THE Catholic Church will help legislators in
coming up with a proposed bill on "authentic human development"
as an acceptable alternative to the reproductive health bill
pending at the House, Fr. Melvin Castro said yesterday.
Castro is executive secretary of the
Episcopal Commission on Family and Life of the Catholic Bishops
Conference of the Philippines.
He said the alternative bill will also
address the problem of poverty.
He said Reps. Raul del Mar (Cebu), Eduardo
Zialcita (Parañaque) and Roilo Golez (Parañaque), who are
opposing House Bill 5043 like the Catholic Church, have
committed to help draft the bill.
Among issues the Church wants in the new bill
are the rights of the unborn, children protection, maternal care
during pregnancy and safe delivery.
HB 5043, which the Church is calling
anti-life, promotes sex education in schools, allows the use of
artificial means of contraception in planning a family, and
promotes sex education in schools.
The Church allows only the natural family
planning method.
The Forum for Family Planning and
Development, Inc. (The Forum), a group supporting HB 5043, said
the Church’s intervention prevents the government from properly
addressing population and health problems.
The group’s president, Ben de Leon, said the
Church should maintain its position but should not stop
lawmakers from passing the bill.
"The separation of Church and State should be strictly
followed. The Catholic hierarchy could be firm in its stance
against artificial methods of contraception, but this should in
no way hinder the State on doing its job of providing health
services to its constituency given the high unmet need and
clamor of budgetary support for family planning services as
survey after survey has proven," he said. – Gerard Naval
