- Office of Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
- Independent – Albay
- 10 December 2012
- 0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137
Catholic bishops are welcome during the consideration and voting on the RH bill, but they are cautioned not to demean Congresspersons by treating them like docile sheep to be watched and shepherded.
The presence of bishops in the plenary during the past session days did not save the “killer” amendments proposed by RH critics from being voted down repeatedly.
What Bishops cannot achieve by reason and persuasion, they must not pursue through fear and intimidation.
If the veiled purpose of the Bishops’ presence in the gallery is to sow fear or employ intimidation against legislators, they will not succeed because fear is destitute of reason and must be resisted with conviction, and not be allowed to deter or delay legislation.
Fear has always been used by the clergy as an instrument of repression and reprisal like fear of eternal damnation, fear of excommunication, fear of offending religious ministers, fear of contraceptives as abortifacients and carcinogenic, and fear of a demographic winter, all of which are wanting of reasonable and empirical anchorage.