MANILA, Philippines?Following a meeting with Ricardo Cardinal Vidal and three archbishops last week, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has decided to maintain her stand against the use of contraceptives because of the weak lobby for artificial family planning methods, one of her economic advisers said yesterday.

?There are not enough pressures to make her change her policy,? Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said in Placer, Masbate, where Ms Arroyo presided over a Cabinet meeting.

Salceda, who had served as chair of the House committee on appropriations, said that during a meeting with select Cabinet officials in Malacañang on Monday, Ms Arroyo ?kept insisting that she was just being consistent with her policy.?

?Apparently, there are no people going out in the streets calling for less sex because it is sinfully delightful,? he said.

Members of the Catholic Bishops? Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) met with Ms Arroyo last week to voice their opposition to reproductive health bills in Congress on the grounds that these promote abortion.

The Church has stirred a furor after Ozamiz Archbishop Jesus Dosado issued a pastoral statement ordering priests in his archdiocese to refuse communion to pro-abortion politicians.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, the main proponent of a family planning bill in the House of Representatives, said Dosado?s move was ?completely without basis? because no lawmaker was advocating the legalization of abortion.

Lagman?s bill and similar measures include a provision for ?mandatory reproductive health and sexuality education? in primary schools, which some of the bishops have frowned upon.

Abortion is illegal in the Philippines, where critics accuse Ms Arroyo of contributing to the burgeoning population and crushing poverty by following the Church?s policy of emphasizing natural family planning methods.

Babies at risk

Salceda said that he and Education Secretary Jesli Lapus had advised Ms Arroyo to have a ?more aggressive population policy? because the 2.36-percent population growth rate ?put 2.6 million babies at risk in view of the evolving and intensifying food crisis.?

The country?s population is projected to reach 90 million this year.

As one of the President?s economic advisers, Salceda said he had told Ms Arroyo that one of the most urgent issues was for the government to take ?a decisive action in slowing population growth.?

Besides the risks that babies face, the high population growth rate affects efforts to reduce poverty incidence.

?(W)e tend to see a more rapid population growth rate in the poor families,? the governor said.

He said a burgeoning population affected the provision of social services such as education and health.

Soften stance

Salceda also said that a bigger population meant a tremendous impact on the environment which, according to him, has already ?reached its carrying capacity.?

Asked about his efforts to convince Ms Arroyo to support the reproductive health bill, Salceda said Cabinet members had been individually telling her to soften her stance.

?We keep on trying in terms of providing policy advice. We never surrender,? he said.

Other Christian bishops

The Church may have to contend not only with lawmakers and population control advocates, but also with leaders of various faith organizations on the controversial reproductive health bill in Congress.

Contrary to the Church stand, the Interfaith Partnership for the Promotion of Responsible Parenthood (IPPRP) is backing the approval of the House bill, claiming the legislation would prevent abortion.

?Not all Christian bishops are opposed to the bill,? Bishop Fred Magbanua, spokesperson and board member of the IPPRP, said at a press conference.

The IPPRP is a gathering of leaders of various faith-based organizations advocating the approval of a policy on reproductive health, responsible parenthood and population development.

Safer pregnancies

In its statement read by Magbanua, the IPPRP said the Reproductive Health and Responsible Parenthood Bill indicated that abortion was a crime, and sought to prevent abortion.

?(I)t seeks to provide mothers their right to have safer pregnancies by giving them access to adequate and correct information, and services on reproductive health,? it said.

The IPPRP said that Filipinos were suffering from the government?s inability to provide basic services.

?While the rapid increase in population is a great threat to the welfare of the nation as a whole, too many babies may be catastrophic for an individual family as these may frustrate the possibility to develop family members to become loving and responsible people of God as well as productive citizens of the country,? it said.

While managing the population will not completely alleviate poverty, a national policy on reproductive health will contribute to ?a more decent standard of living? for Filipinos, the group said.

?Therefore, it is not only our social, but also our moral responsibility to ensure that every right of our people is protected and that any hindrance to achieve a better life is achieved,? it said.

Give couples a choice

Magbanua, who belongs to the Council of the Christian Bishops of the Philippines, said couples should be given a choice.

?What if a drunken husband comes home [and wants to do it with his wife]? How can you do family planning if there?s no condom? That?s why it?s important to use modern methods that don?t lead to abortion,? he added.

Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin maintained that she and other lawmakers pushing for the approval of the bill were not necessarily advocating abortion.

Separation of Church and State

?We condemn people peddling and convincing women to go into abortion, and that is very specific in section 12 of the bill we have filed,? Garin said at the same briefing.

?We are pro-life; we are pro-quality life,? she added.

Garin also appealed to the Church to allow the lawmakers to exercise ?democracy in our religion? and respect the separation of the Church and the State.

Dr. Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, director of University of the Philippines? Center for Women Studies and chair of Likhaan, said the Church act of using religion to intimidate lawmakers was ?close to a criminal act.?

Felipe Medalla, former director general of the National Economic and Development Authority, said the Church should raise the level of debate on the issue.

?We want the debate to be more clearheaded. And I suggest four questions, and if you answer ?No? to these questions, then you should support the bill,? he said.

Questions to CBCP

The questions Medalla posed were: Should the government do nothing to help women, especially the poorest and the least educated among them, to plan their families? Should the government do nothing to help women who have unmet needs for family planning? Do you think that modern contraception such as pills, IUD, vasectomy and condoms are immoral? and, Does promoting these methods promote or increase abortion?

?They have two options: To be unclear, or to be clear and wrong,? he said.

Withdraw signature

Fr. Melvin Castro, executive director of the CBCP Commission for Family and Life, said the reproductive health bill would worsen ?the laxity of morality? and introduce ?the culture of death? in the Philippines.

He said the Church would not deny the lawmakers supporting the House bill Holy Communion. However, he said the CBCP would have the bishops and priests in the areas of the lawmakers talk to them to pull out their support for the proposal.

?We beg you by God?s grace to withdraw your signature,? Castro said when asked if he had any message to the lawmakers supporting the bill, which has passed the committee level.