PARTY LIST CHALLENGES EL SHADAI`S VELARDE ON RH BILL PLATFORM
MANILA, NOVEMBER 29, 2010 (PARTIDONG MANGGAGAWA PRESS RELEASE) Amidst the electoral carnival that puts a premium on personalities rather than platforms, the labor party-list Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) enters the second half of the national campaign by stressing its advocacies on issues such as the Reproductive Health (RH) bill.
As an example of its platform-based campaign, PM held today an assembly of more than a hundred urban poor women in a depressed community in Quezon City in which reproductive health was the main agenda.
While discussing the RH bill, Judy Ann Miranda, PM secretary-general and a nominee of the group, issued a challenge to El Shaddai leader Mike Velarde for a debate on the issue. The dare was in reaction to Velarde's announcement that he decided to run as a party-list nominee in order to oppose the RH bill.
Miranda announced that "So that the voters can have an informed choice for the party-list based on platforms, we are open to a public discussion on the Reproductive Health bill with Velarde as Buhay nominee."
In reaction to El Shaddai leader Mike Velarde's announcement that he decided to run as a party-list nominee in order to oppose the Reproductive Health bill, the two women nominees of the labor party-list Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) today declared that they are challenging him to a debate on the issue. "So that the voters can have an informed choice for the party-list based on platforms, we are open to a public discussion on the Reproductive Health bill with Velarde as Buhay nominee," announced Judy Ann Miranda, PM secretary-general and a nominee of the group.
PM is the group that presented baskets of condoms to the Catholic Bishops Conference Office last March 8 as part of their advocacy for reproductive health. PM is running for the party-list elections on a platform of "Apat ng Dapat" which includes working women's concerns such as universal healthcare coverage, regular jobs, affordable housing and a wage hike.
"Similar to the planned debate between Health Secretary Cabral and the Catholic bishops, a public discussion between PM and Buhay on the pros and cons of the Reproductive Health bill will educate the public in general and the voters in particular.
A debate on issues is certainly much better for the voters than being entertained by dancing girls on stage or being barraged by self-serving political ads," insisted Malou Parroco, another PM nominee based in Bacolod. Parroco said that the debate with Velarde could be held either in Manila.
El Shaddai opposses RH bill By Roberto Sangil 11/29/2010 THE TRIBUNE
The Reproductive Health (RH) bill got lashed with prayers as thousands members of a Catholic charismatic group flocked at Amvel City compound in Parañaque City last Saturday.
The Prayer Vigil for the Nascent of Human Life was organized by El Shaddai to call upon all pro-life advocates in support of junking the RH bill.
The source said an estimate of 100,000 to 200,000 attended the event.
El Shaddai, together with the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and other pro-life groups, has had a hardline stance against the use and promotion of artificial family planning as espoused by the RH bill.
Brother Mike Velarde, as well as the charismatic group's leaders, had educated his members about the issue through preaching in prayer meetings and fellowships.
He discussed the negative implications and disadvantages of the bill to the members of his group. While taking charge of the spiritual, Velarde's son Rep. Rene Velarde of BUHAY party-list opposed the bill in the political arena.
According to the source, members of El Shaddai vehemently fight against a policy of population control because it is contrary to the Word of God.
Asked as to why she stands against the bill, El Shaddai member Winnie Bicoy said that "it is clear as daylight that killing is forbidden by God. God did not have a commandment that says abort the children. The bill will destroy the family, and consequently, society as a whole."
Also a member of the religious group, Tesdy Alberos said that "the bill must not be passed because it violates the sanctity of human life."
POPE: RESPECT EMBRYOS
VATICAN CITY, STAR (AP) Pope Benedict XVI called Saturday for politicians, the media and world leaders to show more respect for human life at its earliest stages, saying embryos aren't just biological material but dynamic, autonomous individuals.
Benedict made the comments during a vespers service to mark the beginning of Advent, the period leading up to Christmas when the faithful mark the birth of Christ. This year, the Vatican urged bishops around the world to make the service a vigil for "nascent human life."
The service came amid continued fallout from the pope's remarks about condoms and HIV contained in a book-length interview published this week.
While stressing that condoms aren't a real or moral solution to fighting HIV, Benedict said people who use them are edging toward a greater morality because they're aiming to protect their partners from HIV - even when a pregnancy is possible.
His comments set off intense debate among theologians and lay Catholics alike amid confusion about what he meant and whether he was changing church teaching about artificial contraception. He was not, but the confusion nevertheless required not one but two papally approved clarifications from the Vatican spokesman.
As if to reaffirm church teaching on the sacredness of human life, Benedict stressed the need to protect human life from the moment of conception in his homily Saturday.
Science itself has shown how autonomous the embryo is, how it interacts with the mother and develops in a coordinated and complex way, Benedict said.
"It's not an accumulation of biological material, but a new living being, dynamic and marvelously ordered, a new individual of the human species," Benedict said.
He urged politicians, economic leaders and the media to promote a culture that respected life, decrying the "cultural tendencies" that seek to undermine it.
"Unfortunately, even after birth the life of children continue to be exposed to abandonment, hunger, misery, sickness, abuse, violence and exploitation," Benedict said. -
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