MANILA, Philippines -- A day after Batangas 4th district Representative Mark Llandro Mendoza withdrew his support for the controversial reproductive health bill, a Catholic bishop on Monday confirmed that there have been talked between legislators and the clergy at the diocesan level.

Interviewed after a press conference on the results of the July 7-8 National Rural Congress which he chairs, Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio J. Ledesma said that the idea of lobbying for the scrapping of the reproductive health bill at the district or diocesan level had been suggested and has been undertaken in some places.

He did not, however, identify the areas where these dialogues have taken place.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines is opposed to the bill for allegedly advocating ?morally unacceptable? population control methods including some, it claims, induce abortion.

The Catholic church insists that only natural family planning is morally justified.

Ledesma said Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and
Representative Rufus Rodriguez, both of Cagayan de Oro, support the church position.

However, he said, the two lawmakers? stand is based on ?moral grounds? and not political reasons.

Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) on Sunday that Mendoza wrote him a letter on June 28 to make known his ?change of heart? and ?apologize.?