PPCRV head tells Catholics: Follow RH law but be vigilant

PPCRV chairperson Henrietta de Villa: Vote wisely. PHOTO FROM COMELEC.GOV.PH PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Catholics should follow the controversial reproductive health law but closely guard its implementation to prevent abuses, a prominent Catholic lay leader said Tuesday.

Henrietta de Villa, head of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, said Catholics should just follow the controversial measure since it is already the law of the land.

De Villa, a former Ambassador to the Vatican, said that Church representatives were invited when the law’s implementing rules and regulations (IRR) were formulated. She added that PPCRV members who want to actively campaign against pro-RH candidates should temporarily go on leave from the organization.

“What I want to explain is that when the law was being considered, we are against the RH bill but now that it has become law, as citizens we should follow it,” De Villa said during a Church forum in Intramuros, Manila.

De Villa made the comment when asked if election watchdog PPCRV, which she said was anti-RH, would be fair to pro-RH candidates.

“We tell our poll watchers and our volunteers that after the elections, when they go back to what they used to do, they should guard the implementation of the (RH law) on the ground. That is what I also tell our bishops and priests,” De Villa said.

“Make sure that it does not go beyond what was agreed upon (during the public hearings when the law’s IRR were formulated). So, it should not promote abortion or coerce anyone to use contraception. There should be no coercion,” she said.

“Since it is now law, we should follow but we should also guard its implementation to make sure it does not violate the dignity of the human person,” she added.

Catholic lawyers have successfully convinced the Supreme Court to temporarily stop the implementation of the RH law while the tribunal reviews the petitions against it.

Emphasizing that the PPCRV was non-partisan, De Villa said volunteers who wished to join the Catholic Church’s campaign against specific pro-RH candidates should go on leave.

But so far, she said no diocese has followed the Archdiocese of Batangas in cutting its ties with the PPCRV, which uses mainly the Catholic Church’s extensive network of parishes across the country as its recruitment base for volunteers.

However, she added around 10 percent of PPCRV individual volunteers have gone on leave so that they could join the Church’s “partisan” campaigning.

“If that is what they choose, then they should separate from the PPCRV in the meantime like the volunteer that I cited earlier. She did that voluntarily but then we also gave instructions to her that those who will join her should also separate as early as now,” de Villa said.

“So, they did a survey and those who decided to remain are still with the PPCRV,” she added.

Other Catholic lay leaders, like election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, had called on PPCRV members to “liberate” themselves from the election watchdog so that they could focus on mobilizing the so-called “Catholic vote” against pro-RH candidates in the May elections.

However, De Villa said the Church was big enough to contain both those who want to join the “partisan” campaign against pro-RH candidates and “non-partisan” groups like the PPCRV that want to ensure clean elections.

“We know that in one community, or even in one family, it can’t be said that they will all move in one direction. For us Catholics in the PPCRV, we chose a non-partisan way, in which we don’t name candidates but the voter’s education we give is value based,” she said.