Catholics rally against RH Bill

CEBU, Philippines - Over 60,000 people from all walks of life marched from the Fuente Osmeña to the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral yesterday for a solidarity rally against the passage of Reproductive Health (RH) Bill.

The march culminated with a Mass celebrated by Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, who said the gathering was a prayer to the government officials led by President Benigno Aquino III.

“We owe our government officials respect, we owe them obedience and we owe them prayer. Our gathering tonight is in the nature of prayer especially to our government officials and above all we pray for our President kay siya man ang naa sa kinatas-ang pwesto sa gobyerno (because he has the highest position in the government),” said Palma in his homily.

Palma, the president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), denied the reports that there was a dialogue between the bishops and cabinet members in the Malacañang Palace on July 19.

“It was just a plain dinner, when we were invited along with other seven bishops who are members of the council and other cabinet members,” he said.

Congress will tackle the RH Bill on August 7.

During Aquino’s SONA, Palma said, he was surprised that the president talked about responsible parenthood.

“Tonight we, pray that congressmen be given the light and courage. Much more we learned that this coming Sunday, the president is inviting the congressmen for a lunch,” he said.

“This bill has been debated in the past 17 years. It has divided us as a people,” he added.

Palma pointed out five things regarding their stand against the RH Bill during the homily, which was also attended by some politicians, including Cebu City north district Representative Cutie del Mar, former Rep. Raul del Mar, Governor Gwendolyn Garcia and Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.

First, he said, is the constitutional dimension where there is a provision to protect the right of the unborn, which simply means anti-abortion and that the right to decide the numbers of the children is for the parents. Second is demographic where the big issue was that the Philippines is overpopulated.

“The problem is that there are less young people to become workers. There is a population winter,” he said.

“The young population of the Philippines is an asset and that’s why now it is difficult to prove that ang “daghang mga tawo” (huge population) is a threat,” he explained.

Third, he said, is the economic aspect. 

He clarified that it’s not the population that causes economic problems but because of other factors, especially corruption.

Fourth, he said, is medical wherein people are not much aware about using contraceptives and its consequences.

Palma said that when the bill’s proponents are asked if they practiced what they proposed, most of them do not because they know the nature even for the medical point of view.

He said fifth is spiritual and moral aspect where faith is part of life.

“For me we could not deny and could not dissociate ourselves with our faith,” he said.

Interestingly, Palma said that a month ago, there was a survey about which nations in the world have people who are believers in God and that the Philippines is number one.

He also said that Pope Benedict XI announced that Cebu will host the International Eucharistic Congress on 2016.

“This only means that the Pope recognizes our faith,” he said.

He ended his homily by saying: “Tonight we pray that the Lord will guide our leaders and give them strength. We all the desire the good of our people that this could not be only today but for tomorrow.

“They said that the bishops should understand that RH Bill is for the good of the children in the future. I said, if that will happen, there will be no children in the future because what we will have in the future are old people because there will no or less future children,” he ended.

Meanwhile, Rep. Pablo John Garcia told The FREEMAN that he is against the RH Bill.

“I’m against the RH Bill because I believe it seeks to allocate too big chunk of the health budget for a relatively narrow health concern. I believe there are more paramount health issues that should be addressed, like the top killer diseases. Plus, if you read Magna Carta for Women, a great majority of what the RH Bill seeks is already addressed there,” he said. — /LPM - THE FREEMAN