The Catholic Church is going all out against the Reproductive Health
bill and the bishops say they are getting ready to issue a Pastoral
Letter setting the tone against it and the candidates supporting its
passage.The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines made its move as the House debated the new version of the bill and the Senate hoped the measure could be put to a vote before it adjourned in December for its Christmas break.
The RH bill aims to guarantee universal access to the methods of contraception, fertility control, sexual education and maternal health care, but the bishops maintain it will remain unacceptable to the Church whether or not it is revised.
“We would like to reiterate that our aim in objecting against HB4244 is to protect not only the good of Catholics but the good of all, Catholics and non-Catholics,” Antipolo Bishop Gabriel Reyes said in a statement.
He made his statement even as presidential spokeswoman Abigail Valte said they hoped a substitute version of the RH bill would move it forward.
She said the adoption of the new version of the RH bill for debate in the House of Representatives was “a good development,” although she could not say if President Benigno Aquino III would ask his allies there to push for it.
“We have always said that at one point or another, whichever way the vote will go, at least there will be a definitive yes or no, and there will be progress when it comes to tackling the Responsible Parenthood Bill,” Valte said.
On Aug. 5, Mr. Aquino called for a Liberal Party caucus to push for the passage of the bill.
The United Nations has also called on Congress to pass the bill.
Senator Miriam Santiago, reacting to the Catholic Church’s threat to campaign against the candidates supporting the RH bill, said there was no such thing as a Catholic vote.
“We’ve never had it in our electoral experience, and to talk about it as if it were a fait accompli is to mislead the public,” Defensor said.
She cited the case of former Senator Juan Flavier who went against the Church and distributed condoms but still won a Senate seat.
She recalled that when she started campaigning, her first stop was always a bishop’s palace or the residence of a parish priest.
“I thought that it was strange and an aberration because elections are a political exercise,” Santiago said. “The clerics are free to discipline their own constituents or parishioners…but they cannot ask…for preferential treatment as against all the other churches in the Philippines.”
Senator Pia Cayetano, one of the authors of the RH bill in the Senate, said she supported Santiago’s statement on the so-called Catholic vote.
“The Catholic vote is a yes to the RH bill,” she said.
Siquijor Rep. Rolando Fua, a member of the opposition, said the Catholic Church should not be faulted if it campaigned hard against the passage of the RH bill.
“I don’t think we will be able to convince the Catholic Church to [support this measure],” he said.
Rep. Sherwin Tugna agreed, while Bohol Rep. Erico Aumentado said the RH bill needed to be debated thoroughly as the substitute bill “ is still unconstitutional, a source of graft, immoral and redundant.”
Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes said Catholic campaign against the RH bill would include informing the faithful about the candidates and their positions on the bill.
“I already told my priests about it. This is an important issue and this is a very good test whether the Philippines is a Catholic country or not,” Bastes said in a statement. “I hope even those who are not Catholics who believe in the sacredness of life will not vote the politicians pushing for the RH bill,” he said.
Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles warned politicians against the Catholic backlash as he called on the faithful to use the “Catholic vote” against the pro-RH bill candidates.