CBCP urged to stop scare tactics in opposing RH bill

MANILA, Philippines - A protestant bishop yesterday called on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference (CBCP) of the Philippines to stop its “scare tactics” in its opposition to the Reproductive Health (RH) bill.

Bishop Efraim Tendero, national director of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches, said those against the controversial measure are employing the same tact.

“Hear their arguments, they’re all arguments of fear,” Tendero said during a gathering of the Interfaith Partnership for the Promotion of Responsible Parenthood (IPPRP) held in Quezon City.

Tendero appealed for a stop to the practice of “scaring (people) without any basis.”

In a show of force against the CBCP’s opposition to the RH bill, leaders of other religions in country expressed support for the controversial measure.

They said that not all faith-based organizations are against the RH bill.

Bishop Rodrigo Tano, chairman of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Churches of the Philippines, said the Philippine Constitution “allows for diversity of religious beliefs.”

Tano added that just because a religious group is “rich,” it doesn’t necessarily mean it could “impose” its beliefs on others.

Their group called on Congress to pass House Bill 4244, calling it “pro-life, pro-family, pro-poor, and pro-national development.”

“Rather than engaging in religious dogmatic arguments that divide and hurt Philippine society further, IPPRP has chosen to focus on a position that would help actively find solutions to the real problems that are affecting Filipinos of any religion,” Tano said.

IPPRP is composed of the Baptist Conference of the Philippines, Council of Christian Bishops of the Philippines (CCBP), Iglesia ni Cristo, Jesus is Lord Church, Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches, Philippines for Jesus Movement, United Church of Christ in the Philippines, United Methodist Church, Universal Pentecostal Church, Catholic individuals, indigenous peoples and Muslim communities.

Bishop Fred Magbanua, chairman emeritus of the CCBP, said their group believes Filipinos, regardless of what religious denomination they belong to, “deserve a life of dignity.”

“This can only be done, not through rhetoric, but through tangible actions such as Responsible Parenthood,” Magbanua said.

‘Go forth and multiply... then subdue’

Magbanua even lectured those who keep on using the Bible to support their anti-RH bill stand.

According to him, Adam and Eve were told in the book of Genesis not only to “multiply.”

“You multiply to fill the earth. But when the earth is (already) filled, you have to subdue it,” Magbanua said, referring to the portion of the passage which he said seems to have always been left out by anti-RH groups.

“That second part of the command of God, it is what we should focus on now. When that commandment was said, there were only two people, now we’re already seven billion!” he said.

Since 2003, IPPRP has been informing constituencies of their member-churches about reproductive health and the value of family planning or responsible parenthood through education, knowledge dissemination and training.

The group said their call for the passage of the RH bill is in fulfillment of their mission of creating quality lives for the religious faithful and their future.

Nothing new

At the Senate, Sen. Pia Cayetano yesterday said she has listened to two parts of the presentation of Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III against the RH bill and so far, she still has not heard anything new.

Cayetano has expressed her frustration over what she said were rehashed issues raised by Sotto, almost all of which she has already addressed during their extensive debates over the past year.

“There were no changes in his statements from the ones we already discussed in the (period of) interpellation. I have answered them all,” she said.

Cayetano said that Sotto cited some very old resources in the second part of his turno en contra presentation, particularly the international authorities whom he said were pushing for controlling the population of less developed countries through the use of contraceptives and abortion.

“It is like raising the dead from the grave. I can’t do anything about the people who believe in population control in the 1950s... the foreigners. But to say that Filipino people are being dictated upon, this is false,” Cayetano said.

In part two of his presentation against the RH bill, Sotto claimed that several local and international organizations were pushing for the approval of the measure in the country because of ulterior motives.

Sotto cited a number of organizations that were advocating abortion as an element of reproductive health and denounced them for dictating on Filipinos what they should do.

He also questioned the data that she and the other proponents of the RH bill have been presenting to support their bid to approve the measure, including allegations of 11 mothers dying every day in the country from pregnancy-related complications.   – With Marvin Sy