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PALACE RETREATS ANEW, SAYS NOY NOT FOR CONTRACEPTIVES USE
10/04/2010
After an implied threat from the head of the Catholic bishops’ group of excom-municating President Aquino over his support to the use of artificial contraceptives, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said yesterday that civil disobedience is an option that the Church can consider should Aquino make good his promise to hand out artificial birth control devices.
Church leaders, in separate interviews, said bishops and priests have the moral authority to teach and lead the faithful based on Church teachings. Aquino had said during a small town meeting in the United States that he might consider contraceptive methods to curb population even though it runs counter to the natural methods that is the only option allowed by the Catholic Church.
“The Catholic Church in the Philippines can do that if it decides to do that because for one thing civil disobedience is a moral option, one of the moral options,” CBCP secretary general Msgr. Juanito Figura said on the CBCP Web site.
Figura added Church leaders have not
received any call or letter from the Office of the President for a dialogue on the controversial issue although it was published in the papers that an audience with the Catholic bishops is being prepared.
To avoid a head on collision with the Catholic Church, the Aquino administration could skirt debates on the passage of the controversial Reproductive Health bill by using over P1 billion in family planning fund, at its disposal, for the purchase and distribution of pills and other contraceptives.
Zambales Rep. Mitos Magsaysay said President Aquino can “ignore the RH bill debates” and order public health facilities to dispense pills and condoms as early as January next year.
She said the billion-peso outlay for “family health and family planning” in the Health department’s budget for 2011 “might be used solely for contraceptives by virtue of a presidential order.”
“The belief that you need an RH law for government clinics to start giving out condoms and pills is a myth. It can be quietly done through appropriation. If Congress cannot give birth to an RH law, then Noynoy can father an illegitimate offspring through administrative conception,” Magsaysay said.
“With money authorized by Congress in the national budget, Noynoy can just order the DoH to stock clinics with contraceptives and you have the de facto implementation of the RH law,” she said.
This is possible, Magsaysay explained , because pills and condoms are “not banned, regulated or restrictive devices so there is no injunction against Malacañang from ordering their mass purchase.”
The Palace, meanwhile, issued a diluted position on contraceptives saying that Aquino’s support for responsible parenthood does not necessarily mean favoring the use of artificial contraceptives.
In a radio interview, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte clarified that the President neither advocate the use of artificial contraceptives nor favor the Catholic Church’s stand against it.
Valte said the State has an obligation to educate the citizens regarding the issue but it cannot dictate on couples on how to plan their families.
The Catholic Church was apparently surprised after Aquino told Filipinos in the United States of his open stance towards artificial contraceptive methods.
Figura explained civil allegiance is a form of respect given by the people to the state and the laws of the state “and according to Church principles, we should do that but according to the same Church principles, if a law or a state policy is against Christian teachings, persons, Christians, Catholics are not bound by conscience to obey that.” He said this is the very foundation of civil disobedience.
“When a law or state policy or state program is not in consonance with what the faith teaches so from that perspective, if the local church in the Philippines or the hierarchy in the Philippines decide to call for disobedience because of this possibility of enacting the controversial Reproductive Health bill and the distribution of artificial contraceptives the bishops would have a moral reason to do that,” he added.
“We have not received any communication so far,” Figura said adding that it may be a good idea for Aquino to seek a dialogue with the Catholic bishops.
The previous administration of President Arroyo had a liaison officer who was in constant touch with the CBCP secretariat but Figura said he is not sure if the present government “would appoint somebody to the position.”
CBCP media director Msgr. Pedro Quitorio said only once it happened in the history of CBCP that the Church called for civil disobedience. “Since the CBCP was established in 1945 until today there was just a single event that called for civil disobedience and this was after the Feb. 7, 1986 snap elections,” Quitorio said.
But the actual civil disobedience did not take place because it was “overtaken” by events.
He emphasized that the CBCP has not called for any mass action so far.
Quitorio said he doesn’t know of any forthcoming meeting with President Aquino and the archbishops and bishops to discuss the controversial issue.
On his part, San Fernando de Pampanga Auxiliary Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, expressed alarm on the statement President Aquino’s made while in the United States.
“Does President Noy know that many of these artificial methods are abortifacients meaning these were designed not only to prevent conception but terminate a conceived child because once you already have a fertilized embryo you already have a human being,” the prelate explained.
The prelate said the 1987 Constitution guarantees the protection of the unborn as it is the duty of the state from the moment of conception.
“It is therefore unconstitutional to promote methods that terminate conception,” he explained. He said the country’s leadership seems bent on following the templates from highly developed countries which already backfired and failed.
“These countries have already taken a new approach to population management because they have already experienced a demographic winter,” the 51-year-old prelate added.
He said these developed countries should not force developing countries to suffer from their earlier experience.
“These countries are threatened by issues concerning geopolitics or an issue of power that their population may be overtaken by developing countries,” he further explained. The prelate added the developed countries may become totally dependent on migrant workers.
Lingayen-Dagupan Auxiliary Bishop Renato Mayugba said the bishops may not anchor their statements on faith but on the country’s existing Constitution which calls for the protection of the unborn child from the time of conception.
“If the government will pursue programs that run counter to the provisions of the Constitution, it would simply mean violating the country’s constitution,” the 54-year-old prelate said.
Meanwhile, Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles called on the faithful of his ecclesial province to prepare to mobilize the laity for mass actions against the movement of the Aquino government to push for the passage of the controversial Reproductive Health bill and all population control measures.
In a text message to his flock from Italy, the archbishop said they are in solidarity with the lay faithful of Cebu in its opposition to the planned introduction of artificial methods to the Filipino families.
Magsaysay believes that administration will “shortcircuit the process and take the administrative route” because the RH bill “faces stiff resistance across party lines, and in both houses of Congress.”
“Remember this is the most expensively lobbied bill in Congress and despite almost a billion pesos spent by its foreign backers in pushing for it, it never had a breakthrough in the past 23 years,” she said.
Magsaysay said “the Catholic bishops might be lulled into thinking that the RH bill is the battleground when in fact it is not.”
“It is actually the presidency, “ she said, “because he can bypass Congress and the cottage industry around the RH bill and create an RH regime through a series of executive orders.”
“The big question now is will he restrain himself from exercising his executive prerogatives and let Congress frame the policy?” Magsaysay said.
The DoH has a proposed budget of P32 billion for 2011, with P932 million earmarked for “family health including family planning.”
On top of the P932 million, there is a P1 billion budget for medicines which, according to Magsaysay, can be used to buy by contraceptives.