- Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
- Independent – Albay
- 25 July 2012
- 0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137
- LAGMAN: BISHOPS’ ‘OPEN WAR’ ON RH
- OFF-TANGENT AND MYOPIC
The rampage of an “open war” by some Catholic bishops in reaction to President Aquino’s endorsement of responsible parenthood in his third SONA is off-tangent and myopic.
While some clerics advised the President “to listen to the voice of the people”, they fail to realize that the President is in fact supportive of the people who have spoken overwhelmingly for the enactment of the RH bill which includes responsible parenthood.
In fact, the most applauded statement of the President in his SONA was his endorsement of responsible parenthood.
Survey after survey, where the majority of the respondents are Catholics, had documented empirically that Filipinos want (a) the speedy approval of the RH bill; (b) government funds be used for family planning including the purchase of non-abortive contraceptives; and (c) candidates with a family planning platform be elected.
The comment by a ranking bishop that “poverty, not population, must be eliminated” completely misses the point. Poverty will remain a nightmare to teeming millions of Filipinos if parents and couples are not empowered to fully and freely determine the number and spacing of their children.
The direct linkage between poverty, ills in health and backlogs in education is too graphic and obvious to be missed by some Catholic bishops.
The President is aware that a sustainable development agenda, particularly on education and health, is not likely to succeed unless the population problem is simultaneously and positively addressed by government so much so that the premises of the President’s endorsement are the rising maternal mortality rate, improvement of women’s health and solution of the backlogs in teachers, classrooms, books and desks wherein the common denominator which aggravate these problems is the ballooning population.
The President’s endorsement of responsible parenthood, which is identical with the salient features of the reproductive health bill, is a reiteration of his recommendation to the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) and the Congress that HB No. 4244 is a priority measure.
HB NO. 4244, the consolidated RH bill, is entitled “An Act Providing for a Comprehensive Policy on Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health, and Population and Development, and for Other Purposes”.
No less than the President in his letter dated 08 February 2011 to Rep. Edcel C. Lagman, the principal author of the RH bill, on their “common advocacy” reiterated his following position on responsible parenthood which parallels the reproductive health bill:
“1. I am against abortion.
“2. I am in favor of giving couples the right to choose how to best manage their families so that in the end, their welfare and that of their children are best served.
“3. The State must respect each individual’s right to follow his or her conscience and religious convictions on matters and issues pertaining to the unity of the family and the sacredness of human life from conception to natural death.
“4. In a situation where couples, especially the poor and the disadvantaged ones, are in no position to make an informed judgment, the State has the responsibility to so provide.
“5. In the range of options and information provided to couples, natural family planning and modern methods shall be presented as equally available.”
Likewise, the RH bill is against abortion and prohibits abortion as a method of family planning; the core concept of the RH bill is freedom of informed choice of parents, couples and women; religious belief is guaranteed; there is reasonable bias for the poor; all methods of family planning, from the natural to the modern, are equally made accessible provided they are medically safe, legal (not abortive) and truly effective.