MANILA, OCTOBER 4, 2010 (MALAYA) BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR and GERARD NAVAL - Palace: All he wants is to let couples decide!
PRESIDENT Aquino is neither "pro-life nor anti-life."
He is not endorsing any family planning method, whether natural or artificial. He is for responsible parenthood.
Malacañang stressed these points yesterday as it reiterated that all the President wants is to leave to couples to decide what is best for them.
"Tayo sa administrasyon, hindi tayo nag-a-advocate ng one method over the other…Lahat ng family method, kung ano ang piliin ng ating magulang after magawa ang informed choice, we will support that, said Abigail Valte, deputy presidential spokeswoman.
Aquino on Saturday said he met with several bishops Friday over the population control and the reproductive health bill issues, and it was agreed there will be a follow-up meeting involving more bishops. Details were being finalized, he said.
He reiterated it is the responsibility of the government to educate couples on available family planning methods, whether it is the natural method which is supported by the Church or the artificial method which involves the use of contraceptives.
The Church is opposing the reproductive health bill which allows the use of contraceptives like condoms and pills.
Aquino's initial meeting with the bishops came a day after CBCP president Bishop Nereo Odchimar clarified reports about his statement about the possibility of excommunicating the President.
The statements were from an interview with the Church-run Radio Veritas which released the transcript of the interview to the media.
The word "not" was lost in the transcript of Odchimar's quote about excommunication being a "proximate possibility."
Archbishop Paciano Aniceto said Aquino is not beholden to the Catholic Church but he should rethink his position because he was elected by the Filipinos who are mostly Catholics.
"Ang gumagawa sa presidente ay mga Katoliko dahil ang mga Katoliko ang pinakamaraming boto. There is not a Catholic party but there is a Catholic vote. Ang nagluluklok sa presidente ay ang majority… and the majority are Catholics," said Aniceto, chair of the CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Family and Life.
"Dahil siya ay presidente ng buong bansa, and he represents the vision of the whole Philippines, siyempre igalang dapat ang sentiments, convictions, and religious beliefs ng nakakarami. In a democracy, you represent the majority of everybody," he added.
Malacañang over the weekend said Aquino is president of all Filipinos, not only of Catholics.
About 80 percent of the population are Catholics. Some 10 percent belong to other Christian denominations. Between 5 and 10 percent are Muslims.
Aniceto said other religions oppose the RH bill. "May Muslim, they are against it. Kasama din diyan ang mga Evangelicals, Ecumenical Bishops' Forum. They are against it," he said.
Msgr. Juanito Figura, CBCP secretary general, agreed with an earlier statement of Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez that calling for "civil disobedience" is possible if the RH bill is passed.
"When a law or state policy or state program is not in consonance with what the faith teaches… so from that perspective, if the local church in the Philippines or the hierarchy in the Philippines decides to call for disobedience because of this possibility of enacting the controversial reproductive health bill and the distribution of artificial contraceptives, the bishops would have a moral reason to do that," he said in an interview with CBCPNews, the official news agency of the CBCP.
"The Catholic Church in the Philippines can do that if it decides to do that because for one thing, civil disobedience is one of the moral options," he added.
Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, CBCP media director, said since the CBCP's establishment in 1945, there was only one time when it called for civil disobedience, and this was after the Feb. 7, 1986 snap elections during the Marcos dictatorship.
Sen. Joker Arroyo said opposition to the reproductive health bill is premature because it is not yet known what the final form of the bill would be, and it has not been even scheduled for hearings.
"They should put forth all their objections and all that…pero yung ganito ngayon, too much noise about nothing. Hindi naman gumagalaw sa House, hindi naman gumagalaw sa Senado," he said.
He said the Church could lobby against the bill once it is tackled in Congress.
"But if the Catholic Church cannot even influence now, the 200 congressmen and the 20 senators, lalabas niyan nawawala na sila ng influence. No more clout. Pati si Presidente, binibira na nila ngayon. But the principal thing here is there is a debate over nothing," Arroyo said.
Reproductive health bill advocates said Church officials should participate in public hearings and consultations to present their position.
The Philippine Legislators Committee on Population and Development Foundation Inc., through executive director Ramon San Pascual, also lauded Aquino anew for standing firm on his position "to provide assistance to women and couples who are in need of access to family planning methods, be it natural or modern, despite the strong opposition and threats from the Catholic bishops."
At the House, Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay (Lakas-Kampi) said Aquino could avoid incurring the ire of the Church by withdrawing his support for the reproductive health bill and "discreetly" launching a new family planning policy using his executive powers.
She said Aquino could order the Department of Health to use its P932-million budget for "family health including family planning" under the P1.645 trillion proposed budget for 2011.
She said DOH's proposed P32-billion budget also has a P1-billion allocation for medicines which she said could also be used to buy contraceptives.
"Malacañang has a P1 billion war chest of transforming government clinics into groceries of pills and condoms," Magsaysay said. "It (budget) may be used solely for contraceptives by virtue of a presidential order."
"The belief that you need an RH law for government clinics to start giving out condoms and pills is a myth. It can be quietly done through appropriation," she said.
Magsaysay believes the administration will "short-circuit the process and take the administrative route" because the RH bill "faces stiff resistance across party lines, and in both houses of Congress."
"Remember this is the most expensively lobbied bill in Congress and despite almost a billion pesos spent by its foreign backers in pushing for it, it never had a breakthrough in the past 23 years," she said.
The measure was first filed in the 8th Congress (1987-1992), during President Corazon C. Aquino's time, and was consistently re-filed in subsequent Congresses. – With JP Lopez and Wendell Vigilia
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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