Casiño, Enrile, Akbayan tell Church: Go slow on “Team Buhay, Team Patay”

THE Catholic Church has been asked to reconsider its “Team Buhay and Team Patay” campaign.

Independent senatorial candidate Teddy Casiño would personally seek an audience today with Bacolod Bishop Vicente M. Navarra to appeal to the prelate that a candidate should not only be judged on his vote on a single bill – the Reproductive Health Bill which has been approved as the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 (RA 10354).

Casiño, who was in Cebu yesterday, said they believe RA 10354 is not anti-life, but pro-poor.

Another candidate for senator Jack Enrile of the United Nationalist Alliance said the “Team Patay” list, which included him is unfortunate and inaccurate.

In a press statement sent to Cebu Daily News, Enrile said, “I have been to the most impoverished provinces in the country where families of 10 or more subsist daily on root crops and salt. If there’s no root crop, just salt. These families don’t have access to free health services. They lack education on reproductive health.”

“11 to 15 mothers die every day in the Philippines due to maternity-related causes, How many more mothers will die while giving life because they do not have access to even the most basic of reproductive health services?”

The Akbayan partylist which was also included in the “Team Patay” list of the Bacolod diocese wrote Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines president and Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma to denounce the “Team Patay” and “Team Buhay” posters put up at the San Sebastian Cathedral by the Diocese of Bacolod.

Former Akbayan representative Risa Hontiveros Baraquel who is also on the “Team Patay” list, is running for senator under the Team PNoy slate.

The groups that came to the CBCP were Likhaan, Catholics for Reproductive Health (C4RH), Alliance of Progressive Labor-Women (APL), Akbayan Youth, Malayang Tinig ng Kababaihan (Matinik), Center for Popular Empowerment (CPE), and Women Advocacy for Gender Equality (Wage).