saying only natural birth-control methods should be used.

The bill’s authors want the bill passed, saying parents should be allowed to decide how many children to have. They also say the country’s population, now about 94 million, is growing at 2.36 percent a year, or by 2 million people.

Senator Richard Gordon, standard bearer of the Bagumbayan party, did sign the Senate committee report on the RH bill but scribbled a note: “Will interpellate and amend.”

The Nacionalista Party’s Manuel Villar regards the runaway population as an “asset,” while Lakas-Kampi CMD standard bearer Gilberto Teodoro Jr. is dangling cash incentives to couples practising birth-spacing through natural family planning.

Evangelist Eddie Villanueva of the Jesus is Lord Movement, along with the Iglesia ni Cristo, lobbied Congress for the immediate passage of House Bill 5043, but then changed his tune when he joined the presidential race.

Analysts say that, with three session days left, it is next to impossible for Congress to pass House Bill 5043, which seeks to establish a national policy on reproductive health, family planning and population development.

The RH bill is still up for plenary debate for second and third reading in the House. The Senate has not even started its floor deliberations and debate on its counterpart bill.

“It is sad and infuriating to witness individuals who want to lead this country to kowtow shamelessly to power, never mind that it is wielded by a church that disregards the rights, needs and desires of the multitude they have vowed to lead,” said lawyer Beth Pangalanan, a professor at the University of the Philippines’ College of Law.

But Ramon San Pascual, executive director of the Philippine Legislators Committee on Population Development, claims that Aquino did not back out, although Villar and Teodoro were against the bill.

Elizabeth Angsioco, secretary general of the Reproductive Health Alliance Network, said the women’s groups would use the the RH bill as an election issue.

“It appears that the presidential candidates are blind to the benefits [that the bill] will bring to Filipinos,” she said. –Christine F. Herrera, Manila Standard Today